I won’t betray my ancestors! I won’t forsake the faith of my fathers!
I won’t betray my ancestors! I won’t forsake the faith of my fathers!
That is a noble sentiment, and God appreciates the fact that you honor the memory of your forefathers. But the Torah is very clear: When we have to choose between loyalty to our families and loyalty to God, we must choose to be loyal to him—no matter what the consequences. If we truly love our family and our heritage, then the most noble thing we can possibly do is be faithful to God and the Messiah at any cost. In the end, we will be the shining lights in our family history. And when you say, “I can’t forsake the faith of my fathers,” I remind you, Abraham did.
First and foremost, each of us must obey the Lord; it is to him alone that we must give account. The prophets were often misunderstood and rejected by their families and friends. God even said to Jeremiah, “Your brothers, your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you” (Jer. 12:6). But today, whom do we admire, the prophets who stood their ground in the midst of intense opposition or those who sided with the crowd?
Go back to Exodus 32. While Moses was still on Mount Sinai, the Torah records that the Israelites made a golden calf and worshiped it as the representation of God. When Moses came down from the mountain ablaze with holy anger, he knew that those who had sinned had to be judged.
So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’ ” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
Exodus 32:26–29
The Levites were honored because they stood with God and against their own families. That is the kind of allegiance he requires—not, of course, to take up swords against our loved ones, but to follow the Lordeven if it means standing in opposition to our own families and friends. In fact, this was established as law in ancient Israel:
If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 13:6–10
You might want to pause for a moment and read this passage again. It demands radical loyalty and ruthless love, and it is reminiscent of the words of Jesus, although he never spoke of putting to death those who didn’t follow him. 26 As the Messiah of Israel, however, he too called for absolute devotion: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37–38).
The bottom line is that God is not waiting for our approval. Rather, we are in need of his approval. Are we showing ourselves worthy of him?
Do you know that in the Scriptures some of our leaders were condemned for walking in the way of their forefathers while others were commended for not walking in the way of their forefathers? Of the Israelite king Ahaziah, son of Ahab and Jezebel, it is written: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin” (1 Kings 22:52).
Josiah, king of Judah, was different. His father, Amon, was a proud sinner and was assassinated by his own officials. But Josiah, as a very young man, began earnestly to seek the Lord. And he was commended! Rather than walking in the ways of his father, Amon, he followed the example of his ancient forefather David: “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left” (2 Chron. 34:2).
Notice also Joshua’s words to the people of Israel:
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Long ago your fore-fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods… . Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:2, 14–15
If your forefathers did not follow the Lord, if they were atheists or lawbreakers or crass materialists or followers of a strange religion, then you must break with their example—the sooner the better. And what if your parents and grandparents were devoted people? What if they were not “wicked sinners” and they did not live undisciplined and reckless lives? What if they were (or still are) religious, practicing Jews? How can you dare to break with some of their cherished beliefs? Consider this: It is possible that you have much more light than they had. Maybe they never heard the real news about the Messiah. Maybe all they heard was some dead Christian tradition masquerading as the gospel. Who knows? If they had known in their day what you know today, they might have been the first in your family to put their trust in Jesus the Messiah.
What if your ancestors were incorrect in some of their positions and traditions? What if, while seeking to be faithful to God by observing their customs, they were unfaithful to God in rejecting Jesus as Messiah? What if they realized their error when they died? More than anything else in this world, they would wish that you would not perpetuate their error.
If they could watch your life right now, they would be pleading for you to do the right thing, hoping that someone in their family line would finally become a follower of the Messiah. They would be the first to tell you that being loyal to your deceased family members is commendable but being true to the living God is infinitely more important—and absolutely indispensable. Can you violate the truth for the sake of deep sentimental ties? Will you betray God rather than Grandma?
Maybe you lost loved ones in the Holocaust. Should those horrible, tragic days of darkness stop you from embracing the light? Should yesterday’s sorrows and pains hold you back from walking in today’s blessings? It is true that as a people we have been without the Messiah for many generations. Is that a good reason to be without him in this generation? Or, to give an analogy, if your grandparents lived and died in the desert, insisting with their last breath that there was no water to be found, should you go thirsty as well even when you discover a vibrant spring? If all of your honest seeking and studying leads you to conclude that Yeshua is the prophesied Redeemer, will you deny your convictions for the sake of your companions? Will you put feelings before facts and emotion before evidence?
Always remember that you will have to live with your choices forever, and when you die and stand before God, no one—not your mother or father, or sister or brother, or son or daughter—will be there to hold your hand. Will you be able to look God in the face and say, “I felt deep down in my heart that Jesus was our Messiah, but I didn’t want to seem disloyal to my family. Instead, I chose to be disloyal to you.”
Three centuries ago, a man called the Baal Shem Tov developed a new expression of Judaism that came to be known as Hasidism. It was soundly rejected by the traditional leaders of the day, and his followers were even excommunicated and physically attacked. 27 Today his adherents, called Hasidim, number in the hundreds of thousands and are considered to be among the most traditional Jews alive. The Baal Shem Tov is now regarded as one of the great leaders in modern Jewish history. In the beginning he was an outcast! History does have a way of correcting itself.
To all Hasidic Jews who are reading these words, I ask each of you, Could it be time for you to make another fresh break with the crowd and develop a new expression of Judaism—a Messianic, new covenant expression? How will future generations judge each of you who have the courage to forge this new path of obedience to God at any cost?
One hundred years ago, when Theodor Herzl prophetically proclaimed the formation of a modern Zionist state, his ideas were rejected by Jewish leaders worldwide. Fifty years later, the nation of Israel was born. Who was right and who was wrong? When the young Polish boy Eliezer Ben Yehudah became convinced that Hebrew was to be used as the everyday language of the Jewish people, even beginning to read secular books in his home, his own family put him out. How many millions of Hebrew-speaking Jews are there now?
From this we learn that what seems radical and outlandish to one generation often becomes regular to the next. I would urge you, therefore, not to let family pressure or the fear of breaking with the crowd stop you from pursuing the truth. One day the soundness of your choice will be evident to all.
26 For the misguided attempt of some anti-missionaries to interpret some of Jesus’ teaching as if he were, in fact, advocating physical violence against those who rejected him, cf. 2.6.
27 For a readable study giving both sides of the conflict, see Elijah Judah Schochet, The Hasidic Movement and the Gaon of Vilna (Northvale, N.J.: Aronson, 1994).
Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 1: General and historical objections. (24). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.
