I believe the point here is that God loves for families to come together – to worship Him and remember his goodness to them, to pray and study His Word together, to sing and dance unto Him, and then – simply to have fun together.  You don’t have to play dreidels, but spend some fun time together as a family after your meal and prayer and singing time.  God will enjoy it too!   For those who want to start celebrating the feasts as a family, a good place to start is the book, A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays by Robin Scarlata and Linda Pierce.  This large book gives a wealth of background information in addition to all sorts of activities for children.

Where??

The message of the dreidel is that “a great miracle happened THERE.”  Where?  In Jerusalem.  One of the other things we see that Jeroboam set about changing was the place where the people should go to worship. (1 Kings 12: 28, 29)  He told the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.”  But this is not God’s heart.  Jerusalem is the place where He has put His Name.  It is special to him beyond our imagining.  It is the place where Jesus will return one day and set up His Kingdom on earth.  He will rule and reign from there.  It is no accident that so often we hear in the news of violence in Jerusalem.  There is a huge struggle in the spiritual realm over this piece of property.  Satan desperately tries to keep it under his control because he so fears what will happen when it is truly the Lord’s.

God never meant for us to disconnect from Jerusalem as the central geographical place where we would long to worship Him.  No other place is the same.  No other city will do.  There is no other true religious center for believers in the true God.  It is difficult to explain, but in Jerusalem something grabs hold of your heart that says, “This is the City of the Great King.”  I was privileged to get to spend two weeks in Israel last year, one whole week of it in Jerusalem, in the old city.  From the garden of the place where we stayed I was able to look out over the Temple mount.  In a short ten minute walk I could be at the Western Wall and actually place my hands on the last remaining piece of the wall that holds up the mount where the Temple once stood (and shall stand again!).  The first night I was awake for a couple hours in the middle of the night (a common occurrence because of the time change) but yet I rested.  Why?  Because the joy of the Lord just came all over me -- solely because  I was there – in His city.  It was like I was feeling His joy because I had come to be there, in His Place with Him.   Yes, it is some trouble to “go up” but it is well worth it. 

I could fill up pages with what scripture says about Jerusalem and God’s heart for it, but I will just quote a few.  In fact in everything that I bring up this week I am only skimming the surface.  I just want to touch on things briefly to show you how many ways we are missing out on God’s fullest.  But as regards Jerusalem, the Word says things like:

Isaiah 62:1-2

For Zion 's sake I will not keep silent,

and for Jerusalem 's sake I will not be quiet,

until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,

and her salvation as a burning torch.

The nations shall see your righteousness,

and all the kings your glory,

and you shall be called by a new name

that the mouth of the Lord will give.

Over and over Jerusalem is called God’s holy city.  He has great plans for it – see

Isaiah 2: 1-4 and Zechariah 14!  But for now we are called to intercede for this city

 and of course for the all the Jewish people it contains.  Jesus wept over the city and its

inhabitants (Luke 19: 41 ) and lamented its desolate state until the Jewish people would

say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  (Luke 13: 34-35)   Psalm 122

speaks of those who are devoted to the Lord and how they will respond to the command

to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” 

To pray for this is to pray for the return of the Prince of Peace, and to pray for His

 return is to pray for his Jewish people that they might recognize their Messiah.  As we

 rededicate ourselves during this time we need to pray, as the Lord commands us, for

the peace of  Jerusalem.  Let me list some of the things that such pray would cover:

For messianic congregations in Israel to become strong in their faith with great zeal and boldness to preach the gospel to their brethren.

That the Church would pray not only for the Jews to receive all of their land, but that their eyes might be open and their ears attentive to the Gospel of Yeshua and that their hearts be prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive the Word of God

That Israeli’s faith in their own strength would fail to the point that they would turn and call on the name of the Lord Yeshua

For fresh creative ways to bring the gospel to the Jewish people

For financial aid and new jobs to be provided for suffering Jewish believers in the land

That the Israeli government would open their arms to Messianic believers and receive them back into Israel as true Jews

That Christians would not be afraid to visit the land of Israel again, to pray with their feet standing within the walls of Jerusalem and within the borders of the land

That anti-Semitism and replacement theology would be removed from the Church

That the Church would be passionate to see the One New Man emerge 

That both Jew and Arab in the land of Israel would come under the Lordship of Yeshua

For solid friendships to develop between Jewish and Arab believers right now that will heal wounds and demonstrate true brotherhood in Yeshua

For protection along Israel’s borders and in her cities, especially Jerusalem

For the raising up of laborers for the harvest in Israel and for their protection

Some of these prayer points come from Rick Lunsford, head of Gratefully Grafted Ministries.

So is this really what prayer for the peace of Jerusalem means?  Well I don’t know the

whole answer to that, but I do know that for peace to come the Jewish people must

recognize their Messiah.  And I do know that we must rededicate ourselves to that

 which the Lord commands  

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”  Ps. 125: 1-2

Shalom,

Sarah McIlvaine

Back to Intro

-Sarah McIlvaine (2008)