When my family moved to London, my brother Regan and I felt welcome in our new area, somewhat because of them.
When thirty to forty Jewish lads would congregate with their bikes on the street corner on Thursday nights to burn off energy before the Sabbath, we had opportunity to preach the gospel and answer questions from the step of a disused garden door in the side of a house, somewhat because of them.
When the prospect was briefly raised of our family returning to the USA, we - barely half a year in the country - tearfully resisted the idea, somewhat because of them.
It was not long before our family moved to another area - not that far away but might as well have been another world. Though I have not seen them since, seldom a day has passed that I have not thought of or prayed for Moti and Zami - and Asher, Joshua, Samuel, Yitzahk and many others whose names sadly now escape me - since our first meeting.
When in the
course of preaching through the New Testament to the Romans I arrived at chapters 9-11, their memory came to me more strongly than ever. Read these chapters and perhaps you will see why.
These boys were not my kinsmen, but - despite the prejudice of some of their peers and warnings from some adults - they welcomed us as though we were. I wept before my congregation as I
contemplated Paul’s words in Romans 9:2-5: “I have great sorrow and unceasing
anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off
from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the
patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is
God over all, blessed forever.” I abhor the the bi-covenantalism of extreme
dispensationalism on the one hand, which has no sorrow for the likes of my
friends, because it alleges they are already right with God on the basis of
their heritage and would lie to them of this very basis. Likewise, I abominate the anti-Judaism of so called
“replacement theology” on the other hand, which has little specific anguish for the Jews because it is claimed that God is apparently done with them as a particular
people.
In sermon
preparation, in preaching, and in prayer I poured out my heart for these
friends, as I have for many years. Why? Again, what the Apostle Paul wrote,
this time in Romans 10:1-4,is applicable. “My heart's desire and prayer to God for them (the
Jews) is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal
for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's
righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes.”
I took
comfort from the words of Romans 11:1-2: “I ask, then, has God rejected his
people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a
member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he
foreknew.” The people God has looked at and chosen to salvifically love from
eternity include Jews, even in these days of what he later calls “partial
hardening.” There is some mercy in that word “partial”, and the evidence of its
reality is seen in Paul’s own testimony. With this in mind Paul turns his
attention to Gentile members of Rome’s churches, who had taken on a sneering
deprecatory demeanour toward Jewish believers, and tells them what’s what. “Do
not be arrogant toward the branches [Jews who have been “cut off” so that
Gentiles might be “grafted in”]. If you are, remember it is not you who support
the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were
broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off
because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become
proud, but stand in awe” (Romans 11:18-20).
But God’s
plan revealed through the prophets and here repeated by Paul is not simply
relevant to the repentance and faith of individual Jews throughout history
since the time of Christ. It is also that a great eschatological representative
remnant of Jews be saved immediately preceding the return of Christ. In many
years of studying and meditating carefully on this theme, no other exegetical
explanation is close to adequate or even appropriate in approaching Romans
11:25-27:
Lest you
[the Gentile believers he is continuing to address separately as in verse 13] be
wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery,
brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the
Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is
written,
“The
Deliverer will come from Zion,
he
will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this
will be my covenant with them
when
I take away their sins.”
There is a
time when the last person who will be saved has been saved and I have good
reason to believe that person will be a Jew - one of a significant number of Jews, representative of Israel as a whole. Their
salvation will only come by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, but Paul
promises it will indeed come.
And so I
keep thinking and praying for Moti and Zami and many others like them - and
others unlike them in kindness and friendship but like them in faith and
practice. Whether they will fill out the part of the “partial” that is not hardened,
or be around in the revival of the days preceding Messiah’s return, I do not know but pray it is one of the two. May Yahweh, the Sovereign Lord God, bless them richly,
save them by his grace, give them great joy, gladness, and peace in life, and
unshakeable hope for after death. Will you pray with me to that end?
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