0747. Israel's Present Blindness

Israel’s Present Blindness

"Blindness, in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom_11:25).

When Jesus Christ stood before Pilate, the Jews cried, "Away with Him!" "Crucify Him!" When Pilate washed his hands and said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person," the people cried: "His blood be upon us and upon our children."

Christ had come to His own and they received Him not. He had wept before Jerusalem and said: "If thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day," but, they knew Him not. Then they delivered Him. He was despised and rejected of men. He went like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

From that day Israel has wandered under the displeasure of God. And yet, no thoughtful observer can fail to see and to marvel as they see the astounding fact of Israel’s present strength. The Jews number, perhaps not more than twelve to fifteen millions; but they have and they hold a place in the great world nations, second to none.

Two things stand forth in the limelight.

1. No nation has been so hated, so persecuted, so mistreated, so maligned, and so smitten. Every possible weapon has been employed against the chosen race. Through the centuries they have been scattered as corn is scattered through a sieve. They have been burned as a bush is burned. They have been swallowed as a great fish swallows a man.

Satan, even during our own day, while hating the Church, has never forgotten his old hatred of the ancient people. He still seeks her undoing.

2. No nation has been so kept, so guarded, so protected as the Jews.

It is the story of the bush burned but not consumed.

It is the story of Israel under Pharaoh’s taskmasters, but still increasing in numbers and power.

It is the story of Jonah swallowed but undigested.

Today, a people driven from their home, wandering for centuries without a king, or a priest or an ephod, possesses an amazing solidarity, a marvelous virility, and an inexplicable national stability.

Today, satan cannot fail to observe that the ones whom he has ever sought to put down, have, through twenty-five centuries, been kept in the palm of the hand of a Living God. Cast away because of God’s wrath, they are kept secure in God’s elective grace.

Israel remains the most wonderful people of the world, from any and from every viewpoint. They are peers in education, princely leaders in statesmanship and kings in finance and commerce.

Something must happen soon, satan will certainly renew his attacks, and God will surely move to meet them. Our next division will consider this next step in the devil’s program.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR