RESPONSIBILITY OF BELIEVERS TO ISRAEL

I would like to address you who already believe in Messiah Jesus. You who know this wonderful salvation of the Lord, are responsible to return this same message to the people through whom the Gospel first came to you. In Romans 13:30-31 Paul wrote to the Gentiles:

"For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (Israel's) unbelief; "Even so have these (Israel) also now not believed God, that through your mercy they (Israel) may also obtain mercy."

Paul was saying to the Gentile believers that they had received the mercy of God through the Jewish people, and because of this, God requires them in turn, to show the Jews that same love and mercy. Dear Gentile believer in Yeshua as your Saviour, did you know that you are called on by God to be a witness of salvation to the Jewish people? Did you know that you are to provoke them to jealousy? In Romans 11:11, Paul wrote:

"I say then have they (the Jews) stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but rather through their fall salvation is come unto Gentiles, for TO PROVOKE THEM TO JEALOUSY."

We see here that one of the main reasons God has brought salvation to the Gentiles today is that through believing Gentiles the Jews will be provoked to jealousy!

In our culture, jealousy is considered a bad emotion which leads to murder, suicide and mental breakdowns. But this is the result of the human state of mind. On the other side there is a divinely inspired jealousy. The basic concept of jealousy is similar to envy in that it is the desire of one person for something or someone which belongs to another person.

When the Word of God encourages us to provoke Jews to jealousy, it is a very wholesome jealousy to be desired. When Jewish people see Gentile believers living a Godly life and presenting a beautiful witness of the glorious Gospel of Yeshua, they will be impressed to seek after this same kind of life.

The Jewish person will observe: "What is this Gentile doing with my God, my Bible, my Messiah? I want all that this Gentile has. I want that beautiful, happy life. I want to have that same peace and joy as that Gentile shows!" Now that is provoking to jealousy in the Biblical sense.

Another meaning to the words, "Provoke to jealousy" is from a Greek term composed of two parts. These two parts are translated into the English as "to come alongside," "to be jealous" or "zealous," "to boil." The figure is of a fire which is brought in contact with a pot of liquid and causes the liquid to seethe and boil over.

So Paul was saying to the believing Gentiles that when they came in contact with individual Jews and the Jewish community, they were to witness with such fire and fervency that it would create a boiling, seething desire within the hearts of Jews to know more about the fulfillment of the Jewish hope in Messiah Jesus.

Many people do not know that one of the main purposes for the existence of the Church in this age is to provoke the Jews to jealousy for their own Messiah Jesus!

Have we seen this purpose being fulfilled today? For so long Jewish people have been neglected when it comes to the Gospel. For so long Gentile believers have not even considered the Jew in God's program of evangelism. How long has it been since you have heard a message that encourages the Church to go to the Jewish people with the good news of salvation in Yeshua, their own Messiah?

Did you ever hear a sermon about the Jews who suffered and sacrificed, and even were put to death in order to give the Gentiles the Gospel of salvation? Are you, yourself, provoking the Jews to jealousy as God has commanded you to do through Paul?

Not only the Gentiles, but Jewish believers also are admonished to reach their own Jewish people with the Good News by provoking them to jealousy. Paul, who was a Jewish believer, stressed the importance of believing Jews making their own Jewish brethren want what they have in salvation through Messiah Jesus. Paul was so zealous for the Lord, to see his Jewish people saved, that he declared he would give up eternal life if that would bring them to their Messiah!

Let us all obey the words of our Lord Yeshua - Gentile believer as well as Jewish believer. Let us provoke the Jewish people to jealousy. Let us prove to them by our lives that truly we belong to God and have a strong, burning zeal to see His Jewish people brought to their own Messiah who loves them, gave His life for them, and is coming again for them if they will only believe!

Won't you be one of the instruments in the hand of God to stir both Jew and Gentile to seek the Lord while He may be found? Won't you consecrate yourself anew to God's will and purpose to provoke the Jew to jealousy that he would want what you have in Christ? I can tell you from the Word of God that if everyone in the Assembly of Messiah would do this, a revival would break out that would rock this world for God such as has never been before!

And this would bring back the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! Let us do this, O people of God. Let us do it today!