THEY WILL REBUILD

they will rebuild, God keeps covenant, day 10

THEY WILL REBUILD

God Keeps Covenant

Day 10
by Wendy D. Beckett

“I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.  I will plant Israel in their own landnever again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God. (Amos 9:14-15 NIV) 

Day 10 of God Keeps Covenant: THEY WILL REBUILD

The transformation of the land of Israel from mosquito-infested swamps and barren desert to productive farms, vineyards and orchards is amazing. The Lord has blessed Israelis’ hard work. One indication is the jet stream, which actually shifted so that some of the former desert land has regular rain again.

Millions of trees have been planted on the barren slopes – many by Christians.  Each visit my husband and I make to Israel, we see Isaiah 51:3 becoming more of a realityThe Lord “will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.” 

For many years now, Israeli jets have departed nightly full of fruit and flowers for the tables of Europe – a direct fulfillment of Isaiah 27:6, “In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.”  Even in the grocery stores of America we can now purchase Israeli fresh produce.

In the Negev desert, exceptional olive orchards and vineyards are developing using brackish water pumped from thousands of feet below ground. 

“They…will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” (Isaiah 61:4) The rebuilding has been intense throughout the years of Israel’s existence. Their ability to absorb and house new immigrants is astounding. Their rebuilt cities are clean and orderly.

Never before in history has a dead language been revived. Yet in Israel today, Hebrew is spoken everywhere, and immigrants are required to attend Hebrew classes upon arrival.

Never before has a nation, which was dispersed into many countries, remained intact as a distinct people. Ethnic groups have always been absorbed after a few generations. Yet the Lord has kept Israel as a nation even in her long exile.

The Lord has remembered His covenant and His everlasting love for His nation. The time to favor Zion has come.

Gracious Father, You have looked down on this people throughout the generations and yearned for this time when You could again pour out Your blessings upon them. Thank You for all that is being fulfilled and all that will yet happen in order to complete Your great plan of Redemption for Israel and all peoples.

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CAN A NATION BE BORN IN A DAY?

can a nation be born in a day?

CAN A NATION BE BORN IN A DAY?

God Keeps Covenant

Day 9
by Wendy D. Beckett

“Who has ever heard of such a thing? …Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her childrenDo I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.  (Isaiah 66: 8 & 9)

Day 9 of God Keeps Covenant: CAN A NATION BE BORN IN A DAY?

Let’s return briefly to the Bible College in Wales. In 1947, a number of the young students there sensed the Lord asking them to temporarily lay down their missionary calls and stay to intercede for the birth of the State of Israel. “We pleaded,” wrote Rees Howells in his diary, “that because of His covenant with Abraham 4,000 years ago, God would take His people back to their land, and Palestine (3) should again become a Jewish State.”(4)

On the day of the mandatory United Nations’ vote to allow Israel’s status as a sovereign nation, there was much prayer. The first vote did not pass. The college intercessors went back into more intense prayer and believed they saw “God’s angels influencing those men in the United Nations Conference to work on behalf of God’s people.” The next day the news came of the needed two-thirds majority. The college proclaimed November 28, 1947, “one of the greatest days for the Holy Spirit in the history of these 2,000 years.” (5)

Fighting continued for the next five months between the Arab nations and the Jewish people. However in May 1948, the Jewish council in Jerusalem signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Modern Israel was “born in a day.”

In less than 24 hours, seven Arab countries declared war against this new state. Miraculously this fledgling, ill-equipped nation was victorious. Even after she was attacked again in1967, her forces prevailed and broke through to the Western Wall – all that was left of the Old Temple. At that moment all of Jerusalem came back into Jewish hands for the first time since they were exiled to Babylon 600 years before Christ. (6)

Faithful God, thank You that You did “bring to the moment of birth” and You did give delivery. Thank You that You have protected Israel in the ensuing wars. We will “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her.” (Isaiah 66:10)

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THE TIME TO FAVOR ZION

DAY 8 THE TIME TO FAVOR ZION by Wendy Beckett's 30-day devotion, God Keeps Covenant

