Israel

Israel is God's greatest sign and wonder. Because she has stood for so long, it is easy to forget that the simple existence of Israel is a massive miracle, in, and of, itself. Because of God's commitment to mankind to redeem us from our own rebellion, He chose an ark, a family of refuge, to bring forth a Savior. God chose Abram, and gave Him a new name, to demonstrate the uniqueness of this family to all the world:


Genesis 17:5-8 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”


Israel is THE most persecuted family in the entirety of world history. From the very beginning, this family has had everything stacked against them. This line of Abraham was birthed miraculously, when Abraham and his wife should have been much too old to have babies. They were held as slaves in Egypt for 400 years, which included the killing of all the male babies for a time.


Finally brought into a land of their own, they were in near constant battles to obtain and hold the land promised to them by God. Wiped out and oppressed by first the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, the Medes and Perisans (who made it a law that they could be completed exterminated), the Greeks, and the Romans (who tried to forcibly convert them to idol worship upon threat of death). They were completely dispersed in 70 a.d., and sent to the four winds, no longer possessing a land. The Ottoman Empire actively attempted to erase any evidence of their culture and history in the land promised them by God, especially in Jerusalem. Even building the Dome of the Rock right where the Jewish Temple was. Many Jews ended up in Europe, where they were oppressed by almost every host nation, but yet they flourished.


Germany officially attempted to eradicate them, Russia quietly attempted to eradicate them. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Palestinian mandate of the British colonial rule that barred them from moving to the area of Jerusalem...Israel's history is unique, to say the least. But yet they stand. On one day, as Isaiah prophesied, in 1948 they were reformed as a nation with a homeland:


Isaiah 66:8-9 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord . “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb? ” says your God.


God has written out the rest of Israel's story. He, who has miraculously carried Israel for the last several thousand years, is sure to finish what He started. His promise is that everyone who agrees with Him will be blessed.


Anyone who doubts the existence of God, or the truth of the Bible, just needs to consider Israel: the most reviled nation in all of history, small, surrounded by enemies for most of it's existence, but still it stands! Even right now, it is completely surrounded by people that want it gone. For the last several years, rockets have been launched at this country on a near-monthly basis, but no one seems to notice much.


Why all this persecution? There is one simple reason: Jesus. From the moment God chose Abraham to be the line to produce the Savior, satan set out to hinder Jesus from coming forth. Once Jesus was born, satan set his heart to kill Jesus. Just when satan thought He had won, Jesus took His life back up from death and made a spectacle of the enemy's short-sighted foolishness...the fruit of his blinding pride. This is what Jesus did when He took His life back from death:


Colossians 2:14-15 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.


Since then, these words of Jesus have been haunting satan night and day:


Matthew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord !’ ”


Satan knows that when Jesus returns he will no longer be free. Prison, and then the lake of fire are a sure thing for satan. Prison IS coming for the tormenter of this world. But satan knows Jesus will not lie. It is this very promise Jesus made, that He will not return until His chosen people, Israel, invite Him back in Jerusalem as the messiah, that satan has placed his hopes of staying out of prison on. This is why we see Jerusalem completely sacked shortly after Jesus made this promise. This is why country after country has killed, persecuted, and scattered Jews, and confiscated the property of Jews for the last 2,000 years. But still, here we are, in 2013 with a nation of Israel fighting to control Jerusalem. Fighting to have a temple to worship in. Fighting for survival. God WILL get His way!


Israel, a tiny country, smaller than Rhode Island, is the focal point of world politics, history, and religion. This is no mistake. This little country is the most obvious manifestation of the war happening right now between the angels and the demons. Praying for Israel is the most effective way to agree with God about what is coming...what is yet to be accomplished. Satan wars with Christians primarily to keep them from supporting Israel in prayer. What we are tempted to see as weak words to an invisible God about a country most of us have never visited IS actually the one thing satan is most terrified of:


Revelation 12:13-17 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.


The eagle is the praying church. As we take our place and intercede for Israel, we thwart the plans of the enemy, and we agree with the plans of our King. We agree with Jesus about His plan to return to a remnant of Abraham that welcomes Him as Messiah in Jerusalem. This is what it is all about! As more and more of us take our place on the wall of intercession, crying out night and day for Jerusalem, satan is hindered more and more!

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”