The Word of God clearly says that as New Covenant believers that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem and there is the blessing of a sense of security in God within those who love Jerusalem. Those who persist in praying regularly for the peace of Jerusalem and seek its prosperity as a nation will be blessed (Psalm 122:6-9). Of course God’s definition of prosperity is different than the world’s definition of it and the hyper faith money preachers definition of it who link one’s spirituality to one’s material prosperity. But why should we pray for the prosperity of Jerusalem? Is it only to be blessed and to curry favour with the Jewish people and with God? Considering what this means we need to look at it in light of its co-texts.
Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray to our Father in Heaven; “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). However, according to God’s Word there can be no peace for Jerusalem until the Prince of Peace has returned to reign over the nations that have survived His Second Coming. Only then will there be peace within the walls of Jerusalem, within Israel and throughout the world. Israel’s current struggle with its immediate Islamic neighbours and with the leaders of the nations by enlarge has two aspects to it we need to understand in relation to the peace of Jerusalem.
Firstly, we know that Satan wants to destroy Israel because he knows that the Second Coming of the Messiah depends on the survival of Israel as a nation. We know of course that Satan will never destroy Israel as he experienced his first defeat at Jerusalem and he will experience his last defeat there as well. God is watching over His people, however, the struggle Israelis are experiencing is not just with those who are seeking Israel’s destruction in the outward physical world. Their main struggle is in the unseen spiritual world with the Lord Himself and with their Messiah even though unsaved Israelis both religious and non-religious Jews do not recognise this fact.
Secondly, Jacob is the Patriarch of Israel as a nation in its own right and Jacob the one upon whom God placed the name Israel. Jacob represents the nation of Israel corporately. In the womb of Rebekah the babies Jacob and Esau wrestled together, pre-figuring the ongoing struggle between the Jews and the Arabs down through Israel’s long and troubled history which we see continuing today. God told Rachel that there were two nations in her womb. Jacob represented the Jewish people whereas Esau represented the Arab people (Genesis 25:23). However, God made a covenant with the Jews and not with the Arabs concerning the inheritance of the Land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem (Genesis 17:17-22).
In Genesis we see Jacob wrestling with the pre-incarnate Messiah through the long night and at the break of day coming into a place of victory which saw the reconciliation with his brother Esau, a prophetic picture of Jews and Arabs living harmoniously together in the Messianic kingdom. Jacob also came out with a limp after his wrestling match with His Messiah which would be a constant reminder to him that he could not walk in his own strength or prowess anymore but that his success only lay in walking wholeheartedly with God (Genesis 32:24-31).
This whole incident is prophetic in that Israel today is coming to a point where the nation’s wrestling match with the Messiah will come to a head during the ‘long night’ of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, but the nation will be saved out of it at the end to be ruled by the Messiah who will have returned to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 30:1-10). At the end of this time of Jacob’s Trouble a remnant will come forth who will inherit all of the land given to Abraham which was to be for the Jews through Isaac “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8). In that day when Israel has been completely restored spiritually and nationally and the Messiah has been enthroned at Jerusalem Israel will “possess their possession” and “possess the gates of their enemies.”
At present Israel as a nation by and large are “aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise” and estranged from their older brother in the flesh being their redeemer the Messiah our Lord Jesus and Israel’s only Saviour among men. The troubles Israel are facing today will see God bring Israel to a point where they will in a desperate situation that they cannot handle and in their deep distress cry out to Him to save them and then God will send back the Messiah our Lord Jesus whom every surviving Jew still living on earth at that time will see Him whom they pierced and be saved! (Zechariah 12:11-14). In that day “All Israel will be saved” because “God’s gifts and call is irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-29).
To pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the Messiah to come back to establish His kingdom and His will on earth as it is already established and kept in heaven. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray that Jews will be saved and for the work of evangelism and discipleship to increase in measure and effectiveness, and that many Jews will be saved knowing that it is appointed for man once to die and after that to face judgement (Hebrews 9:27). This applies to all men regardless of their ethnicity (Romans 2:6-11). We can, and should pray for Israelis who are as yet unsaved and that they will be saved and experience the Shalom of God in their hearts. This is central to praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
Those who say they are praying for the peace of Jerusalem need to be asked “in praying for the peace of Jerusalem what are you actually praying for? Are you just caught up with everything Jewish or is the thrust of your prayers to see as many Israelis as possible come to saving faith in their Passover lamb and experience His Shalom having their sins forgiven?” To pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray that that God’s kingdom will come and that His will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven.” God’s revealed will in His Word on this matter of the peace of Jerusalem is that Israel will have to pass through this time of Great Tribulation but be saved out of it at the end of it (Jeremiah 30:4-7).
