Israel's history is presented as a testament to God's enduring plan and faithfulness, despite the nation's repeated failures and suffering. The sermon traces Israel's journey from their origins, through their periods of disobedience and scattering, to their eventual restoration and future glory. It emphasizes God's promises, the production of a holy nation and scripture, and the coming of a Jewish Messiah, highlighting the ongoing significance of Israel in God's redemptive purposes. The message concludes by urging listeners to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to recognize their debt to the Jewish people.
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In the morning, particularly, I wanted to be carrying something away with you that's going to affect your lungs and have some practical impacts. And I feel very much exercise this morning to continue in a way where we left off last night. And it's because of the poem that I read to you. I'm going to take a little bit here, reading it to you again, because we can have this. following responsibility concerning the God's ancient people, and when not discharging it, then we are going to be the losers.
And we're going to pray again, too. It's called the Jew. That is by God's at ancient hand. The first day they fell on, saw one Lord from their present land, the Jewish children mourn. And in Christian countries, few during sorts of written for the Jew. Yet listen to the entire, do you know the Bible's precious page? Then let your heart with kindness move to the Israelite heritage, who traced those lines of mercy to you. This sacred writer was a Jew. And when his years and ages passed, the merchants rose and he fell, so cried through darkness, after the cast, or captive Israel, the oracles of God for you, were kept in faithfully by the Jew.
And then a great Redeemer came, forgives the name of Jude, who did not take an angel's name, no, then they received Jesus, who gave his life to Jude, the King of Savior, with a Jew. And then, however, she did not internally cry away, since the Gentiles have their love, are you more just than they? No. God in pity turns to you. Have you no pity for the Jew? Go then and bend your knee to pray for Israel's ancient grace. Ask the dear Savior every day to call them, by his grace.
Go for a debt of love is due, from Christian Gentiles to the Jew. And we are exhorted to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. So I thought this morning, if I can just impress this upon you, just a few days ago I was asking the congregation how many of them possessed a copy of the missionary handbook? How many of them possessed a copy of the Homeworkers Handbook? Now my point there was that if you want to pay intelligently for the missionaries and for the Homeworkers, You have to know their names, you have to know where they are, you have to know something about their work, otherwise you cannot pray intelligently for them.
Now, once again, I'd underscore that, because if you don't have a copy of either of these handbooks, then you're falling short in your work of intercession for those who are engaged in full-time service for the Lord. Now, it's the same with the Jew. Unless we are informed... we cannot intelligently pray for the Jew. And if we do not intelligently pray for the Jew, we are missing the will of God, at least in a certain area of our lives, because this is a responsibility that God has laid very definitely, very positively upon us. We should be praying for the peace of Jerusalem. We all of us know how much it's threatening, and how constantly, every day, that peace of Jerusalem is threatening.
Let's read from Jeremiah twenty-nine to begin with. Because he has said, this is verse fifteen of that chapter, because he has said, the Lord has raised us up topics in Babylon, you remember the reference to the captivity last night, know that thus said the Lord, of the kings that sit upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity, just as the Lord and host. Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile things that cannot be eaten.
They are so evil. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the seasons of the earth, to be a curse and an astonishment, and a dishing and a reproach among all the nations with our ambivalence." Now that takes us right to the point where we left out last night, where Israel is a scattered nation. Now verse forty who says this, And I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity. And I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places with which I have delivered you, said the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place which I caused you to be carried away captive.
Now God very graciously gives him the promise before he prophesies the complete captivity and scattering of the whole of the nation of Israel. Now turn to Zechariah, will you? Zechariah. And I'm going to read from chapter eight to begin with here. Now, our time this morning is very short, so I don't want to take up too much time here, but what the word of God says is more important than anything I can say about it. In Zechariah eight and verse twenty read, Thus says the Lord of hosts, it shall yet come to pass that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities, and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.
