Israel Prayer Journal #23

Shalom Friends!

I wish you a Happy New Year, or, as they say in Israel, Happy Sylvester!  (The Sylvester name comes from a 4th century pope who is remembered in Catholic tradition on December 31, and the memory of this celebration accompanied European Jews when they came to Israel.  See here for more information.) 

It’s been an eventful few weeks.  As I wrote last time, I had a wonderful Christmas.  Now we’re winding down our fall semester which ends the first week of February.  That means I have some major exams coming up soon.  The entire grade in two of my classes are dependent on this one exam in each class.  Interestingly, if you fail the exam the first time, you can actually retake it about a month later.  I have the month of February off from school, but I will be busy during it, as I have two papers to write—both part of the fall semester that ends in January (weird, huh!).  Classes are still going amazingly well, and I am learning a ton.  I’m falling a little behind in Hebrew due to vocabulary, but even that is still going well.  Every day is such a joy to be here.  January has definitely started off winter.  Up until now, we’ve rarely had rain and it’s been relatively mild temperatures.  Since Christmas, though, it has steadily gotten colder and wetter.  It’s definitely not as cold or wet as the last few years I spent in Washington, so I can’t complain too much.  The rain does tend to keep everyone indoors, so it can be convenient to go shopping or around the Old City when it’s a little rainy. 

For the last three weeks a former college professor and friend of mine has been in the country leading a tour group from a seminary in southern California.  I’ve gotten to spend a bit of time with him and his group, and it was such a privilege.  He is an incredible, smart, godly man, and I have learned so much from him over the years.  We had a lot of fun around Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Samaria.  His group was quite amazing too.  There was something so refreshing about being around a group of young, godly Christians for a change.  I had forgotten how wonderful Christian fellowship like that is.  I was really encouraged by them.  I’ll share a little more about this group in the near future...

Many interesting thing have been happening in the news lately.  Of course Iran and the US seem to be in a standoff over the important oil passageway of the Strait of Hormuz.  An Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated last week.  Within Israel, the last few weeks have been full of tense domestic issues.  Some illegal settlements in the West Bank were demolished, and there has been much uproar about that.  Some of the more “radical” activists have been charged with monitoring the IDF’s movements to try and thwart their dismantling of illegal settlements.  Two Knesset members have also been allegedly linked to providing information to the activists.  Another Knesset member was just suspended for a month for throwing a glass of water at one of her parliament colleagues during an argument.  Interestingly, several months ago I saw this same woman in person arguing very passionately with a group of liberal activists, so I can vouch for her temper.  A prominent Christian leader in Jaffa who tried to build bridges with Muslims and Christians was murdered.  

If you didn’t already know it, Israel is the most openly accepting country in the Middle East for gay people.  Tel Aviv was just named by one survey as the preferred travel destination in the world for gays.  You can make you own judgments about this.  One other interesting article dealt with Christians in the Gaza Strip.  Usually we associate the Gaza Strip with Hamas terrorists and Muslims, but let’s not forget that we have brothers and sisters there too.  Remember to pray for them when you pray for Israel. 

I apologize for not being better about sharing things I’m learning in classes.  I honestly don’t know where my time goes, but I’ll try to be better about it in the future.  You would definitely profit from some of the interesting things I’ve learned.  Let me share one quick item.  I was watching Israeli TV last night, and an advertisement came on for a cable provider and a tablet computer.  You probably won’t understand what they’re saying, but the gist of it is that a few Israelis dressed as Muslim women “secretly” cross into Iran where they meet a Mossad agent, then they accidentally blow up Iran’s nuclear reactor.  It’s meant to be funny, but it struck me as interesting for a few reasons: 1) Israelis cope with the constant threat of fear and terrorism and death by resorting to making fun of it; and 2) Israelis, as portrayed in this ad, seem awfully arrogant that they can easily defeat the Iranians.  Iran poses an enormous danger to Israel, and their possession of nuclear weapons spells a real, existential threat to the Jewish people, since the leaders of Iran frequently talk about destroying all Israelis.  I was just astonished at how lightheartedly the makers of this ad portrayed the situation.  I don’t know that I approve of being so flippant over such a real, pressing issue.  But, I guess I’m not Israeli.  I was also surprised to see advertisers use such current events in their advertising.  Secondly, an attack on Iran is an enormous risk to Israel.  The complexity of such an attack simply cannot be imagined by you or me.  I really fear for Israel in event of an attack.  I also have real problems with Israel’s attitude about its military.  They put far too much trust in their army.  If the Old Testament has taught us one thing, it’s that God wants Israel to depend on Him for their safety, not trust in themselves.  Do I need to remind you of Ai, Gideon, Jericho, Jehoshaphat, and Sennacherib?  I pray that Israel’s arrogance doesn’t soon lead to God needing to teach them a lesson about trusting in Him…