VIII
ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND THE
CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL
" Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I
have chosen ; that ye may know and believe Me, and under-
stand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange God among you ; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God." ISA. xliii. 10-12.
" Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." ACTS i. 8.
VIII
ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND THE
CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL *
AS we look at the passage quoted from Acts i. " Ye
shall be witnesses unto Me," we cannot but be
reminded of the very similar words addressed by God
through the prophet Isaiah, to Israel as a nation, and
we may well ask how is it, that instead of Israel at the
present time witnessing for God among the nations, it is
necessary that witness should be borne to Israel about
their own God, their own Messiah, and their own
Scriptures ? The answer is given by the Apostle Paul
in Rom. xi. 25, " Blindness in part is happened to
Israel." It is true that certain leaders among modern
Jews claim still to have a mission, even at this present
day, in their dispersion among the nations a mission, as they say, to bear witness to the unity of God. But if we examine this supposed witness that the modern Jew gives to the unity of God, we find it very defective ; for it is not a testimony to God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in His word that is, as the infinite,
1 The first part of this chapter was an address delivered at the
Mildmay Conference in June, 1897, the subject that year being
"The Evangelisation of Our Own Generation." It was afterwards
written out in full for the Missionary Review of the World, from
which excellent magazine it is reproduced here.
261
262 ISRAEL'S MISSION TO THE WORLD, AND
yet personal, triune, holy, loving God but a testimony
to an abstract formula with regard to the unicity of the
Godhead. Of a personal, living God, modern Judaism
knows, alas, very little. As a matter of fact, it is not
due to the testimony to the unity of God, as given by
the synagogue, that Gentiles have been brought to
believe in one living and true God, but to the more
truly Jewish testimony as given by the Jewish Apostles
of the New Covenant, who went about preaching one
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; one
Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ the
righteous ; and one Holy Spirit, by whom the know-
ledge of God is communicated to man ; and these three, one blessed Trinity.
But, speaking generally, it is the boast of modern
Jews that they are not a missionary people. Thousands
of times have I had it thrown in my teeth by Jews in
various parts of the world, who have said, "Why do
Christians trouble themselves with trying to convert us ? We do not try to convert anybody." My reply usually is : " Why don't you ? If you boast of the fact that you are not a missionary people, you simply boast of your shame ; you simply testify to the fact that you are not now answering the purpose for which God called Israel into existence. Was not the very purpose of God in creating the Jewish nation that they might be wit- nesses for Him, to make known His name among the nations ? The fact that you are not now a missionary people is accounted for by the reason that you have no mission. In this respect it is true that the Kingdom of God has been taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. If you had a message you could not be silent, even if you tried, for you would find the word of God like a burning fire in your heart shut up in your bones, so that you would weary in for-
THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO ISRAEL 263
bearing to run and communicate it to others." Israel
at the present day has no message. The Jews do not, and cannot, bear witness for God, excepting that passive testimony which the diaspora gives to the righteous severity of God a testimony which, would to God Christendom took to heart, because it contains the solemn lesson to them, that they also, if they continue not in His goodness, shall be cut off.