THE TIME TO FAVOR ZION

God Keeps Covenant

Day 8
by Wendy D. Beckett

“But You, O Lord, sit enthroned forever; …You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come.”  (Psalm 102:12 & 13)

Day 8 of God Keeps Covenant: THE TIME TO FAVOR ZION

I will never forget the gathering in the large cafeteria of a major industrial company in Cleveland, Ohio.  Derek Prince was addressing two thousand eager listeners. The year was 1971 – twenty-three years after the formation of the state of Israel. The air was electric as we heard this renowned Bible teacher expound on how this verse related to   Israel’s birth as a nation.

Profound questions were being addressed: Had 1948 been a turning point in history? One of the Lord’s “suddenlies”? An appointed time that had escaped the world’s attention, but to the Lord was of great importance?  Was He showing favor to His people, Israel, today in the midst of our modern world?

We knew the new nation had been created, but here was Scriptural insight into what the Lord thought of the event. I was in awe as my mind flashed back to mother’s words: “Maybe that’s what the prophets meant!”

The following two Scriptures give us further insights into this “appointed time.” Jesus, in His prophetic description of the history we have just studied, tells us: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24) Paul echoes this: “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” (Romans 11:25)

With Israel’s birth, a seismic shift occurred in the heavenly realm and in the world. And many – even much of the Church with its rich depository of Scriptural truth – missed it.

How comparable to the way the world missed our Savior’s birth, which was ushered in by the great angelic pronouncement. The sky was ablaze with heavenly light for the Bethlehem shepherds. And the sleeping world yawned.

So it was also with Israel’s inception as a nation. Few understood or were even aware of God’s dramatic invasion into history. But the process had begun. For indeed, the “Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. …for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah.” (Psalm 69:33 & 35) And that is exactly what has been happening since 1948.

Father, please help us all in Your Church to see the significance of the wondrous accomplishment that You brought forth from the ashes of the Holocaust. You were true to Your Covenant and again gave Your people their land. You have had “compassion on Zion” and shown her favor at “the appointed time,” just as You promised!  You are revealing the continuation of Your love story.

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WORLD WAR II AND THE HOLOCAUST

WORLD WAR II AND THE HOLOCAUST by Wendy Becktt's 30 day devotion, God Keeps Covenant

WORLD WAR II AND THE HOLOCAUST

God Keeps Covenant

Day 7
by Wendy D. Beckett
You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest (pray continually) till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah 62:6 & 7)

Day 7 of God Keeps Covenant: World War II and the Holocaust

In the summer of 2004, as I walked for the first time through Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, what struck me most deeply was the Jewish suffering after World War II. My heart was broken not only by the gas chambers and crematoriums (which I had known about) but also by the post-war holding camps in Cyprus and northern Europe, where conditions were not much better than at Auschwitz. I wept as I thought of the survivors of the Holocaust finally landing in Haifa, Israel, only to be sent back to the holding camps because of anti-Semitic regulations.

But I don’t intend here to dwell on the horrors. If you have seen “Schindler’s List,” “Playing for Time” or “The Pianist,” you know very well the appalling scenes from the Warsaw ghetto and the death camps.

Instead, let us zero in on a small Bible College in Wales where nightly, powerful prayer meetings were occurring during the war. Rees Howells, an intercessor God had groomed with great care, would take time by himself to wait on the Lord for the prayer strategy for a particular evening.

Once he had heard the Lord’s direction, he would join others already in prayer and together they would go into deep intercession – perhaps for hours – until they sensed they had “broken through” and the Lord had achieved what He desired. Often within days the news would report a victory the Allies had needed to press on to defeat the evil Nazi regime – exactly as they had prayed.

O yes, there were prayer gatherings everywhere as the world writhed convulsively during those awful years between 1939-1945. Finally those regimes fell, and the senseless murder ceased for those whose only crime was that they were Jewish.

