And when my children were little, I used to tell them that we should love the Jews, and be kind to them, and pray for them. For they are God's own dear people, and our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, when He came to earth and took our human nature.
It is true that the Jews are scattered all over the world now for their unbelief and disobedience; but by and by, God tells us, they will be gathered in their sows land, and Jesus will reign over them as King of kings, and Lord of lords.
In Numbers xxiii. 9 we find a prophecy about the Jews. Balaam prophesied: "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."
God separated them in various ways to be His own people. He promised to go with them; and He also gave them certain laws which they were to keep. They were not permitted to marry outside their own nation; they were only allowed to use certain animals for food, and the animals must be killed in a certain way, so that the blood was poured out. They were forbidden to worship idols, or to follow the practices of the nations round them.
They were to keep one a day week holy, and they were to go up to Jerusalem once a year to keep the Passover.
These rules kept them separate from all other peoples, and as long as they obeyed God they were abundantly prosperous.
Thus the prophecy spoken by Balaam so long ago, about the Jews being a people apart by themselves, is fulfilled to the very letter to-day.
PROPHECY OF DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT.
Gen. l. 24.—Josh. xxiv. 32.
Once when God was talking to Abraham, and promising to give the Land of Canaan to his children, He told him that they should be strangers in a land which was not theirs for four hundred years, and should be afflicted by those among whom they dwelt; but "also the nation whom they shall serve will I judge," said God, "and afterwards shall they come out with great substance."
The Children of Israel, who are now called the Jews, travelled from Canaan into Egypt to their brother Joseph, because, of the great famine, and lived in Egypt for four hundred and twenty years.