I will go also. Gay many people, and strong nations, shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Now, obviously, here's a reference to the restored nation of Israel, and the respect in the hearts of the nations for them. Thus let the Lord of hosts, in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nation, even shall take hold of the spirit of him that is at you, saying, We will go with you. For we have heard that God is with you. Now, there are two or three other scriptures.
I'd like to take the time to read them, but I think that perhaps for the moment we'll contend ourselves with this, because even in the three scriptures we have evidence of the fact that God intended to scatter Israel, God intends to redatter them, and eventually all the nations of the world will honor them and respect them. Now very briefly, I want to mention three things that I think should have a bearing upon our attitude towards Jew, and our exercise on his behalf, and our intercession for him.
The first is the Jew's history of yesterday. The second is the Jew's humiliation of the day, and the third is the Jew's happiness of tomorrow. Those are the three things that I think should affect us wherever we think about the nation of Israel. Now, how quickly can I cover the Jew's history of yesterday? I'd like to mention just two things, and you can search them out and think about them for yourself, because it's well said that the Jews' history is his story. It's God's story. God was responsible for raising them up.
God was responsible for disciplining and punishing them. God will be responsible for re-gathering them. He's already done that work. and restoring them, and eventually making them his emissaries upon this earth, when men at last shall respect them for what they are, the people of God." So the Jewish testimony is his story. Now, on three counts is his story. First of all, it's the story of his promises. You remember we read what he said to Abram? He said, I'm going to Give me the land. So he made a promise concerning the land to Abram.
He made a promise to Moses concerning the return to the land. And he made a promise to David concerning the ground. These are where his promises to Israel and God intends to keep them. The land is going to belong to Israel. The people are going to be restored to the land. They're going to return. And as I say, that's already begun, and the throne is not going to pass away. It's the story it is promising. Secondly, it is the story of his father. Because God, when he said to Abraham, get me out, because I'm going to work with you, and out of here alone shall come a nation that shall be securely mine.
But God had something more than that. on his program. Yes, in turn, first of all, the production of a whole nation. Now that's the reason why, when the nation of Israel was born and began to develop, God made firm demands upon them concerning not mixing with the Egyptians, concerning not needing mixture in their clothes, and not sewing a mixture, God showed to them that mixture needed again. And it was just a way of impressing the founders, holy people, that their holiness was so important to him. They must never be compromised.
They must be a separate people. So it was the program, or the part of the program, was the production of a holy nation. But then, secondly, on that same program involving Israel was the production of a holy book. Now the Holy Nation was first of all be ruled by God. It was theotheocracy. And God did that via Moses and Joshua and the Judges. The better people wanted to sing. I mentioned it to you last night. And so then they became, having been ruled by God, they ceased to be a theocracy and became a monarchy.
And then they were ruled by their own. King Saul, King David, King Solomon, And that's when the streets of Crete, you know, they were after his death, and Israel became the northern kingdom, and the southern kingdom. And then eventually, of course, they were overrun, and having first been of the opposite ruled by God, and then a monarchy ruled by their own kings, then they became a nation in captivity ruled by aliens, the Persians, Assyria, Babylon, and so on until the Testament times when they were still captive to the Romans. So here we have our holy nation, and how remarkably, in spite of all their suffering, and in spite of all their suffering, they still remained in this state.
God was in that, and God is still in us. So the first thing on his program was the production of a holy nation, the second was the production of a holy book. And as we were reminding in our poems, it was Jewish writers whom God took up and consoled them so that as they wrote the scriptures, they were incapable of making error. Now there are errors in your English Bible. Don't be shocked about it, because it's a translation, and the people who translated it. Wonderful, though they were, were not inspired in the translation. You've got to go back to the original languages, the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Aramaic.
And in those languages, as given to these men of God who were Jews, the Bible was absolutely without error. A perfect book. And it was part of God's program to secondly produce a Holy Ghost. And then, of course, it was the part of his program to produce a Holy Child. And as we read in our poems, he was a Jew. He had a Jewish mother. He had a Jewish foster father. So he was conceived by the Holy Ghost. He was brought up in a Jewish home. And the Jewish custom, and all of this...
underlying our indebtedness to the Jew. So it's the story of this prophecy, is the Jew's history yesterday. It's the story of this program, the production of our only nation, the production of our only book, and the production of a holy child. And finally, it's the story of this nation. Now you read the history of the Jews, how stubborn they were, how much they murmured, how foolish they were, remember way back in the story of history, how Joseph was sold to the Israelites. So manifesting the folly that was to characterize the nation of Israel, disloyalty.
