Prayer for Israel

This was sent to me today regarding the urgent need to pray for Israel, from someone who is living there now.
(I got it a day late)

"It seems that there will either be a ground offensive into Gaza (maybe, tonight), or the beginning of negotiations for a cease-fire. The next 24-48 hours are critical and your prayers are appreciated.

There are 16,000 reservists who are standing by on the Gaza border ready for a ground offensive. There are other reservists who have been sent into southern communities to assess building and home damages; to help medical teams; and to make sure civilians in need are provided refuge..

Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, has received cabinet approval for a call-up of 75,000 reservists. But, as far as we can tell, that number has not been reached yet.

There are many young believers in the IDF right now, some of whom are in combat units. Others are standing by in the reserves. Your prayers are appreciated.

Hamas is not allowing at least 22 foreign nationals to leave the Gaza Strip and enter Israel. This includes at least 18 members of the media. It also includes medical personnel. Pray that these people are released soon and without any harm done to them."

We are admonished to pray for Israel: Psalm 122:6

I have been praying Israel for many years, and am increasing that in this time. The media is so biased towards them.

We're often reminded to pray for Israel, but (to our shame) it's very rare to hear a call to pray for the Palestinians.

"...My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people."

Allan

Yes, I agree. Both need prayer. The Palestinians are used as pons in all of this. I am quoting a friend below:

"Hamas is to blame for this. They and a great deal of the Arab population want the destruction of Israel regardless of how much land Israel would give up. The West bank Palestinians are not sending rockets into Israel and Israel is not sending rockets at them. Both Hesbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza purposely use people who are innocent as shields. The people of Gaza get electricity and water from Israel even though they keep shelling Israel and Israel even dropped hundreds of Arabic leaflets to warn the people to stay away from the missile launchers so they would be safe when Israel destroyed the launchers. Israel withdrew from Gaza years ago and even gave the people a green house to help them grow food but those people destroyed it and Hamas has ruined the water supply which Israel used to keep at proper health levels for the people of Gaza. Israel even used to allow those people to come work in Israel and make good money when no one else would help them until they had to close off the inflow of people due to the great amount of hostility and threat to the safety of Israel. Israel also allows victims of harm to be transferred to their hospitals for care which is amazingly kind considering they would not be offered the same kindness if the shoe was on the other foot."

So, there is much that the press does not report. We only know part of the issue. If our government does not back Israel, as history has proven, it will have bad consequences. As God's word says: " I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you." Genesis 12:3

I am in complete agreement with you. May God use this strife to sweep many into His kingdom. Jew and Gentile.

What doesn't get talked about much is the reason this initial conflict began. Israel killed a leading Hamas figure who was supposedly negotiating a peace deal. Whether or not that would have happened is irrelevant. The killing of him has errupted into this mess again and then we have the Gaza situation. I have heard that it is the most densely populated area on earth and I have also heard that it is similar to a concentration camp because people are only allowed to go to certain places and most people are in the poverty level or below. Give this situation why should be be supporting Israel more than the Palestinians given how Gaza is laid out and Israel killed this Hamas leader?

Sometimes I think of the Iranian leader when he talks about 12th imam coming back when I see Christians pushing pro Israel stuff because of the bible when sometimes Israel seems to be creating this whole conflict.

What do you think?

I confess that I am not extreemly informed on everything over there. Not to mention that it is hard to trust any accounts from the press. Thats what makes this situation so complicated and it does give me pause when the church so blindly supports a Christ forsaking nation. But to say that Hammas was trying to negotiate a peace deal is very hard to believe given their history. There is no excuse to target innocent civilians with rockets and terror.

HezWelling - you are correct IMHO

As for praying for the Palestinians, I can pray for the pawns of satan but not for his followers. I pray for the children who are raised to hate, Better to spend my energy to pray for the Saints, those God has given to our Lord Jesus. I feel if I pray for them I am including any of that bunch who will convert.

WS

by DEADn on 2012/11/19 8:14:13 Give this situation why should be be supporting Israel more than the Palestinians given how Gaza is laid out and Israel killed this Hamas leader?

Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

If we want God’s blessings on ourselves and on the rest of the world, we should ALWAYS support Israel, and stand against any of Israel’s enemies! The bloodthirsty killers that are fighting them today are doing the same as Pharoah, Amalek, Haman, Hitler, and MANY others down through history whose desire was to exterminate the Jews, but every time, instead of the Jews getting exterminated, their enemies got exterminated by God! The Jews have suffered greatly down through History because they remind the world that there is a God in Israel who has kept them in existence and will never cease to and will judge all of His creation by His law.

