An unchanging spiritual truth is set forth clearly in Scripture: Those who bless the nation of Israel will be blessed. Yet, I find as I travel and minister that a startling percentage of Christians aren’t doing anything about that truth.

It’s not that they don’t believe it. For the most part, they do. They know that God declared to Abraham and his descendents, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3 NKJV). The problem is they neglect to act on it.

To be perfectly honest, we all make that mistake at times. We don’t intend to, of course. We simply get caught up in our own day-to-day lives and forget about the little Jewish nation that for most of us is multiplied thousands of miles away. We forget we’re a part of God’s great big eternal plan—a plan that includes us as individuals, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the nation of Israel.

Today I’m writing to remind you of that plan and to stir you to action to pray for Israel.

“Oh, Lynne, I’d like to do that,” you might say, “but I don’t really know what to pray.”

That’s okay. The Holy Spirit will show you what to pray if you let Him. He’ll prompt you concerning current events and needs and give you prayer directions that come straight from His eternal, unchanging Word. Directions like these:

Number One: Pray for the Land

When it comes to understanding the land of Israel, secular news media (and most politicians) always get it wrong. They think the Jews’ presence in the land of Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. “If Israel would give up more land, things would settle down,” they say. But the truth is just the opposite. The more Israeli land is put into the hands of other nations, the more trouble there will be—for everybody.

Here’s why. It’s not just a piece of real estate they’re arguing over. It’s God’s property. It’s the only land mass in all the earth God has chosen for Himself and given to the Jews.

Anybody who thinks the land of Israel isn’t important to God should think again or, better yet, read the Bible because it leaves no doubt about the issue. It records with great care the God-ordained boundaries of Israel. It tells how, time and again, God reminded the Israelites that He had given it to them and commanded them to possess it. (Thirty-two times in Deuteronomy alone!)

The Bible says in unmistakable terms that “the Lord made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18 Amp.).

As contemporary Christians, we sometimes miss the seriousness of that verse. We don’t fully grasp what a covenant is. We think of it as a contract, and since we have lawyers who help us break contracts whenever it suits us, we figure that over the years God probably changed His mind about giving the land to the Jews.

That’s not the way God operates. He never breaks His covenants. He meant it when He said to Abraham in the land of Canaan, “Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your posterity forever”  (Genesis 13:14–15).

Forever. That one word ends all debate. God’s gift of land to Israel wasn’t just a temporary loan or an Old Testament story. It was part of an everlasting covenant.

A Three-Fold Cord
To pray right, this is what we as believers must understand and remember. God has bound the land of Israel to the Jews, He has bound the Jews to the land, and He has bound Himself to both of them. It’s a divine three-fold cord and anybody who tries to break it gets into serious trouble.

Ezekiel 36 makes that crystal clear. There God speaks about how the enemies of the Jews try to claim portions of Israel for themselves. He prophesies to the land (not to the people but to the land! Isn’t that interesting?) and says that other nations have “snapped after and crushed you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people” (v. 3). Sounds like it could have been written yesterday, doesn’t it?

Therefore thus says the Lord God: Surely in the fire of My hot jealousy have I spoken against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have given to themselves My land with wholehearted joy and with uttermost contempt, that they might empty it out and possess it for a prey and a spoil…I have lifted up My hand and sworn, Surely the nations that are round about you shall themselves suffer shame and reproach. But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are soon to come [home]. For behold, I am for you and I will turn to you; and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply men upon you, the whole house of Israel, even all of it; the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places shall be rebuilt.
(verses 5, 7–10 AMP)

The first thing we can pray concerning Israel is for the land. We can pray for it to be restored from the ravages of the enemies who have tried to steal it. We can pray for the land to be productive and for its cities to be rebuilt.

“But what about the Palestinians?” somebody might ask. “They’re descendants of Abraham’s son, Ishmael. Why don’t they have just as much right to the land as the Jews do? Doesn’t God love them too?”

Absolutely, God loves the Palestinians. Jesus died for them just like He died for the rest of us, and the Bible says that’s the greatest expression of love there is. Yet the fact remains that the land of Israel wasn’t given to Ishmael. It was given to Isaac.

Satan is always fighting God’s Word. He is always trying to stop it from coming to pass. He would love to see the land divided and the Jews pushed out of it. So he perpetually provokes and manipulates people toward those ends. In a nutshell, that is the reason for all the trouble in the Middle East.

God says that when the Jews possess the land, “I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations … and the nations shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:23 NKJV). A Jewish Israel brings glory to God. And as Christians, glorifying God is what we’re all about.