Standing with Israel in Prayer: Call to Prayer
Israel is going through a time of crisis. The population is deeply divided and polarization only seems to be intensifying. Today (Monday, July 24) the Knesset is voting on the government’s proposed reforms concerning the powers of the Supreme Court. Anyone who reads the analyses and comments carefully gets the impression that this is actually more of a battle for or against the person of Netanyahu. Israel has lived in an environment of enmity and threat since its re-establishment in 1948. Also in international politics, Israel is often isolated. However because of the current internal divisions, it seems as if Israel no longer needs enemies, one political commentator wrote. This is certainly disastrous for a country and people like Israel. After all, the people of Israel are still called to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6) to the God of Israel.
In the Bible we also read that the people of Israel sometimes went through a period of internal division and strife. At the time of Nehemiah, the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian exile and the walls of Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt. However, it was not an easy task. The Israelites faced opposition from the outside, as well as internal divisions. It was an extremely dangerous situation that made the people even more vulnerable. It is striking how many similarities there are between the situation of Nehemiah and Ezra then, and the situation in which Israel finds itself today. At the time of Nehemiah, the problems were revealed in an impressive way: the people as a whole confessed their guilt and humbled themselves before God (Nehemiah 9). They also promised to live according to the Word of God from then on.
As Christians for Israel, it is not appropriate to choose sides. The Jewish people have their own government and parliament. We have told the Jews for almost 2,000 years what they should and should not think and do. Although everyone will have his or her opinion, we always want to stand with the people of Israel, because the God of Israel has made an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people as a whole. What we can do is pray for Israel. To add our supplications and humiliation to the supplications of Israel so that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob may have mercy on His land and people.
Roger F. van Oordt
Rev. Cornelis Kant
We would like to encourage you to read and meditate on the entire Bible book of Nehemiah in your Quiet Time with God in this period.
