Truly, O God of Israel, our Saviour,
    you work in mysterious ways.
16 All craftsmen who make idols will be humiliated.
    They will all be disgraced together.
17 But the Lord will save the people of Israel
    with eternal salvation.
Throughout everlasting ages,
    they will never again be humiliated and disgraced.

No-one who saw the broken, shattered Jewish captives in Babylon could have guessed God’s ultimate purposes for these people. It must have felt to them that the Lord had ”been hiding himself” (15: NIV). His ways truly are mysterious. But our God can bring about great reversals (none more so than the resurrection of Christ); and although their immediate rescue was to be effected by the ‘temporary Messiah’, Cyrus, the ”eternal salvation” spoken of here, will be effected only by ‘the Servant of the LORD’ – their Messiah, Jesus.

In a wonderfully hope-filled section of Romans (chs.9-11), Paul lifts our eyes to expect a day when ”all Israel will be saved” (11:26). Let us pray for that day, with all that it will mean for worldwide evangelism.

I remember David Pawson telling a story about a Jewish lady who was converted. He said words to the effect that in five minutes she was teaching him the Bible! So just think of the impact when the nation as a whole turns to their Messiah.