ISRAEL

They are the tribes of sorrow and for ages have been fed

On brackish desert-wells of hate and exile’s bitter bread.

They builded up fair cities with no threshold of their own,

They gave their sigh to Nineveh, to Babylon their moan:

And have they not had tears enough, this people shrunk with chains?

Must there be more Assyrias, must there be other Spains?

‑ Edwin Markham.

So we read how the earth will be changed when the Millennial Kingdom comes: “The Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” (Isa. 32: 15). … Technion Yearbook says:- “Israel is destined to be a rich industrial and commercial oasis in the virtual desert of the Levant. It is destined to become a great cultural centre. Israel is the one nation born into the scientific age. Science is the ingredient in its life which offers the most brilliant promise. That Israel will distinguish itself in the study of archaeology, history, ethnology, is inevitable.”

8.

Prayer for Israel

1. Because of God’s command, with special promises of blessing. Gen. 12: 3; Psa. 122: 6; Isa. 62: 6, 7.

2. Because Israel is still beloved by God for the fathers’ sakes. Rom. 11: 28; Jer. 31: 3.

3. Because it is God’s will that Israel shall be saved. Isa. 12: 1-6; Matt. 23: 37; Rom. 11: 23-32.

4. Because the Tribulation testimony out of Israel after rapture. Matt. 24: 19-14; Rev. 6: 9; 7: 1-8.

5. Because of the great multitude to be saved through their ministry. Matt. 27: 40; Rom. 11: 25.

6. Because no Millennial blessings can come to the nations apart from Israel. Gen. 12: 3; Acts 15: 16, 17; Rom. 11: 11-15.

7. Because of Israel’s national awakening, with sorrow and distress, showing that their redemption draweth nigh. Dan. 7: 1; Matt. 24: 4-8; Luke 21: 24-31; (See Dan. 9: 1-22).

* * *

9.

THE DAY OF JACOBS TROUBLE

These are startling and awful happenings all over the earth and especially the re-gathering of Israel into their home land where they will finally accept their false Messiah, and bring on that terrible day, known as “Jacob’s trouble.” This will be the greatest hour of trial ever known for the sons of Israel. I quote from Jeremiah 30 (Moffatt Translation): “Here are the words spoken by the Eternal, with regard to Israel and Judah. We have heard a scream of terror; all is alarm and unrest. Ask now and inquire if a man is ever with child. And why do I see every man, pressing his hands on his loins, and why is every face turned to a deadly pallor? Ah, this is an awful day. What day is like it? An hour of anguish for Jacob. But he shall come through it.” Turning to Zech 13: 8 and 9, we read:- “For all over the land (Palestine) the Lord of hosts declares, two thirds shall perish, and one third shall be left. And this third, I will pass through the fire, smelting them like silver, testing them like gold, till they call to me, and then I listen: I will say they are my people; they shall cry, ‘The Eternal my God!’” Jesus describes the hour of Jacob’s Trouble in this language (Matt. 24: 21, 22). “For then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of this world, no, and never shall be. And except those days had been shortened, there would be no flesh saved. But for the Elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

- C. L. THORNTON.

* * *

10.

The great Hebrew Christian statesman, Benjamin Disraeli, known as Lord Beaconsfield, once said:- “the pulpit of Moses may ask himself whether all the princes of the house of David have done so much for the Jews as the Prince who was crucified at Calvary. Had it not been for Him, the Jews would have been comparatively unknown, or known only as a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. Has not He made their history the most famous in the world? Has not He hung up their laws in every temple? Has not He vindicated all their wrongs? Has He not avenged the victory of Titus and conquered the Caesars? What success did they anticipate from their Messiah? The wildest dreams of their rabbis have been far exceeded. Christians may continue to persecute Jews, and by so doing misrepresent their Master, and Jews may persist in disbelieving, but who can deny that Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate Son of the Most High God, is the eternal glory of the Jewish race?”

