Watchmen for Israel

Watchwomen for Israel

“He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’ ”

1 Chronicles 16:15-18


In Matthew 24, Jesus tells His disciples the signs of His return and the end of the age. In the Bible study DVD Jesus Lives Session 7, I teach you these signs. I so passionately desire for you and me to be women who know how to look at current events from God’s viewpoint. We must be alert because these signs are happening in our lifetime. We need to recognize them. Then, we need to know what to do with them. There is a cost associated with laziness and inattentiveness to not knowing the signs of the times. We cannot be deceived. We have to stay in tune with God through prayer and Bible study and watch what goes on in the world around us.

One of the main signs that Jesus’ return is very near is Israel. Isaiah 66:8 tells us the prophecy that Israel would be born in one day, “Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” On May 14, 1948, the United Nations decreed Israel was a nation. This nation was born in one day! It happened 2,000 years after Jerusalem was destroyed. God’s Word is full of prophecies that He would restore Israel, and they are being fulfilled in our day.

God made an everlasting, irrevocable covenant with Israel. Israel may have been unfaithful to God for some periods in history. However, God has never and will never break covenant with Israel. In Hosea, God calls Himself a husband to Israel (2:16). He says He will be betrothed to her forever (2:19). Everything God does is based on covenant, and Israel is in covenant with the Living God!

When a nation or a people rise against Israel, they have provoked God. In Zechariah 2:8 in the Amplified Bible, God says of Israel, “For thus said the Lord of hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you--for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye.” The New Living Translation says it this way, “After a period of glory, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me against the nations who plundered you. For he said, ‘Anyone who harms you harms my most precious possession.’ ” Whoever touches Israel is touching the apple of God’s eye. She is His most precious possession. Or said another way, whoever touches Israel is sticking his finger in God’s pupil. This is the only nation on earth that has God’s heart.

Israel is also the only nation on earth that has God’s great prophecies that have and are coming true. Israel is God’s prophetic time clock. Matthew 24:32-34 tells us that when the fig tree is in season that we will know the end is near, right at the door. Scripture refers to Israel as a fig tree many times. The day after the triumphal entry, Jesus put a curse on a barren fig tree which symbolized that Israel as a nation would not accept Jesus as its Savior. Some people accepted Him but not the whole nation. The fig trees lose their leaves in winter while most other trees in Israel do not. They bloom in late spring – many of the other plants bloom in early spring. Jesus chose the fig tree for these specific reasons. The second coming would be late, as the fig tree buds late and the world would wait a long time for His return. When we see the twigs tender and the leaves come out, then we know that the end is near

God’s Word tells us repeatedly that in the end times the entire world will focus on Israel. We cannot go a night on the evening news without hearing about Israel. Some of us are desensitized to it because Israel has not had rest since she became a nation in 1948. In the end times, the Israeli military will be restrengthened. Because the troops are constantly defending themselves against their neighbors, their military is one of the strongest in the world.

The evil one has manipulated the terrorists who have sworn to terrorize and destroy Israel. They have taken back pieces of the land from Israel and used it as a launching pad for their rockets to shower the people with fear. They will use innocent civilian people as human shields. They seem to have little true concern if Israel hits their bases because when civilians are killed, they win the war for the precious commodity of public opinion and political pressure on Israel. When Israel defends herself against the terrorists, she is called the aggressor, unjust, and war monger.

We should be relentless in our prayers to our Father about Israel. If it were not for the divine restraining hand of God, Israel would have been destroyed. God loves Israel so much that He assigned His archangel Michael to be Israel’s great prince and protect the people (Daniel 12:1). One of the most convincing proofs that the Bible is true and that God is who He says is that Israel remains a nation today. O, precious one, this is the burden of my heart. How is your heart toward the nation that God has chosen to be a husband to? Are you praying for Israel? Are you praying for the innocent people – Israeli and Palestinian – whom the evil one has targeted as a necessary casualty of his prime objective to provoke and hurt God? As the church, we must rise up together and pray for God’s chosen people. Join me in passionate prayer.

Pray with me: Almighty God, I know how You long to bring peace to this planet. However, You cannot bring peace to a people who do not desire peace and reject You. I know it breaks Your heart that innocent people live in terror and are being killed – both Palestinians and Israelis. I cry out for the world to see that we need You, Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, the Husband to Israel.

I pray against the evil one who is sticking his malicious finger in Your eye. I pray that You will, by Your great Name, stop him. Thwart his treacherous plans. May Your enemy have no victory. May the battle damage be minimized. Bring a miraculous healing to those who have been injured and terrorized.

Lord, help us to be a people who know the signs of our times and stand as watchmen on the wall. Give us spiritual sight into the spiritual realm so that we understand that the battle raging in the Middle East is just a mere shadow of the war in the heavenlies for Israel. May we respond as the warriors that we have been called to be, and may we pray like no other generation that has ever lived. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come! It’s in Your Name that we pray. Amen.

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