You remember Moses. Go thou, thou kill us? As I killed the Egyptian yesterday, my Moses took him shoes. They were sometimes very disloyal. Do you remember, too, when Moses went up into the mount and didn't immediately come back? What did Aaron do? What did the people do? They made a golden star from the dance around it, and they actually worshipped it. Strange that his holy nature could be guilty of such folly and such sin, and, of course, immorality, things like this, and finally, rejection of their own Messiah. It's a very sad history, this Jew's history of yesterday.
But God's love for these ancient people has not for a moment diminished. Has not for a moment diminished. God loves them today as we love them at the beginning, and God demands that we love them too. We all, lots of people, can tell you about the Jews. giving with the Jews, how sure they are, and so on. I have to watch them. My people will talk about the Jews very regularly, but they don't have very much to say about the Jews. Now, you and I have got to look at the God-based people with an anointed hour. We've got the Christ of freedom as God-based them, in spite of their folly, in spite of their complaining, in spite of their of their disloyalty, in spite of their immorality, in spite of their idolatry, in spite of their rejection of the Lord Jesus.
Peter's going to say, and we must never forget that. So much for the Jews' history of yesterday. Now what about the Jews' liberation of today? Just now in Cleveland, a trial is going on. Do you think about this? Do you hear about this? who is being tried as a man who was responsible for putting hundreds upon hundreds of Jews in Germany in the ovens, or causing them their lives to be taken from. Only this morning I was hearing the report of one of those prison guards concerning the killing of the Jews.
How long did it take for them to get an hour? the Jews. Glory to a circumstance, sixty minutes, and they're all dead. And then the next batch, we're all dead. Sixty minutes, and they're all dead. Oh, we know something to destroy with it. And we know they say, you know the Jew, the humiliation of the Jew, first of all, find sympathizers in every land. It doesn't matter where you go across the face of the globe, you'll find the anti-Semite. You'll find the man who sympathizes with the humiliation of the Jews. By that I mean he endorses it. He had his way.
He would destroy the Jews. Got to see that. When he scattered them, he said, Israel shall become a burdensome stone. And I'm British. Since I don't have an accent, of course, we've never realized that. But, however, I remember when they handled the Jewish numbers. and how that had written it was a hospitator that had written from one hand to the other, in the end, written through the whole responsibility into the lap of the United Nations. Written proved that Israel was a burdensome stone. Written proved that it was a tough job to handle something that had to do with the nation of Israel, because, so frankly, when we deal with the people of God, the ancient people of God, the time compromise, and Britain did.
Remember, she went back upon her word that was given to a Jew who discovered Apatone, which helped her in World War I. She went back on her word. That's the reason why Britain is a second-rate nation today. I believe that's the reason. Because God said, those that they should be blessed, they that the church will be served. And those who cause you to suffer, they will suffer because of what they did. But the humiliation of the Jew of today finds sympathizers in every land. Everywhere there are people who would like to get the Jew out of their hair. But it not only finds sympathizers in every land, it finds its expression in many ways.
Democracy, because we hear lots about civil rights. And as a mere administration, I think we're going to hear less about civil rights. But, however, democracy prides itself on respecting the rights of others. But, you know, the best thing that can be said about democracy and the view is this. Democracy tolerates the view. Now, very often, democracy would like to take some other move. Israel today is a tremendous problem for the United States of America. She had a great lobby right here in the United States of America. And because of that, there's a lot of pressure being put on the government.
But the government of this nation would like to be free of the problem of Israel. Because it threatens the receipt of Arab oil. and that obviously is a very grave problem. You know, the United States of America were to recede the aid of Israel and say, where, but the Arabs did pour oil into the United States. And there were some in the United States that like Syria. Democracy tolerates the Jew because democracy does believe, however impertibly, in human rights, and says the Jew has a right to exist and so on. Sure. And this it is toleration.
Now, Roman Catholicism, who is the Jew? During the history of Roman Catholicism, and do you find that these have been a daggers drawn from time to time to recently? Because Roman Catholicism is afraid of the Jew. Communism, so that it used to be, as did Nazism. They, why the Nazis, they said, we are going to destroy the Jew, period. Are they an impossible task? because the Jew were scattered throughout the world. They could have taken every Jew and not to Germany, they almost did, but they could have taken every Jew and put him to death. They still wouldn't have destroyed the Jew. They still wouldn't have destroyed the nation because God has shown him, who are the nations of the world.
God doesn't intend the nation of Israel to be destroyed. So this remuneration of the Jew today finds his sympathizers in every land, He finds this expression in many ways. Whenever I take a part to Israel, and I guess I've taken eight parties at different times, I always eventually get them to Mount Zion. And there, and always, the guide says to me, well, I will work here. Usually we have used an Arab guide. in Jerusalem, and the Arab will not go into this morning. And it's down under the ground where it has to be, because in that little museum there are still some of the ancient scriptures that were mutilated by the Nazi, a human suit, burned copies of the scripture scrolls and things like this.
And the Lord demanded that these be buried. So they put the museum underground. But when you go into that museum, and going to a part of it, it's just like a huge oven. And therein you find things that tell the dreadful story of what Mount Siobhan did to this museum. You can see jars of Julie Hashan, that have been as great as the other ones in Jackow and Brooklyn Road, and some of these other tents. You can see green bars of soap. made out of Jewish statues. You can see portions of the lampshade and things like this made out of tattooed Jew kids.
You can see the hermit of green iron-eyed Jews that were fed to the Jews by their thousands. Six million Jews put together by the Nazis during World War II. of the creation of the Jew today. If one only finds sympathizers in the Middle Land, an expression in many ways, it also finds an echo in many ages. Kalo persecuted the Jew, of course. Assyria. Babylonia. Hey, when you remember, who eventually got hanged on his own gallows, it was his plan to destroy the Jews, and old Hitler, we've already mentioned him.
and all of their efforts were brought to naught, because it's God's intention to preserve the nation he has planned for. The Jewish humiliation of the day not only finds sympathizers in England, an expression in many ways, and an echo in many ages, he also finds its cause in many things. But basically the Jew is humiliated today because of his departure from geography, his rejection of gravity skin, and the rejection of his Messiah, and the sending of him to the cross.
Now I have five minutes, maybe four and a half. Let's think about the Jew's happiness of Navarra. We ought to pray for the Jew because of what has happened in the past. We ought to pray for the Jew because of what is happening today. We ought to pray for the Jew because of what's going to happen in the future. Now concerning the Jew's happiness tomorrow, two things occur to me. The first is all of the circumstances indicate it. And the second is the God's word substantiates this. Let me tell you a little bit about what has been taking place in Israel in these very few minutes.
Let me remind you of four things. First of all, the recognition of the nation of Israel. Twenty-five hundred years, twenty-five centuries, Israel remained non-historic. and not among the other nations. In fact, I jotted down one or two statistics here. Did I can find them? Well, let me come to that in a moment. Let me just say, in fact, in here, because it's relevant, that for the first time in twenty-five hundred years, Israel has its own ruler.
its own re-established Hebrew language, its own coinage, its own course, its own laws, its own absolute independence. And you'll remember, as recently as May the thirteen, nineteen forty-eight, that wasn't true. But on May the fourteen, nineteen forty-eight, the remission of Israel after twenty-five hundred years, was recognized as a nation in her own right. Oh, yes, the circumstances indicate that there's a day of happiness for the Jew tomorrow, not only in the recognition of the nation of Israel, but her reestablishment in Palestine.