Can we ever answer the question “Why?” In today’s world, innocent people, children, and babies are being murdered almost daily by terrorists. We all wrestle with why evil has to be so powerful. The answers will come when we see the Lord face to face.

Then, we will have the kind of history lesson those two disciples had on the road to Emmaus on Resurrection Day when the Lord Jesus brought His gruesome death and the prophetic Word together for them. (Luke 24) Until that day, I have to trust my Lord. In His Sovereignty, the Lord had to allow the Holocaust. The outcome was a homeland for the Jewish people – the restored nation of Israel. He used the incredible tragedy for His purposes.

To return to our opening Scripture, we see that intercessors did call on the Lord and gave themselves and Him no rest during those terrible years. Through the horrors, the Lord somehow caused His Will to be done to bring closer the Day He “establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

Father, again we have to acknowledge that Your ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8) We can only declare that You are Sovereign over all the earth. You know what You are doing as You bring about Your will and Your purposes in preparation for that great Day!

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CHRISTIANS WHO CARED

Christians who cared by Wendy Beckett's 30 day devotion, God Keeps Covenant

God Keeps Covenant

CHRISTIANS WHO CARED

Day 6
by Wendy D. Beckett
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Isaiah 40:1 NIV

Day 6 of God Keeps Covenant: Christians Who Cared.

Dr. Michael Brown has written a powerful book entitled Our Hands Are Stained with BloodThe Tragic Story of the “Church” and the Jewish People. In the midst of recounting the horrific mistreatment of Jews, Dr. Brown gives us a wonderful chapter entitled, “A Blessed and Beautiful Stream,” in which he acquaints the reader with a few of those who have stood out in history against this tide of anti-Semitic evil.

Of course many of these believers were the quiet ones who remained in obscurity. They were those who cried out to God in prayer for the Jewish people or who performed secret acts of kindness despite the personal danger. We know that many of these “righteous Gentiles,” (as the Jewish people call Christians who care for them) gave their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Corrie ten Boom’s family is one of the best-known examples (as depicted in the book and movie, The Hiding Place.)

Interestingly, many of the Puritans who shaped early America had a vision for Israel and held the hope that the Jewish people would return to their land and their Lord. Perhaps one of the reasons God has so blessed America has been the fact that many times through the years we have opened our arms to Jewish people fleeing the persecutions of Europe.

Samuel Rutherford, a famous Scottish Puritan, had a deep love for the Lord and His ancient people. I love this description from one of his letters quoted in Dr. Brown’s book:

O to see the sight, next to Christ’s Coming in the clouds, the most joyful! Our elder brother the Jews and Christ fall upon one another’s neck… They have been long asunder; … O longed-for and lovely day-dawn! …let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead, Thee and Thy ancient people in mutual embraces. (2)

In the early 1800s, the London Jews Society was formed. This organization encouraged Jews to immigrate to Israel and also established the first Protestant Jewish Church there. They opened schools and a hospital. The result was that, for the first time in 1,700 years, there were known to be Jewish people in Israel who came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. During the intense persecutions in Russia in the 1880s, the London Jews Society helped the first Russian immigrants “home” to Israel.

Even Queen Victoria, who reigned on the British throne for more than 50 years in the last half of the 1800s, strongly supported a homeland for the Jewish people.

In today’s Scripture from Isaiah, whom is the Lord addressing? Could it be that He is actually stirring all of us in the Church to “comfort” His chosen people? I believe so!

Thank You, Lord, that You have always had a faithful remnant in the Church who has understood Your great heart of love for Your covenant people. Thank You that down through the centuries there have been those who have heeded Paul’s warnings and have blessed the Jews. May there be more and more Christians who are inspired to “comfort” with an unconditional love, these dear people who have suffered so much.

A LOOK INTO HISTORY

A look into history day 5 devotion by Wendy Beckett

A Look Into History

God Keeps Covenant

Day 5

by Wendy D. Beckett

“…do not boast… Do not be arrogant.” (Romans 11:18 & 20)

Day 5 of God Keeps Covenant: A Look Into History.

