Surrounded By Vandals

In one paragraph

Week four of the Unbreakable series stayed in the same territory as the weeks before it, asking why Israel's story matters and then moving into Genesis 37 to find a new way to see it. Pastor Brian used the figure of Joseph, despised and plotted against by his own brothers, as a picture of how Israel has been treated among the nations for thousands of years. He closed by turning that image inward,...

Read together

1. Romans 9:27 Adam reads aloud: 'though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved,' attributed to Isaiah crying out concerning Israel
2. Romans 11:11 did God's people stumble and fall beyond recovery, God made salvation available to Gentiles to make Israel jealous
3. Romans 11:17 branches from Abraham's tree broken off, Gentiles grafted in to share the blessing promised to Abraham
4. Romans 11:22-24 God is both kind and severe, and if Israel turns from unbelief they will be grafted in again
5. Romans 11:5 at this present time there is a remnant chosen by grace, tied to the Venn diagram discussion
6. Zephaniah 3:12-13 God will leave within Israel the meek and humble, the remnant will trust in the name of the Lord
7. Zephaniah 3:17 described as a beautiful passage about Israel receiving the embrace of their Messiah, God calming their fears with singing
8. Deuteronomy 7:7-8 God did not choose Israel because they were numerous but simply because he loves them and was keeping his oath to their ancestors
9. Isaiah 43:1 do not be afraid, God has ransomed Israel and called them by name, they are precious and honored and loved
10. 1 Corinthians 13:6 Joy quotes it: love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out, applied to humanizing the Jewish people
11. Genesis 37:1-20 congregation reads the account of Joseph, his coat, his dreams, and his brothers conspiring against him, used as a parallel to Israel being surrounded by vandals

Talk about it

1. Pastor Brian said that when he looks at Israel he sees his pre-saved self, not as a replacement but as a mirror. When you think back to your life before you knew Jesus, what do you recognise in Israel's story that reminds you of where you were?
2. The sermon described a Venn diagram of sovereign election, genealogical descent, and covenantal faithfulness to try to answer the question of who Israel is. Which of those three felt most surprising or uncomfortable to sit with, and why?
3. Joy read from 1 Corinthians 13 that love does not rejoice about injustice, and she talked about the pressure to dehumanise Jewish people as a way of justifying what is happening to them. Where do you notice that pressure showing up in the information you take in each week, and how do you filter it?
4. Pastor Brian said a vandal destroys someone else's work simply because it exists, and that the root of vandalism is jealousy. Have you been on the receiving end of that kind of tearing down, whether through words, actions, or things done to you, and what did it cost you?
5. At the end of the sermon, Amanda described a Sharpie on a whiteboard and said the only thing that removes the permanent marker is the right tool, which she named as the blood of Jesus. Is there something written on your heart that you have treated as permanent that you have not yet brought to him, and what would it mean to let that be erased?