Millions of Christians pray for Israel

On May 7–28 several million Christians prayed and fasted for Israel on the basis of Isaiah 62:6, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night.” (NIV).

Millions of people prayed on May 28 for the salvation of Israel. Photo: James Emery

In Judaism, the Messiah is the savior and deliverer, the future redeemer of the Jewish people,an awaited Jewish king from the line of David, who is expected to lead the Jewish people in the Messianic age and the world to come.

Orthodox Jews also claim that the Messiah will come through his father King David and who will gather the Jews back to the land of Israel, and then usher in an era of peace, and build the Third Temple.

The concepts of a Jewish messiah are found especially in the biblical books of Isaiah and Jeremiah which were written before the Babylonian captivity, as well as in Ezekiel and Daniel.

The brutal regime of the Greek king Antiochus IV in the 2nd century BC led to renewed messianic expectations, as foretold in the book of Daniel.

Professor Lester L. Grabbe, of the University of Hull, England, adds that both Christians and Jews in the first century referred to the book of Daniel as a prediction of imminent end times.

The Christian congregation began as a Jewish movement where what Jesus taught were self-evident within Judaism. What differed was their belief in Jesus as the resurrected Messiah. According to Larry Hurtado, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, the messianic belief of the early Jesus movement “was not a departure from…Jewish messianism, but a distinctive expression within a variegated body of Jewish messianic hopes.”

During the period May 7–28 this year, several million Christians committed themselves to pray for Israel for at least 1 hour per day for 21 days, to affirm in prayer before God His promises of salvation and plans for Jerusalem and Israel. The prayer initiative was a collaboration between several thousand pastors and prayer leaders – to mobilize millions of believers to participate in a global fasting and prayer for the fulfillment of the Lord’s purposes for Israel. The goal is to eventually mobilize 100 million intercessors for Israel according to God’s promises in Isaiah 62:6–7 “I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth” (NIV).