93 - Tough Assignments

Within three days of arriving in Rome, Paul sent someone to invite the elders of the Jewish community to meet with him. As he had done in city after city he would begin by preaching to his kinsmen. He would do his very best to show them the suffering Messiah in the Scriptures and explain how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled those prophecies. And again, as had happened in city after city, as the day wore on some became convinced and some grew hostile. Many of the elders in that room would have memorized the entire Torah (first five books of the Bible), and in some cases, the entire Old Testament, so quoted passages would have been flying back and forth, meanings debated, and personal observations made about people they knew who had believed in Jesus. Then, when it became apparent that many had decided to reject his message and were preparing to leave, Paul issued a warning to them by quoting from words God spoke to Isaiah when He called him to become a prophet (Isa 6:8-13). God didn’t tell Isaiah he would have great fruitfulness. In fact, He assured him of just the opposite. He was calling him to a tough assignment. The people wouldn’t repent and the nation wouldn’t escape disaster. His ministry would actually leave his listeners in worse condition than before. And Paul was telling the elders that preaching to them was just like Isaiah preaching to his generation. He too, knew ahead of time that only a few would listen. But the point we need to see today is that Paul reached out to them anyway, knowing that no matter how patient or careful he might be, the majority would likely reject his message. He still invited them to meet with him and shared his faith. Why? With that kind of depressing outlook we might wonder why he would bother. Why not bypass the Jews and go straight to the Gentiles? They would gladly receive him. Why should anyone have to preach to people who don’t want to hear the truth?