“So do not throw away confidence; it holds great reward. You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a little while, He Who is coming will come and will not delay.” (Hebrews 10:35-37) 

The Torah includes 613 commandments: 248 positive and 365 negative, corresponding to the number of parts in the human body and days in the year.

Maimonides, the twelfth-century Jewish sage, wrote a credo, The Book of Commandments, which distills those 613 commandments into thirteen articles of faith. Many Jewish prayerbooks still include them. I read one in Jerusalem recently as I prayed for Israel at the Western Wall. Maimonides and I would not agree on many biblical issues, but we would agree on others. Our Christian beliefs reflect some of Maimonides’ essential belief statements of Judaism: the divine origins of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16), an eternal afterlife in Heaven or Hell (Revelation 21:1; Luke 12:5), and the oneness of God (John 10:30).

The twelfth statement reads: “I believe with a full heart in the coming of the Messiah, and even though He may tarry, I will still wait for Him.” Many Jews repeated that statement as they were marched into Nazi gas chambers.

Watchmen owe our eternal lives to that Jewish Messiah, our calling, and job description to that inspired Torah, and we echo the twelfth statement as we look for the Rapture.

Prayer

Jesus, I believe You will come soon, so I wait and watch for You today. Come, Lord Jesus, Messiah, Holy One of Israel.

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