Over the last 3 tidbits, I have used Derek Prince’s book ‘The Key to the Middle East’ to show ‘HOW’  Christians are called to treat Jews from Jeremiah 31. On page 121, Derek Prince offered four action items to help Christians to understand how “to provoke them (Jews) to jealousy”
(Romans 11:11 - 1) to praise; 2)to proclaim; 3)to pray, and 4)to comfort. I now turn to point 4) to comfort.
  To make his point, Derek Prince moves from Jeremiah 31 to Isaiah 40:1-2:
1.Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2.Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
 
To be honest, I believe this is MY favorite of the four points! My reason is: if this 4th point had been obeyed—all antisemitism would not only IMMEDIATELY cease; but the practical application of Isaiah 40:1-2 would have prevented antisemitism’s conception!!!  Now, let’s examine the text.
   Isaiah 40:1-2 requires three parties:
            1.God, Who is giving the instruction
            2.“my people” i.e.the Jews
            3.The group instructed to: “Comfort my people”
  Now…while we know who God is; and who “my people” are (Israel); who then is the identity of the third party? Because God’s command to the third party is “Comfort my people” requires us to assume the third party is a people group, rather than merely an individual. Why? Apart from Jesus, no one person can comfort the Jews! So, who then is this ‘people group’ that God commands to comfort His people? I think there can only be one answer: Christians!  
 Remember, Isaiah’s ministry began in 739 BC and continued up to his death in 690 BC, which means that much, if not all of Isaiah’s record pertains to the future. In other words, Isaiah was not writing from history, but from prophecy! The greatest example of this truth in the book of Isaiah is chapter 53, which pertains to the Messiah!
  So…when Isaiah wrote of the ‘group’ that is supposed to “Comfort my people”, it certainly could not apply to the Babylonians, or the Assyrians, or to any other pagan group, because how can sinners “comfort” Israel, while simultaneously warring against them? Therefore, and I repeat, the ‘group’ of Isaiah 40:1-2 commanded to “Comfort my people” must be prophetic!
  In addition, although the Genesis 12:1-3 promise, “I will bless them that bless you” was given to all mankind, it must particularly be true of the Christian, i.e.the church! Why? Because the Jew and the church are destined to be joined together as one in Christ (Eph2:11-16). Therefore, what better group than Christians, i.e.the church, is there for God to command to comfort His people, the Jews! Literally…there is no other group in history to whom the command “Comfort my people” can apply…other than Christians!
  A third passage of scripture confirming that Christians are called to “comfort His people” is Romans 11:11-12, where the Bible teaches that through the fall of the Jew, salvation has come to the Gentile--which turns the Gentile into the church--for “provoking the Jew to jealousy”. Along with Ephesians 2:11-16, Romans 11:11-12 are THE two passages that inseparably link the Jew and the Gentile, i.e. the church together! Therefore, and I repeat, Isaiah 40:1,2 is prophesying a mandate to the Christian to comfort the Jew!
   Of course, the most obvious ‘natural’ reason the Christian is called to ‘comfort’ the Jew is antisemitism! Derek Prince writes: “Through the course of history, many other racial and religious groups have been victims of prejudices and persecution. But the sufferings of the Jewish people far exceed all others in their scope, intensity, and duration”(pg133). Ironically, although the church has tragically involved herself in antisemitism--it was never commanded by God to do so! On the contrary, and again ironically, Romans 11:11,12 teaches the church is commanded by God to “provoke” the Jew to jealousy, which contains the meaning of blessing the Jew, i.e. “comforting the Jew”—not cursing the Jew!! For emphasis, and I repeat, no Bible scripture exists that commands the church to curse, or God-forbid...attack the Jew!
  Finally, Isaiah 40:1-2 teaches the way to “Comfort my people” is through words: “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem”! However, if we turn to history, we don’t find many comforting words spoken about and to the Jews. The following are just four tragic examples:
 
Adolf Hitler
-“The Jews formed a sub-human counter race, predestined by their biological heritage to evil, just as the Nordic race was destined for nobility.” 
 
