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Biblical understanding about Israel
ISRAEL PRAYER LETTER June 2010
Shalom!
In recent days, the world´s attention has been hijacked, as it were, by Israel´s storming of the so-called `Gaza flotilla`. It seems as if the media and governments of the nations are obssessed with criticizing Israel at every turn. This is a serious matter of prayer, and so I start this Prayer Letter with this subject.
At the same time, we must continue to remind ourselves of the braoder context. During a conference on intercession in Brussels (9-11 April), organised by the European Coalition for Israel, my attention was strongly directed to the role of Europe in our time, and to the position of the church of Christ. It is hardly possible to find any church today that regularly pays attention to Israel in their preaching, confirmation classes, Bible study, or during prayer. This continues to make one wonder, as the prophetic word makes up almost a third of the complete contents of the Bible. And speaking about the Jewish people, someone once cried out: “Jesus is not on offer separately!” So anyone who - from the scriptures - believes in the Messiah of Israel, Jesus, cannot ignore the Jewish people, returning to the Jewish land in our days.
May God give you wisdom dealing with these matters in your own church or congregation. Intercession is the starting point, so I want to encourage you in it, as you are not alone in this matter.
Pieter Bénard, Israel Prayer Co-ordinator
GAZA
Serious as it is, the Gaza flotilla crisis is just another milestone in the ongoing hateful campaign to delegitimize Israel. No sooner had Israel taken steps to defend itself and enforce the blockade of Gaza (ruled by Hamas, which has sworn to achieve the destruction of Israel), than the nations of the world have condemned Israel for breaching International law.
At the same time, the secular media is presenting Israel as an aggressive, inhumane regime.
Nothing less than the truth is at stake. Just as in the Gaza war 18 months ago, it seems as if both the media and governments are willingly blind to the realities behind the Gaza flotilla. While many well meaning volunteers may have been about the boats heading for Gaza, there is no doubt that the whole exercise was a deliberate attempt to provoke Israel to action, and to create a PR campaign that would put Israel in a bad light. As Melanie Philips put it in her commentary, ‘Peace convoy? This was an Islamist terror ambush!` There is strong evidence that the Turkish organization responsible for the flotilla (HH) had links with Hamas, and that some of those who were killed deliberately sought to die as so-called martyrs for Allah.
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One (Psalm 2 verses 1-2)
Pray, together with the Psalmist, that the name of the God of Israel will not be put to shame, and that the enemies of Israel will be scattered and destroyed.
Give me a sign of your goodness
That my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
For you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
(Psalm 86 verse 17)
Pray for the government and the people of Israel, that they will remain firm in their resolve to be rooted in the land, and that they will seek God as their strength and salvation, not the nations of the world.
Pray for the citizens of Gaza - victims of their own malicious regime. Pray that they will be released from the spirit of hatred and lies.
ALIYAH
Larisa Vaisburd, a woman aged 27 from Kivachivka in Ukraine, was the 100,000th Jew that we as “Christians for Israel” enabled to return to Israel. Together with her husband Ruslan and their little daughter Elisabeth they are now living in a kibbutz in the north of Israel, to get better acquainted with the land and its culture and learn the language.
- Thank God for Larissa and her family; they are motivated so strongly, and had been preparing for this step for three years.
- Give thanks that our organisation has been involved in the action “Taking the Jews Home” since 1996. It is a privilege!
- Thank God, that there are sufficient workers and finance. In this we experience God’s blessing, even during more difficult times.
- Give thanks for the co-operation with the Jewish Agency and the organisation “Ebenezer”.
- Thank God that many Christians and Jews have an open eye to the prophetic fulfilment of the Bible, through the project “Taking the Jews Home”.
A revelation towards understanding the deepest purpose of the return of the Jewish people to the Jewish land is to be found in Ezekiel 36. Especially verses 22-23: “For say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.’”
Such an extraordinary plan with the Jewish people in the face of all the nations. How will God accomplish this? Through Aliyah!
“'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24)
Study for yourself this special revelation from God through the prophet Ezekiel, in which God Himself takes action 40 times. We are merely helpers, no more than that. But being prepared to co-operate in this, even in intercession, is a real choice. So make this choice and pray.
- Give thanks and pray for Nathan Sharansky, president of the Jewish Agency. He gives direction to the return (Aliyah).
- Thank and pray for the continuing Aliyah of the Jewish people, on the basis of Psalm 126.