A devotional may seem to be a strange place to discuss history. Sadly however, many in the Church today have no idea how much persecution has been inflicted on the Jewish people in the name of Christ. So our key Scripture for today is Paul’s warning resounding down through the centuries to all who will hear: “Do not be arrogant.” Regrettably, many have ignored Paul’s plea.

The apostles were scarcely in their graves when key leaders in the early church began turning against the Jews. By the time Christianity became accepted throughout the Roman Empire, every vestige of Jewishness had been erased from the Church. Jewish people who became Christians were forbidden to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, or to celebrate the feasts commanded by the Lord through Moses.

Expulsion, forced conversion and violence mar the pages of the history of Christian Europe as the separation between Christian and Jew continued to widen. Even many of the holiest and most respected church fathers were virulently anti-Semitic. (1)

The Crusades, between 1000 and 1200 AD, became an excuse to eradicate as many Jews as possible as fanatic knights and their followers rampaged through cities and towns on their way to the Holy Land. Once in Jerusalem, these men, convinced they were doing God’s will, slaughtered Jews as well as Muslims until the blood literally ran through the streets.

In Europe in the late 1200s, a story circulated widely that Jews were kidnapping Christian children, slaughtering them, drinking their blood and using it to make their Passover bread. Untold thousands of Jewish people lost their lives in the ensuing centuries because of this preposterous lie. These accusations continued in Eastern Europe well into the last century and still surface today in Muslim countries. How difficult this is to comprehend!

Down through the centuries, persecutions and mass expulsions took place in England, France, Spain, Russia and Eastern Europe. Between 1440 and 1808, 30,000 Jews were burned at the stake in Spain and thousands more in Portugal and Mexico.

Even Martin Luther (1500s) in his later years joined the ranks of those who vilified the Jews and desired their destruction.  It has been said that Luther’s angry outbursts against them helped Hitler justify his purges and death camps.

 It is estimated that in the centuries before the Holocaust 7,000,000 Jewish people were slaughtered by those confessing to be Christians. Then during World War II another 6,000,000 were annihilated.

Where was the Lord in all those centuries of suffering? I believe He was weeping with His people. In all their affliction He was afflicted.” (Isaiah 63:9 NKJV) He was also weeping over His Church. He had left such clear instructions to love.

Lord, what horrors You have looked upon! Our hearts break that Paul’s warning was not heeded and that the Jewish people have had to suffer so intensely for so long! Cleanse us, Your Church, from any remaining arrogance.

God Keeps Covenant Day 4 Blog

God keeps Covenant Day 4 blog

ENGRAVED ON THE PALMS OF HIS HANDS

God Keeps Covenant

Day 4

by Wendy D. Beckett

“For the Lord comforts his people 
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
But Zion said, ‘the Lord has forsaken me…’
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”
(Isaiah 49:13-16)

God Keeps Covenant Day 4: I remember a tense moment in a gathering of Christians and Jews just before the movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” was released. The question was asked, “Did the Jews put Jesus on the cross?” Every eye was riveted on the speaker. “No!” he said. “Our sins put Jesus on the cross!” Oh! If only the Church had given such an answer down through its history!

So many Christians through the centuries have believed not only that the Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death but also that God has utterly forsaken them. These Christians think the Church has completely taken the place of the Jewish people as the “Chosen” of God. The history of most of the last 2,000 years would seem to support their belief. 

However, we have examined the Lord’s promises that His love and His Covenant are forever. Does “forever” not apply as well to the last two millennia? Perhaps the following Scriptures give us a clue. 

For a brief moment I abandoned you, (Remember 1,000 years is as a day)
but with deep compassion I will bring you back. 

