Pray for: Israel

Israeli-Arab conflict in the Holy Land moved to a new level over a century ago, intensifying since 1948. The 2023 Israel-Hamas war saw horrific attacks against civilians in Israel, followed by much greater numbers of civilian deaths in Gaza following the Israeli Defense Force’s invasion. Resolution to any conflict is elusive due to competing claims and agendas. Both sides lay claim to the land, and all human efforts to resolve this conflict have failed. The violence in 2023 saw waves of global marches, protests, and counter-protests with a divided world arguing about who to blame. The lines are often blurred between supporting beleaguered Palestinians and expressing anti-Semitism. Pray that both sides of this conflict will find true reconciliation and genuine Shalom through Jesus the Messiah.

Major outreach challenges:

• The ultra-Orthodox Haredi are only 10% of the population, but they have strong political influence. They are like modern Pharisees, who strictly observe and preserve their religious laws and identity. Pray for many more to become like Nicodemus (John, chapters 3, 7, and 19).
• The Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) arrived as immigrants over a decade ago. Now they are largely a poor, urban underclass. Fewer than 2,000 (out of 120,000) are Messianic believers.
• The Arabs are over 90% Muslim. But Arabs also make up the majority of Christians in the Holy Land. They face pressure from all sides, as Israelis discriminate against them, Islamists persecute them, and the international community largely overlooks their situation.
• The Druze community are closed to outsiders, but a small movement to Jesus has begun among them.
• The 8 million Jews outside Israel live mostly in the USA, the former USSR, and other Western nations. Perhaps 100,000 now have links with Messianic congregations, and a much larger number attend other Christian churches. Pray for Gentile churches to have greater sensitivity to the Jewish remnant within the global Church.