Why We Pray for and Support Israel - 2

Why We Pray for and Support Israel - 2

Subject – Israel: The Apple of God’s Eye

By Rick Welborne

Genesis 12:1-3 (NLT2)
¹  The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
²  I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
³  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” 

--Isn’t it amazing that God would say, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.” God’s heart has always been toward His chosen people Israel.

--We have tried here at LIFE CHURCH Assembly of God to focus our attention on blessing and praying for Israel. Why?  

--The simple answer is that God has told us in His Word to do so and we are trying to obedient to Him. We want the blessings of God to be upon us and upon our church so we pray for Israel.

--Today I want to continue speaking about Israel because my heart is so burdened for God’s people and I believe, the more we know, the more we will pray.

--How can we not pray and be burdened when you see babies, children, women, men, and the elderly dying senselessly. Souls now spending eternity with or without God.

1. Israel is Important to the World and to us as Christians.

Israel: the geographic center - Israel, called “the navel of the earth,” is strategically located at the hub of three continents. Everything evolves around Israel and Jerusalem.  

Ezekiel 5:5 (NKJV) ⁵ "Thus says the Lord GOD: 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her.

Israel: the revelation center - From this land, the land of Moses, the prophets and the apostles, came the Word of God.

Israel: the spiritual center. In Bethlehem Jesus was born. In Nazareth He grew to maturity. In Galilee He walked and taught on the mountainsides and beside the Sea. 

--In Jerusalem our Lord was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. From the Mount of Olives, He ascended. And to the Mount of Olives He will return; His feet will first touch down upon the Mount of Olives. 

Zech.14:4 (NKJV) ⁴ in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. 

Israel: the prophecy center. Prophecy is “pre-written history.” The land of Israel is the only land belonging to God’s people. The details of their future are recorded in the Bible. If you want to know what God is doing, study Israel and her people.

Israel: the storm center. The Middle East, specifically Israel, is the world’s greatest trouble spot. 

Zech 12:3 (KJV) ³ And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

--And indeed we see in the daily news the gathering storm clouds of Armageddon. Get ready and look up!

Israel: also the peace center - There will never be peace on earth until there's peace in Jerusalem, until Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, rules and reigns from Jerusalem. 

--When we're praying for the peace of Jerusalem, we're praying, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” We want our Lord to reign from Zion, to sit upon the throne of his father David.

Israel: one day will be the glory center - When our Lord returns, all nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to worship 

Zechariah 14:16 (NKJV)
¹⁶  And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

--Jerusalem will be the capital city not only of Israel but of the entire world, and the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Zion.

Isaiah 2:3 (NLT2) ³ People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the LORD’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. 

--Jesus will reign from Jerusalem. Listen to the angel in His conversation with Mary.

Luke 1:31-33 (NLT2) ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.
³²  He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
³³  And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

--Israel is at the center of God’s plan. God has proven over and over again how He has Israel in His hands. We spoke of how Israel became a nation in just one day in 1948 but there is more.

--Similar things happened in the Six Day War in 1967. Again it seems God was present. Jordan, Egypt and Syria united with one stated goal: “Wipe Israel off the map.”  

--But it was over in six days. Outnumbered 80 to one, God gave His people Israel the victory.

--The same was true in 1973, the Yom Kippur War. Israel’s enemies invaded on Israel’s holiest day, when no one would expect it. 

--God again seemed to intervene when both Israeli and Syrian forces reported strange events that caused Israel’s enemies to surrender. A lady from our church was there when it happened. Ann Howell.

--The Bible predicts that in the last days the same will happen when Russia invades the Middle East. Russia will be brought to her knees on the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 38 and 39 relate this amazing prophecy.

--When the battle of Armageddon is fought, when the forces of anti-Christ gather once more against Jerusalem, God will again come to the rescue of His people in that great, final war for Israel and her survival. 

Zechariah 12:1-3 (NLT2)
¹  This message concerning the fate of Israel came from the LORD: “This message is from the LORD, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit.
²  I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah.
³  On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves. 

2. Israel Will Be Saved.

Zechariah 12:9-10 (NKJV)
⁹  It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
¹⁰  "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 

--What a day that will be! The eyes of God’s people will be opened. With deep mourning, they will recognize their Messiah as the one their forefathers pierced.

Zechariah 13:1 (NLT2)
¹  “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity. 

--God will remove the idols from Israel once and for all. Then He will bring those remaining through the fire.

Zechariah 13:9 (NLT2)
⁹  I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

--One of the signs that Jesus Christ is coming soon is the sign that Zion is being built up. We long for this day! This is Israel’s glorious future—and you may be sure, God is going to bring it to pass.