Prayer for Israel

As an Italian Messianic Jew, living here in Canada, the last week has been one of the most traumatic, heartbreaking, and painful weeks of my life as the gravity of the horrific atrocities perpetrated upon our Jewish People in Israel by Hamas Terrorists, became more apparent, appalling and shocking. The evil and barbaric murder of entire families’ fathers, mothers, children, babies and the elderly, in cold blood, continues to shock the world. It didn’t stop there, the murder of 260 young people at a music festival, the rape of young women right next to the bodies of their friends gunned down and the kidnapping of 155 Israelis, soldiers, women, children the elderly and even entire families taken to Gaza as trophies paraded in the streets to the shouting of Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar i.e. “Allah is Greatest,” is still very difficult for me to digest.

This all happened as they were waking up to the last day of the Feast of Sukkot on Saturday October 7, entering the celebration known as Simchat Torah “the Joy of the Torah.” This was to be a time of dancing and singing to mark the completion of the annual reading of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, and then the beginning of the new weekly reading cycle called the Parashot, which includes readings from the Torah, the Haftorah, from the Nevi’im the prophets and the Ketuvim the wisdom scriptures. Instead, Israel was now in a state of war reeling in unbelief, trauma and mourning over the devastating horrific atrocities that were committed by the Hamas Terrorists.

Dear friends, never have our Jewish people and the world, witnessed this level of evil and acts of barbarism since the Holocaust. The utter evil and cruel butchery of innocent Israelis was an unprecedented attack that now will require an unprecedented response from the Israel Defence Forces that will result in many Palestinian casualties. 

For this very reason, I’m calling upon every Christian who loves the God of Israel to pray with intensity and great fervour for Israel and for a quick end to this war. Now some may be asking questions like, “Why should Christians stand and pray for Israel?” I think there are many reasons that I could expound on theologically or doctrinally, but I simply want to begin by considering what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 9:3-5 about the debt that gentile believers owe to the Jewish people.

For I could wish that I were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

It’s very clear that Christians owe their spiritual legacy to our Jewish people whom God has also called, “His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a Holy Nation” notice what the scriptures declare:

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Exodus 19:5-6  

Now I could cite so many scriptures to affirm Israel’s calling and purpose, but for the sake of clarity, if one’s theological position excludes Geo-political Israel and our Jewish people from Gods ultimate plan of redemption, that theological position will be off kilter completely and will very simply put into question the credibility of Gods covenant with Gentile believers.

As the saying goes, let’s cut to the chase and head for the finish line – I believe the reason that Gentile believers should stand and pray for Israel is because God’s own credibility, His Name, is at stake. Consider carefully what God says about the regathering of our Jewish people and the miracle of the rebirth of Israel in Ezekiel 39:25-29:

Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob (Israel) and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.

Did you notice that the very existence of the Jewish State of Israel is a fulfillment of Gods promise to regather them in their own land because God says, “I’m jealous for my name.” Folks, I would like to present to you emphatically, that the foundational reason why Gentile believers should stand with, and pray for Israel is to affirm the Word and the Name of the Lord which will be hallowed or feared among the Nations when Israel is in their land.

Consider what God said to Avraham Avinu, “Abraham our Father” when he called him out of the land of the Chaldeans and made this promise to him in Genesis 12:2-3 that directly affects every Gentile believer and the nations of the world based upon ones relationship and response to the biological descendants of Abraham.

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Notice what God said, ” I will Bless those who Bless you and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Dear Friends, as gentile believers who have now become part of the family of God, consider again what the Holy Spirit revealed to the Apostle according to Ephesians 2:12-15,19, Paul declares very clearly that in Christ, Gentile believers are now part of the very household of God (the commonwealth of Israel).

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Therefore, when Christians stand and pray for Israel they are simply proclaiming their identity in Gods Family and a sense of gratitude for the spiritual legacy of our Jewish people.

May the Lord protect Israel and the innocent Palestinians, who do not support Hamas.