Out of Zion

Susan Michael: But to know how to pray for the Jewish people, we must first understand a little bit about who they are and what their struggles are. So please stay tuned as we're going to talk about that today.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you. Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural perspective to equip the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes, which will ignite your faith and bring the Bible to life in your everyday world. Now, let’s join Susan with your Israel Answers.

Susan Michael: Well, who is a Jew? It's not just a race or an ethnicity or a religion. It is a people. It's a peoplehood. AI defines it as an ethno-religious group, meaning it's not just ethnic, it's not just religious, but it's an ethno-religious group. Because you can be born a Jew, but you can also become Jewish by converting to the religion. So not everyone practicing the Jewish religion was born a Jew, and not everyone born a Jew practices the religion. They identify as Jewish through their ethnic, cultural, and ancestral ties.

So, who's a Jew? Anyone born to a Jewish parent and anyone who converted to the religion. The point is this: not to think that all Jewish people are religiously the same. There is a wide divergence in Jewish practice and identity, just like there is in Christianity. I mean, look at when you talk about the world of Christianity. It's everything from Eastern Orthodox to Catholic to mainline Protestant to evangelical to Pentecostal and all kinds of things in between. So realize that it's the same, and there can be very nominal Christians that go to church once a year but actually know very little about the faith. So realize that you have the same type of diversity amongst the Jewish people.

And ethnicity: there is a lie circulating today that the Jews of Israel today are not the Jews of the Bible. That is a lie. It's just a lie; it's not true. They are the same people. They are the descendants of the people of Israel we read about in the Bible. I don't have time to tell you the whole story of the whole history, but if you know your Bible, you know that the Jewish people are the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac, through his son Jacob, who became known as Israel and had twelve sons—the twelve tribes of Israel.

When the Assyrians invaded the land of Israel in 722 BC, they took many of the Jewish people into exile deep into the northern regions of Assyria. Some fled south to get away from the Assyrians and ended up in Egypt, down into Ethiopia or today Sudan. Others fled south through the Arabian Peninsula, ending up in what today is Yemen. So they ended up scattered.

Then in 70 AD, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, many Jews fled and ended up scattered throughout the Roman Empire, but they were already there even before that second exile. The missionary journeys of Paul—when he went throughout Asia Minor and into Greece and Rome—there were Jewish communities everywhere. He first visited synagogues. This scattering had been there for hundreds of years.

So there today, we have Jews that are fair-skinned from Europe, we have Jews that are brown-skinned from the Middle East, we have Jews that are black-skinned from Ethiopia, we have slanted-eye Jews from Asia because they have been in that area for centuries and centuries and centuries. So there's not one pure race or one pure ethnicity, but the Jews of today and those that have returned to the land of Israel from the four corners of the world, they may look different, there may be different ethnic influences in them, but they are the descendants of the Jews of the Bible. Don't believe this lie.

Now, speaking of exile and being scattered all around the world, there's no people group in the history of the face of the earth who have been scattered outside of their homeland and maintained a national identity for, let's say, 200 years. Yet the Jewish people were scattered and maintained their identity for 2,000 years. And the fact that they have now returned and reestablished sovereignty—well, it's a tragic and miraculous story all at the same time. What they had to suffer for those centuries outside of their land—persecuted, discriminated against, even threats of annihilating them—but their miraculous return has brought new hope and fervency to the people.

So this is the people that we want to pray for: the people of Israel and the Jewish people that are still outside of the land of Israel. They are an ordinary people. They're human beings just like you and me, but they have the most extraordinary heritage and calling and future. So let's talk about their calling. They have a very special calling, and this calling is what really has put them in the direct line of fire throughout history. Their calling is to be the people God would use to bring His eternal plan of redemption into the world.

And because God's plan of redemption means the demise of evil, these very evil forces of darkness seek the destruction of the people that God has promised He is going to use to carry out His plan. Do you understand? Maybe I should repeat that. Let me just repeat it. Because God's plan of redemption means the demise of evil, those very forces of darkness seek the destruction of the people God has promised to use to bring about His plan.

So you might be asking, "Okay, God is still working with the Jews, but what about the church? Aren't we the people of God?" Well, yes, we are, and we also have a calling, and we are not separate from the Jewish people. We've actually been grafted into their tree of faith, but our calling is slightly different. We are called to bring the good news to the nations of the world about God's redemption, about His plan.

But my friend, we need to humbly admit: Jesus is not returning to Rome or to Constantinople or to Springfield, Missouri, or to Nashville, Tennessee. Jesus is returning to Jerusalem. So if you think God is finished with the Jewish people and their calling is over, you must ask yourself, then why is Jesus returning there? And you must ask yourself, if you believe that their calling has been revoked, then why did the Apostle Paul say their calling is irrevocable? Or some would pronounce that irrevocable. Yes, he says that in Romans 11:29, speaking of the calling on the Jewish people. He says the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

So now you understand the significance of the Jewish people and of their return to the land of Israel. Once you understand this significance, you begin to understand the ugly hatred of antisemitism—that it is spiritual. It's spiritual warfare, and it's an evil force that raises its ugly head generation after generation after generation. I always like to refer to Psalm 83 to give you a picture of this hatred.

In this Psalm—and I'm going to paraphrase—it says, "O God, do not keep silent and do not hold Your peace, for behold, Your enemies make a tumult, and those that hate You have lifted up their head, and they've taken crafty counsel against Your people, and they have consulted against Your sheltered ones. They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.' For they have consulted together with one consent; they form a confederacy against You."

And then the Psalmist lists the nations that are a part of this confederacy. Obviously, these are armies with militaries against the people of Israel, but he's saying that it's the enemies of God and they are coming against God Himself. And then it drops down; it says, "O God, deal with them as those who have said before, 'Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession.'" Now, let's unpack this. There's so much in this verse that I just read.

