Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122-6-9)
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you. ”For the sake of the house of the Lord our God” I will seek your prosperity.”
Introduction:
In light of the Iranian attack on Israel in the online edition of the Messianic Ministry “One for Israel” earlier this week in an email Dr.Erez Soref, President of the organisation wrote; “Iran just attacked Israel directly for the first time in history. Over 300 missiles and drones were sent to Israeli cities, mostly in the Jerusalem area and in the south. Many of us spent time in bomb shelters last night, praying for protection. I know that many of you have been praying for us as well, and we want to express our great thanks for all of your prayers and intercessions on our behalf. To everyone’s amazement, not one person was killed in the unprecedented attack, and there is much to thank God for today.”
All around the world New Covenant believers, who love Israel and understand God’s end-time purposes for His ancient people, are praying for the Jewish people at this time of their extremity as a nation, not only in Israel, but who are also scattered throughout the Gentile world as anti-Semitism rears its ugly demonic head. At this time the nation of Israel is under attack by Iran and other militant Jihad-minded Islamic extremists and terrorists hell-bent on the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people, just because they are Jewish!
Added to this, anti-Semitism is on the rise within wider Christendom, however it needs to be said that one cannot profess to love the Messiah our Lord Jesus and not love His brothers and sisters in the flesh, neither can one be a true Bible believer and ignore or dismiss the spiritual and national restoration of Israel in these last of the last days. We know that those who bless Israel will themselves be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and that those who denigrate Israel touch the apple of His eye! (Genesis 12:1-3) (Zechariah 2:8).
If we are true followers of the Messiah our Lord Jesus then we will regularly pray for Israel, and more specifically for the peace of Jerusalem. But how do we pray for this peace? We must always be guided by the Word of God. The reality is that there can be no lasting peace in Jerusalem until the Prince of Peace has returned and sits on the throne of David in Jerusalem reigning over the surviving nations of the earth (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Isaiah 2:2-4).
Knowing this does not excuse us from praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and we need to understand Biblically what this means for us who love and support Israel. How then, as New Covenant Bible believers, should we pray for the peace of Jerusalem?
1. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the salvation of the Jews.
Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).
He understood that the Gospel of the Kingdom was to firstly to be preached to the Jewish people (Romans 1:1`6). Paul calls them Israelites, which is the Biblically correct name God has given to His people as a nation. The term “Jews” used in the New Testament carries with it a negative connotation in that it often relates to the unsaved Jewish religious leaders who opposed and persecuted the Body of Messiah.
To pray for the salvation of the Jewish people is to pray that God would empower the Messianic believers in Israel, fighting in the IDF alongside their unsaved Jewish comrades in arms, working in the government administration offices and in the work place and in the educational institutes and in the Kibbutzim, to win their unsaved fellow Israelites to faith in the Messiah as their Passover Lamb, Saviour and Lord.
Added to this, our Lord Jesus encouraged us to pray; “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is being done in Heaven.” Our hope as New Covenant blood-redeemed Bible believers in this fallen world is the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus to establish His kingdom on earth of which we will be a part.
In these last days before the time of Jacob’s Trouble comes upon Israel and the whole world for that matter, we need to pray for, and support, the gospel being preached by faithful Messianic believers to their fellow Israelites that God would save many more Jewish people. God is allowing the situation in Israel to happen to bring as many Israelites as He can to accept their Messiah and be saved. He is using applied pressure to do this.
Having said this God still has everything under control! As far as Israel’s spiritual and complete national restoration at the very end of this present age is concerned Rabbi the apostle Paul writes…
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be My covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-29). God has not finished with Israel!
2. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for Israel’s leaders.
As we read in Rabbi the apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy; “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
Prime Minister Netanyahu needs our prayers that God would give him wisdom as he works with his political colleagues with the responsibility for the security of the people of Israel. Hard decisions have to be made in the current crisis and the weight of this responsibility must weigh very heavily on his shoulders as the elected leader of the nation. A stable government brings stability to a nation. Sadly today this is not happening in almost every country in the world and Israel is also having its political struggles.
We should also pray that the Knesset would be united at this crucial hour and that the people in Israel would also be united in taking their stand against the implacable remorseless killers for Allah in Gaza, Samaria and Judea, in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen, and especially in Iran and support their leaders. Even though God is bringing the nation of Israel to a situation where in desperation they will call on their Messiah to deliver them, God will answer them and reveal the Messiah to them and send Him back to rescue His people (Jeremiah 30:1-10).
3. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the protection of Israel.
As we read in the prophet Isaiah; “For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamour—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it” (Isaiah 31:4-5).
When you consider the previous three main wars Israel faced in 1948, 1973 and in 1967 it was clear that God was supernaturally protecting and watching over His people. Down through the centuries He has had to discipline and even judge them for their sins and unfaithfulness However, because of the blood covenant He cut with Abraham, ratified with Moses, and completely sealed and established forever by the blood of the Messiah, God is totally committed to the complete spiritual and national restoration of Israel and to their final destiny as a nation under God, and to be ruled by the Messiah after He has returned and destroyed all of their enemies (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Isaiah 34:1-10). God is a covenant keeping God and remembers His covenants! (Chronicles 16:13-18).
