GULF WAR "I" ENDED ON PURIM. PRAYER NEEDED AS GULF WAR "II" COULD START ON OR CLOSE TO PURIM

Interestingly enough this evening (March 16) and tomorrow are called the “Fast of Estherâ€� in the Hebrew Calendar.  Tomorrow evening (Monday, 17 March) at sundown begins the Hebrew “Feast of Purimâ€�, the annual celebration of the great, miraculous intervention of God recorded in the book of Esther.  This is the anniversary of the amazing turn-around, when Haman, who had cleverly planned the destruction of the Jews, ended up being hanged; and the Jews were not only spared, but enjoyed the spoils of a war they didn’t start.

I find it also interesting that the first Gulf War ended on the first day of the Feast of Purim in 1991. Could it be that the second Gulf War will begin on Purim (Monday – Wednesday here in Jerusalem)?  Only time will tell, But, as many of you have chosen to join in the Fast of Esther tomorrow, I wanted to share a few urgent prayer points we are carrying in our hearts:

1.  I have felt for some time that we need to pray concerning not just Iraq, but also Iran (ancient "Persiaâ€�and the location of the story of Esther) and Syria. Today I read that the president of Syria made a surprise visit to Iran.  I was in the Bekaa Valley region of southern Lebanon in May, 2001.  I saw that the region is filled with Syrian soldiers, and even Iranian soldiers stationed there.  It is widely known that they have helped supply the Hizbollah terrorists in Lebanon with thousands of missiles capable of striking northern Israel is also widely known that Syria has well-developed chemical warfare capabilities. 

PRAY: That God will expose and frustrate any evil plans being conceived by Iran and Syria.  Pray that God will send Michael, the protector-warrior angel of Israel, and the hosts of heaven to protect the northern border of Israel from the plans of the “Prince of Persiaâ€� (see Daniel 10).  I recently had a vision of angels protecting the northern border of Israel, while other angels were pouring coals of fire upon southern Lebanon, the stronghold of the Hizbollah, who recently claimed on their web-site:  “We will build a bridge to heaven with the skulls of the Jewsâ€�.  One of the great strongholds of extreme terrorism is in Sidon, in southern Lebanon. We have recently been praying Ezekiel 28: 21-26:

"Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "'I am against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory within you. They will know that I am the LORD, when I inflict punishment on her and show myself holy within her.  I will send a plague upon her and make blood flow in her streets. The slain will fall within her, with the sword against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD.  "'No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.  'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will show myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob.  They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.'"

2.  Should a war occur soon, I have sensed strongly that we are to pray that God intervene through the weather.  We have been told here in Israel that chemical warfare is much less effective in a time of rain.  I find Jeremiah 50:14-16 (addressed to Babylon) very significant:  “The LORD Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with men, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.  "He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.  When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.â€�  See also Isaiah 30:30, 31 (addressed to Assyria, much of which was in what is now Iraq):  “ The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.  The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria: ; with his scepter he will strike them down.â€�

3.  Pray into the longer term purposes of God for the Middle East: Pray for the destruction of the wall of Islam, and that multitudes in the Middle East will come to know the true God through the knowledge of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ (Yeshua the Messiah).  Pray that God’s borders will be established in this region.  Pray that Jewish people world-wide will hear God’s call to come home to Israel.  The Jews of Esther’s time were almost destroyed because most of them had not returned to Israel when the 70 years of Jeremiah’s prophecy were up. 

4.  Because so many have mentioned this, I will not go into detail, but pray that God will show mercy and forgive the statements from Washington and London seeking to “divide up the Landâ€� (something which can bring judgment, according to Joel 3:2).  Continue to pray for a spirit of humility in leaders.