It's the enemies of God Himself who have made this plan to cut off His people as a nation. It says that the name of Israel would be remembered no more. Wow, does that sound familiar? Doesn't that sound like what's going on today with the Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran—all these enemies around Israel seeking to wipe her off the map? And the mantra today is "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea." That means let's cut them off so their name won't even be remembered; they're not even on the map anymore. Just what this scripture describes.

And then it says, "God, this confederacy against You, deal with them like You dealt with others in the past who said, 'Let us take for ourselves the very pastures of God for a possession.'" So you may think that the Palestinian people have some rightful claim to the land. Let me tell you, whatever land dispute there may be here or there, that's not what this is all about. This is about wiping God's people off the map and taking the very land of God. It's His land. He's the one that decides who lives on it, and they're wanting to take it.

So now, I think you understand the need to stand in the gap on behalf of the Jewish people suffering from this spiritual warfare against them all around the world and particularly against the nation and the people of Israel seeking to divest them of the land that not only God gave them but that the United Nations and the international powers ceded to them back in the 1940s. Their founding is legal; it was with the approval of the international bodies of the time, and you've been told lies that it's illegitimate.

So now we understand the warfare against them. We want to pray, number one: we want to pray for God's supernatural protection over Jewish communities in Israel and all around the world. We want to pray for the exposure and the uprooting of these antisemitic lies in media, education, politics, religion—wherever they're found. Social media for sure.

We want to pray for believers, churches, and for our governments to boldly stand with the Jewish people and to actively oppose antisemitism. We want to pray that every weapon formed against God's people, the Jewish people, will be destroyed. Isaiah 54:17 says, "No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn." That verse was the prophet Isaiah speaking to the people of Israel that no weapon formed against them would prosper. So let's pray that scripture.

And let's also pray for unity amongst the Jewish people around the world. They are stronger when they are in unity. They need each other just like they need us and our friendship and our support, but they need each other. Right now they're deeply divided, just as we are here in the United States. All around the world, there seems to be such divisions. They have the same thing in Israel: political divisions as well as all kinds of divisions. But they also have it in the diaspora—the Jewish communities around disagree over this or that. So let's pray for unity that they would be strong.

Okay, I'm going to lead us in prayer and then I have a special offer to give you. So please join me in prayer and stay with me for just another minute. Dear Lord, we do want to pray for the protection over the Jewish people and over the people of Israel. Lord, we pray that as Your word has promised, that no weapon formed against them would prosper. We pray, Lord, that every weapon, every plan, every conspiracy would be exposed and would be brought down, that it would be destroyed.

Lord, we pray for the exposure of all these plans, all these lies—that they would be exposed for what they are. It's evil, evil, evil hatred. It's the accuser of the brethren, and so, Lord, we pray that You would expose him and cast him down. Lord, we pray for the church, and I pray for the church here in the United States. Lord, may it stand strong. May there be thousands and thousands and thousands of churches that understand this spiritual warfare and will pray for Israel, will pray for the Jewish people, will stand with them, will teach their congregations to pray for them and to stand with them.

Lord, I pray for the government of the United States. I thank You, Lord, that our government has been a friend to Israel. But, Lord, there are always voices trying to divide, trying to bring a lack of trust, trying to bring tension into this relationship. And I pray that every one of those voices will be brought down, and, Lord, that the government of the United States will continue to stand strong side-by-side with Israel in friendship. And yes, sometimes friends have to speak truth and have to speak hard words, but when you're friends together, you can join forces and you can work together, and that's what we ask for between the United States and Israel.

And, Lord, lastly, I want to pray for unity among the Jewish people. I pray for unity in Israel. There has been such deep divisions, and recently there's been such deep pain over the fact that these hostages were being held captive. And now they're home, but now everybody's looking to see: who do we blame? Who do we point the finger at? Who didn't do what they were supposed to do? And this brings such deep divisions. Lord, we pray for healing in Israel. We pray for a time of peace that they can heal.

We pray for these hostages who have come back home and they have such emotional scars, physical scars. Lord, we ask for their healing. And we pray for the Jewish community around the world. I pray for the community here in the United States, the second-largest Jewish community in the world. Lord, I pray that they would be in unity and that they would support Israel, that they would say, "We are proud to support Israel and stand with the people of Israel," and that that unity would be a voice of clarity at a time when our nation needs it, our government needs it.

So, Lord, I just want to thank You that You have heard our prayers today. And just as You've heard the prayers for centuries of the Hebrew prophets and of the words of Your Torah and the words of Your scripture, Lord, we thank You that You've heard our prayers today. And we cast the Jewish people into Your loving hands. We know that they are those that You have engraved on the palm of Your hands, and we pray for their blessing and Your goodness and their safety. And we pray it all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Thank you for joining me in prayer for the Jewish people. And I want to offer you—we have a free downloadable. It's called "10 Ways to Pray for Israel." And so, I've been talking about praying for Israel for several weeks now and will again next week. But if you get that downloadable, you can review a lot of the things that I'm covering and a lot of the prayer points and the scriptures.

So I encourage you: go wherever you're listening today, if there are show notes down below, you can link and download them, or go to OutOfZionShow.com/shownotes. Look for the link for the free downloadable to our "10 Ways to Pray for Israel" so that you can continue to pray. You can share that with your friends, with your church, with your Bible study, and get others praying with you for Israel.

I also want to ask you: wherever you're listening today on whatever platform, be sure to like or follow or subscribe—whatever your platform is asking—so that you'll be notified as we put up the rest of our teachings in this series, "How to Pray for Israel." God bless.

Guest (Male): We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, pray.com, Salem1place, or Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.