Do you want God’s blessing on your life, or do you want God’s curse upon your life? If you listen to modern media, and choose not to support Israel, you inherit God’s curse.

Psa 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Do you want to prosper, or to perish? Whether or not you believe God’s Word, these truths will happen in your life. They have always happened, and will never cease to.

"it does give me pause when the church so blindly supports a Christ forsaking nation"

Just my 2 cents:

Because our God is a covenant keeping God. HE is faithful even when they (or we) are not. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning the land and the people. HE has not changed.

And He will bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them.

Have you read Zephaniah recently? These verses from the second chapter read like today's news. Yes, they speak of the end time which we seem nearing at warp speed.

Zephaniah 2:4-11
4 For Gaza will be abandoned
And Ashkelon a desolation;
Ashdod will be driven out at noon
And Ekron will be uprooted.

5 Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast,
The nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the LORD is against you,
O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
And I will destroy you
So that there will be no inhabitant.

6 So the seacoast will be pastures,
With caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.

7 And the coast will be
For the remnant of the house of Judah,
They will pasture on it.
In the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down at evening;
For the LORD their God will care for them
And restore their fortune.

8 “I have heard the taunting of Moab
And the revilings of the sons of Ammon,
With which they have taunted My people
And become arrogant against their territory.

9 “Therefore, as I live,” declares the LORD of hosts,
The God of Israel,
“Surely Moab will be like Sodom
And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah—
A place possessed by nettles and salt pits,
And a perpetual desolation.
The remnant of My people will plunder them
And the remainder of My nation will inherit them.”

10 This they will have in return for their pride, because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the LORD of hosts. 11 The LORD will be terrifying to them, for He will starve all the gods of the earth; and all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to Him, everyone from his own place.

We should pray for their enemies (as we should pray for our own) that their eyes would be opened and that they would be granted repentance. If they repent they will no longer wish evil upon Israel.

If we pray for peace in Israel we are gratifying our heavenly Father.

All glory be to Him who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb.

Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

If we want God’s blessings on ourselves and on the rest of the world, we should ALWAYS support Israel, and stand against any of Israel’s enemies! The bloodthirsty killers that are fighting them today are doing the same as Pharoah, Amalek, Haman, Hitler, and MANY others down through history whose desire was to exterminate the Jews, but every time, instead of the Jews getting exterminated, their enemies got exterminated by God! The Jews have suffered greatly down through History because they remind the world that there is a God in Israel who has kept them in existence and will never cease to and will judge all of His creation by His law.

Do you want God’s blessing on your life, or do you want God’s curse upon your life? If you listen to modern media, and choose not to support Israel, you inherit God’s curse.

Psa 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Do you want to prosper, or to perish? Whether or not you believe God’s Word, these truths will happen in your life. They have always happened, and will never cease to.

This seems to rub me the wrong way. I realize in the past that Hamas has started much of this conflict but has Israel ever started any incidents? Are we to support Israel no matter what they do because THEY are Israel?

No, if I don't support Israel then I will be cursed and not have the blessing of God? Or I will perish? Does this apply across the board whether a person is a Christian or not? How does that apply to absolute truth?

Israel has the right to defend itself but is Israel totally guiltless in this conflict? I realize Theology is the big link that puts this together but what happens when Theology and righteous conflict one another? What happens if Israel, in their fight with Hamas, blows Gaza off the map. Does Gaza become one of those tribes that Israel killed because God told them to possess the land? And then we will bless Israel for doing a good deed?

Still trying to figure out this blessing or perish thing for those pro and against Israel. How does that work exactly? I don't side either way so what would that mean?

I to have questions about the blessing Israel and cursing Israel quote that is constently used. I just never seemed to understand what it means for the church to bless Israel. Who exactly are we blessing. The nation, Jews, is it the same?
I am not trying to offend or cause discension. I seriously do not understand. Are we never to be critical of Israel even when what they may be doing is immoral? It seems to me that we are so afraid of offending Jewish people that we tend to overlook their sin at times.
As for this current conflict I have my serious doubts that Hamas desires peace. My suppicion is the Palestinians are living so pourly is because their leaders can use it for their advantage.

Timg said, "I to have questions about the blessing Israel and cursing Israel quote that is constently used. I just never seemed to understand what it means for the church to bless Israel. Who exactly are we blessing. The nation, Jews, is it the same?" End quote

The answer to your questions lies in understanding what God has done in Christ and His new covenant. For one thing, He has "broken down the middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile" in order to "create of the two one new Man" (Eph. 2.14,15). Because of what God has accomplished in Christ, He sees no difference now between Jew and Gentile (Acts 19.9, Rom. 3.22, Rom. 10.12).

