Two of the most gripping passages of Scripture open the successive chapters of Romans 9 and 10.
Romans 9 gives a glimpse of the apostle Paul’s deep-seated, continual heaviness of heart and grief over the lostness of his countrymen. We have heard people say they’d be willing to die for someone; but who would be willing to suffer eternal separation from God in order that others may enter a saving relationship with Christ? Yet this is what Paul said he would be willing to do.
In the next chapter, Paul poured out his heart’s deepest desire and prayer -- that his own people be saved. Though he was God’s called and commissioned missionary to the nations, he never lost sight of the desperate plight of his “kinsmen in the flesh,” the Jews. He was as passionately concerned for the spiritual well-being of his own nation as he was for the salvation of the nations.
Paul never lost sight of the goal of his efforts for Christ -- the harvest. Every harvest presupposes several things. It presupposes that a field has been cultivated and fertilized, seed has been sown and tender plants nourished. It presupposes that the hard work of digging out stumps, hoeing weeds, pruning unwanted shoots and leaves, battling insects and fighting off varmints takes place on a daily basis.
But the farmer never loses sight of the eventual end -- that he would reap an abundant harvest. Keep reading
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