Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Because “the prayers of all saints” are located “before the throne” of God (Revelation 8:3-4), we must pray as the Bible instructs us. In Romans 10:1, the Apostle Paul states, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.” Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity, and he desperately wanted his fellow Israelites to come to a saving knowledge of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Romans 9-11 is a thorough exposition of this subject. Here, Paul stresses that the promises of God cannot be broken, nor can they be transferred to another group of people. He rejoices that in the times of judgment at the end of earthly history “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26a). In the interim, he preached to Jewish congregations in their synagogues and to individual Jews, despite the intense persecution that he endured from them. He prayed diligently for them; in fact, in Romans 11:33-36, Paul breaks out into an effusive doxology of praise as he considers God’s righteous and eternal dealings with Israel. May we thus place our prayers for Israel alongside those of Paul “before the throne.”