Jerusalem: Eye of the Storm
Many times over the past couple of decades doing my Israel Prayer elists, I have had Christians tell me they didn't need to know what was going on in Israel because the HOLY SPIRIT told them what to pray. That is Charismatic arrogance if you ask me.
Here are a couple of biblical examples that I base my assessment on. One is found in 1 Chronicles 12:32, the passage about the tribe of "Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do". That has a New Testament parallel where we are told to pray in the Spirit and pray with understanding.
It's pretty hard to pray with understanding if you have no understanding of what is going on in Israel. That praying in understanding didn't just mean a language you and other listeners understood.
Over the past several years many of the Israeli ministries have written about a famous line from the Psalms that everyone who ever saw a Zola Levitt program will recognize even in Hebrew: "Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim," Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Hebrew is an language for wordsmiths - it has very precise meanings. So when Psalm 122:6 was translated as, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you need to know this:
"The Hebrew text is 'Shalu Shlom Yerushalayim' where Shalu is translated 167 times as "ask, enquire, request, salute, greet" AND YET ONCE AND ONLY ONCE, translated as "pray" and it is in Psalm 122 verse 6.
What do my Israeli Messianic Jewish friends make of that? They see it as the call by God not only to ask Him for the peace of Jerusalem, but to be proactive in inquiring about the peace of Jerusalem. Not to adopt an laissez faire attitude toward the peace of Jerusalem, but to lean in to know what's going on.
This isn't political. This is about not being passive about the peace of Jerusalem, but to know what are the things that make for peace.
In trying to find some of the articles Israeli Messianic ministries have written about this in the past, I ran across a very interesting article about a Baptist preacher who had come to the same conclusion about the meaning going beyond uninformed prayers for the peace of Jerusalem.
In the Australian version of Christianity Today (1/7/2024), Baptist minister "Mark Tronson, who is a qualified Holy Land guide, has revisited Psalm 122 verse 6a, challenging the translation which reads 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem'."
"M V Tronson says that this verse has caused him more concern and uneasiness than any other in relation to things Israel. He noted that 'war' has been a consistent feature of Israel's existence, past, present and future and that the City of David was established in 'war and blood' [2 Samuel 5:8].
"He said that he has been puzzled that Christians in his holy land circles pray Psalm 122:6a daily, yet Jerusalem's populations have suffered more wars and seen more bloodshed than any other city. Some years ago he painted 'Jerusalem' in blood red in one of his paintings, under his artistic guise, 'Tronson du Coudray – the missionary painter'.
"Prayer is a precious commodity according to the will of God, but when said outside 'His will' its value is questionable."
I found his comments remarkable. It is easy to assume we know the will of God when we know little of His promises to Israel or how they are being fulfilled in our own day. War, as in the re-capture of the City of David" (Jerusalem) was necessary even though people died. The war in Gaza is also necessary because Israel cannot live with the level of brutality that was unleashed on her citizens October 7th. Israel will continue to war for its existence...with the blessing of God.
Only Christians who are not passive about praying for Israel as commanded by God know that. They have committed to understanding what to pray over Israel. Casual commitment is not going to cut it from here on out.
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