PRAYER UPDATE FROM ISRAEL (Jan 3,
2012)
1. SIX YEARS:
THE LION CONTINUES TO SLEEP
"Will you work wonders for the dead?
Shall the shades arise and praise you? Selah. Shall Your
lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the
place of destruction? Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And
Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? (Psalm
88:11-12).
"For Messiah also suffered once for
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also
He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were
disobedient." (I Peter 3:18-20a).
It was exactly six years ago this
Wednesday, January 4th 2006, that Israel's
11th Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (his first name means
"Lion of God") was stricken with a massive stroke. Since that time
he has lain in a virtual vegetative state, both in the hospital and
at home on his ranch. Although his sons Omri and Gilad have claimed
to at times notice signs of cognizance-a finger movement in response
to a question, flickers of understanding in his eyes-there appears
as of yet to have been no substantive proof of such hopeful
gestures. Sharon was the last of modern Israel's warrior leaders
(his autobiography of 1989 was entitled Warrior). He served as a
commander in the Israel Defense Force from its birth in 1948 through
the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when he came out of retirement to be the
signal leader in Israel's crossing of the Suez Canal. In 2005, a
poll by an Israeli news website found him voted eighth in the
general public's choices of the 200 greatest (modern) Israelis of
all time.
His career was never without
controversy, however. This continued through the year before his
stroke when, as Prime Minister, he orchestrated and oversaw the
Disengagement of Jewish settlements from Gaza (the military had
already redeployed from the Strip years earlier under the so-called
"Oslo Agreement"). The enactment of Disengagement was an agonizing
experience for all Jewish Israelis. Among Messianic Body of
believers in the land, this was compounded by strong disagreement
over the rightness of Sharon's actions-there were those who felt
that in the matter he was making rightly, however painful, a
sincerely-felt strategic decision as a military leader (Luke
14:31-32); others believed him to be betraying his trust,
participating in "dividing up the land", and that his fall was a
stroke of divine judgment. The truth was probably deeper than both
sides.
Yet, in a profound and astounding
mystery, Ariel Sharon after six years is in some sense still
considered to be alive. We do not know how or 'where' his soul
is.but we believe that so long as he clinically lives, humility,
compassion and mercy require that we pray for him. It is known that
Sharon kept a well-thumbed Hebrew Bible by his bed. And he was
exposed to the Good News and the prayers of thousands of believers
over the years.
PLEASE
PRAY:
*That God's will be done in Ariel
Sharon's life; that all ordained for his life will be
fulfilled.
*That the hesid-the loving-kindness of
the LORD-which endures forever would minister into his spirit-man;
that he would be granted grace to know the Truth and to believe in
and receive the work of His Messiah and sin-bearer
Yeshua.
*That grace will reach to his two sons
Omri and Gilad.
*That revelation and interpretation
would be given to the Body of Messiah in Israel as to what the
Spirit is saying to the Congregations through the phenomenon,
perhaps "sign", of Sharon's endurance after these six
years.
*That if there be one destined to
receive the mantle of this warrior in Israel, he or she be preserved
and raised up to catch it before his passing.
THIS WEEK'S TORAH
PORTION:
From ancient times there has been a
weekly portion (Parashah) from the first five books of Moses (The
Torah) and an ending (Haftarah) from the Prophets read on the
Sabbath in synagogues around the world. This portion is given a
Hebrew name drawn from the opening words of the Torah passage. An
illustration of this practice appears to have been recorded in Luke
4:16 where Yeshua (Jesus) arrived in the synagogue in Nazareth and
was asked to read the portion (Isaiah 61) from the Prophets. We have
found that in perusing these weekly readings, not only are we
provided opportunity to identify in the context of God's Word with
millions of Jewish people around the world, but very often the Holy
Spirit will illumine specific passages pertinent that week in our
intercession for the Land and people of Israel. All texts are those
of English translations of the Scriptures.
The readings for this week are called
VaYechi-"and [Jacob] lived")
TORAH: Genesis
47:28-50:26
HAFTARAH: I Kings
2:1-12
*Genesis
48:3-4 (Translation: Robert Alter). . "And Jacob
said to Joseph, 'El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz [i.e. Bethel, see
28:19] in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, "I am
about to make you fruitful and multiply you and make you an assembly
of peoples, and I will give this land to your seed after you as an
everlasting holding."'" Bethel or Beit-El (House of God) lies just
north of Jerusalem within the ancient borders of the tribe of
Benjamin. Although God has, from the time of the Judges, allowed
other peoples to take control of lands promised to Israel, it has
always been a temporary situation in response to the seed of Jacob
turning away from his God. Yet, the Divine promises continue
ultimately to stand. The word here translated "holding" (NKJV:
possession) is actually part of a compound noun ahuzat-olam -
"holding for the ages" (Everett Fox). At its heart it has to do with
that which is "seized, grasped, possessed, and held onto for
eternity". This explains why the current internationally demanded
"two-state" solution for peace between Israelis and Palestinian
Arabs will ultimately not work. The very establishment of a
sovereign state implies permanence, and God Almighty (see El Shaddai
above) has decreed that permanence here is to the seed of
Jacob-Israel. We see it as significant that Ariel Sharon (see
above), even when wavering under pressure to give up Israeli rule
over Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria, affirmed a commitment in
2003 that Bethel and Shilo would remain a home for Jews under
Israeli sovereignty.
