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Bridges for Peace
BRIDGES FOR PEACE
YOUR ISRAEL CONNECTION ®
Vol. # 770801
Israel Teaching
Letter
August, 2001
The Least of My Br others
(Matthew 25:31-45)
For years, I have quoted in my teachings the passage found in Matthew 25:31-45. Here,
Yeshua (Jesus) commends His disciples for coming to Him when He was in need. He appreciated the fact that they fed Him when He was hungry, gave Him water when He was thirsty,
took Him in when He was a stranger, brought Him
clothes when He was naked, visited Him when He was
sick and came to Him when He was in prison. Not
having done any of these things for Him, they were
confused at His declaration. So they asked Him when
they saw Him in these situations, and He then
explained the fuller meaning. He clarified by saying,
“Inasmuch as you have done it for the least of My
brothers, you have done it unto Me.”
But, just who are the least of Yeshua’s brothers?
For sure, there is hardly a “soup kitchen” or homeless
shelter on earth that does not use this passage of
Scripture to validate the good work that they do. And
these are special works. Yet, was it the poor of the
world that Yeshua was speaking of, or was He saying
something more specific? I have taught that He was
specifically speaking of His physical brethren, the
Jewish people, and it was in the context of the judgment of the nations by how they treated God’s
covenant people. That is why they were being segreWho are Jesus’ brothers?
gated into “sheep” and “goat” nations.
Judgment on those who come against Israel and the Jewish people is a theme that goes all
the way back to the call of Abraham. In Genesis 12:1-3, God promised to Abraham and his
seed, “I will bless those who bless you and curse Him that curses you; and in you will all the
families of the earth be blessed” (v. 3). You see, it was through the Jewish people (the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), that the world has received the blessings of God demonstrated through His people. It was by the hand of Jewish writers who heard the voice of God
that we received the Bible. And, it is the Jewish people who are the physical family of Yeshua,
the Savior of the world, just as it was promised to Abraham. God preserved the Jewish people
during the years up to the first coming of Yeshua. Then, in order to fulfill His prophecies that
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are occurring today with regard to the regathering of the Jewish people and the restoration of
Israel before the coming of Messiah, it was important for God to preserve them unto this day.
Therefore, whole nations have risen and fallen in relation to their treatment of the Jewish
people. And, in God’s judgment, nations and peoples will be classed as sheep nations and
goat nations based on their treatment of the Jewish people.
Well, there is much more to this story which I have always wanted to write about. However,
not long ago, I was pleasantly surprised that my pastor, Rev. Wayne Hilsden, of King of Kings
Congregation in Jerusalem, preached a sermon just on this passage. It was so good that I
wanted to excerpt and share it with you so that we can settle the question of who are “the
least of the brothers” of Yeshua, once and for all.
Here is what Pastor Hilsden had to say:
Tony Campolo tells a true story of a Jewish boy who suffered under the Nazis in World War
II. He was living in a small Polish village when he and all the other Jews of the vicinity were
rounded up by Nazi SS troops and sentenced to death. This Jewish boy joined his neighbors in
digging a shallow ditch for their graves, then faced the firing squad with his parents. Sprayed
with machine-gun fire, bodies fell into the ditch and the Nazis covered the crumpled bodies
with dirt. But none of the bullets hit the boy, though he was splattered with the blood of his
parents. When his parents fell into the ditch, he pretended to be dead and fell on top of them.
Several hours later, when darkness fell, he clawed his way out of the grave. With blood and
dirt caked to his little body, he made his way to the nearest house and begged for help.
Recognizing him as one of the Jewish boys marked for death, he was turned away at house
after house as people feared getting into trouble with the SS troops. Then something inside
this Jewish boy seemed to guide him to say something that was very strange for a Jew to say.
When the next family responded to his timid knocking in the still of the night, they heard him
cry, “Don’t you recognize me? I am the Jesus you say you love.” After a poignant pause, the
woman who stood in the doorway swept him into her arms and kissed him. From that day on,
the members of that family loved and cared for that boy as though he was one of their own.
“I am the Jesus you say you love.” Those words were more correct than you might imagine.
Matthew 25:40 tells us that one day the Great King and Judge of all the earth will say to people like that kindhearted Christian lady, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to
one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.”
We’re going to study Yeshua’s words in Matthew 25:31-45. These verses contain Yeshua’s
answer to the disciples on the Mount of Olives who “came to Him privately saying, ‘Tell us,
when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the
age?’” (Matt. 24:3). So what you are about to read, from Matthew 25, specifically relates to
events that relate to the time of the Lord’s return. “When the Son of Man comes in His glory,
and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will
be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his
sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me
food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked
and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me. Then
the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or
thirsty and give You drink? ‘When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and
clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will
answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of
these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart
from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was
hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and
you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not
visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer
them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of
these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life” (Matt. 25:31-46).
