Why Gentiles should help Jews

By Phil Hunter, 2008

The books of the Bible, whilst largely Jewish, make numerous references to the Nations, that is, to the Gentiles. Whether looking at any of the five books of Moses, any of the Prophetic books, or the Psalms and the writings, all have reference and revelation as to the Gentiles’ place in God’s plan for the redemption of the world: both passive and active, good and bad.

Whilst there is no biblical doubt that the Jews are the ‘chosen people’, we Gentiles need be in no biblical doubt that God’s love grace and mercy flow equally to us in the nations of the world via His people; through His Chosen One.

Some 50 years ago as a teenage evangelical Christian, I was taught that Isaiah was a Jewish prophet speaking to the Jewish people about the judgement and historical restoration of the Jewish nation and that there was no direct message in it for us. This was a dire error and I have forgiven my pastors and youth leaders of those days for this tragedy that kept me in the dark to God’s plan for Israel and the Gentiles for so long. Such misplaced teaching, among others, is still found in Christian circles, and indeed it has flourished throughout the 20th century. The fact is that Isaiah, the prophet most often quoted by Jesus, spoke much about the role of the Gentiles.

God started to open my eyes to these truths in the mid 1980s and I am continually astounded by the sheer clarity of the Jew-Gentile relationship. The core mission statement of 49:22TRUST is from Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 49 the Land of Israel is crying out in distress to the Lord, and He responds by saying He has not forgotten her. The Land is ruined and desolate, and yet now puts on her children as ornaments like a bride getting ready for her wedding. These children were born outside of the Land of Israel, and so many of them return to the Land of Israel that they say in the Land’s hearing, “This place is too small for us, give us more space to live in”. The Land then says in her heart, “Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren, I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these – where have they come from?”, and the Lord answers: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.”’ Isaiah 49:22.

Also, in Isaiah 14:1-2: ‘The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place.’

Who are these Gentiles, those aliens to the Jewish race from the nations of the world?

Isaiah 11 helps provide the answer: the fabulous Messianic passage in which we Christians understand Jesus, son of David, son of Jesse, to be identified as the Promised One of Israel. I rejoice, as does the majority of the Christian Church, and delight in this Messiah as verse 10 explains that the nations, the peoples, will find peace and rest in this Jew. The Messiah is the Root of Jesse, as shown in Isaiah 11:1, 53:2, Romans 15:12 and Revelation 5:5, 22:16. Isaiah 11:10 shows that the Messiah stands as a banner to the Gentiles to rally them to him.

‘In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples [THE NON-JEWS]; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious’.

As troops rally to their commanding officer or run to stand under his troop colours, so these Gentiles rally to the Messiah. These Gentiles are finding peace and rest in a Jewish Saviour and God decides it is time to reach out and again claim His chosen people for His Promised Land. Verse 11 continues:

‘In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea’.

The second ingathering of the Jewish people takes place. The first was from Babylon. The second has been happening since the 1880s and continues to this day, with the majority of world Jewry yet to return. The passage continues in verse 12 with God again focusing on the theme of how He will call the nations, the Gentiles, to gather the exiles of Israel:

‘He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth’.

This is a direct parallel to Isaiah 49:22: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.”’

These Gentiles, the ones who gather under the banner and heed the call of the Messiah, are those who the Lord uses to help gather the exiles of Israel back to the Land. That is us Bible-believing Gentiles.

Dubbed by some as the ‘second great commission’, this constitutes a call or command similar to that of ‘the great commission’ when Jesus instructed his disciples to take the “gospel into all the world” (Matthew 28:19). Curiously it was Jews who took the gospel to the Gentiles, and we should be no less fervent and serious in His service than they were when God decides it is time for the Gentiles to take Jews to their homeland. God calls us Gentiles who follow the Jewish Messiah to help the Jewish people home to Israel.

Finally, I must share with you from Isaiah 66. It too clearly deals with this fantastic relationship between Gentiles and Jews, and the revelation of God’s glory to the whole world. Verse 8 is a great reminder of the fact that God would one day restore the nation of Israel: something He has done and is doing in our time.

We read in Isaiah 66:20: ‘… “they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD � on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels”.’

This is, in some ways, a complex passage and some may disagree with my understanding of verse 20, but I believe what the Lord is revealing here is a striking turnaround: that of God cleansing Gentile vessels so that He may use them to bring Jewish people home like an offering.

And what greater incentive can one have than the one revealed in verse 21. ‘“And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.’

And now, the WHY... For the love of the Jews alone? No! For the love of Gentile believers? No! It is for the Glory of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That His Name may be known in the whole earth. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” Isaiah 49:26, and many other places.