…I hid my face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.”
(Isaiah 54: 7 & 8)

“No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate.
…for the Lord will take delight in you.”
(Isaiah 62:4)

“I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’
‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:23)

Paul asks the believers in Rome who were struggling with anti-Jewish emotions: “Did God reject his people? … Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?”
“Not at all!” comes his resounding answer. (Romans 11:1&11)
—————-

Lord, thank you that You have not forgotten or rejected Your ancient people. You are a faithful God who keeps Covenant and loves unconditionally. Thank You that You are again showing Your compassion to the Jewish people. Help us to love those whom You love – those who are “engraved on the palms of (Your) hands.”

Why Israel Chapter 2

why israel chapter 2 by Derek Prince

Distinct Features

Why Israel?

by Derek Prince

God’s Heart for a People, His Plan for a Nation

Chapter 2

Distinct Features

In our last chapter, we discussed Israel’s unique positioning. This chapter will continue the discussion of some of this nation’s distinct features.

In Exodus 19:6, we see God’s promise to Israel while they were gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai—before He had given them the law and the commandments. God tells Moses to inform the Israelites:

And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

There is no other nation to whom God has ever spoken those words.

Messiah Came through the Jews

In Romans 9 verses 4 and 5, Paul lists a number of distinctive features which apply only to Israel and to the Jews. In speaking about his kinsmen whom he calls Israelites, Paul makes the following points:

  • To whom pertain the adoption, [God adopted them as a nation, as His people]
  • the glory, [that is the manifest supernatural presence of God which was with Israel as long as they walked in obedience]
  • the covenants, [all the covenants in the Bible are made with Israel except the ones made before Israel was a nation]
  • the giving of the law, [the law was given only to Israel]
  • the priestly service of God, [was given only to Israel]
  • and the promises; [the promises were also only given to Israel. And then Paul says,]
  • of whom are the fathers, [let’s remember that all the patriarchs are from that lineage, from no other stock but that of Israel. And finally]
  • of whom, according to the flesh, Messiah [Christ] came

This last point is the most distinctive of all the features. It was through the Jewish people—through Israel—that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to the world. His coming was not through any other people than the Jews.

Salvation Is of the Jews

Another distinctive feature about Israel is revealed in a most important statement about the Jewish people in John 4:22. Jesus is speaking to a Samaritan woman:

You [Samaritans] worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

This last statement consists of just five words: “salvation is of the Jews.” But they are five breath-taking words. Where did salvation come from? From the Jews. This is the startling reality: no Jews, no salvation

I am a Gentile. But I freely declare that my whole spiritual inheritance, and every spiritual blessing I have ever enjoyed, I owe to one people—the Jewish people. As I have said, without them there are no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles, no Bible, and no Savior. How much salvation would you or I have without those five components? None! Salvation is of the Jews. We had better remember that truth and conduct ourselves accordingly. 

God Keeps Covenant Day 3

God Keeps Covenant Day 3

God Keeps Covenant Day 3

THE LAND IS INTEGRAL TO THE COVENANT

by Wendy D. Beckett

A Thirty-Day Study on God’s Love for Israel

“The Lord said to Abram ‘…look… north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will
give to you and your offspring forever.’” (Genesis 13:14 & 15) NLT

God Keep Covenant Day 3

Without smog, Abraham could see a very long way from the mountains of Israel! In the Genesis 17 passage we studied on Day 2, the Lord continues in v.8, “The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you.”

This is confirmed to Jacob. “I am God Almighty…The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and…to your descendants.” (Genesis 35:12)

The book of Deuteronomy describes the Lord’s comments and final instructions before Israel entered the land after their forty years of wandering in the desert. The Lord is very forthright: “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land;” (Deuteronomy 9:5) in fact, He says in chapter 31:21, “I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.”

We know from history that Israel rebelled against God until finally He sent them into exile. The first exile was for seventy years to Babylon, and the second has lasted for almost 2,000 years – beginning 40 years after Jesus wept over them and warned them of what was coming. 

But even before they entered the land the first time, Moses’ words to them provide us with a glimpse of the Lord’s future plan.

When all these blessings and curses (see Deuteronomy 28 & 29) come upon you…wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord…God will…have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations. …God…will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it.” (Deuteronomy 30:1-5)

This covenant is not void! It is indeed forever! And it includes the land, a portion of which we again see in Israel’s possession today.

