Sometimes we need those people we least expect to remind us of our obligations to the Lord.
What did the majority of Judah’s kings have in common? They abandoned, desecrated, or destroyed the house of the Lord! A recurring motif in Scripture is that God would often turn from His chosen people to seek those among the Gentiles who were eager to know and serve Him. Thus Cyrus was stirred to call God’s people to return and rebuild the temple. Imagine a Gentile king reminding those remaining in Persia to send “freewill offerings for the house of God” (Ezra 1:4)! The Lord Jesus pointed out this anomaly at the start of His public ministry. When God looked for a hostess for Elijah, He bypassed all the homes in Israel to find a Phoenician widow. When He sought any with faith to believe He could heal leprosy, “none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian” (Lk 4:27). For this, His own townsfolk sought to stone Him. Later, He bluntly stated, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God” (Lk 13:28-29). Paul declared to the Jews of his day, “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46, KJV). But as he points out in Romans 10, Isaiah warned of this long before (Rom 10:19-21). It isn’t that God has given up on saving Jews. But instead of using Jews to reach Gentiles, He’s now using Gentiles to reach Jews. Pray for those sharing the gospel with Jewish people today. Remember that the Scriptures, the Savior, and the Spirit all came through this spiritually needy people.