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by Gary Hedrick
Why should Christians pray for Jerusalem and the Jews? There are seven biblical rea-
sons.
Even today, Orthodox Jews handle the Word of God with great care and respect. And
they will not write or pronounce the name Yahweh, so they substitute another divine name,
Adonai, instead. No wonder God chose the Jewish nation—the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob—to be the custodians and guardians of the Word of God.
Second, they gave us the Messiah. His Hebrew name is Yeshua Hamashiach.
Yeshua is the Hebrew name for Joshua, which means “Jehovah Saves” (compare Luke 1:26-
33). The translators of the Septuagint rendered it with the Greek lesous, from which the
anglicized form “Jesus” comes. Mashiach is the Hebrew word for Messiah, or Anointed One.
So Yeshua ha Mashiach is literally “Jesus the Messiah,” or “Jesus the Christ.”
Never forget that the roots of our Christian faith are in biblical Judaism! Yeshua of
Nazareth was born of a Jewish family of the House of David, descended from the tribe of
Judah. He was raised and lived as an observant Jew. He preached in the Jewish synagogues,
offered sacrifices in the Jerusalem Temple, and fulfilled the messianic prophecies in the
Jewish Tanakh (Old Testament).
From beginning to end, the Old Testament exhibits the clear and consistent teaching
that Messiah would come. Dozens of times we read such promises as, “. . . behold, thy King
cometh unto thee . . .” (Zech. 9:9); “Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, . . .”
(Isa. 40:10); “. . . the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, (Mal. 3:1); and
“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, . . .” (Deut.
18:15).
The divinely-inspired Scriptures even specified the time of Messiah’s coming. The
Prophet Daniel predicted the arrival of “Messiah the Prince” in A.D. 33 (see Daniel 9:25,
26), the precise date of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.1
Those messianic expectations found their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Prophecies about
His birth, character, family, forerunner, ministry, place of residence, teachings, rejection,
betrayal, and crucifixion —- all were fulfilled down to the smallest detail.
The Jews, therefore, were first in privilege. The covenants were made with the Jews.
The promises were made to the Jews. The prophets were sent to the Jews. In the Old
Testament, God made His earthly dwelling place among the Jews. So it was perfectly fitting
that when Messiah came, the Jewish people were the ones who were to hear about it first.
“. . . ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth” ( Acts 1:8).
That’s the biblical priority: to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. The real tragedy is
that in much of Christendom today, the order has been reversed. Some denominations are
eager to take the Gospel to everyone but the Jews. Even among evangelicals, “to the Jew
first” has all too frequently become “to the Jew last”!
ed a Davidic Shepherd-King who would lead them to victory over their Roman oppressors,
restore Israel’s independence, and inaugurate the long- awaited Messianic Era. Instead, the
lowly Nazarene came as the prophesied Suffering Servant, “. . . despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: . . .” (Isa. 53:3). So Israel rejected Him.
Two aspects of Israel’s blindness are mentioned in Verse 25 of Romans 11. First, it is
only partial: “. . . blindness IN PART is happened to Israel. . .” (emphasis added). It’s not total
blindness. There is an elect remnant of Jewish people from whose eyes the scales have fall-
en. Like Rabbi Saul of Tarsus, they have encountered the living Lord and come to faith in
Him.
Nearly half a century ago, a young Jewish lad named Charles Halff came to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ as his Messiah, and this ministry was born. In 1986, an Israeli rabbi
named Joseph Azriel—son of a former chief rabbi of Casablanca—placed his faith in Jesus
Christ. Two years ago, our friend from California, Itzhak YahShaia, from the Hasidic sect of
Orthodox Judaism, became a believer in Jesus.
You see, the blindness is only partial. God has a faithful remnant among the seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re told that the Messianic Jewish movement in Israel is
growing at an unprecedented rate. A Jewish friend, Yehiel Yisrael, told me not long ago that
the only known, living Nazir (Nazarite) in the world is a Messianic Jew who lives in Israel.
