Why Pray for Israel? Part 1 - Which Israel?

Christians and Jews around the world are called upon to “pray for Israel.”  But who is “Israel,” and who is included under this designation?  Politically, “Israel” can mean the “State of Israel.” But "Israel" can also mean "ethnic Jews," the descendants of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, whom God named “Israel.”  Finally, the New Testament Scriptures use the name, “Israel of God,” a special designation that only includes those who are members of the community of faith in Jesus Christ.  Obviously, if we are called to “pray for Israel,” some clarification is needed.

Who and What is “Israel?”
Since 1948, when Israel became a nation with boundaries, “Israel” refers to the “State of Israel,” a political entity located in the general area of the original “Promised Land” that God promised to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12: 1).  Naturally, this act of creating a nation for ethnic Jews sparked a decades-long conflict with the Arab and Palestinian population of the area.

But “Israel” is more than the name of the Jewish nation.  “Israel” is a Hebrew name, meaning “he wrestles with God", or "God strives and prevails."  God gave this name to the patriarch Jacob after he wrestled with a man believed to be the preincarnate Christ (see Genesis 32:22-32).  This name change from Jacob (meaning “heel grabber” or “supplanter”) to “Israel” accompanied God's affirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant with Jacob, now “Israel” (Genesis 28: 1-4).  God had already affirmed this covenant with Israel’s father, Isaac (Genesis 22: 16-18).  It was through Israel’s twelve (12) sons that God created the Jewish nation, first during their bondage in Egypt (Exodus 1-13) and eventually, through their miraculous exodus to the “Promised Land.”

The twelve tribes of Israel have been called “God’s chosen people.”  However, many theologians consider the “Israel of God” to be more strictly defined as “spiritual Israel;” namely, all members of the community of faith in Christ, both Jew and Gentile.  The “Israel of God” has been a central focus in God’s redemptive plan that has progressed forward into our day.

In summary, the name “Israel" is used in three different groupings of people; namely,
(a) citizens of the State of Israel
(b) people of Jewish ethnicity worldwide
(c) Jewish members of the community of faith in Christ;
Therefore, the content and focus of prayers for “Israel” should be informed by an understanding of what we understand "Israel" to be.  This understanding requires a study of the Scriptures from a systematic theological approach. 

Because we are not experts in biblical theology, those who choose to read on will discover that we don’t have all the answers. Our approach will be to raise what we believe are revealing questions and then, provide relevant Scripture passages to address each question.  Then, after a brief commentary, we will invite readers to reason toward a correct answer.  But first, we share a bit of background on the biblical command to "pray for Jerusalem."

God’s Covenant with “Israel”
Psalm 122 is often used to provide a Scriptural basis for praying for Israel.  Historically, during their ascent to worship in Jerusalem, the Jews would sing Psalm 122 which includes King David’s prayer and a command to pray for Jerusalem for peace and prosperity.  The scope of this lovely prayer likely extended to the whole nation of Israel (v. 6-7):

    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
    May they prosper who love you.
    May peace be within your walls,
    And prosperity within your palaces.

King David’s prayer for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem is consistent with the scope of God’s covenant with Abraham, established over 1,000 years earlier.  The Abrahamic Covenant as outlined in Genesis 12: 1-3 included the “Promised Land” on which God would establish a great nation. God had commanded Abraham:

Notice that the Abrahamic Covenant contains God’s promise of blessing to those who bless Israel and curse upon those who curse her.  Reverence toward God and toward His covenant with Abraham and his descendants has placed “God’s people,” the Jews, in the global spotlight for many centuries. 

The covenant and additional blessings from God for His “chosen people” has also led to a sense of pride within the ethnic Jewish community that, justified or not, has created animosity among non-Jewish people toward the Jews.  Anti-Semitism has a long history written with the shed blood of millions of ethnic Jews.  No other ethnic group rivals the Jews in terms of the length of the historical span of persecutions and deaths, and the number of people whose lives were disrupted or terminated.  The magnitude of the animosity and persecutions of the Jews throughout history is difficult to explain apart from the notion of a devilish spiritual warfare against “the Israel of God.”

Today, Israel and ethnic Jews exert a powerful influence upon American culture, global politics, and foreign policy of the United States in relation to western allies and the Middle East.  Here in the United States, we hear of increasing expressions of anti-Semitism both verbally and by acts of violence.  For these reasons, it seems obvious that Christian’s ought to pray for those in authority as well as for all people regardless of ethnicity who are caught in the turmoil of these conflicts.  As we seek to know how and for whom we should pray in regards to “Israel,” we must look more closely at the significance of God’s covenant with Abraham and his offspring, and what God means by making Abraham “a great nation…[through which] all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Why Pray for “Israel?”
Following his miraculous conversion from Judaism to Christianity, a Jewish Pharisee named Saul who became the Apostle Paul, wrote extensively on the subject of the “Israel of God.”  We will begin with the book of Romans, the first of Paul’s writings which compose about half of the 27 books of the New Testament of the Bible.  Romans was addressed to the Christian church in Rome following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As promised, we will proceed with our first revealing question that points to scriptural clues about God’s definition and plan for “Israel.”

What should be our attitude toward “Israel” and “Jews?” 

1) Does the Gospel apply to Israel?  - Romans 1: 16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (or Gentile).  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” - Romans 1: 17
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6: 23
Consider:  Paul understood God’s intended scope of His Gospel and its power to bring salvation to both Jew and Gentile.  The free gift of Life in God's righteousness through faith in Christ's atoning death spares the believer from eternal damnation and frees the believer from trying to please God by law-keeping. Paul's own rebirth made him passionate and bold to proclaim the Gospel to all people.

2) Do both Jews and Gentiles face judgment without Christ?
                                                                     - Romans 2: 4, 9-11
Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?  There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For there is no partiality with God.
Consider:   Both Jews and Gentiles are subjects of God's kindness which ought to lead to repentance (turning from our sin) and pursuit of God's righteousness. Otherwise, neither Jew nor Gentile can be saved from eternal damnation.  This truth is reason for us to pray for all people (1 Timothy 2: 1).

3)  What lesson is there in the Apostle Paul's attitude toward
      his Jewish brethren? - Romans 9: 1-5
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.  
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.  For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. - Romans 10: 1-2

Consider:  Paul expresses deep sorrow for his brethren because they did not comprehend "God’s righteousness."  Instead, by ...seeking to establish their own [righteousness], they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.  The Jews did not realize that ...Christ is the end of the law for [all human-based] righteousness to everyone who believes.  It is clear that the Apostle Paul's love for Christ and his love for both Jew and Gentile had compelled him (2 Corinthians 5: 14) to pray and witness Christ to all regardless of religious affiliation (See Romans 10: 1-4).

 

APPLICATION:  Are we "ashamed of the Gospel?" Do we underestimate its power to save both Jew and Gentile? Is God's love for Jews any less than for Gentiles?  If we have been saved from damnation and are being transformed by the Gospel, what ought to be our attitude toward unsaved Jews and Gentiles? Finally, do we believe the Scriptures support praying for Israel?

HOW Should We Pray for "Israel?"

The Scriptures we have cited above and the Apostle Paul's testimony of love for his Jewish brethren ought to convince us of our duty to pray for Israel.  But now, we face a new question: "HOW should we pray for Israel?"  The obvious answer is that we ought to pray for the salvation of our Jewish friends just as we would also pray for our Gentile friends. 

But, like our Gentile friends, our Jewish friends are a diverse group whose love for God ranges widely from the Messianic Jews who acknowledge Jesus Christ as God's Messiah, to the orthodox Jews who hold a very strict view of and obedience to the Torah, and finally to Jews who live a carnal or godless lifestyle in rejection of the Jewish faith.  The latter can generally be considered Jews only by their claim to Jewish ethnicity.  Within the ethnic Jews, there is also a diversity with respect to their commitment to the Zionist movement which encourages Jewish immigration to the region of the "Promised Land" and the establishment of the Jewish state.

The subject of Zionism immediately raises the question, "HOW should we pray for Israel?"  Our focus shifts from individual justification and salvation before God to the question of God's redemptive plan for the Jews--and Gentiles.  Here, we must address how God's dealing with both Jew and Gentile relates to His sovereign plan for redeeming fallen mankind, both Jew and Gentile, that began "before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1: 4)? 

Given the religious and political diversity that exists among ethnic Jews, combined with our need to understand God's redemptive plan, it is clear that we must return to God's Word if we are to pray according to God's will and purposes for Israel.  In Part 2 of "Why Pray for Israel" (Click HERE.), we will continue our approach of asking questions pertaining to God's plan for Israel and citing Scripture that will help us find answers.

