The Spirit of the Prophets
“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” Proverbs 20:6
We all know humility and self-sacrifice to be core to the one who would follow the way of Jesus. We have been given, in Jesus, incredible freedom (more freedom than I think we realize) and thus we are also free to lay down these rights for the glory of God and for the benefit of others, with preference to the people of God (Gal 5–6, 1 Cor 8–10, 2 Cor 9–10) as we are one (1 Cor 12, Rom 14, John 17). This humility and self-sacrifice was Jesus’ example, foundational to His character and His purposes, and many followed Him in it (Phil 2).
There are also many who came before Jesus and understood this element of the heart of God.
Moses
Moses provides a striking example when he pleads with God for mercy on behalf of Israel, asking the Lord not to favor him above them by asking that he himself be blotted out of the Lord’s eternal record of those who love Him (Is 4:3, Dan 12:1, Mal 3:16) if the Lord will not forgive the sin of Israel (Ex 32:32). This is very strong language. This is more than asking for mere death. This is a request to atone for his people, to be separated from God if it means salvation for Israel. This is an unbelievable heart of sacrifice and chutzpah within Moses.
Is the heart of Jesus not the same?
Moses proceeds to make more very bold requests, and we will circle back around to part of the Lord’s response: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Ex 33:19) Despite the fact that Israel was a ’stiff-necked people’ (Ex 32–33), God would extend grace this time.
Jonah
Jonah gives us another key example as we start to look more specifically at the Jew versus the Gentile.
You may not have thought of Jonah in this light before, but there is something that Jonah understood which is often lost on us. Jonah knew that if God was going to extend grace to the Gentile, it meant the Jew was unrepentant enough of their own sin that God would extend grace to the Gentile who might receive it. Until now, all of God’s prophets had brought His specific appeals for repentance to their own people — to the Jew. Yet despite the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Obadiah, Joel, and others, Israel neglected to repent of their sin and acknowledge their God whom they had wed at Sinai. Thus, they begun to see the coming of the dreaded pinnacle punishment of the ‘covenant chastisement cycle’ of Deuteronomy 28: Exile. Thus, God was requesting something different of Jonah — extend the invitation of grace and repentance to the Gentile. And of all the Gentile nations to extend grace to, Assyria was not the group of people you might expect God to extend grace to, unless you know God’s heart. I cannot stress enough how terrible and barbaric the Assyrian regime was. There is a reason the antichrist is referred to as ’the Assyrian’ in several eschatological passages (Is. 14, 31, Mic 5 (as well as Is 52:4 which calls Pharaoh ’the Assyrian’ as Pharaoh was one of the first foreshadowings of the antichrist), see Chapter 16 of “Mideast Beast” by Joel Richardson). I think this is part of the point as God sends Jonah to their capital city. We can almost hear God’s words to Moses again, and yet this time it was not sweet to the ears of Jonah, who points to this very aspect of God’s character as the reason he fled (Jonah 4:2): “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
“If the Gentiles repent…this could bring judgment over [Jonah’s] family (Israel)…Jonah was the right man…he had the spirit of the prophets which means he loves God and he loves his brothers…this is the spirit of Moses, this is the spirit of the prophets, ‘blot me out of your book!’…could it be that this is the reason to run away from God and reject this order? Imagine this, that they repent and there is condemnation over Israel and he was responsible for it…it was conflict of conscience…this is why he was willing to run away, to give his life for his people…imagine if they repent and his people don’t. Judgement will come.”
I would suggest with Holger that Jonah didn’t hate Assyria as much as he deeply loved Israel first and foremost. Perhaps Jonah actually didn’t hate or fear Assyria at all. At least, we cannot say that Jonah was unwilling to give his life for Gentiles, for he was asleep on the boat through the storm (indicative of a man with a clear conscience, Mt. 8:24, Mk. 4:38, Lk. 8:23, Is. 57:20–21) and was quickly willing to be thrown overboard on behalf of these men who had just been praying to foreign gods (Jonah 1:4–12). If he was simply a Gentile-hater, he might have killed them all like Samson, the Israelite hero.
Why then, when God granted repentance and grace to the Assyrians, did Jonah see this as ‘exceedingly evil’ (Jonah 4:1)? Because God promised much to his bride Israel, and if God was going to leave her for another, then He was an unfaithful Husband. Untrustworthy and ‘evil’ in Jonah’s eyes.
Like Moses before him, Jonah would rather die than this be true (Jonah 4:3).
Jesus
Jonah is of course a foreshadowing of Jesus. In fact, Jonah is the only prophet that Jesus compares Himself to. Why would this be if Jonah was the only ‘disobedient prophet,’ cowardly, and seemingly so unaligned with the Lord’s heart?
Jesus likened not only His death and resurrection to Jonah, but also His subsequent grace to the Gentile nations. If Jonah’s time with the fish was but a measly silhouette of the pinnacle act of the Son of Man, then the Assyrians’ repentance is likewise to be compared with Jesus’ grand extension of grace to the Gentile world. This is precisely what Jesus says (Mt. 12:38–41, Lk 11:29–32).