This Israeli Jew believes God has called him to live by the Nazarite vow of the Old
Testament (Num. 6:2- 3, 13)—not as a legalistic requirement, but as a testimony to His peo-
ple Israel. We’re hoping to meet this gentleman when we’re in Israel this coming March.
The second thing we are told about Israel’s blindness is that it is only temporary: “. . .
that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in”
(Rom. 11:25; emphasis added). Once “the fulness of the Gentiles” has come in—that is,
once the last of God’s elect from among the Gentiles has been saved and the Church Age
draws to a close—the process of restoring Israel’s spiritual eyesight will begin.
like that never seen before. Multitudes will come to faith in Christ. “After this I beheld, and,
lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands” (Rev. 7:9).
We believe in doing all we can to win both Jews and Gentiles to Christ. However, I can’t
help getting particularly excited about the future of Jewish evangelism. The Jews will come
to Christ en mass after the Rapture, and they’ll be the ones who will carry on when we’re
gone. Quite possibly, some of the Jews we’re witnessing to today will be the Gospel evan-
gelists of tomorrow. (Recommended reading on this subject is Dr. Halff’s booklet, The
Mystery of the 144,000. Call or write for ordering information.)
7. They are the key to God’s future blessings for the world.
The final reason we should pray for Jerusalem and the Jews is that they, in turn, can bring
blessings to the world.
The Lord told Abraham, “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and THOU SHALT BE A BLESSING: And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and IN THEE SHALL ALL FAMILIES OF THE
EARTH BE BLESSED” (Gen. 12:2- 3; emphasis added).
All the nations of the earth have been blessed as a result of Messiah’s first advent at
Bethlehem. When He comes the second time, the world will enjoy the benefits of God’s
new world order of peace and prosperity. In Christian the ology, this future age is known as
the Millennium—the 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. Our Jewish friends
call it the Messianic Age, when Mashiach ben David rules the world from His throne in
Jerusalem.
There are indications that Messiah’s return may be near. The hand of God is evident in
an unprecedented way in our genera tion. In 1948, national Israel was reborn as a sovereign
state for the first time since 586 B.C. In 1967, the old city of Jerusalem came under Israeli
control for the first time since A.D. 70.
When the Jewish pioneers began returning to Eretz Israel a hundred or so years ago,
Palestine was a howling, desolate wilderness. Then, gradually, the swamp land started to
come alive and the sand dunes blossomed as a rose. Today, agriculture is one of Israel’s
leading industries. Jewish scientists have figured out how to draw warm water from deep
under the desert to allow vegetation to grow year round. Writing 2,500 years ago, Isaiah
prophesied that the day would come when “. . . in the wilderness shall waters break out, and
streams in the desert” (Isa. 35:6).
As we approach the end of this age, we should heed David’s ad monition to “Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem: . . .” (Psalm 122:6). The Scriptures teach that true, lasting peace will
elude the Middle East— and the rest of the world — until the Prince of Peace appears. Only
then will the prophecy of Isaiah 2:4 come to pass: “. . . they shall beat their swords into plow -
shares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nei -
ther shall they learn war any more.”
1
Messiah was to come 483 years (that is, seven times seven plus 62 times seven) after
the command of Artaxerxes to restore and rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC (see Daniel 9:25).
When the OT prophetic year of 360 days is incorporated into the equation, and a one-year
adjustment is allowed for the transition from BC to AD, the year of Messiah’s “cutting off”
should have been AD 33 (see Daniel 9:26).
This article was adapted from a series of messages Dr. Hedrick delivered on Messianic
Perspectives radio network recently. The cassette (GT-13) includes all of the programs in the
series and is available for a suggested donation of $6.
*****
Dr. Gary Hedrick is President and CEO of CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas, a Messianic Jewish organ-
ization that provides the Good News about Yeshua HaMashiach—Jesus the Messiah—through publications and a
daily radio program, Messianic Perspectives. Dr. Hedrick leads tours to Israel and is considered an authority on
contemporary events in the Middle East and their prophetic significance. He also has written many articles and
study booklets, and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs.