Why Must We Pray for Israel? Part Four

I am going to ask some questions to make us think.  This is how I often pray.  I am not afraid to ask questions of the One who is the Answer.  I am not afraid of admitting that revelation is unfolding and what I currently know may be subject to change, as I see scriptures that raise thoughts I am not accustomed to having.  I am not telling you I have all the answers.  If I raise a question that causes you to wonder, or even have a negative reaction, it may be because I am touching something that in order for you to accept, you need to re-arrange some other thoughts.  But, if our thoughts are not lining up all the way around, it’s time to have another thought.

If the foundation of the church is built on the apostles and prophets, and they were Jewish, what does that mean for us?  How is our salvation and placement at the end times relevant to this issue?   Romans 11:12 states that if their stumbling has enriched the world and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, we should think what their reinstatement means.  It further states, that if their rejection has meant salvation for the world, what will their acceptance be, but life from the dead!  I don’t think this means a simple salvation for the Jewish people.  I think this has far more implication for the whole church to come fully alive to the gospel of the kingdom. 

Do we truly come into our inheritance without the Jewish people?  Is it a selfish deception to think that our salvation is secure without a vested interest in God’s plan for the Jewish restoration?  Is it an elitist spirit that says, “I have Jesus, so I have security?”  I’ve been questioning this.  Is there a true church without the foundation of the apostles and prophets and a relationship with the Jewish Messiah?  Is it an oversimplification of the gospel to interpret salvation as merely a relationship with Jesus?  How can we really be saved, if our foundation is removed?  How can we carry the life of God within us, if the trunk and the root are gone?  How can Jesus be the Chief Cornerstone of an edifice that denies any Jewish-ness or connectedness with that foundation? 

The Word says, “In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  (Eph. 2:21)  At the very least, asking for understanding will cause us to realize that there is not the fullness of joy in our own salvation, if the Jews are not partakers of that same privilege.  That was the cry of Paul’s heart to a degree beyond our current experience.  He would be cursed and separated from God for their revelation.  I have experienced this in prayer.  My salvation; the fact that I am in relationship with the Jewish Messiah sometimes brings me great pain when I think that there are so many of His Chosen who do not know Him.  My joy is tainted and incomplete when I think that they, to whom the covenants belong, are still blind and separated from the life of God.  It makes me want to do more to see revelation come to them.

Jesus graciously gave us another clue to His return in Matthew 23 to encourage us.  This chapter deals with the Scribes and Pharisees.  All through the chapter, Jesus gives dire warnings to them.  In verse 13, He says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” 

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

Later on in Matthew 23:28 He says: 

Mat 23:28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Mat 23:29 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
Mat 23:30 And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
Mat 23:31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
Mat 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Mat 23:34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
Mat 23:35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
Mat 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Mat 23:38 Look, your house is left to you desolate.

Mat 23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'  Baruch haba b’shem Adonai.

Again, here Jesus was speaking of the religious leaders of His day; the Scribes and Pharisees.  We can take great comfort in the fact that even though Jesus limited His return to a small minority of people who currently deny His deity, there will come a day when the veil is lifted and they will say the words that will invite His return.  That is why we must pray.  There needs to be a remnant of Jewish people who will call for His return.  There needs to be a people who will invite Him back.  Jesus came the first time and was unwelcomed by his own people.  He does not want to come again until they cry out for Him, acknowledge who He is and desire His return. That is the protocol of heaven.  I did not invent this.  These are Jesus’ own words.  Scripture sets up the protocol of the kingdom.  We need to pray Zech. 12:2:

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

We are ambassadors of His kingdom and are working to prepare the kingdom for His return.  The only reason we get to do that, is scripture states that the Gospel was to go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.  That’s Romans 1:16.  When the religious leaders refused to believe, the natural branches were cut off and the Gospel went to the Gentiles.  Now that we have believed, we have been grafted in to the olive tree.  One of our functions is to make Israel jealous as we partake of the promises that are theirs, and operate with love toward them with signs and wonders following. 

The trunk of the olive tree and the roots are Jewish, with a foundation built on the apostles and prophets.  Personally, I like this explanation: there is really only one monotheistic faith.  That is Judaism.  Christianity is an offshoot, a branch of that tree.  If we begin to see that trunk and root system is essential to bring life and meaning to our lives, we will have a bigger concept of what God is doing.  If we view the trunk and root system as old and having been replaced, I then have a question for you.  When you turn to Revelation 21:14 and other passages, how do you reconcile that all the gates in the heavenly Jerusalem have the names of the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed on them?  Why do the walls have foundations with the names of Jewish apostles?  Why are the tribes included in the 144,000, the tribes of Israel? 

As we saw in a previous lesson, Romans cautions us not to become arrogant because we could just as easily be cast away as the Jewish people were, if we do not continue to believe.  We are His ambassadors, working to prepare a kingdom for His return.  Jesus cared so much, He wept over Jerusalem.  He said, “If you only knew the day of your visitation.  He also said, in Matthew 23:37, “How I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  We identify with Jesus when he wept over Lazarus, but sometimes we miss His emotions over Jerusalem.  He was deeply moved to the point of weeping.  He uses words like “longed,” and imagery of a mother hen.   Israel is the apple of His eye.  Jerusalem is His bride.  Yeshua is longing for her to return His love.  Hosea 3:4-5 gives us a picture of what will happen:  For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.  Afterward, the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.  That’s a promise.

Tomorrow, I have more questions to consider....