Pray for Israel

Daniel was in Babylon. He prayed a fervent prayer. He confessed the sins of the Jewish people. “We have sinned…therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us” (Dan. 9:5, 14). Daniel pleaded with God to be merciful. “Let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem…and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate” (Dan. 9:16, 17).

The angel Gabriel gave an answer in the symbolic prophecy of seventy weeks. He said that Jerusalem would be rebuilt and restored (Dan. 9:25). That happened in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. But there was more in the distant future.

Gabriel said the Messiah is coming. He will bring reconciliation and everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24). But He will also bring judgment—upon the Jewish nation! A powerful nation will “destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Jerusalem and the temple—v. 26).

God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer was twofold. Initially He would bless and restore Jerusalem. But eventually, because of the sins of the Jews, He would use a pagan power to destroy their city completely.

That nation was Rome. The Roman military wiped out the city of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Jesus said this was the fulfillment of Gabriel’s prophecy in Daniel 9 when He warned about this horrendous calamity in Matthew 24:15-22. He said “Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles” so violently that “not one stone shall be left upon another” (Luke 21:6, 24). That event put an end to the Israelite nation as the special, chosen nation of God. Jesus had told the Jewish leaders, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you” (Matt. 21:43).

This truth of Scripture is just the opposite of what many preachers teach. They say that Daniel’s prophecy will be fulfilled in a restored nation of Israel when Jesus returns. That world superpower, they tell us, will be greater than any nation that has ever existed and will last for a thousand years. But Daniel said the great city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, not restored.

The prayer in Daniel 9 was answered long ago. But there is another prayer that does apply to Jews today. It is in Romans 10:1—“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.”

Paul didn’t pray that Israel would be saved politically. He prayed for their souls.

Jews in Jesus’ day expected Him to empower them against the Romans. They were wrong. It is amazing that non-Jews today harbor the same utopian vision of Israel and that they are more interested in political prowess than salvation from sin.

Kerry

West End church of Christ • October 13, 2024