GOD WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN

Isaiah 43:1 (ESV)    But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

God did not abandon the Jews when the majority of them rejected Yeshua their Messiah. When the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews, God still had a plan. Less than 3 years later, the nation of Israel rose from the ashes in spite of ruthless aggression from millions of Arabs and opposition from Britain.

Isaiah 43:2   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.

Several Arab nations attacked Israel in 1948. The Jews were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned but God was with them and they survived as a nation which could not be destroyed.

• Why does God stand with Israel?

• Because He made a covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 12:2-3    And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

• But what about the Arabs? Wasn’t Ishmael also the son of Abraham?

Genesis 17:19 (ESV)    God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

The Apostle Paul was in deep anguish over the unbelief of his Jewish compatriots who persecuted him and other Christians.

Romans 11:1-3   I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

Romans 10:1    Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

What can we learn from this?

• Firstly, we can trust God to be faithful to His people and to His covenant.

• Secondly, we must prove our faithfulness to God by acknowledging Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God of Israel even to this day and for ever.

• Thirdly, we must prove our love of Jesus (or Yeshua) as the King of the Jews by honouring, helping and loving the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.

• Fourthly, we must know that through our faith in Jesus Christ (or Yeshua the Messiah), we too have a covenant with the God of Israel and the Father of all mercy.

Whether you are a Jew or a non-Jewish believer in Jesus, you can trust in God to be faithful to the end, to be with you trouble and to bring you through the hard experiences of life.

Romans 8:31   What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?        

As Gentile followers of our Jewish Messiah, we can confidently pray with David, the shepherd king of Israel.

Psalm 23:1-4 (ESV)

1  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2  He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

3  He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

GOD WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN. HE IS WITH YOU.