*Genesis
48:5. "And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who
were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt,
are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine." In fact,
because of Reuben's sin, his birthright was transferred to the sons
of Joseph, the first-born of Rachel (see I Chronicles 5:1-2). "Yet
Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came a ruler,
although the birthright was Joseph's".
*Genesis
48:20. "By you Israel will bless, saying, 'May God make
you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!'" In many Hebrew households, this
blessing is still used on Friday evenings by a father over his
sons.
*Genesis
49:2-27. This remarkable poem in which prophetic words,
judgments and pronouncements are spoken by Jacob over his sons is
generally conceded by scholars to be "one of the oldest extended
texts in the Bible" (which of course need not in any way imply that
its content and positioning in the author's final narrative was not
inspired by the Holy Spirit). It contains many rare or unique Hebrew
words and poetical terms, archaic grammatical forms and unusual
syntax; consequently, there are quite a few places where the exact
meaning is uncertain-and when this is not the case, its exact
applicability to the son or tribe can be perplexing. Yet, it is the
Holy Spirit who breathed these words who reveals mysteries and in
their time will bring "dark sayings" to light (Psalm 78:2). Words
sent forth from God do not return until they have accomplished all
of the purposes for which they were sent-we believe that words from
this poem are still working their way out in and through the
descendants of Jacob.and suspect that in God's timing there will be
yet revelation to clarify those workings as is necessary in days to
come. After all, Jacob preceded his prophecy by stating that it
consisted of "what shall befall you in the last days" (Genesis
49:1).
*Genesis 49:5.
"Simeon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruel violence
(Hebrew: hamas) their trade. Let my soul not enter into their secret
council, their assembly my presence shun. For in their fury they
slaughtered men, at their pleasure they tore down ramparts. Cursed
be their fury so fierce, and their wrath so remorseless!" The wrath
of man does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:20).
During the past year, and increasingly within recent months, Israeli
Jewish settlers in both the vicinity of Shechem (where the violent
attack of Simeon and Levi took place) and near Bethel and Shilo have
resorted to violence against their Palestinian Arab neighbors. Many
of these acts have not been in self defense, or even in retribution
for offenses against them; rather, they have resorted to taking out
their anger at the Israeli government for perceived offenses against
them by taking it out on the Arabs. A number of mosques have been
vandalized and burned, with the slogan "Price Tag" painted on the
walls-i.e. When the government destroys illegally-built structures
near the settlements, the "price" exacted by the settlers will be
violence against their Arab neighbors. There have also been repeated
outbreaks of vandalism on Arab olive groves, and occasional beatings
of Arabs and scrawling of racist threats ("Death to Arabs", etc.).
While actions such as these do not epitomize those of all Jewish
settlers in the contested territories, they do tend to surface
disturbingly often.
PLEASE PRAY:
against the spirit of wrath which characterized Simeon and
Levi - especially in those Jews who are heroically seeking to work
the land of their inheritance in Judea and Samaria. The Evil One
does not want the Word over this region to be fulfilled (see last
week's Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:21-23). Many lies are spread about these
settlers; whether through hatred and falsehoods, or though
capitalization upon weaknesses of character and sinfulness within
their midst, he will do what he can to blight their reputation and
credibility Pray for revelation of God and of His Messiah to the
settlers which will bring cleansing and righteousness and godly
direction-and with it, a capacity to live permanently in the land
and to inhabit its cities (Ezekiel 36: 27-28;
33-35).
*Genesis
49:10-11. "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor
a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him
shall be the obedience of the people. Binding his donkey to the
vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, He washed his
garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes." There
have historically been great mysteries surrounding this passage,
some of them related to what exactly is meant by the Hebrew
translated "Shiloh". However, there is little questioning that it
speaks of one who would come to whom the "scepter" would truly
belong, and who would be worthy of "the obedience of the people."
And there are further hints in the New Testament: Matthew 21:2-7
refers to a donkey and its colt upon which Yeshua would enter
Jerusalem, and Revelation 7:14 speaks of those whose garments will
have been "washed and made white in the blood of the
Lamb."
*Genesis
49:20. "Bread from Asher shall be rich, and he shall
yield royal dainties." It is interesting that "rich" here is a word
which has shemen-"oil" as its root. In a similar prophetic word from
Moses over 400 years later, Asher will be portrayed as "most blessed
of sons.favored by his brothers", and as "dipping his feet in oil"
(Deuteronomy 33:24). Recently vast deposits of petroleum, natural
gas and probably oil, have continued to be discovered in fields off
the north-western coast of Israel-territory included within the
ancient boundaries of the tribe of Asher!