Day 11: What will bring about the greatest harvest of souls?

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.” – Romans 11:25–26 ESV

Today we are going to look at the connection between Jews returning to their land, their salvation and the great end-time harvest of souls. I encourage you to study with an open mind. As we saw earlier, God’s desire is that no one should perish. As we will see today, He has a very unusual way He is going to accomplish this.

Dean Bye shares:

Paul says, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery.” What mystery? The fact that we Gentiles have been chosen to make His people jealous; we’ve been chosen to take the mercy He has given us to give back to His people; the fact that He hasn’t rejected His people any longer. He still has a plan for them. Paul doesn’t want us to be ignorant of this mystery, so that we don’t become conceited.

Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of Gentiles. I believe God is speaking about a people that come into a relationship with Him to the point of knowing His heart. If they will know His heart then they will know His will, and if they know His will, they will seek to have the courage to participate in fulfilling His will on earth as it is in Heaven. These demand discipline, choices and intimacy with a holy God.

There’s a time for everything under the sun. Paul says in Romans 11:8 (ESV): “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” What if you were a Jewish person and you knew that God had blinded you, given you ears that couldn’t hear and a spirit of stupor? How would you feel? I’m thankful that’s the case because that has made it possible for us to come into a relationship with God as those of the nations. But then, He goes on to say in the same chapter, we’ve received mercy to give back to His people.

Romans 11:11 (ESV) says, “Did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.” This verse changed my life and exposed God’s heart to me. This tells me why I’m saved—to make them jealous. How do you make another people jealous? When I realized that God has a jealous love for His people, it meant I could either connect with a love that was more than just that He saved me. I needed to connect with this love that He would actually go to the extent of blinding His Jewish people from coming into greater intimacy of knowing Him and His Son, because He wanted you and me to be part of His family.

Wow! What is God saying to you through what you just read?

What do the following verses say about Israel and Jews being saved?

Romans 11:8, 11 (ESV): “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day. … Did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.”

• What does God say about the Jews through the Apostle Paul in this passage?
• What does He say about Gentiles?
• Ask God to reveal more of His heart to you through these verses. We will study them more on another day.

Romans 11:25–26, above.

• That is a very powerful statement. ALL Israel will be saved. What do you think about that?
• Has God given up on Israel, as many Christians believe?
• If God wants all Israel to be saved, how can we partner with Him in this? One way is praying for their salvation. What will you do to partner with the Lord to see His people saved?
• Ask the Lord to reveal His truth to you in this verse.
• What do you think this partial hardening on Israel is?
• That is a powerful statement that “all Israel will be saved.” What do you think that means? If they are going to be saved, does that show that God hasn’t rejected them and still has a plan for them?
• Where is the Deliverer coming from? Zion is another name for Jerusalem or Israel.

A prayer to pray

Father, thank You that You don’t want us to be unaware of Your mysteries. I confess that in the past, I didn’t understand Your mystery of Your relationship with Jews and Gentiles. I thought You had abandoned the Jews because they killed their Messiah. Thank You that You put a partial hardening on Israel’s hearts to give Gentiles the opportunity to come into Your family. Thank You for the amazing truth that all Israel will be saved. I acknowledge that Yeshua, our Deliverer, will come from Zion, not from the United States, Canada or anywhere else. I want to be part of Your great end-time harvest, seeing both Jews and Gentiles come to know You.

Prayer points for today

• Pray that all Israel to be saved. Pray for their salvation, that they will receive a revelation of who Yeshua is and accept Him as their Messiah.
• Ask God to show you how you can partner with Him in bringing salvation to the Jews.
• Ask God to open your heart and mind to understand His Word in greater ways, especially in those areas where you have not understood or maybe you misinterpreted the Scriptures.

An action to take

Consider how you can partner with God to bring the truth of their Messiah to the Jews. Write down whatever He shows you and then pick one thing to begin doing today.

You can find some ideas you could implement on our website.