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Why pray for Israel? Has the church replaced Israel?
At Waters Edge Elim Church we make an effort to bless, support and devote prayer meetings specifically to the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. But why all the fuss over Israel which currently occupies approximately the same area of land as Wales?
There is scriptural justification for praying for and choosing to bless Israel in particular in both Testaments. Psalm 122 says 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, propserity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions,I will now say "Peace be within you" Because of the house of the lord our God I will seek your good' (Psalm 122: 6-9) Also inRomans 11:1 Paul says 'I say then has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.' If we read Romans Chapters 9-11 it is clear that God has not cast of Israel and the church has not replaced Israel!
I shall quickly look at the Abrahamic covenant and the Land Covenant which explains God's promises to Abraham and His descendants.
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Firstly God established an EVERLASTING and UNCONDITIONAL covenant with Abram and his people. Genesis 12: 1-3 reads 'Now the Lord said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and 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 curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'
We should therefore be careful how we treat the Jewish people. This does not mean that Jewish people can do no wrong, but if we treat Jewish people unfavourably because they are Jewish then we shall pick a quarrel with God, as Zechariah 2:8 confirms 'He sent Me after glory to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.'
God also promised Abram that his descedants would be given a land with definite parameters.'On the same day that God made a covenant with Abram saying: To your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great River, the River Euphrates.' (Gen 15:18) In addition '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.' (Gen 17:8)
Since the Abrahamic covenant is everlasting and unconditional and as Yahweh is unchanging (Read Malachi 3:6 and Heb 13:8) and is faithful regarding His covenant promises, we will be blessed if we choose to bless Israel and likewise we shall be cursed if we choose to curse Israel.
THE LAND COVENANT
Deut 30 verse 1-4 reads "Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord God will gather you, and from there He will bring you."
Notice the same is happening today! Yes the Israelites did exit Egypt and the Jews returned from Babylon but this was not a worldwide dispersion and they were certainly not driven from all nations until the temple was destroyed in AD 70. In AD 70 Jerusalem was overthrown by the Romans and the Jewish people were scattered worldwide. Israel became a nation again on May 14th 1948 (see the prophecy in Isaiah 66: 8-9) and Jewish people have returned from over a hundred nations. Furthermore Amos 9:11 confirms that 'I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord.'
Has the church replaced Israel?
The short answer is no! Let me quote Jeremiah 31:37 'Thus says the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done says the Lord.'
Ezekiel 47-48 advises us of the borders of the land and also the division of the land during the Millennial Kingdom. That obviously hasn't happened yet and finally Revelation 7 lists the 144,000 sealed of Israel from each tribe respectively. To say that this relates to the church rather than Israel stretches the imagination let alone Scripture!
So what now? A good start is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to pray also that the Jewish people will receive the Jewish Messiah who died for Jews and Gentiles alike and who desires that no one will perish but receive everlasting life in Him. Amen |
