The Bible instructs people to “pray
for the peace of Jerusalem,” promising:
“May
they be secure who love you.
Peace
be within your walls
And
security within your towers”
(Psalm 122:6-7).
Given current conditions in the Middle East, there is no better time to pray this prayer. In trying to help bring some stability to a very tumultuous region.
On the day after the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz (the Allied liberation of a prominent Nazi death camp where a brutal genocide against Jews was being carried out by Adolph Hitler in World War II), President Trump, standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced his plan for peace in the Middle East:
“The
Palestinians have been the primary pawn in this regional adventurism, and it’s
time for this sad chapter in history to end...It’s never too late for
courageous leaders to set a new course, to pursue what is right, to change the
future only for the better. America is
prepared to work with all parties on our vision...There are many Muslims who
never visited Al Aqsa, and many Christians and Jews who never visited the holy
sites in the West Bank described so vividly in the Bible. My vision will change that. Our majestic Biblical heritage will be able to
live, breathe, and flourish in modern times.”
Ironically, before many in the media even had time to review this 80-page “Peace to Prosperity” plan, news stories broke calling the proposal “controversial,” “a deal for the US and Israel...and not Palestinians,” and even concluding minutes after the announcement, “Palestinians will likely reject it.”
Still others derided the Trump Administration as, “the most fervently Christian Zionist government the United States has ever had.” (A Zionist is someone who believes that Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, and to defend itself if attacked.) They even mocked Evangelical Christians for their support of Israel as attempting to “bring about the Rapture and Second Coming
And contrary to what some would have us believe, America has a long and firm record of standing with the nation of Israel— a support that goes all the way back to the Founding Fathers. For example, John Quincy Adams once wrote: “[I believe in the] rebuilding of Judea as an independent nation.”
In fact, when America became the first nation to officially recognize Israel as a state in 1948, President Truman voiced what many Americans believed when he proclaimed: “I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have faith in it now.”
Israel became the Promised Land of the Jews centuries ago when God promised Abraham, “to your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). And even while Israel was scattered for two millennia, they had faith in what God had promised:
“For
I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you
into your own land”
(Ezekiel 36:24 NASB).
And so, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and work to achieve that end.
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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