So we should pray for their protection, especially in light of the brutal and savage butchery perpetrated on the Israelis on October 7th 2023 by Hamas. The people of Israel desperately need our prayers, and when they know we are praying for them, it will draw them to us and to the Lord Jesus their Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed once and for all times for their sins, a sacrifice never to be repeated! It is time that the wider Body of Messiah needs to faithfully and continuously support Israel, especially those who are seeking to win their fellow Israelis to a saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
4. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the prosperity of Israel.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 28:1-14 we see the prosperity God promises to His people. It is a prosperity that follows the faith of obedience to the Lord with a desire to keep His laws and this prosperity covers every aspect of life both in spiritual and temporal needs. There are blessings for obedience but also curses for disobedience (28:15-68).
It is interesting to note that the curses listed outweigh the blessings because sin is a very serious matter to God. The sacrifices and offerings made in the Old Testament were made to temporarily atone for sins and were offered up continuously for sin. The curse remained because no one could keep God’s laws. When the Messiah our Lord Jesus came into this world and shed His blood to atone for all sin once and for all time, He bore that curse and its’ eternal consequences in His own body when He was crucified as the Passover lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (1 Corinthians 5:7).
As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “Messiah, redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Messiah Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14) (John 1:29) (1 John 2:1-2).
It is the indwelling Holy Spirit that empowers us to walk in step with the commandments of God. We cannot do this apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. In the new spiritual rebirth from above, the laws and commandments of God are written deep down on the inside of us in our hearts and conscience by the blessed Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33-34). Through His power we can walk in step with Him, and walk in line with the word of God and in all of His will for our lives (Romans 8:1-15) (Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25).
The surrender of our will to Him brings with it the blessings of God in every area of our lives and in doing this by the grace of God we will prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). In relation to the people of Israel, when any Jewish man, woman, boy of girl repents and comes to put their faith in the Messiah to save them, that curse of breaking the law over their lives is broken and they are set free from the law of sin and death mandated by God’s law which is good and perfect (Romans 7:12).
They do not become perfect as there is no perfection in this life; however, through the power of the blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, the grip of sin is broken and they are set free from its power (1 John 1:7-9). To pray for the prosperity of Israel is to pray for the salvation of the Jewish people. God’s definition of prosperity is not the world’s definition of it, however, faith in God does include having every spiritual and temporal need met (2 Peter 1:3-4) (Romans 8:32). Having said this, in the Messianic Millennial Kingdom in the age to come, Israel will prosper and become a light to the surviving nations because the Light of the World, the Messiah our Lord Jesus, will be reigning on David’s throne at Jerusalem!
5. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray that the Church will stand with Israel.
Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means!” (Romans 11:1) In his letter to the Romans Rabbi the apostle Paul was writing to the Assembly at Rome to deal with a division between Jewish and Gentile believers. When Claudius was Emperor of Rome he banished all of the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). This caused the Gentile believers to consider themselves as superior to their Jewish brothers and sisters in the faith. It was a very early form of replacement theology. Now when Nero came to power he brought all the Jews back to Rome as he knew they were good for the economy of Rome. The result was that there was a fracture in the Assembly at Rome between the Jewish and Gentile believers. With this problem in view Paul wrote the letter to the Assembly at Rome (Romans 11:17-21).
Gentile believers are spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel (Romans 11:17-19) (Ephesians 2:11-22). They are the spiritual offspring of the woman Israel (Revelation 12:17). The apostles did not see the Gentile Body of Messiah as a separate and distinct body of believers from Israel, but a body of believers included in a spiritually restored Israel which occurred at Pentecost (Acts 15:1-19) (Amos 9:11-12). Israel’s full restoration spiritually and nationally will happen when they encounter the Messiah our Lord Jesus when He is revealed from heaven to them (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). It was never God’s intention to make a separate and distinct division between Israel and the Body of Messiah (the Church). When you look at the denominational divisions within wider Christendom can we say this is God’s doing?
According to Rabbi the apostle Paul he writes; “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
At present, Israel as a nation have not been completely restored spiritually and nationally, however, when the Gentiles by and large have come into the Commonwealth of Israel, though faith in the Messiah, after that time, all Israel will be saved! The partial hardness of heart and the veil over their spiritual eyes concerning the Messiah our Lord Jesus will be removed, and when it is for every Jew still alive in Israel and on earth it will be life from the dead! (Romans 11:15-16).
Indeed in that day the prophet Zechariah declares; “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “If this is impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be impossible in My eyes?” declares the LORD of Hosts” (Zechariah 8:4-6).
Epilogue:
If we pray for Jerusalem and love her, meaning loving the inhabitants of Jerusalem, specifically the Jewish people is implied, we will be secure in our relationship with the Messiah Himself our Lord Jesus, and with God the Father, no matter what happens to us in this life down here. We will have God’s peace within the walls of the chamber of our heart. We will have security in all the changing circumstances of our lives related to what we will ever need that pertains to life and godliness through our knowledge of the Messiah our Lord Jesus.
For the sake of our Jewish brothers and sisters in Messiah, and for the sake of all Jewish people themselves, we need to convey and extend to them that peace of God which transcends all human understanding that comes from knowing the Messiah and the salvation that is only found in Him, a peace that will garrison the mind which the people of Israel desperately need at present and will also need in the future. For the sake of God’s people Israel when we pray for them we are in fact seeking their prosperity both in the spiritual and in the temporal realm.
To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Biblically is to be praying first and foremost for the salvation of the Jewish people. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Biblically is to be praying for the leaders in Israel. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Biblically is to be praying for the protection of Israel. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Biblically is to be praying the prosperity of Israel. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem Biblically is to be praying that the wider Body of Messiah will stand with Israel. Indeed with these things in view and until the Prince of Peace returns to Israel, “we should pray, and keep on praying for the peace of Jerusalem!”
