But Esau ran to meet him [Jacob], and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
(Genesis 33:4)
Dear Prayer Partners,
We live in a day when we truly need spiritual discernment. These are prophetic times and the world’s moral decay is ripening to God’s just judgment. Yet He also has promised a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit as well as great mercy and favour on Zion. So, we need to be able to discern between the “goodness and severity of God” (Romans 11:22) playing out today in the affairs of men. This discernment is especially needed to enlighten our prayers, so that we do not pray amiss, but rather pray within God’s will and purposes for our day.
For example, this month we are asking our prayer partners to continue praying into the Abraham Accords. I am fairly optimistic about these Accords, because I believe God’s hand is working through what is otherwise man-made decisions and that it has many worthwhile benefits for Israel.
However, some Christians are opposed to the Abraham Accords because they supposedly include some secret annex in which Israel has ceded parts of Judea/Samaria or made major compromises regarding Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Others dismiss the Accords, insisting that they are the “covenant of death” forewarned about in Isaiah 28:14-18.
Many Christians also called the Oslo Accords the “covenant of death,” and they were closer to the truth. Oslo was a false peace being imposed upon Israel from the outside, and it was clear from the start. But there is something different about the Abraham Accords, which are being driven by the regional parties themselves, and constitute an historic reconciliation that Israelis have desperately longed for with their Arab neighbours.
Besides the diplomatic, security, tourism, trade, and investment benefits, which are all huge, there is something uniquely positive about this normalization process. Arab leaders are saying that their hatred and rejection of Israel was not normal, but in fact abnormal and self-destructive. The very name of the Abraham Accords carries a message that Jews and Arabs have a common ancestry as descendants of Abraham, the great Hebrew Patriarch. They also are an admission that the Jews indeed are indigenous to the Middle East, and thus have returned home to build the region’s future together. This is the realisation of the dream of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, leader of the Zionist movement some 100 years ago, when he sought to secure Arab acceptance of the Jewish people’s rightful place in the historic Land of Israel.
Finally, and most importantly, the Bible speaks of a time of reconciliation between Israel and its Arab neighbours in Isaiah 19 and other passages. We also see a prophetic picture of the Jewish return today in the return of Jacob from exile and his tearful reconciliation with his brother Esau (see Genesis chapters 32 and 33).
So, I would not dismiss the Abraham Accords so easily, as there seems to be much spiritual fruit coming forth at the same time. There are reports of revival stirring in the United Arab Emirates and even Saudi Arabia, who may soon join the Accords. There is increased fellowship between Arab and Jewish believers both in Israel and throughout the region. What is happening in the natural also has a positive spiritual dynamic, and this is what we really need to be praying into!
Therefore, let us be careful about believing rumours or misapplying prophetic passages to so easily dismiss something God may be using for His glory, which then renders us ineffective in rising to the need of this hour in prayer.
In this regard, I always think of when God warned Abraham about His intentions to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. These cities were indeed wicked and many of us would have rejoiced at the news of their destruction. But Abraham had a different reaction. He humbled himself before the Lord and pleaded for mercy over the city for the sake of its righteous remnant. No doubt, he was strongly motivated to protect his nephew Lot and his family. But Abraham also sincerely interceded for these cities, appealing to God’s mercy and fairness. And perhaps that is why Abraham is called “a friend of God” (see Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23).
May the Lord direct our prayers and fill us with compassion as we seek His face together in these prophetic times.
Blessings from Jerusalem!
David Parsons
Vice President & Senior Spokesman
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
