How are Christians to “provoke them (Jews) to Jealousy”? -3

   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