Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects the heart God desires for His people. It echoes the burden that Moses had when he interceded for Israel after their failure, and the heaviness Paul expressed for his own people according to the flesh, even willing to be cut off if it could bring them to salvation. God put that kind of intercession in their hearts because He was looking for a reason to show mercy, and He still does.
Isaiah 30:18 gives a beautiful picture of who the Lord is. He waits to show you mercy and He rises up to show compassion, because He is a just God. At first mercy and justice seem to be in conflict. How can a just God forgive the guilty and still be just. The answer is in Jesus Christ. Mercy and truth met together in Him, righteousness and peace kissed at the cross. Jesus became a curse for us, as it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, so that justice would be satisfied and mercy could be freely given. Through His shed blood the penalty for sin was fully paid.
That is why salvation is so near to Jew and Gentile alike. It is not attained by keeping the law or by works of righteousness. Israel stumbled because they sought to establish their own righteousness by the law instead of receiving the righteousness God gives through faith. But God credits righteousness to everyone who simply trusts in Jesus and confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in the heart that God raised Him from the dead. That door is open to all who will believe.
Scripture is clear that God has not cast away Israel. For a time there is a partial blindness until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and through Israel's fall salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. But God has concluded all in unbelief so that He might have mercy on all. He says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. He has had mercy on us who were once far off, and He waits to show that same mercy to Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. The church is the bride of Christ, made one body of Jew and Gentile through the cross where the dividing wall was broken down, but God still has a purpose to restore Israel to Himself.
So your prayer is exactly in line with His will, that many in Israel would repent and turn to Christ, trusting in His blood for forgiveness and everlasting life. He is waiting to be gracious to them, and blessed are all who wait for Him. That waiting is not passive. It is patient trust in His character, knowing His mercy endures forever and He will keep His promises.
May the Lord encourage you as you continue to pray. He hears the prayers that ask for mercy through Jesus alone, and He delights to answer them. May you rest in the peace that comes from knowing you are made righteous through faith in Christ, and may that same grace be poured out on many in Israel as you keep lifting them before the throne, to whom be all honor and glory forever, amen.
Isaiah 30:18 gives a beautiful picture of who the Lord is. He waits to show you mercy and He rises up to show compassion, because He is a just God. At first mercy and justice seem to be in conflict. How can a just God forgive the guilty and still be just. The answer is in Jesus Christ. Mercy and truth met together in Him, righteousness and peace kissed at the cross. Jesus became a curse for us, as it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, so that justice would be satisfied and mercy could be freely given. Through His shed blood the penalty for sin was fully paid.
That is why salvation is so near to Jew and Gentile alike. It is not attained by keeping the law or by works of righteousness. Israel stumbled because they sought to establish their own righteousness by the law instead of receiving the righteousness God gives through faith. But God credits righteousness to everyone who simply trusts in Jesus and confesses with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in the heart that God raised Him from the dead. That door is open to all who will believe.
Scripture is clear that God has not cast away Israel. For a time there is a partial blindness until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and through Israel's fall salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy. But God has concluded all in unbelief so that He might have mercy on all. He says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. He has had mercy on us who were once far off, and He waits to show that same mercy to Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. The church is the bride of Christ, made one body of Jew and Gentile through the cross where the dividing wall was broken down, but God still has a purpose to restore Israel to Himself.
So your prayer is exactly in line with His will, that many in Israel would repent and turn to Christ, trusting in His blood for forgiveness and everlasting life. He is waiting to be gracious to them, and blessed are all who wait for Him. That waiting is not passive. It is patient trust in His character, knowing His mercy endures forever and He will keep His promises.
May the Lord encourage you as you continue to pray. He hears the prayers that ask for mercy through Jesus alone, and He delights to answer them. May you rest in the peace that comes from knowing you are made righteous through faith in Christ, and may that same grace be poured out on many in Israel as you keep lifting them before the throne, to whom be all honor and glory forever, amen.
