How are Christians to “provoke them (Jews) to Jealousy”? -4

  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.”