Have all those Israelis who are now back in the land “returned to the Lord”? (Deuteronomy 30:2) No. But many have. Others are coming to Him as they settle in their ancient towns and cities. Congregations are springing up everywhere, and Israeli friends tell us that there are now more followers of Yeshua (Jesus) in the land than there have been since the first century AD.

There are also many godly Orthodox Jews who trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with all their hearts, who are waiting for Messiah to be revealed.

Lord, we join the many Jewish people in the land who are praying these words of David: “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” (Psalm 53:6 ESV)

Why Israel Chapter 1

Why Israel Chapter 1

Why Israel? Chapter 1

by Derek Prince

God’s Heart for a People, His Plan for a Nation

If the Lord had not been on our side—let Israel say—if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 124 NIV

INTRODUCTION

As we begin our teaching on this very important subject of Why Israel, let’s start by asking a question of ourselves: On what basis are we praying for Israel? The simplest answer is that “Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). As Christians, we need to acknowledge our unfathomable debt to Israel and to always pray on the basis of that total indebtedness.

In my booklet, Our Debt to Israel, I make the following statements:
Without the Jews, we would have no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles, no Bible and no Savior! Deprived of all these, how much salvation would we have left to us? None!

The nations of the earth owe all that is most precious in their spiritual inheritance to the Jews. This is true of all of us – whether we be Arabs, Africans, Asians, Europeans, Russians, Americans or Chinese. We all owe a spiritual debt to the Jews that cannot be calculated.

One of the best ways we can begin to repay that debt of love is by prayer and intercession. As our awareness of Israel’s place in God’s plans grows, let’s open the Scriptures to gain a clearer understanding of the significance of the land and the people of Israel. To pray effectively for Israel and the Jews, we need to be informed about them. The information we need does not come from the world’s perspective or from the media. It comes from God’s viewpoint, which we find in the Bible.

Why Israel? Chapter 1

The Uniqueness of Israel

There is no other nation like the nation of Israel. The Holy Scriptures make this abundantly clear. 

The name Israel describes the nation descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember that Jacob was renamed Israel, and from his twelve sons are derived the twelve tribes of Israel. Later on, the people of Israel were called Jews. So really, Jews and Israel today are synonymous. 

In the New Testament, the name Israel occurs seventy-seven times, and these references are never, never applied to the Church. Please hear that again very clearly—the name Israel occurs seventy-seven times in the New Testament and never once is it a description of the Church. The word “Jew” occurs seventy-five times in the Old Testament and one hundred eighty-eight times in the New Testament. On the other hand, the term “Christian” occurs only three times in the New Testament. These numbers indicate the significance the Lord has placed on the people and nation of Israel.

A Unique People 

I want to emphasize in this first chapter that Israel is a unique people. There is no one else like Israel. As we consider the uniqueness of Israel, let’s begin by examining what is stated by David in 1 Chronicles 17:21. Praying to the Lord, David says: 

Who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people—to make for Yourself a name by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before Your people whom You redeemed from Egypt? 

In this prayer, David is saying there is no other nation whom God set out to redeem. He portrays Israel as a nation set apart from other nations. One unchallengeable fact emerges from this text: Israel is unique. The remarkable fact is that Israel did not choose this uniqueness; God chose it. This means if we pray for them just like we pray for any other nation, we are not praying with insight or understanding. In other words, we would not be praying in line with Scripture. 

Let us look at the previous verse, verse 20, which states the uniqueness of Israel. I realized for the first time in a recent study how directly verse 21 relates to the previous verse. It is important to recognize that the uniqueness of Israel springs out of the uniqueness of God. 

Verse 20 says,
“O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people.” 

We cannot pray effectively for Israel if we classify them with other nations. They are a unique people with a unique destiny expressing the uniqueness of their God. We cannot pray effectively if we pray a general prayer for all nations, including Israel. The facts of Scripture bear out their uniqueness.