- Dr. Aaron Judah Kligerman.

* * *

11.

Mr. G. B. T. Davis gave a very enlightening word on Israel’s return to the Holy Land. He said:- “I confess that at first we were puzzled to know why it was that God was leading the Jews back to their land when they have not repented of their great sin, but are continuing in unbelief. But at length we found the answer in the Book of Ezekiel. God is bringing them back, not for their righteousness, but for His name’s honour and glory! Here is Ezekiel’s description of what is happening today:- ‘Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. … For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land’ (Ezek. 36: 22, 24).”

* * *

12.

PROGROMS

Have you ever seen the care lines on a Jewish woman’s face,

Finely traced there by a subtle, unseen hand?

Have you ever read the story of her persecuted race?

Then you will not wonder, as you understand.

And you probably will gather from the furrows on her brow,

(Age-long tyrannies have concentrated there),

She has come through heinous pogroms, and her bitter tears still flow,

O’er the ghastly crimes her dearest would not spare.

You will learn that through the centuries the insults hurled at them,

Were inflicted in the name of Christ, our Lord.

Do you wonder that they hate Him and His followers condemn,

Why the Gospel seems a gross, colossal fraud?

Oh, they cannot know He loves them till they see His love in you,

Neither understand how tenderly He longs

Just to take from them their sorrows, all their problems, old and new,

And to give instead glad, everlasting songs.

They have brought to men the Saviour, the rejected Nazarene,

Does not all that makes life noble spring from Him!

They gave prophets and apostles, who have written all they’ve seen

In the Scriptures, where His light grows never dim.

If you really would repay them for the gifts they brought to you,

Show the kindness of the Saviour to their race.

Send to them the blest Evangel with a love that’s ringing true,

And endeavour past injustice to efface.

- Essie Burnstein.

* * *

13.

It is wonderful what a well known Jewish author can say of Christ. Here are the words of Shalom Asch:-

“No one before Jesus and no one after him has bound our world together with love and justice and brought it to the feet of One Living Almighty God as effectively as did Jesus. He, as no other, works in human consciousness like a second nature and leaves man no rest in his animal state, but calls him and inspires him to the noblest deeds and sacrifices. He, as no other, stands before our eyes as an example and a warning, both in His Divine form and in His human form, and demands of us to carry out His teachings. Through His historic life He casts us down like dust before His feet. No one but He sheds about Himself an aura of moral power which, with a Divine touch, has moulded our world and character, and no one’s strength but His own has reached into our time, being the most potent influence in our everyday lives.”

* * *

14.

Dr. H. A. Ironside sums up Israel’s future. “At the end of the years Israel’s transgression will be finished, and their sins brought to an end, because their Messiah will have made reconciliation or atonement for iniquity. The long period of Israel’s sufferings under the heel of the Gentiles will be completed, and everlasting righteousness will be brought in. This refers clearly to the setting up of Messiah’s kingdom. All will be fulfilled so that the vision and prophecy will no longer be needed; and last of all, the Most Holy will be anointed. This must refer to the Shekinah glory returning to Israel when the people are gathered back in their own land and Jehovah’s Temple is rebuilt. The glory has been missing ever since the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. It was not seen in the temple of Zerrubabel nor in the temple of Herod, but it will return when Israel’s mourning shall be ended and, as a repentant people, they will be brought back to God.”

* * *

15.

This remarkable utterance has been issued by the German Church. “It was a disastrous mistake for modern churches and congregations to have as their only approach to the Jews such secular points of view as were humanity, emancipation and anti-Semitism. It has been bitterly brought home to them that anti-Semitism has grown to maturity and become a spiritual power throughout the nation – the nation which at least pretended to live under the sign of Christ! and not only in the mental culture of the educated classes and in Government and military circles, for even leading Christians joined in the chorus. And since the perception of Israel and the love for Israel had faded and died in our congregations, there was no power or conviction to resist it when the time came when radical anti-Semitism, based on theories of radical creed, destroyed the heart of our nation from within and enslaved it by brute force from without. Christians withdrew from their responsibilities and tried to justify themselves by speaking of the curse laid upon Israel; there was no longer any readiness to believe in the enduring nature of the promise to Israel, or to preach it, or to make it a reality by practical approaches to the Jews. In this way we Christians supported all the injustice and harm and injury which Israel had to suffer from us.

