2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
You may be wondering why care about the love God has for Israel? There are a lot of reasons why this impacts every believer or potential believer. God’s love for Israel reveals to us enough of His capacity for love for us to know we should want eternal fellowship with Him. Many of God’s attributes are revealed to us through His interactions with Israel throughout her history. When we come to understand that all believers including those from a Gentile background are “grafted in” to a Jewish “root stock,” it becomes clear why God’s love for Israel has important ramifications for every believer. RO 11: 17-18, “Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews. So then, you must not despise those who were broken off like branches. How can you be proud? You are just a branch; you do not support the roots-the roots support you.” This is very much in keeping with Paul’s theme for the entire book of Romans, RO 1: 16-17. “I have complete confidence in the Gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the Gospel reveals how God puts people right with Himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the Scriptures [HB 2: 4; GA 3: 11] say, ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.’“
From the time that God first called Abram to leave his family in Ur of the Chaldes (Mesopotamia, which is in southeast Iraq today), He was determined to deal with the problem of sin. Because of my profound belief in His superiority and righteousness, I believe that God is up to this God-sized task. He loved the prophet Daniel and us enough to reveal not only that He will eventually succeed in getting rid of sin, but He even gave us a time table for doing that. DN 9: 24, “Seven time seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true and the holy Temple will be rededicated.” [I plan to write some devotions in the near future on DN 9: 24-27, so I won’t go into a long explanation of this today].
God’s plan for the Jews is made very clear in EX19: 5-6, IS 42: 6, and 49: 6. EX 19: 5-6, “Now, if you will obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own people. The whole earth is Mine, but you will be My chosen people, a people dedicated to Me alone and you will serve Me as priests.” IS 42: 6, “I, the Lord, have called you and given you power to see that justice is done on earth. Through you, I will make a covenant with all peoples; through you I will bring light to the nations.” IS 49: 6, “The Lord said to me, ‘I have a greater task for you, My servant. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations-so that all the world may be saved.’ “ That set up the goals that God has for the Jews. However, we all know that many Jews throughout history have not lived up to these goals. That is the reason why they rejected God as their political leader in favor of human kings and allowed their disobedience of God to become pervasive enough for God to choose not once, but twice, to scatter the Jews during periods called the first and second dyasporas.
One of the greatest demonstrations of God’s love can be seen in the promise He kept in re-establishing Israel’s nationhood on May 14, 1948. That alone is ample proof that His scattering of Israel, first with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities (722 BC and 586 BC respectively) and later with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans, were the acts of a Parent disciplining his unruly children. God never had a plan to totally destroy the Jews any more than He has a plan to keep the knowledge that Christ is the Messiah from them forever. RO 11: 25, “There is a secret truth, my brothers, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.” There was nothing accidental about God’s actions. He inspired Ezekiel to write about the Valley of the Dry Bones in EZK 37: 10, 14, “So I prophesied as I had been told. Breath entered the bodies and they came to life and stood up. There were enough of them to form an army….I will put My breath in them, bring them back to life, and let hem live in their own land. Then they will know that I am the Lord. I have promised that I would do this-and I will. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Ezekiel was not the only OT prophet who reiterated this prophecy. Many others did too.
David uttered one of the most famous of all prayers for Jerusalem, PS 122: 6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all those who love you prosper.” God revealed through Isaiah His future plan which shows that the Jews will eventually conform to His plan for them. IS 56: 6-8, “And the Lord says to those foreigners who become part of His people, who love Him and serve Him, who observe the Sabbath and faithfully keep His covenant: ‘I will bring you to Zion, My sacred hill, give you joy in My house of prayer, and accept the sacrifices you offer on My altar. My Temple will be called a house of prayer for the people of all nations.” What was revealed to John in Revelation coupled with Paul’s teaching [RO 3: 22 & 10:12] that there is no longer any difference between Jews and Gentiles once they become faithful in Christ proves that believers will be a light to all the nations.
I have saved the best for last. JER 31: 31-34 is one of the greatest prophecies ever-a real demonstration of the love God has not only for Israel but for all of us. “The Lord says, ‘The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know Me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The moment that Jesus Christ died on the cross, that new covenant was in place. MK 15: 37-39, “With a loud cry Jesus died. The curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The army officer who was standing there in front of the cross saw how Jesus had died. ‘The Man was really the Son of God!’ “ That curtain or inner veil opened the Holy of Holies to all of us. Hallelujah!
PRAYER: O Lord, in the way You have dealt with Israel, You have revealed to all of us not only a portion of Your capacity to love but Your justice. You are a loving Parent Who has taken responsibility for Your unruly children and Who deals with us fairly, patiently, and with compassion. You are a keeper of promises, which is why we know we can rely on You to eventually make the prophecies of Revelation true. You have taken foreigners like Ruth, the Moabitess, and rewarded their acts of faith is wondrous ways. In her case, You included her in the lineage of David and thus, in Christ’s very own royal line. By doing this, You have set down an ideal for us to follow, so that we might learn that prejudice against those different from us is not Your way. We are blessed that You made it clear in Paul’s teachings that You have not given up on Israel in the face of her disobedience. You deserve nothing less than our worship, adoration, thanks, praise, honor, glory, and loyalty for all the love You give us every day of our lives. We offer You our lives as living sacrifices of service, pleasing and acceptable to You. In Christ’s name, amen.
The message of God’s love can be found throughout the Scriptures. When we have faith in Him, we can bask in this great love that God has for Israel and for all of us. It gives me great comfort to know that I can always rely on Him, and I hope it does for you too. Peter and I also send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn