Much of what is being published on Chrisitan social media seems to assume a rather black and white picture – Israel good, Palestine bad. But as in all conflict, there’s good and bad on both sides.
So when Christians pray for Israel, it needs to be with compassion and with awareness. Awareness for example that the current Prime Minister is subject to investigations relating to bribery and fraud.
He has tried to maintain power, hence avoiding charges, by embracing some extreme right wing political groups within his government. This has led to more extreme positions on the rights of Palestinians and an extension to the policy of forced removal of Palestinians from their land.
The continuing Israeli efforts to displace Palestinian residents of the occupied Palestine territories and to settle Israeli citizens in their place has brought their ‘policy’ to the attention of the United Nations. The UN statement in April 2023 says that what Israel is doing is in ‘blatant violation of international law.’ This, together with continuing blockades of the Gaza Strip has resulted in an armed Palestinian response. That is to be deplored, but it would be healthy as Christians to see there are significant political reasons for the uprising, not least the deprivation of citizens in Gaza.
Water is in short supply, electricity is intermittent, goods are effectively rationed due to Israeli controls. All this has been reported in the press, not least by Christian organisations. Some praying for Israel comes from a dodgy end-times theology. If we accept the Dispensational teaching (popular in America in the 1970s) that there is some kind of secret rapture and that God is focussed on the current geographic Israel as His people, then prayers become rather skewed. Everything looks to Israel.
If you think I’m on my own in this view, I refer you to scholars with much greater understanding than me – See Tom Wright, ‘Surprised by Hope’, Simon Ponsonby ‘And the Lamb Wins’, and Ian Rossol’s ‘Win the World or Escape the Earth?’, to name but three of many. I’d like to suggest that a rather more balanced end-time view would see the Church as the new Israel.
Hence the Church can legitimately appropriate Old Testament prophecies such as Isaiah’s ‘Enlarge the place of your tent’ to the Church and not to geographic Israel. God still has plans for his original people. Paul makes that clear in Romans. But his people today are the Church, not those in geographic Israel. And that brings us back to prayer. We need to pray for Israel. And for Palestine.
Don’t forget Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Myanmar…. Pray for peace. Pray for those Christians on the front lines sharing the gospel. Pray for an end-time harvest. Pray for a bride of Christ on that final day, made up of every tribe and every tongue, every nation and every people. God’s plans include current Israel, but are so much bigger, so incredibly glorious. Keep praying.
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