So then, as Holger states, this is “the spirit of the prophets.” That God’s grace wouldn’t surpass or overlook the Jew. Again, He married this people at Sinai and his character is at stake if He is not ultimately faithful to His promises to them at the end of the story.
We should not be surprised then that despite His work amongst the Gentiles, Jesus’ primary focus was Israel. He lamented over Jerusalem (Lk. 13:31–35, Mt. 23:37–39) and saw His primary calling as, like Paul would later say, “to the Jew first” (Mt. 15:21–28, Mt. 10:5–7, 10:23, Acts 1:8, Lk. 24:46–48, cf. Rom 1:16, John 1:31, Lk. 1:16). This was polarizing in Jesus’ day (Lk. 9:51–53) just as it would be in Paul’s day (Acts 14:27–15:21) and in our day and in the coming days as well.
Like Jonah, Jesus also knew (albeit more specifically perhaps) that Israel had yet to experience (two) cycles of exile (one now past and one yet future) and He even encouraged prayer for specific segments of the Jewish people who would be affected in the days to come (Lk. 23:28, Mt. 24).
Romans 9–11
This brings us to the great mystery of God (which is only still a ‘mystery’ in the sense that it strikes us with awe to consider to the abundant grace of God).
Paul explains once again, specifically referencing God’s words to Moses, that God “will have mercy on whom [He] will have mercy, and [He] will have compassion on whom [He has] compassion” and that this does not make God unjust even if He would also, as He implied to Moses, “harden whomever He will.” Paul also points back to Jeremiah 18 to make His point: “Has the potter no right over the clay?” (Rom 9)
Yet this is not a Potter who desires to toy with His clay and make a mess of His pottery wheel. Rather, He intends to make beautiful and purposeful vessels out of every piece of clay that is willing to be shaped by Him.
If God ever does seem to change His mind, He always has a mercifully positive outcome for people who deserve His wrath (Jonah 3:10, Ex. 32:14, Ex 33). We can never say, “God changed His mind and punished them,” but we can often say, “God said He would punish them but chose to show mercy instead.” His bent is toward mercy. He punishes those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation (Deut 5:9–10) and yet shows mercy to those who keep His covenant to the thousandth generation (Deut 7:9–10). God is making a point with this 3:1000 or 4:1000 ratio. We might even look at Pharaoh, a key ‘bad guy’ and foreshadowing of the antichrist whom God gives numerous chances for repentance. Can we not argue that God wants his heart? Why would God offer a message and warning of repentance to Pharaoh, Nineveh, or anyone else if He didn’t want their hearts? Sadly in Pharaoh’s case, he ’stubborns’ his heart and ultimately ‘resolves’ his heart against God. Of course, God uses this process of warnings and plagues to bring Himself glory and reveal who He is, not only to the Israelites but to the Egyptians who turned to Him through the plagues and united themselves with the Jews. Not to mention all of the onlooking nations who watched this Husband God bring His people Israel, His bride, into the land, and ‘melted’ before Him in awe (Ex. 14:2, 14:9, 15:14–16 (there are cities here), Joshua 2:8–14, 2:24, 3:16, 5:1, 6:1, 9:1–11, 9:24–25, 10:1–5, 10:10–11, 11:1–5, Ps. 114), resulting in several Gentiles (such as Rahab in Josh 2 & 6) humbling themselves before Him and uniting themselves with His people Israel.
So indeed, this Potter would use all clay with grand purpose and intention, wanting all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He aims to include the Gentiles and fill the whole earth with ambassadors of His image as was His plan from the very beginning (Gen 1:28, 12:1–3, 26:4, 28:14, Dt 4:5–6, Josh 2:9–10, 1 Ki 4:34, Dn 3:29, 6:26, Is 49:6, Ezekiel 47:21–23, Hab 2:14, Mal 1:11, etc.).
Yet, God did not divorce His first wife Israel. The Gentiles are not a newer younger bride that God reactively sought out when the first bride disobeyed one too many times. He is the Greater Hosea, who “goes again.” Jesus Himself said forgiveness is “seventy times seven,” referring to the very end of the age, stating clearly [to the Jewish reader] that the grace and forgiveness of God extends to the very end when the Bridegroom returns (Mt. 18:22, Dan 9). So rather than divorce, Paul says that Gentiles by faith are grafted into the Jewish family as a wild olive shoot grafted into an ancient olive tree and thus are still perpetually dependent on its root (Rom 11:1–24). Gentiles are not a new bride, but grafted into the existing (and only) bride as brothers in Messiah, as a new Jewish son (Gal 3:29), little different from Rahab.
