Now by the time we get to Christ's earthly ministry and on to the book of Acts, even the Jews had lost sight of all this. And even in Jonah's day, when God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, what did he do? He took a ship and went west! He should have taken a camel and gone east. But he didn't. Well, why not? Those Gentiles had nothing to do with his God. But it was his God Who told him to go. And so he takes a ship west. And you know the story of Jonah. And so finally God had to deal with him and bring him back to shore and send him to Nineveh. Yes, God can save Gentiles when He wants to. But the mind-set of the Jew was that God had no time for those pagan dogs. And even in Christ's earthly ministry, that was implied with the Canaanite woman.


Mark 7:27,28

"But Jesus said unto her, `Let the children (Israel, the Jews) first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.' And she answered and said unto him, `Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.'"


What was she implying? The Jews were in the place of privilege. They had the Word of God. But couldn't she have a couple of crumbs? Now the Jews took that to the extreme, so that when Paul comes back after his missionary journeys among the Gentiles and he tells them in Acts, the minute he spoke the word Gentile, what happened? A riot! Who would even dare to say such a word? Now, as you see in Isaiah, God's whole intent and purpose was that Israel as a kingdom of priests, would at one time go and evangelize those Gentiles. Now come back in Isaiah to Chapter 2 and you'll see this in a little bit different language, but it's the same thought. Now I think this will make sense. If I'd have read this first you wouldn't have gotten it, but now I think you will.


Isaiah 2:1,2

"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass (it's going to happen) in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house (what is a mountain in Old Testament symbolism? Kingdom! You can just put that word in there and you won't violate the Scripture; that is that royal line coming from David) shall be established in the top of the mountains, (or it's going to be the top Kingdom of the kingdoms) and it shall be exalted above the hills; (smaller kingdoms. And here's the part I wanted you to see. Underline it if you don't mind marking in your Bible) and all nations shall (what?) flow into it."


Now isn't that beautiful? Once Israel's Messiah would come and set up His throne, His kingdom, there in the city of Jerusalem, all the nations of the world would just navigate and would be brought just about like a magnet drawing steel, to Jerusalem. Now let me show you another verse. Let's go all the way up to Zechariah, Chapter 8, the next to the last book in the Old Testament.


Zechariah 8:20-23

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; `It shall yet come to pass, (sound familiar? That's exactly the way Isaiah put it) that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, (Jehovah) and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. Yea, many people and strong nations (plural) shall come to seek the Lord of hosts (where?) in Jerusalem, (where He has set up His throne and His kingdom) and to pray before the Lord.' Thus saith the Lord of hosts; `In those days (when Israel would be evangelizing those pagan Gentiles) that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.'"