- As Christians, let us speak about Aliyah from God’s word: “The Lord has done great things among them.”
THE NATIONS / EUROPE
On the basis of Psalm 91, pray that the evil powers that incite Iran (Persia) to destroy Israel, will be broken down. There is no end to this. It is “…the terror of night... the arrow that flies by day.” (verse 5).
It is “…the pestilence… in the darkness… the plague that destroys at midday.” (verse 6)
At the Conference in Brussels in April, someone shared a vision, received in prayer and intended as a guide-line for prayer for Israel. From the North and the East powers of evil, in the form of witches, bulls and sharks, were approaching Israel. With the vision came a passage from Numbers 23:23: “There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God has done!'”
- Stand in the gap for Israel and pray that sorcery and divination against the land, the people and the State of Israel will be reduced to nothing.
- Pray that people will start to bless instead of curse Israel, to encourage instead of stigmatise Israel.
- Pray for a shift in politics; so much ignorance about and lack of understanding of Israel remain.
- More and more regulations are issued by the European Parliament in Brussels, also concerning the foreign policy member states are supposed to implement.
- Pray for Dutch delegate Bas Belder; he is chairman of the “Israel delegation” in the European Parliament.
- Pray for wisdom and power of persuasion for him, so he will be able to successfully pass knowledge about the Jewish State of Israel to other European politicians.
- Also pray for other Christian politicians in the European Parliament.
- Pray for a correct approach to Iran by Europe. Europe may fulfil a key role in inducing Iran to stop its plans for the destruction of Israel.
- Pray that European states will no longer be silent, especially in these months after the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz, now 65 years ago.
The slogan “Never again Auschwitz” sounds good, but needs to be put into practice, even when economic interests are at stake.
ISRAEL / JERUSALEM
- Pray for the safety and liberation of Gilad Shalit, kidnapped in 2006 by the terrorist organisation Hamas.
- On the basis of Psalm 70 pray for the soldiers and border police, that guard Israel’s borders.
- Continue to pray for the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, for wisdom and trust in the Lord God.
- Also pray for the 120 members of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. For unity and justice.
- Pray that the evil powers that incite Iran (Persia) to destroy Israel, will be broken down. Read Esther chapter 3.
- Thank God for His protection of the land and the people of Israel. He has scattered them, but also gathered them again!
- He will “…watch over his flock like a shepherd.” (Jeremiah 31:10). Also read Micah 2:12-13, and thank God for His promise.
- Thank God that this promise, along with the promises of cleansing and a clean heart, is written between verses 24 and 28, about the return to and inhabitation of the land. Aliyah is the beginning of the miracle of Israel’s restoration, and this makes the approaching footsteps of the Messiah visible. So let u look out for Jesus Messiah together with the Jewish people.
PROCLAMATION
Among other things, proclamation is reading out loud certain portions of scripture, and pronouncing their central thought over a given situation. A good example is the prayer that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples, the Lord’s Prayer. The central thought is: ‘Your will be done.’ So concerning a situation that we are praying for, from the Lord’s Prayer we may pronounce (proclaim): Your will be done!
In the time ahead, we may proclaim (pronounce) “light” over the situation in Israel and the Middle East. In the creation story in Genesis 1 the creation of light plays a prominent role:
“…to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness” (verse 17).
Likewise in the last Book of the Bible, Revelation, there is a wonderfully inspiring verse about light. After the judgement of Babylon John sees another angel “…coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.” (Revelation 18:1)
So we may proclaim the light of Creation over the darkness in the Middle East and Israel, and proclaim the light of angels amidst the judgements which are happening and which are to come.
Also read other passages about light in the Bible, and be inspired in your intercession.
PRAYER / THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
“A prayer life is a life full of prayer.” (Andrew Murray)
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (the apostle John in 3 John 1:4)
God has not chosen Israel because they are a special nation. They are a special nation because God has chosen them.
Daily prayers will diminish your cares. “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice.” (Psalm 55:17, KJV)
- Pray for the Church of Christ in Israel: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)
- Pray for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted as a minority in the Palestinian territories. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.
- Pray that Christians in your country will not stay indifferent towards the prophetic aspect of God’s Word. In the Bible the connection between the Promised Land and the Jewish people is indicated almost 700 times, hundreds of times in relation to their return out of all the nations.
- Pray that as Christians we will understand the signs of the time. That we will understand the present relevance of God’s Word and translate it into acts of encouragement and consolation for the Jewish people.