Prayer Topic No. 6

Pray for the salvation of “all Israel”

The calling of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3) was the beginning of God’s redemptive history with and through the Jewish people. The salvation of all Israel after the fulfillment of the “Great Commission” will be the climax of this era of mankind:

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number 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 turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Rom. 11:25-27).

It is amazing and revealing to recognize that the fulfilment of the call of Jesus to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all the earth is intertwined with Paul’s revelation here. After the full number of the Gentiles has come in, the Jewish people will be saved on a corporate, national level, just as the prophets of old foretold, like those mentioned by Paul in Rom. 11:27. In Zechariah we read:

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zech. 12:10).

In the middle of the end-time battle for Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit will be poured out over Israel. The Holy Spirit will come as a spirit of prayer. All Israel will realize that only God can help them. Only God’s grace can save them – physically and spiritually. And at that moment the “veil” will be lifted from them – and they will “see” the crucified one. Their hearts will be pierced – as the hearts of the brothers of Joseph were pierced when they suddenly realized that Josef was not a foreign despot, but their brother, their own flesh and blood... As the hearts of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost were pierced when they suddenly realized that the man their leaders gave over to the Romans to be crucified was indeed the Messiah their prophets had foretold. “All Israel” will thus be turned by God’s revelation to repentance, to prayer and to supplication (Zech. 12:10). It will not take long after that for Jesus to return and set His feet again on the mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4). 

In summary, we can see: Praying for the fulfilment of the great commission, for the salvation of all Israel and for the return of the Lord are deeply interwoven and are in complete agreement with the will of God as revealed in the Bible. Taken together, they express the redemptive plans and purposes of God for our time and generation. “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20b)