Romans 9:1-3, The Jewish People
Romans 9:1-3 (KJV) 1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
This new section is focus upon the Jewish people. The Apostle Paul explains his burden for the salvation of his people, the Jews. He explains why the Jews seemed to have been set aside by God and yet they are not. God is not finished with the Jews yet. He has a great spiritual burden for the salvation of the Jews. They were his kinsmen. Whichever city he was sent to preach the gospel, he would reach out to the Jews first.
I had the blessing of meeting a Jewish engineer from the US, who was a high-ranking officer in the Israeli army as I recently found out. I said to him when we met in Singapore that you are special, the people of God. I am a Christian. There is a kindred spirit between us. There is a love for the Jewish people that the Bible imparted to my heart. He decided to award a multi-million dollar business closing a plant that he runs in Paolo Alto and transferred the entire manufacturing process to a manufacturing facility in Singapore. More than just good business profit enjoyed now for more than 15 years, I believe, God had touched his heart to release his responsibility and entrusted it to this Christian who sought the business through prayer for work done to the glory and honour of God’s Son Jesus Christ. The running of this business has been entrusted to a like-minded Christian colleague until today.
As a Christian, I have studied Romans 9-11 with keen interest. I understood that God’s plan for the Jewish people is yet future where all Israel be saved. The good hand of God resurrecting the Jewish nation of 14 May 1948 attested that God is not done with the Jews. The Jews will be featured again prominently at the close of the church age. Jesus Christ will soon return to rule the earth from Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, for 1000 years. Israel will be the leading nation in the world with Jesus as her everlasting King!
Zechariah 14:16 (KJV) 16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
The Apostle Paul will explain God’s plan for Israel so that we may gain insight into God’s unfailing love for the Jewish people, a picture of His love for all whom He called to be His children. Amen.