...But it's very difficult to speak of these things on a forum like this; feelings run very high, especially concerning this matter. We think we see, but oh, the need for Spirit-birthed revelation that removes the scales from our blind eyes.

There are some good resources out there on the true relationship between Israel and the church; a good start would be carefully reading (with an open heart) Ephesians Chapters Two and Three.

Meanwhile, let's continue to pray for Israel... and the Palestinians. (Satan would like to see them all destroyed, wouldn't he... and all men who were created in God's image, for that matter.)

Allan

Neil,

I appreciate you posting what is going on in Israel. To those of us who have only a casual interest in the nation, the conflicting reports we hear from the news media gets very confusing.

Thanks, Neil.

ginnyrose

I am praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122:6

Even if we put aside the church-Israel issue and just look at the facts we should see this is NOT irrational agression by Israel. It is worth repeating Neil's remarks, which are clearly put.

"respectfully?.......i feel you dont have the timeline correct, the two weeks prior to the IDF's successful PRECISION strike on the military leader of Hamas, Hamas had been firing, everyday, anywhere from 5 to 30 missiles into southern Israel, they had been warned, "stop"...repeatedly...in fact, BEFORE the initial strike, the IDF sent out a "tweet", "if you are a senior Hamas leader, dont come aboveground".

As far as the "conditions" in Gaza, after Arik Sharon withdrew ALL settlement activity, he evicted 9,000 Israeli's in the process, the PA was "in charge" of Gaza...do you know Hamas did? Hamas WIPED OUT ALL PA leadership.....why did they do that? Because the PA was pursuing the "two state" framework, and Hamas, Hiz'bouallah, and even the Muslim brotherhood, in their charters, one of their objectives, is not peace, or co-existence with Israel, but Israel's destruction."

It is true that THOUSANDS (probably over 10,000) rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001 and these rockets were getting bigger and more sofisticated. So it is untrue to say that Israel initiated the current conflict. It has never stopped, it just never gets reported how many and how often rockets are being sent into the country. It's not a matter of taking sides (and it is true the vast majority of Palestinian citizens are innocent victims of the Hamas terrorists), but we need to consider the facts.

As I said before, any other nation if it was being continually attacked by rockets in this way would not hesitate to respond in a strong way. Muslim terrorist blew up the twin towers, so what did the USA do? Spend 12 years (so far) fighting to destroy the threat in Afganistan!

We have to ask ourselves why is it that the reporting of the conflict is always blamming Israel as the big bully who starts the fight, when the real facts are the opposite. It is not always the strongest that is the bully or the trouble maker. Sometimes someone small may start a fight in the hope that his big brothers will come in and help...this is what I think Hezbollah are doing.
There is a anti-Christ spirit in the world that distorts the truth and hates the fact that Israel is a nation again. We need to beware that we are not also naively influenced by this spirit.

What those who question Israel's actions never say, is what they should do. What is the answer if the agressor (Hamas) does not want peace?

I tend to agree with you Bearmaster. It seems that many in the church are to focused on an earthly kingdom for the nation of Israel. I have been raised in dispensational church, went to a private college that promoted a dispensational point of view and have spent a majority of my time in dispensational circles, but have yet to be conviced from scripture of the validity of this theology.
I could be wrong but I have yet to be convinced. And it has not been for a lack of trying.
That is why I ask the question "what does it mean to bless Israel?"
I realy want to know what they mean by that. Surely it means more than pushing "like" on facebook.
What I fear and see many times is the emphesis of the church to stress that the Jew is "God's chosen people" and neglecting to mention that without Christ they are destined to go to hell the same as the "worst gentile".
I believe that we are endagering the Jewish people with a false sence of security by telling them that because they are of the physical seed of Abraham, God will protect them.
Many times I hear people in the church call unsaved Jewish people "brother". This is a grave error at the least.
The religious leaders before the destruction of the temple ran there mistakenly thinking that God would rescue them.
This is the danger I feel with dispensationalism.
I know this is a touchy subject. That is why I usually stay away from it. But I think it is impotant for the church to consider what it really means to bless Israel.
Encouraging them to neglect their need for accepting the Messiah by not bringing it to the forefront of our message is a huge mistake at the least. Focusing on an earthly kingdom when not one of the apostles or Christ Himself did should atleast give us pause.
What good is peace in Jeruselum if Christ is continued to be blasphemed and spit upon by rejection.
I submit, that if we want to bless Israel we should pray for an awakening there not only that the rockets would stop falling.
In Christ alone,
Tim