-“…the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”
 
Martin Luther
“First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honor of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians, and that we have not wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of His Son and His Christians.”
 
John Calvin: A Response To Questions and Objections of a Certain Jew
“Their [the Jews] rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.”
 
Islam
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).”
 
  Contrary to the previous curses, God certainly believes in speaking words of comfort…even to Jerusalem:
5.If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
6.If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”  -Ps137:5,6
​
   Oh…what God would do if Christians would i.obey Him, ii.in the way---that He commands! Deuteronomy 6:25 encourages these two areas: “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to (i.)‘do’ all these commandments before the LORD our God, (ii.)‘as’ he hath commanded us.”
            i. ‘DO’ all these commandments
            ii. ‘AS’ He has commanded us
 
 
           
Quotebit
In response to being presented a Bible on September 7, 1864, Abraham Lincoln said:
“In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

   In this tidbit I am continuing my use of Derek Prince’s book ‘The Key to the Middle East’ to show how Christians are called to treat Jews as demonstrated in Jeremiah 31. As previously mentioned, on page 121 Derek Prince offers four action items to help Christians to understand how “to provoke them (Jews) to jealousy” in order to fulfill Romans 11:11: 1)to praise; 2)to proclaim; 3)to pray, and 4)to comfort. Having already written on ‘praise’ and ‘proclaim’ in previous tidbits, I want to move forward to examine his third action item: pray.
   First, Jesus offers Himself as ‘THE’ model for prayer. Both Mark 1:35 and Luke 5:16 declare that Jesus rose early in the morning, removed Himself to a solitary place—and prayed. Therefore, even as the Son of God and God made flesh, He yet spent time in prayer to the Father.
   Second, Luke 11:2 gives us the commandment to follow Jesus’ example of prayer stating, “When you pray”, making prayer a ‘fundamental’ to our relationship with God!
  Third, 1Thessalonians 5:17 encourages us to “pray without ceasing.” In other words, we must be constant in prayer; and spend time in prayer.
   And finally, returning to my foundational text in Jeremiah 31:7, we are instructed to pray for Israel: “O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.”
   Jeremiah 31:7 is confirmed and powerfully established by Daniel 9:1-20, where the prophet and political leader intercedes for Israel:
            i.uses the Word of God in Jeremiah 25:11 to guide his prayer
                (Dan9:2)
            ii.uses fasting (Dan9:3)
            iii.appeals to God’s nature in his prayer (Dan9:4,7,14,15,19)
            iv.confesses his sin and the sin of Israel (Dan9:5-11,15,20)
            v.prays for Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel in foreign lands (Dan9:7)
            vi.confirms God’s wrath upon Israel for sin (Dan9:12-14)
            vii.prays for Jerusalem (Dan9:16,18)
            viii.prays for forgiveness (Dan9:19)
 
   Regarding Jerusalem, and unique to the cities on earth, the Bible specifically declares in Isaiah 62:6,7:
6.I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7.And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
                                                           
And in Psalms 22:6,7:
6.Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
7.Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.
 
   Derek Prince writes, “Why should God’s believing people around the world be exhorted by Scripture to pray for this one city Jerusalem? One reason is clear: Scripture reveals that it is God’s ultimate purpose to establish His kingdom on earth with Jerusalem as its center. It is this that we are praying for each time we utter the familiar words, “Thy kingdom come.”
 
Why does God believe Jerusalem is so important that He would encourage us all to pray for this particular city?
 
   Isaiah 2:1-4 has the answer:
1.The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2.And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3.And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4.And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
 
   In case you missed it, the answer to the importance of Jerusalem to God, and by default to Israel…is underlined in the scripture from Isaiah 2 shown above!!
 
 
Quotebit
The term ‘enough’ can only exist in the realm of ‘abundance’. Without abundance,‘enough’ descends into selfishness, the survival of the fittest, kaos, and anarchy!  -Derrick Jackson