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We see that the Lord, the Messiah, is
coming back this time not a helpless baby
in a cattle barn, but as the King of all the
earth. He will be a Shepherd-King, who
will divide the sheep from the goats. He
will come at the end of a Great
Tribulation--the like of which has never
been experienced in the history of
mankind.
The word “tribulation” actually comes
from the Latin word, tribulum, which
means a threshing sledge, which is a tool
used to separate the wheat from the chaff.
So the tribulation that will come upon the In only 53 years, the modern State of Israel has become
earth will be God’s means of separation.
one of the trade and commerce centers of the world.
Just before the return of the Lord,
Indeed, the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem have been
Judah and her enemies will be carefully
restored.
distinguished one from the other. At that
time the Lord will restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Moses’
promise in Deuteronomy 30:5-9: “Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your
fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than
your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you,
who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments, which I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of
your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your
land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers.”
Sheep and Goat Nations
Surrounding Theodor Herzl, counterclockwise from
upper right: Raoul Wallenburg of Sweden, Orde
Wingate of England, Corrie Ten-Boom of Holland,
and William Heckler of England. These Christians,
along with many more like them, recognized the
opportunity to be sheep nations. They did this by
aiding the Jewish people in their times of need and
in the fulfillment of their desire to see a Jewish
homeland in the borders of their ancient nation.
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So we find in the Bible that just before the
coming of Messiah to establish His 1,000 year
reign upon the earth, it will be a time of great
blessing for the land and people of Israel and
all those nations who stand with Israel. But
we also discover that He will separate those
nations who hate and persecute Israel from
those who stand with Israel, and they will be
judged for their mistreatment of the Jewish
people. This is spelled out in Joel 3:1,2:
“When I bring back the captives of Judah and
Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And
bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
on account of My people, My heritage Israel,
whom they have scattered among the nations;
they have also divided up My land.”
God will cause the nations to come up
against Jerusalem to reveal their true antiSemitic hearts. Later in that same chapter
Joel says, “Assemble and come, all you
nations, and gather together all around. Cause
Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. Let
the nations be wakened, and come up to the
Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to
judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the
sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow-for
their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the
Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will
diminish their brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem;
The heavens and earth will shake; But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, And the
strength of the Children of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Dwelling in
Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, And no aliens shall ever pass through
her again. And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk, And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of violence against the people of Judah, for
they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation. For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted; for the Lord dwells in Zion” (Joel 3:11-21)
So the Lord Himself will confront all the enemies of Israel in the valley of Jehoshaphat, the
name which means, “the Lord has judged.” Some have said this is the Kidron Valley between
the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. Some scholars suggest it is a yet-future valley to
be formed by the splitting of the Mount of Olives at the Messiah’s return (Zech. 14:4). In any
case, this valley of the Lord’s judgment is somewhere in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Zechariah
12:8,9 declares, “In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is
feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God,
like the Angel of the Lord before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem.”
The reason for God’s judgment is the nations’ treatment of His covenant people, God’s
“heritage” (Joel 2:17). But notice that God is not going to save the Jews and destroy the Jewhating Gentiles because the Jews are so righteous. Rather, He will save them for the sake of
His own reputation as the Almighty, covenant-keeping God. Joel 2:17 says: “And do not give
Your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among
the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” This sounds like an echo of what the Lord says concerning
the Jewish people in Ezekiel 36:18-23, which you might like to read on your own.
So we see that after God has judged and purged His own chosen people Israel, God will
then judge the nations. In that day God will separate the “sheep people” and the “goat people.” The sheep people will be those who confess that the one true God is none other than the
God of Israel; and they will prove their faith in Him by their compassion for God’s people, the
Jews. And these sheep people will be rewarded handsomely, sharing with Israel the bountiful
blessings of the Millennial Kingdom. Matthew 25:33-34 declares, “And He will set the sheep
on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand,
‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world...”
However, those who reject the God of Israel and prove their rejection by joining in the battle against Jerusalem or simply refuse to come to the aid of the Jews will be judged as “goat
people.” In that Day of Judgment they will be removed from the protection of the sheepfold,
the blessed eternal Kingdom. But their judgment goes even beyond that. Matthew 25:41 says,
“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels...’” So we’re talking about serious business here.
The eternal fate of the nations will soon hang in the balance. I wonder how many will be
counted as “sheep” and how many counted as “goats” in that great and awesome Day of
Judgment.
The Least of My Brothers
Now before I go on, I need to tell you that the key verse of this whole passage is almost
always taken out of context. I’m referring to Matthew 25:40 where it says: “And the King will
answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of
these My brothers, you did it to Me.” First of all, few people realize that this verse specifically
relates to the end times, the immediate period before the return of the Lord. And as a result,
well-meaning people have used this one verse to refer to any act of mercy toward the needy. I
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came across a really
strange application of this
verse in which a group of
vegetarians used this verse
to justify their aversion to
eating meat. They explain
that Jesus’ mention of the
“least of these my brethren”
is a reference to animals,
who are the least of God’s
creation.
Biblical commentators
offer various interpretations
concerning the identity of
these brothers. One scholar
did a wide survey of the
Since immigration began in the 1800s, Christians have had the opportuvarious Bible commentaries
nity to help the Jewish nation reestablish itself in its ancient homeland.
and found the following
interpretations of
“brethren” which he lists in descending order of popularity. They say Yeshua’s brothers are:
• Anyone, particularly the needy among humankind
• All Christians
• Missionaries/evangelists
• Messianic Jews
It is rare indeed to find commentators who say that Yeshua’s brethren in this verse are the
Jews as a whole race, Yeshua’s blood brothers.
Many commentators quote Yeshua’s comment in Matthew 12:50 “For whoever does the will
of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother” to prove that Christians are the
brethren that Yeshua had in mind in Matthew 25. But if the “brethren” are Christians, then
who are the “sheep” in this passage?” Aren’t the Christians those sheep who honor the God of
Scripture and hear the King say in v. 34: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” This is the “sheep’s” reward because they
had compassion on Yeshua’s “brethren”-- a different group all together.
It is interesting to note that even years after the rejection of Yeshua by the majority of the
Jewish people, that Yeshua’s disciples still refer to Jewish unbelievers as their brethren. In
Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost he refers to his audience in Jerusalem as “men and
brethren” (Acts 2:29). Stephen, who is about to be stoned, still regards his unbelieving Jewish
compatriots as his brethren (Acts 6:15-7:2). Even years later, Paul himself speaks to Jewish
unbelievers as his brethren in Acts 13:38, when he says, “Therefore let it be known to you,
brethren . . .” So we see that it was common for unbelieving Jews, even Jews hostile to the
gospel, still to be referred to as “brethren.”
And then there is an interesting prophecy given to Moses concerning the Messiah and
quoted by Peter in Acts 3:22: “For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise
up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He
says to you.’” So we see that in order for Yeshua to be the Jewish Messiah, He must be integrally related to His Jewish “brethren.”
So now let us return to that critical verse, Matthew 25:40, and the treatment of the “brothers of Yeshua.” As I’ve tried to explain, this verse, I believe, specifically deals with the issue of
the treatment of Jewish people in the end times as a crucible having a direct bearing on one’s
eternal destiny. So we must not miss the gravity of this matter through careless hermeneutics. Our very eternal destiny may be at stake.
Now let’s bring this matter closer to home. In light of Yeshua’s words, I believe it is time for
us as Christians to redouble our efforts in reaching out to Jewish people with hearts and
hands of compassion.
We must love Yeshua’s brethren, the Jewish people, because He is inseparably tied to His
chosen people.
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God has made an eternal covenant with the
Jewish people. So inseparably tied is the Lord to
His covenant people that the way we treat them is
a direct reflection of the way we treat Him. This is
clear from verse 40 where we read: “And the King
will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to
you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of
these My brethren, you did it to Me.” This is what
God said in Zechariah 2:8: “For thus says the Lord
of hosts: ‘He sent Me after glory, to the nations
which plunder you; for he who touches you touches
the apple of His eye.’” Poke a Jew and you have
poked the Lord in the eye.
The saying goes, “blood flows thicker than
water.” My blood brother and I didn’t get along very
well as kids. But I remember when a bully on the
playground tried to mess with Rick. I told him he’d
have to mess with me first. When Yeshua says in
Matthew 15:40 “inasmuch as you did it to one of
the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me,”
Yeshua was in essence saying “I take it personally
how you treat my family. Be nice to my brothers.
Otherwise you’re going to have to deal with Me.”
Our commitment to God’s people will be severely tested in the last days. As we get closer to the
Antisemitism is alive in the former Soviet
last of the last days, we will witness an increasing
Union: A remake of a well-known poster from
onslaught of anti-Semitism. Consequently, the sinrevolutionary times says:
cerity of our commitment to God’s chosen people,
“Did you receive the 666?
the apple of His eye, will be severely tested.
It is a ticket to the kosher kingdom of the kike
(offending nickname of Jews) devil which is
Anti-Semitism has been with us a long time.
Antichrist.”