While the Word of God teaches us in this way we realise the shame and sorrow how sadly we have failed and how guilty we are in our attitude toward Israel. We neglected our duty as a Church to be a saving witness to Israel. Now the judgments of God smite us, one after another, that we may humble ourselves as a Church and as a nation, in real repentance, under the mighty hand of God.”

* * *

16.

THE CRY OF THE JEW.

(Written by a Jew)

There is no face in pity bent

When by the way I fall,

No anxious, loving Shepherd comes

In answer to by call;

There are no tender eyes to seek,

No gentle arms to hold,

No nail-pierced hands to take me up

And bring me to the fold.

And when on naked, bleeding feet

To Calvary I go,

And stagger, crush’d, beneath the Cross

There’s none to heed or know;

There’s none to lift the cruel weight,

There’s none to even share –

O Thou Who climb’d the Hill before

Look down and help me bear.

*       *       *

17.

Mr. Samuel F. Hurnard writes:-

“It is evident from Scripture that the Jews are determined, like their forefather Jacob, to seize their birthright by hook or by crook. They, too, will live bitterly to repent their folly. Our Lord told the Jews of His day: ‘I am come in my Father’s Name and ye receive Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.’ Their leaders will sell their souls for the bauble of power. Daniel tells of a coming prince, probably the Antichrist, with whom they make a treaty for seven years. But their ‘agreement with hell shall not stand.’ The treaty is soon broken, and the great tribulation follows to subdue the pride and smash the hardness of heart of stubborn Jewry. It is only when the remnant repent and acknowledge their once crucified Messiah that He can and will restore the Kingdom, and Israel will dwell in safety and peace every man under his own vine and fig-tree. No Peace Conference of the Allied Nations, or other man-made agreement, can ever fulfil God’s purposes and promises for Israel.”

*       *       *

18.

Pray especially for the ministers of the Gospel, that they may set forth the love of God to the conversion of many souls. Pray for them that they may not shun to declare the whole counsel of God, so that they may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Remember their difficulties. To be anxious for souls and yet not impatient, to be patient and yet not indifferent, to bear the infirmities of the weak without fostering them, to testify against sin and unfaithfulness and the low standard of spiritual life, and yet to keep the stream of love free and full and open – to have the mind of a faithful shepherd, a hopeful physician, a tender nurse, a skilful teacher – requires the continual renewal of the Lord’s grace. Pray for the mission among Israel and the heathen nations. Christ’s command is explicit, God’s promise sure. The Church obeying the Divine word, and constrained by the love of Christ, cannot but send forth evangelists. Let us regard the missionary spirit as the very spirit of Christian prayer; and in all our thoughts and prayers, and work connected with the missions of the Church of Christ, let us remember how closely we are brought into communion with the Saviour.

- ADOLPH SAPHIR.

*       *       *

19.

The prophecies picture the Jews in great numbers returning in unbelief to the land in the latter days. They tell of the miraculous preparation of the land itself under the blessing of God in order that God might multiply upon the mountains and valleys men and beasts (Ezek. 36: 4ff35). They tell of the tribulations that shall descend upon the re-gathering people, in the days of their unbelief (Jer. 30). They tell of the destroyers that shall attempt to seize the newly-discovered riches of the country and what God will do to them (Isa. 49: 17-26).

But so long as Jerusalem is “trodden down of the Gentiles” she is not “redeemed” nor can she be a “praise in the earth” (Luke 21: 24; Isa. 62: 1-10). The salvation of Jerusalem will not shine forth as a lamp to all the earth (Isa: 62: 1) until the remnant of Israel has been betrothed to their Eternal King – the One whom they will recognize by the spear mark and the prints of the nails in His hands (Zech. 12: 8-11).

Before that, Jerusalem in the hands of the Jews, will become a “cup of trembling” to all who try to take it from them (verses 1-3). Jerusalem will be “redeemed” when all Israel mourns over the rejection of the King who “visited them” long ago and the “spirit of supplication” is poured upon the house of David and “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (verse 10). It is then that many will be asking the King: “What are these wounds in thy hands?” Then shall He answer:- “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (13: 6).

Thereafter Jerusalem will be the “City of the Great King” – the capital not merely of Israel, but of the world, and all the Gentiles shall acknowledge its glory.

*       *       *

20.

The Jewish Era gives a deeply significant quotation from a Jewish journal - The Jews in the News. “The miseries that have plagued us for two thousand years have been marked signs of God’s disfavour. All the curses that the prophets foretold would be our lot have come to pass in a most remarkably accurate manner. However, these great men of God also point us to the way of our dilemma. We must turn to the words of our holy prophets and study the current trend of events in the Jewish world in the light of the Word of God which they delivered unto us, for in no other way can a satisfactory solution be found to the present spiritual plight of Israel.

“Back to the prophets! They were our inspired spiritual giants. They made the greatest contributions to our spiritual life, not our philosophers, our Talmudic scholars, etc. The call of the prophets was to repentance and it is the crying need of the hour, for Israel has not kept faith. With the thundering words of Isaiah we are exhorted, ‘Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted’ (Isaiah 31: 6). By following the traditions of our elders and the course of self-righteousness we have been on the road to Gehenna. We have plumbed the depths of spiritual decadence. Hear O Israel,* ‘repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord’.”

[* Keep in mind: when Israel, as a nation repents, the Millennial Kingdom of Christ will then be established by the bodily presence of their crucified Messiah.]

*       *       *

21.

In one of the orthodox synagogues of Brooklyn, during certain days of repentance and prayer, Jews were seen lying on their faces before God, crying to Him for protection upon their persecuted brethren, especially in Russia. One elderly Jew lifted up his hands towards heaven and in agony of soul, cried out:- “Oh, that Thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down … Lord,” he said, “Send Messiah, and should Jesus of the Gentiles be the one, grant us a sign that we may be sure that it is really so, and forgive our guilt toward Him.”

The Jew, however he may reject Calvary, by his own existence proves vicarious atonement which God wrote on the bedrock of his history. In Isaac alone, Abraham’s only son, the whole of Jewry was enwrapped; and the annihilating knife (Gen. 22: 10) was lifted above him. No Jew would ever have existed, and no Jew would exist today, had not Isaac been replaced by a ram in the burnt-offering on Mount Moriah. So it is solely due to the Lamb, whom the ram foreshadowed, that Israel cannot and will not be annihilated today.*

The Jew, however he may reject Calvary, by his own existence proves vicarious atonement which God wrote on the bedrock of his history. In Isaac alone, Abraham’s only son, the whole of Jewry was enwrapped; and the annihilating knife (Gen. 22: 10) was lifted above him. No Jew would ever have existed, and no Jew would exist today, had not Isaac been replaced by a ram in the burnt-offering on Mount Moriah. So it is solely due to the Lamb, whom the ram foreshadowed, that Israel cannot and will not be annihilated today.*

“Who taught you tender Bible tales

Of honey-lands of milk and wine?

Of happy, peaceful Palestine?

Of Jordan’s holy harvest vales?

Who gave your patient Christ? I say

Who gave your Christian creed?

Yea, Yea,

Who gave your very God to you?

The Jew! the Jew! the hated Jew!”

- C. H. MILLER.

[* Support whole-heartedly today (as of primary importance), all those regenerate souls who are seeking to carry the Gospel message to Jews scattered throughout the world.]