Here are those statistics. Today there are more Jews living in Jerusalem than lived in the whole of Palestine at the beginning of this sanctuary. It is a date for this. In eighteen thirty-eight, three thousand Jews out of eleven thousand inhabitants in Jerusalem. That is eighteen thirty-eight. Out of eleven thousand living in Jerusalem, only three thousand were Jews. But four years after the recognition of the nation of Israel, of one hundred and fifty thousand were Jewish. Only three thousand were not Jews.
Now that's a big change, and it happened in just four years from the end of the year, from the end of the year, the Soviet Union. My, the figures are much more startling now. But in New Year, these things began to happen in remarkable fashion. So again, the Syrian consensus demanded, not only because of the recognition of the nation of Israel, and the nation's re-establishment in Palestine, but also of Israel's battle. I don't need to go over this. You know how the Arabs said, as soon as ever the matter was settled, their land was partitioned, and Israel was recognized. That's all it means, they said. Here we are. We're all the way round here, and the sea is on this side.
We're just going to shovel into the sea. And so they all started to attack Israel. Here's what happened. In six short months, Israel emerged from that battle with six thousand square miles of territory, much more than had been awarded her recognition. And during those six months there was so much emigration into the country in spite of the fighting, there were a million Jews by that time in Palestine. Finally, her blossoming, blossoming in prosperity. You remember the word of God speaks about the death of blossoming like a rose.
Ashish or this is for the oil, and there in the beginning Israel takes her place as one of the nations with the greatest potential. In fact, the nation with the greatest potential, in spite of thorny and erode the oil. You realize that in the Dead Sea alone, and usually when we're there, some of us go into the Dead Sea because you can actually sit in it and read a newspaper. The water is twenty-seven percent lower, and you can't think. I once baptized a lady in the dead tree on her insistence. I had to push her down because she just stayed on top of the water. Now there was that twenty-seven percent, which is mineral, is all composed of minerals that are absolutely vital in fighting the war.
That's the reason why Israel is going to be surrounded in the future. That's the reason why the armies are going to march on Israel in the future. That's the reason why they're going to try to take possession of her because of their wealth. that there is a future in the land that's necessary to wage war. So that's a day of horror that still lies in the future for the Jews. But beyond it is this happiness of the morrow. Israel has oil, Israel has mineral, Israel has very, very fertile soil. In fact, you can go to the barren area of the Dead Sea, and you can see how that could look. besides the Dead Sea, has built water right the way down from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea, and the moment they start to sprinkle the soil, they can plant anything in it, and it will produce and produce and produce and produce.
All it means is one. Yes, the circumstances indicate it, but the script is substantiated. Lord God says, this ain't an untrue. is a surprise for you. Men will want the Jew. Amen. We'll take home and whisper to him that he's a Jew and say, we want to go with you because we know God's with you. Men will want the Jew. My, that's a, that's a thought. That's a saying. It's head of the nation. It's head of individual. In fact, it is actually the scripture of the world at last. Men will want the Jew. Isn't that a man?
God will use the Jew. Do you remember I spoke of that interrupted red line last night? It stops at the age of grace, but it starts again after the rapture because God hasn't finished the New Year. Then you'll want the Jew. God will use the Jew. And here's the last thing. And I'm true. Christ will be delivered to you. Just when the Jew is finally threatened and experienced to be eliminated. The state will stand on the Mount of Olives, and that will be the beginning of one level time. That will be the beginning of the new legal habits of God.
So pray for the peace of the country of peace. If you don't, your own spirit will not will have it. If you don't, you'll fail to share the reward in your honeymoon. Our Father, we thank you for reminding us, Peter and Vera, of our responsibility to pray for thine ancient people. And Lord, we thank you for what we believe concerning the future for this year. And we know that this must be going to happen because thou hast so miraculously future. And we pray that the sin set away that our hearts shall become increasingly tender toward them, that our prayers shall have a real place for them, that thou should be able to answer them, pray, hasten the day, that they give humiliation at the very end, till good way to his happiness of tomorrow.
We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus to reduce the