Do you know who you are? Can you explain your identity to
others?
DNA testing seems to have become all the rage these
days. Various companies take a sample of
your saliva (usually), and eventually send you your “results.” Most often your results are displayed in the
form of a pie chart with percentages for each “known” geographical/ethnic aspect
of your DNA. From these results, people
apparently form a new understanding of their identity. In one commercial a man explains how he grew
up knowing he was German, but discovered through DNA testing that he was
actually Scottish, not German at all!
So, he traded his lederhosen for a kilt.
I am not here to denigrate the DNA testing industry. I think it can be enlightening and
interesting. I am just wondering if
knowing how your DNA reads will alter your own perception of who you are. Also, I am wondering about the whole
percentage thing. Another DNA testing
commercial depicts a young man who finds out he is six percent Native American;
so he is finding new family among his previously unknown roots. Based on a
reading of six percent.
As a believer in YHVH, and a follower of Yeshua, I see in
scripture that I am grafted into the tree of Israel (Romans 11:17), and I am
the seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). Further, I am no longer “alienated from
the commonwealth of Israel” (Ephesians 2:11-13). By grace through faith, I have become Israel
(Ephesians 2:8-9). That makes my
identity “Israel.” I find this to be a
non-negotiable truth.
Besides laying claim to an identity as Israel, my
perception of who I am is based on multiple factors, not just DNA, ethnicity,
and geography. My “identity pie chart”
would also include things like education, gender, age, relationships,
experiences, skills, talents, preferences, and more. I might be able to sub-divide my identity
into discrete pieces labeled with those various categories of input.
However, my identity as Israel is a 100 % category. Whatever else makes up my identity is
superimposed or coexistent with my identity as Israel. All of me is Israel. I cannot break the Israel in me into smaller
portions of who I am. I might be able to
say that 30% of who I am is based on my education; and perhaps a larger
percentage is based on the relationships I have had with others over the years. But the fact that I am Israel supersedes all
other factors in the stew of my identity.
My whole being is Israel.
In fact, that turns out to be a pretty decent
metaphor. Stew. I am a pot of stew. The whole pot of stew is Israel. Chunks of meat in the stew could be my
education. Various vegetables could be
other elements of my identity, like experiences, skills, and talents. The broth might be the sum of all the
relationships in which I have participated.
Overall, the stew itself is Israel.
What shall I do with this knowledge of who I am? If I am Israel, does that make me
Jewish? Could I be literally descended
from the “lost” ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom; i.e., Hebrew but not Jewish? Does that matter?
“Tell them that Adonai Elohim says this: ‘I will take the
stick of Yosef, which is in the hand of Efrayim, together with the tribes of
Isra’el who are joined with him, and put them together with the stick of
Y’hudah and make them a single stick, so that they become one in my hand.’ The sticks on which you write are to be in
your hand as they watch. Then say to
them that Adonai Elohim says: ‘I will take the people of Isra’el from among the
nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back
to their own land. I will make them one
nation in the land, on the mountains of Isra’el; and one king will be king for
all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be
divided into two kingdoms.’”
(Ezekiel 37:19-22)
