When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.”
-Leviticus 19:33-34The land of Israel is the only place on earth where apples and oranges are able to be grown in the same climate.
(-Paraphrased, The Uniqueness of Israel, Lance Lambert)First I would like to state that this is not a political blog.
I was thinking about some of the unique facts about Israel today and as I contemplated a vision of apples and oranges suddenly came up in my spirit.
I heard the Lord whisper the same: apples and oranges…
I recalled that Israel is the only place in the world that apples and oranges can be grown together, I realized that this is quite the metaphor. One special place-the place that God chose from His dwelling place, bringing together diverse plants (and animals) that cannot be found coexisting together anywhere else on the planet.
Sadly I also realize that Israel and Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel, are among the most contested and divisive of topics globally in our time.
I also remembered that the Lord had commanded Moses and the people in Leviticus 19:3-34.
Foreigners were to be treated the same as native born Israelis, and as an Israeli-American I have observed this first hand. Israel is first a foremost the only Jewish state in the world, but it is also considered home to all who embrace everything that Israel is, to all who embrace the blessings of Israeli democracy and their love of freedom. Accusations of apartheid are unfounded lies; I know the greatest desire of the Jewish people is to live in peace and security in Israel alongside their neighbors, with the seemingly impossible hope that one day their “swords could one day be beaten into pruning hooks….” The IDF (Israeli Army) has in its ranks muslim Arabs, Beduoins, and Druze, and Israeli companies, hospitals, and government agencies have Jewish Israeli and Arab Israeli employees working alongside each other.
The “apples and oranges” is also a metaphor to me of God’s Chosen people, the Jewish people, the natural branches of God’s “Olive tree”, and the “goyim” (Gentiles)- the grafted in branches, who are both “sucking the sap from the same olive root” (as our friend and Bible teacher, Joanie Masterson recently described).
Different, but united in Messiah Yeshua-the Root.
One new man. One common future in Messiah.