The questions we are now ready to ask include the following:
1)  Should Christians pray (if at all) for the state of Israel in its struggle against threats to eliminate its existence?
2)  When the Bible speaks of the future restoration of Israel, does this mean the state of Israel as a political entity; or, does God's plan for restoration refer to "the Israel of God" (Galatians 6: 16), all those, both Jew and Gentile who are spiritual "seed of Abraham" (Romans 9: 6-7)?
3)  Should our prayers be different for the state of Israel than for "spiritual Israel" --i.e. "the Israel of God?"

Comment:  Now it's your turn to respond.  Hopefully, we have stirred some questions in your mind and we'd love to hear from you.  Just click the "comment" link below and share your questions and insights on what we have offered in Part 1.  You can respond privately by writing to silviusj@gmail.com 

Stewardship of Righteousness -- Part Two

In the previous Oikonomia entry, we considered the trend in which increasing numbers of evangelicals are responding to calls to care for God’s creation, or to the poor and powerless by taking a stand for “social justice.” Recently, creation care and social justice ministries have begun to merge into a more broadly integrated “environmental- social justice” movement in efforts to address issues formerly considered quite separate– climate change, affordable housing, immigration, and accessible health care.

We emphasized that Christian environmentalism and other forms of social activism need not be at odds with biblical evangelism. Indeed, Christian environmental stewardship can foster a biblical foundation on which to build a life and a home to be salt and light in a world that has lost its moorings and is adrift on the waves of moral relativism, economic materialism, and scientific naturalism. Yet, we need wisdom to “balance” between maintaining our individual spiritual disciplines while using our gifts and abilities to exercise influence at the community and institutional levels.

If we are to nurture a growing love and obedience to God, extend charity toward our neighbor, and exercise stewardship of God’s creation, I believe we need to adopt a “stewardship of righteousness” (see Oikonomia, June 30, 2010). Individually, we must work to keep the “spiritual fire of our hearts” burning if we are to be good followers and leaders in a corporate or social sense. With great humility and recognition of my own need of grace, I will note that we are not without examples of respected evangelical, environmental leaders who have ended up in moral and/or ethical bankruptcy.

So, how can I judge the intensity of the “spiritual fire within my heart?” Church attendance and service? Prayer life? “Amount of time spent reading the Bible? What others say about me? All of these may be expressions of righteousness, but let’s hear the psalmist speak from the fire of his love, devotion, and felt need of God:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42: 1-2

His “spiritual fire” is expressed not by his desire to “do the things of God; or for God” but by his desperate need for the presence God Himself. Elsewhere, we read the psalmists expression of his desire for God’s temple and the opportunity to worship:

How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. – Psalm 84: 1-2

Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. – Psalm 43:4

My “stewardship of righteousness,” requires that I regularly “kindle afresh” (2 Timothy 1:6) the fire of the Spirit within me through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, and meditation in Scripture. As a result, the life of the Spirit within me stirs a yearning for God, for fellowship with His people, and for worship. These words from the psalmist are indeed inspired (“Spirit-breathed”) because they speak of the very desire of God in the person of His Spirit within us to be in communion with God.

Interestingly, as the psalmist expresses his longing for and need of God, he also notices that God’s welcome of him extends to His other creatures as well. Our Creator not only welcomes fellowship and intimacy with us, but His presence is also a place of welcome and safety for the sparrow of which God is mindful.

The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
My King and my God. – Psalm 84:3

Could it be that when we practice the disciplines above to keep the “spiritual fire” of our heart burning for a growing desire and felt need of God in our daily lives that we gain an additional benefit? Might we also begin to see the creation, our families, our neighbor, the environmental and social needs around us as God sees them?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to reflect on the above thoughts myself so that this inspiration may provide for me and for readers of Oikonomia the wisdom to be stewards of our gift of righteousness in Christ our Savior. Help us then to express this stewardship in our daily walk and service so that it will resemble more and more the walk of Christ as we see the world through His eyes. Amen.

Creation Care and Stewardship of Righteousness

Forty years ago this past April, I joined one of the first Earth Day gatherings and experienced the growing wave of interest in the “environmental movement” of the 1970's. Attention was focused on “pollution”, pesticides, population growth, and the politics of Vietnam and the cold war era. Many would agree that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) born in that era has had a positive role in reducing pollution and pesticides. The decades of the 1980's brought increased prosperity and an end to “the cold war.”