Paul emphasizes to His Gentile readers that God extended grace to them because of Israel’s temporary disobedience (“partial hardening”) “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” or as Jesus says “until times of the gentiles are fulfilled” (Rom 11:25, cf. Lk 21:24). As such, Gentiles are to be grateful, for “if [Israel’s] failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean (Rom 11:12)!” Just as is possible for God to graft back in a Jewish branch of the Jewish olive tree that had been broken off (Rom 11:23), He WILL save “all” of them, for they are “beloved” both unto us Gentiles and unto God whose gifts are irrevocable (Rom 11:25–29). His character is at stake if He doesn’t.
It is Israel’s God (Jer 31:33, 32:14, etc), Israel’s Messiah (Mk 15:32; Ac 2:36), Israel’s King & Kingdom (Jn 12:13; Ac 1:6), Israel’s Husband (Jer 31:32), Israel’s wedding (Is 25:6), Israel’s New Covenant (Jer 31:31), and Israel’s Great Tribulation (“Jacob’s Trouble”). By God’s grace, Gentiles are grafted into all of it. Paul says it’s their spiritual blessings that we share in (Rom 15:27).
Thus, Paul pleads with his Roman readers (and with us Gentiles) to have humility toward the Jew (take some time to read through the strong language of Romans 9–11).
Are we not all disobedient (Rom 11:32–36)? Are we not all Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9)? Does our Bridegroom not instruct us to “go and sit at the lowest place (Luke 14:10)?” Would we resent the invitation to the marriage banquet if we’re not seated at the head of the table and opt to dine in the highways and hedges instead (Luke 14:23)?
Consider these things in poem form.
Indeed, as old Simeon knew, Jesus would be both “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” AND “glory to [God’s] people Israel.” (Lk. 2:32)
Paul
Yet even Paul who clearly understood these things shared the ’spirit of the prophets’ for God’s people Israel, to His Jewish kinsmen.
He says along with Moses that he would choose to be cut off from Jesus (whom he cherishes over everything — Phil 3) for the sake of the salvation of His Jewish brethren (Rom 9:1–3).
Though he was sent to the Gentiles by Jesus Himself (Acts 9), it was his “custom” to travel to Gentile lands and to start his work in the synagogues reasoning with the Jews (Acts 13:14, 14:1, 17:1–2, 17:10, 17:16–17, 18:4–8, 18:19, 19:8), despite their regular hatred and persecution of His message.
In fact it is argued that even though “we are all reluctant to attribute any wrongful action to the Apostle Paul,” he actually erred in going to Jerusalem and that becoming a prisoner was unnecessary. Why then did he do it?
Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem on the day of Shavuot (Acts 20:16) because of his heart for his kinsmen, the Jews. Ray Stedman says: “He knew that at Pentecost there would be a gathering of Jews from all over the Roman Empire” and believed that the return of Jesus was immanent.
“He determined to be involved in it. He longed to be an instrument to reach his people and, moved by the anguish of his heart, he began accordingly to plan to be in Jerusalem on that day when the Jews would be gathered from all parts of the earth, so that he might have a part in proclaiming to them the Kingship and Lordship of Jesus Christ over that nation… God had chosen otherwise; that God, in his great wisdom, saw that it was not needful to have Paul in Jerusalem at this time. He had given him another ministry. Although Paul had a ministry to Israel and witnessed to them in every city to which he went, his ministry was primarily to the reaches of the Roman Empire, to the Gentiles, and it is clear that the Spirit of God does not want him here in Jerusalem…The Gospel accounts say that Jesus steadfastly set his face to go there, determined to go against all the pleading and the warnings of his own disciples. Paul must have seen himself in that role. But Jesus had the Spirit’s witness within that this was the will of the Father for him, while Paul had exactly the opposite. The Spirit had made crystal clear that he was not to go to Jerusalem, had finally put in almost the same terms employed by the angel toward Balaam, who, riding upon his ass, was determined to do his own will: “Stop going up to Jerusalem!””
Paul may have been disobedient to his specific calling from the Lord in this instance, but his heart was not wrong. In fact, it was very much aligned with the Lord’s. This is the ’spirit of the prophets.’
“Behold, Jesus Christ still weeping over Jerusalem through the eyes of Paul.” — Adolph Saphir
You & I
While we are all included in “the work of the ministry” (Eph 4:12) to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:18–20) and to “present them mature in Christ” (Col 1:28), our varied ministry callings are unique. Not all of us are called to physically uproot our lives and go to Israel and lovingly appeal to the Jews concerning their Messiah.
Yet may our hearts be aligned with Paul’s (and Jesus’) toward them as we relate with our Jewish friends and as we speak about the Jewish people in our local churches. May we heed the words of Romans 11, and may we even be willing to give up our lives for Israel. If the Holocaust of the 1930–40’s was a foreshadowing of Israel’s final exile before Jesus returns, this may become very practical.
“‘Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,’ declares the LORD…’for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more…If this fixed order departs from before me,’ declares the LORD, ‘then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.’ Thus says the LORD: ‘If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,’ declares the LORD.” — Jeremiah 31
“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved” — Romans 10:1