One person wrote: “The Jewish people have been
persecuted by non-Jews ever since God called
them to be ‘distinct’ at Sinai, with the giving of the Torah. This ‘distinctiveness’ or ‘chosenness,’ declared to the pagan world that ‘God is One’ and that neither He nor His people would
mix. The mere existence of God, Torah and Israel challenged the beliefs, morals and living
standards of all other nations. Although the Jews were called to be a ‘light unto the nations,’
many nations were happy to remain in darkness. Because the Jews refused to mix, their ‘separateness’ became the reason for the envy and hatred of those around them, both yesterday
and today. By lashing out at the Jews, society is in fact lashing out against the God of the
Jews, for they represent His Law in a world, which chooses to be lawless. To solve the ‘God of
Israel’ problem, one had to therefore deal with ‘the Jewish problem’.” The first recorded reference to Jews in non-Jewish sources was written by an Egyptian king about 1220 BCE. It
states: “Israel is no more.” In Psalm 83:5, King David recognized the spirit of anti-Semitism in
the world when he wrote, “‘Come’, they say, ‘let us destroy them as a nation, that the Name of
Israel be remembered no more.’” The Jews of the pre-Christian world were persecuted because
they obeyed and demonstrated God’s Laws.
Tragically, the Church itself allowed anti-Semitism to seep into its ranks, justified by
improper interpretation of the Scriptures and reinforced by replacement theology. This all
happened in defiance to what Paul wrote in Romans 11:18,21: “do not boast against the
branches. ...Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may
not spare you either.”
Because the Church began to see itself as the “New Israel,” the Jew of the “old Israel” had
to be smeared and discredited. So some church leaders found an indictment against the Jews
that could stick: “Christ killers!” they called them. And so, Jews in the Holocaust were refused
help by Christians because they were “Christ killers.”
A recent editorial in the Jerusalem Post had this to say: “Recently, in an event broadcast
around the world, Syrian President Bashar Assad ascended a podium in the presence of Pope
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John Paul II and resurrected the age-old Christian blood libel
against the Jews. After accusing Israel of ‘the murder and torture of
Palestinians,’ the Syrian dictator lashed out at the Jewish people,
asserting that, ‘They try to kill the principle of religions with the
same mentality that they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way
they tried to betray and kill the prophet Mohammed.’ In case
Assad’s twisted theological reflections were lost on his audience,
Syrian Religious Affairs Minister Muhammad Ziyadah made sure
the point was clear, noting: ‘We must be fully aware of what the
enemies of God and malicious Zionism conspire to commit against
Christianity and Islam.’ And what was the response of the pope,
leader of hundreds of millions of Roman Catholic faithful around
the world, to this outrageous anti-Semitic outburst? Silence.
Nothing but silence.
“...[W]hat is both astonishing and deeply troubling is the
Vatican’s unfathomable response to Assad’s tirade. This is particularly true in light of John Paul’s past support for the 1965 Vatican
In a daily Arab newspaper,
teaching that absolved the Jews of the charge of deicide.
Nevertheless, rather than rebutting his Syrian host, the pope went to a political cartoon shows
caricatures of Jews gaththe microphone and read from his prepared text, uttering not a word
ered gleefully around a
about Assad’s shocking slander of the Jewish people. Compounding
crucified Palestinian
the pope’s sin was the fact that it was his presence in Syria that prowoman.
vided Assad with the platform, and extensive television coverage, to
preach his odious venom. As Yehudit Barsky, Middle East Affairs
director of the American Jewish Committee, noted, it is ‘imponderable’ that the pope would
remain silent while a head of state like Assad would spew ‘falsehoods about Judaism in front
of 1 billion Christians.’
“... For the past 2000 years, the Jewish people suffered terribly at the hands of the
Catholic Church. Persecution, forced conversions, inquisitions, crusades, and torture were
how the faith that preached love, but practiced hostility, treated the children of Israel
throughout Europe. In the Middle Ages, the Church hurled vicious falsehoods against the
Jews, accusing them of poisoning Christian wells, ritually murdering Christian children, and
using sorcery and magic in alliance with the devil. During the Holocaust, the Vatican
remained silent, doing nothing to stop the wholesale slaughter of the Jewish people at the
hands of the Nazis, and to this day it continues to refuse to open its archives to historians
and scholars studying the period. With a record like this, the burden lies on the Church
fathers at the Vatican to atone for the past if relations are ever to improve with the Jewish
people. This requires, among other things, that the Church demonstrate a greater degree of
responsibility and sensitivity when it comes to outbursts of anti-Semitism, particularly those
uttered in the presence of the pope himself. For silence in the face of evil can easily be understood as consent, or even approval.”
What Does This Mean to Us?
Yeshua’s words in Matthew 25:41-45 should serve as a serious warning to those
“Christians” who do not come to the defense of the Jews and show compassion: “Then He will
also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and
you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not
clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me. Then they also will answer Him, saying,
‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and
did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch
as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’”
Many in the Church have learned to tolerate the Jewish people, in the same way that they
have learned to be politically correct and tolerate just about anything and anybody; yet they
will not lift a finger to help the Jewish people in their time of crisis. It may not be a sin of
commission, but it is certainly a sin of omission. As Yeshua said, “Assuredly, I say to you,
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