During this time the only friends the Jews will have is born again, blood washed, blood redeemed, Spirit filled, New Covenant Bible believers who have understood their responsibility to stand side by side with the Jewish people, and believe in the Biblical spiritual and national restoration of Israel as a nation. Sadly, even tragically, many Christians are telling Israelis about all of the blessings that God has and intends to bestow upon Israel but not telling them about what is coming namely that “time of night when no man can work” and that they need to repent and believe on Him who is their Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for them, and that it is only His blood that can save them and protect them from the wrath of God that is coming upon the whole world.
To really love the Jewish people is to tell them the good news of the kingdom which they can only experience through repentance and turning to the Messiah alone to save them (John 14:6). Of course they need to be told of the wonderful blessings and future God has for them, but also they need to hear and embrace the Messiah and what He has achieved for them spiritually by His atoning blood shed at the cross, especially in light of the Time of Great Tribulation that is soon to come upon the nation and the world at large. It is not an easy task at all to tell the Jewish people about this time of great tribulation that is coming their way, especially in light of what happened in the Holocaust and this was a tragedy almost beyond human comprehension, yet within the sovereign purposes of God for the nation. Satan was the one killing the Jews using the Nazi regime to do this. However, God did not permit the nation to be destroyed.
In the Torah there are blessings and curses attached to the Law of Moses, blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience and the curses far outweigh the blessings because sin is a very serious matter to God. This is why so much animal blood was shed in the Temple sacrifices which all pointed to the final and perfect once and for all time sacrifice of the spotless Passover Lamb whose blood can sanctify, cleanse and protect all those who by faith avail themselves of its spiritual power (Hebrews 10:12) (Romans 5:9) (1 Corinthians 5:7). Added to this, the curse of the law was broken at the cross when the Messiah became that curse, bearing the sin and the punishment in His own body, being the Sacrificial Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the whole world including Israel’s sin (Galatians 3:13) (John 1:29) (Matthew 1:21).
When any Jewish man, woman, boy or girl comes by faith to the Messiah to be saved by Him that curse over their lives is broken forever! Praise God! This is the best news any Jewish person can have! So to really bless the Jewish people is to tell them the whole story of redemption and that they need to repent of their works based righteousness and embrace the righteousness of God that He bestows upon all who return to Him exercising saving faith in the Messiah (Romans 3:19-31). God has not finished with Israel! Blessings lay ahead for the nation but in order for them to receive the blessings of God there needs to be a heartfelt repentance and saving faith in the Messiah. So then praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the salvation of the people of Israel especially at Jerusalem the hub and centre of the Jewish nation and because it is the City of the Great King the Messiah Himself which has been designated by God as the eternal capital of israel for the last 3000 years since the time of King David! Those who argue this fact argue with God!
In 1948 and 1967 and in 1973 God protected Israel in those wars. Prophetically He established Israel as a nation in 1948 according to the prophecy in Isaiah (Isaiah 66:8). Their national restoration was a partial one which will be fully fulfilled in the millennial reign of the Messiah. Their complete spiritual restoration as a nation is still to come in the future. In praying for the Peace of Jerusalem we are thanking God that His will and purposes are being done and will be accomplished for Israel. We most certainly can pray for those Messianic New Covenant believers in Israel evangelising their unsaved Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and that God will use the afflictions of His people to bring unsaved Jews back to the Messiah.
The question I am asking those who are holding conferences and gatherings to pray for the peace of Jerusalem what are they in fact actually praying for? If God is using adversity and opposition to bring His people back to Himself, as He has always done down through Israel’s long and troubled history as we see in scripture, then by praying for the peace of Jerusalem are we praying for something that is not correctly understood in light of what God has been doing with His people for centuries to bring them back to Himself? The whole situation in Israel, the troubles, the afflictions and the hostilities of their immediate Islamic neighbours and within Israel itself God is using to bring His spiritually wayward people back to Himself and to the Messiah to find salvation in Him and in no one or in nothing else.
The prosperity in business, medicine, technology, weaponry and in other fields of endeavour are coming out of Israel because God wants them to be a blessing to the nations, but this prosperity for the nations will only have its complete fulfilment in the future when the Messiah reigns from Jerusalem. Many Christians are praying for the peace of Jerusalem. In praying for the peace of Jerusalem what are they in fact praying for or expecting God to do? I love Israel and the Jewish people and my prayer for the peace of Jerusalem is for the salvation of as many Jews as possibly before the Time of Great Tribulation comes upon the nation, upon the world and upon the Church. Also in praying for the peace of Jerusalem we need to include that the kingdom of God will come soon and that His will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven. Our prayers should always be in line with the Word of God otherwise we may be actually praying against the will of God!
