The Jews were incensed with Paul because he took their faith, in which they saw themselves as special and unique in history and gave it to everyone. Paul uses Jewish terminology in this defense before other Jews and those who understood Jewish ideas. The ‘people’ referred to the Jewish nation, whilst the ‘nations’ or Gentiles referred to everyone else, ie. those who were somehow less than Jews.

They found it hard to comprehend that their God could and would love the rest of the world as He loved them. But they failed completely to see the character of God, even though it had already been made clear in their scriptures:

Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
Isaiah 49:6

God’s salvation is too big, too amazing to be kept just for a few. God had to make such a wonderful thing available to all mankind. The Apostle John said: “For God so loved the WORLD”, not just the Jews.

God holds the nations in His hand, we are like ‘dust on the scales’, but we are still significant to Him, so much so that He loved us (and loves us) enough to let His own Son bear our sins in His body. Wherever you are on the earth – Jesus is your salvation!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 17th, 2002 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.