Praying for Peace

The current conflict in Israel is not current. It has been going on for decades and this history is complex. In Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham to give them the land. While slight boundary changes appear in the OT books, the people of God believed this part of the world was given to them by God and they are willing to fight for it.

This morning I read this from one of the OT prophets…

So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 47:21–23)

A bit of a search told me that Ezekiel was saying God was not pleased with the way His people were oppressing those who attached themselves to also live in this area by denying them justice. A vision of the future goes beyond the law of Moses by giving property rights to these people, not those who might want to just live there, but those who attached themselves to the Israelite community. In addition, he uses the old formula of Levitical law that says “the foreigner joined to the Lord” have the same right as any exiled Israelite in the matter of inquiring of the Lord through the prophet (14:7).

Another source says that Ezekiel does not grant equal rights with native-born Israelites to “strangers” indiscriminately, or only to those of them who have families, but to those who  permanently settle in the midst of Israel and show this by having children and building houses for themselves. Even though this could suggest careful interpretation (an influx of Gentiles could make life difficult for the Jews in this small space) these verses could be symbolic.

When I read them, I wondered if God’s heart is telling His people to treat those who live in the West Bank and in Gaza with hospitality rather than bombs, so did a brief search that told me the difference between those two settlements is their belief systems. Gaza’s mix of people includes a large group that is determined to destroy Israel. Many on the West Bank are less violent but have the same resistance to the existence of Israel. These people are enemies.

While the situation is far more complex than what I am gleaning, I know that there is a symbolism in Ezekiel 47. It affirms that the only way Gentiles can share in the promised inheritance of the new temple and land is to become part of Israel. Gentile aliens or sojourners are to be considered the same as native born sons of Israel and allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. This hinges on these sojourners having a life in common with the Jews, not a determination to destroy them.

However, the NT clarifies that Gentiles cannot partake of Israel’s OT promises by becoming a part of Israel’s theocratic society. But they can have access to the promises. Here’s how…

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. . . .  That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”. . . . (Romans 4:13-17)

The Gospel means that all nations are invited to share in true Israel’s redemptive blessing by trusting in Jesus, the true seed of Abraham and the only authentic Israelite, who died and rose again for both Jew and Gentile. Everyone represented by Jesus, the ideal king and Israelite, is considered part of true Israel and therefore shares in the blessings that God gives. 

Does this include a plot of ground in Israel? Some Christians do live there, even in Gaza and the West Bank. Does the passage in Ezekiel call for discernment and greater justice for them? AI says they have religious freedoms, yet persecution happens. 

PRAY: You tell me to pray for peace in Jerusalem: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!” (Psalm 122:6) so I know Your heart on this ongoing, centuries-old conflict. Thankfully, You also reveal that one day Jesus will return and bring peace. While we wait, grant that peace of heart that surpasses understanding as I pray for this and so many other issues and conflicts that tug at my heart. 


 

Devotions are life-changing

Joshua 1; Psalms 120–122; Isaiah 61; Matthew 9

When I became a Christian, my sister told me to read the Bible until a truth stopped me, then write it down. Now, most of that writing is in digital form but I have a stack of journals filled with the results of that excellent advice. Sometimes I get carried away in the writing yet God continues to change my life. Today, I’m noting what ‘stopped’ me in the above daily reading passages.

Joshua 1. Joshua replaced Moses as leader. His name is the Hebrew form of Jesus. Moses represents the law, and Moses just died. Salvation by law-keeping did not work. Now the people needed a Savior. While Joshua was not Jesus, I read this chapter as if it were the Lord telling His Son what He must do as the leader of His people. Jesus was sent as fully man and lived here as ‘the Son of man’ so these words were appropriate. Too long to put here, but I am humbled by the reminder that while here, Jesus as fully man relied on His Father just like I need to rely on the Lord.

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:5–8)

I am to do the same as both Joshua and Jesus — focus on the will of God and obey it!

Psalms 120-121. The first psalm is a cry for deliverance as the writer is aware of living in land of liars. I feel like that. The news each day contradicts itself. The world seems to be in chaos. “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (Psalm 120:7). As the next psalm says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2) The next verses also answer my distress:

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121:5–8)

I am also to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” (Psalm 122:6) for there is blessing and glory to God in being concerned for peace among His people.

Isaiah 61 is a foretaste of what Christ will do for His people and a description of His love for righteousness. The author says that he greatly rejoices in the Lord because:

“He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” (Isaiah 61:10–11)

Victory is coming. Jesus came — bringing that righteousness that all nations are experiencing. The Christian life does not make the news but that does not mean God’s people are absent or idle. Works of mercy are happening in homes, neighborhoods, hospitals, prisons. Wherever God’s people are, the example of Jesus is also.

Matthew 9. This chapter is about mercy. Mercy is doing for others what they cannot do for themselves. Jesus healed those who were paralyzed and helpless, called to Himself those hated by others, raised the dead, opened blind eyes, loosened mute tongues and sent His disciples out to have the same compassion and draw others into His kingdom.

APPLY: Being a Christian is not about following rules but about being like Jesus. His realm of ministry was a small part of a big world yet what He did changed lives and changed history and the world. Even though it will never make the news, may I be courageously obedient to what He is saying to me today. Focus, trust, pray, be merciful, do/go what and where He asks and rejoice in Him.