As the “walls came down” between East and West in Europe, and the economy began to ride the wave of computers and the internet, there was less concern about “the environment.” That is until scientists and politicians in the late 1980's began to turn our attention to what appeared to be a series of steadily increasing global temperatures. During the same period, Lynn White’s “Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” gained traction among some evangelicals because of his charge that Christianity was responsible for a growing “arrogance toward nature.” Some evangelical leaders and biblically literate scientists joined in significant discussions and wrote influential books and papers that emphasized the Christian’s responsibility to steward the Earth.

The growing visibility of the church in discussions of “the environment” in the 1990's caught the attention of astute politicians who recognized that their acknowledgment of Christian teachings could provide a powerful link to the value systems, and hence, the political will of the electorate. The seeds, not all bad, of the most recent “green movement” were planted and have since been warmed and watered by growing concerns about “climate change” and the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. Unlike the environmental movement of the 1960's and 70's, today’s movement has a large following in Protestant and Catholic churches who are aware of Christian responsibility toward God’s creation and toward the poor among us.

So, as we enter the second decade of the 2000's, and read of “global energy cap and trade” legislation, oil spewing in the gulf, and global economic woes, how are you doing as a “steward of the environment and in your exercise of “creation care?” Do you recycle? Is your church into recycling? Got your reusable cloth grocery bags? Drive a hybrid? Do you see connections between growth in Christian character and the discipline of rejecting materialism? Have you become more aware of the plight of the poor and the disenfranchised, and been able to turn greater compassion into appropriate action?

Today, it is not uncommon to meet sincere Christians who are learning to apply biblical teachings of “creation care” to their decision making in regard to lifestyle, community actions, economics, and political persuasion. Many of the principles that influence our attitudes and actions have been discussed here in this blog. Indeed, as this writer and other more prominent writers have emphasized (see resources below), Christian environmentalism and evangelism need not be at odds. I believe Christian environmental stewardship can provide a solid biblical foundation on which to build a life and a home that can be salt and light in a world that has lost its moorings and is adrift on the waves of moral relativism, economic materialism, and scientific naturalism.

However, our exercise of environmental stewardship can easily be hijacked by those who, for one reason or another, do not have a commitment to biblical stewardship. The quality of our corporate efforts depends upon biblically committed leadership. If I am serving in a leadership role, I must first exercise stewardship of my individual relationship with God and my accountability to Him above all. That is, I must sanctify Christ as Lord in my heart (I Peter 3:15a) each day. In the words of Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest, December 23), I must “Get alone with Jesus and either tell Him that [I] do not want sin to die out in [me]; or else tell Him that at all costs [I] want to be identified with His death.” When we surrender to God’s Spirit in the quietness of the morning, He sometimes lets us see “what we would be like if it were not for Himself; it is a justification of what He said - Without Me ye can do nothing." Here, in the morning with our Creator and Redeemer, we can evaluate our motives and our lifestyles – why we recycle, conserve energy, care about those who are poor both materially and spiritually. Then, we are ready to enter the new day and into the wider circles in relationships with our family, church, community, and government. With God’s help, we are ready to give an answer to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet with gentleness and reverence (I Peter 3:15b).

The Gospel of the cross that saved us individually is the same Gospel that can keep us accountable before God in a “stewardship of righteousness” that we received under the blood of Christ’s cross. If we are to exercise lifestyle and leadership in “biblical environmental stewardship” amid the highly politicized winds and waves of “climate change,” “cap and trade”, and “environmental-social justice,” we must begin each day at the feet of the One Who created us and the Earth; and then, allowed us, in our sin, to drive the rusty, refined ore from the Earth through His hands and feet.

Lord of Heaven, and Creator of Earth, remind us daily that any righteousness (right-ness) that we possess is not our own but has been bought with a great price, the blood of Christ. Help us to exercise “stewardship of Your righteousness.” May we not speak pridefully as the Pharisee, who prayed thus to himself, God I thank You that I am not like other people [like the tax collector]. Let us rather pray like the tax collector: God be merciful to me, a sinner. May our lives in private and in the public arena be seen by You and others as covered in the righteousness of Christ. May there be an obvious and evident link between Your righteousness in us and the lifestyle and leadership we exercise before others. Help us to walk with You daily; and then, discern what is right living and use of the material, time, and opportunity that you entrust to us. Then, may we relate biblically with others and their strong passions for justice and right-ness toward the Earth and the “less fortunate” in a manner that reflects our Lord’s concern when He said, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Amen.

Related Resources:
Creation Care and Christian Character
Creation Care– Doing It Our Way?