While Americans grapple with oppression of our rights to pray, study God’s Word, and publicly display symbols of Christianity, the leader of the Jewish nation is hosting Bible study in his home!  Praise God!

Netanyahu indicates that there is a renewal of the Jewish people to the reading of the Torah.  In 2011, Netanyahu began holding regular Bible study, following the example of the first Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.  Said to enjoy studying with his son, Avner, who won the Israeli National Bible Quiz in 2010, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, reportedly study regularly.  On occasion, Netanyahu invites guests to join him at his residence for group study.

That happened last Sunday evening, despite all pressing matters going on in the Middle East right now.  Special guests were the parents of the three Israeli teenagers kidnapped and killed in the West Bank this past summer.

Netanyahu has also been known to quote Scripture during major speeches.  In 2010, he referenced the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 in a speech at Auschwitz, site of a Holocaust death camp.  In his most recent UN speech, the Prime Minister quoted from Isaiah 62:1:

“For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent, for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not be still until her justice shines bright and her salvation glows like a flaming torch.”

I agree with Joel Rosenberg’s plea to pray for:

• Powerful study of God’s Word and deep personal impact on the Netanyahu’s and guests.
• Many in Israel to follow the Prime Minister’s lead in reading Scripture.
• Bible studies to spring up in the Land of Israel.
• Deeper curiosity by Jews and Arabs in Bible prophecy.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

~Psalm 1:1-3

(Come back tomorrow for a special look at the Feast of Tabernacles.  It’s good stuff!)