Homecoming of Hope: God Still Hears

Today’s sunrise brought rays of joy and immense hope with the October 13^th homecoming of twenty hostages held captive in Gaza’s darkness for a month more than seven hundred days. President Trump, with his strength and by God’s help, connected PM Netanyahu with Israel’s neighbors to forge peace. Not an easy task, but one that brought happy, tearful reunions as the nations watched and critics were silent. The psalm comes to mind, "When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, We were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing..." - Ps. 126

Today in biblical history is so relevant, as we read 1 Kings 8, from the portion assigned to this day's date in reading…Solomon dedicating the Temple in Jerusalem and praying out a pattern on which God’s people would rely for centuries. Selecting verses from a long prayerful passage...

From Solomon's Prayer to Today's Peace

“’When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight, when their enemy besieges in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all Your people Israel, when each knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple:

Then hear in heaven Your dwelling pace, and forgive and act and give to everyone according to all his ways, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,

That they may fear You all the days they live in the land which You gave to our fathers,

And concerning a foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake, for they will hear of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this temple,

Hear in heaven Your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name….

When Your people go out to battle…when they turn and return…when they pray…Hear…

These are Your people who You brought out of Egypt…For You separated them from among all the peoples of the earth to be Your inheritance, as You spoke by Your servant Moses when You brought our fathers out of Egypt…’

“And so it was when Solomon stood from kneeling and finished all this prayer and supplication to the Lord that he arose from before the altar and stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying:

Blessed be the Lord Who has given rest [granted a haven, menuchah]* to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise…May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers, May He not leave us nor forsake us that He may incline our hearts to Himself to walk in all His ways…

May these words be near the Lord day and night that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause [justice, mishpat] of his people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know the Lord is God, there is no other.

Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God to walk in His statutes as it is this day…” - 1 Kings 8:34-61, Selections.

Many of these words should sound familiar as you read Yeshua’s words in His lengthy prayer and personal dedication recorded in John’s gospel from chapters 13-17. "Let not your hearts be troubled, nor afraid...If you love me, my Father will dwell with you...Peace I give you...Ask what you will and it will be done for you...I have spoken these things that your joy may be full..." Echoed here are also the promises like Hebrews 13:5, "For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you..."

From Menuchah to Today's Miracle

Solomon’s words are part of an eternal bridge that's still intact, still richly connected in history, prayed into and kept by faith. With an even more earnest passion, Jesus' prayers moved the vision forward ever towards the Kingdom of God. For me, every time I have stood at the Kotel at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, I feel awe. I feel the weight of such an important history and such a glorious future, in the 'heaviness' of His Presence still in that place. Solomon's prayers and God's faithfulness to Davidic promises are united with Jesus' prayers on His last Passover on earth.

As I write, it is Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day following the seven days of Tabernacles or in Hebrew, Sukkot. This joyous time rolls into Simchat Torah, the joy of the Torah, celebrating the milestone of the complete Torah cycle and the return and restarting of the Torah cycle again. The “holiday bundle” is marked by candle lighting, prayers, memorials for the departed, even with joyful dancing and is celebrated as a Shabbat. It is the blessed junction where remembrance meets the look forward, to divine guidance in the days ahead. The people of God in Solomon's day did not leave without a blessing, and in his office as king, he blessed them. The word for this place of peace and rest in the king's prayer was the Hebrew word menuchah  not shalom. It is used only 22 times in the Hebrew scripture, and is what David calls ‘still waters’ in Psalm 23. It denotes a place of tranquil felicity in the land, a protected peace and stillness that only the Lord as Shepherd can provide.

No better day could the hostages have come home - a full two years from the day of Simchat Torah when October 7, 2023 fell...a holiday meant to be joyous used instead by an enemy to bring utter destruction, violence, and death to the Jewish people in Israel, an attack so hideously meant to separate them from God and remove them from the planet. But today. Today on Simchat Torah there is a new peace and our remaining hostages have returned to the arms of their loved ones. Prayers around the world have helped facilitate an unprecedented peace agreement and the homecoming of our hostages in time for the 8th Day, in time to restart the scroll...in time to dance the celebration of a new day in Torah.

What a critical dynamic for true tranquility: God's leaders doing their part, working with His faithfulness, in conjunction with a prayer force generated by believers. The Apostle Paul reminded his disciple Timothy : "I exhort that first of all, supplications and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." - I Tim 2:1-2

May this present peace and joy be visibly realized by the nations watching and deeply enjoyed by the families that have suffered so much. May the Land & People of the Book renew hope again that they

The Western Wall in Jerusalem, remains of the Temple and considered a holy place of prayer.

belong to a Hearing and Faithful God. And may we who partake of these promises do our part to preserve and empower the peace, not undermine it with our criticism and prayerlessness.