The Jerusalem Prayer List - May 19th, 2011

Yeshua said to his disciples: "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Luke 10:2)

We find in the first tractate of the Mishnah, The sayings of the fathers (Pirkei Avoth) the following statement: "Rabbi Tarfon (Trypho) said: The day is short, the task is great, the laborers are lazy, the wage is abundant and the master is urgent." (Avoth 2:20)

Even at first sight you can see the similarity between the two statements. Rabbi Tarfon is the famous Trypho that argued about Yeshua with Justinian Martyr who lived in the second century and was one of the engineers of the separation between the Jewish people and the church. So, Yeshua's statement in the Gospel is much older and in a more natural context.

What did Yeshua mean when He spoke this to His disciples?

The general context of the words of Yeshua is in what is called the limited commission. Yeshua collects seventy disciples and sends them through the cities of Israel to proclaim the Good News. This statement comes right after the disappointment of Yeshua from James and John that had suggested that He send fire and devour the Samaritan village that did not want to welcome Him and His disciples to overnight there. Luke connects the story above by using the key phrase, "After these things." This phrase is an opening phrase for a situation that always indicates in the Hebrew Bible a situation of testing. We see the same phrase used in Genesis 15:1, 22:1, 39:7, 40:1, 1 Kings 17:17, 1 Kings 21:1, and many more places through the whole Bible. So, immediately when one reads the words of Yeshua in Luke 10:1, the mind ought to go to a "get ready for testing situation." The testing here is of the disciples who are challenged with a need, an urgency, a mission, and this challenge demands their response. The historical circumstance is of "harvest." This term used in a prophetic context is very much like in Revelation 14:15, "And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe." We also see the same use of "harvest" in John 4:35, "Do you not say, "There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" These are uses of the word "harvest" in an allegorical sense. It is interesting that one of the main commentaries of the Mishnah, Rabbi Obadiah of Bartanura, states: The days of a man are short, and the labor of learning Torah is very big, as it is written "even deeper than the sea." The laborers are lazy, because it is the nature of man to spend his time in temporal pleasures of the flesh. The reward or pay that is promised to those who study and do the words of God is so great, as it is written, "Wisdom is more precious than pearls." (Prov 8:11) The Master, the Holy Lord of all commands man and warns him to be occupied in doing Torah and keeping His commandments as it is written, Deut. 6:6-7, "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Of course the Rabbis in the second century A.D. are urging that Jews should be occupied in the study of the word of God. The temple in Jerusalem is not there anymore and the only way that a Jew can express his devotion to God and preserve his faith is by the study of the Torah. However what we see is that in both texts the "harvest" is not a physical, agricultural, harvest, but it deals with human beings and with metaphysical values and rewards.

Therefore, we must ask what did Yeshua really mean when he spoke these words to His disciples?

The statement of Yeshua has three stages described: 1. The Harvest is very great.

. There are only a few workers.

. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers.

The first two stages are descriptive of the factual situation, the harvest is too big, there are not enough workers. What Yeshua does in the third stage is something very unusual and great - He makes the laborers partners in the solution of the problem. The workers become a part of the management and partner in asking the ONE who can solve the problem, the ONE who can hire more workers, the ONE who is the Lord of the Harvest, to solve the problem and send more workers. Yeshua makes the laborers partners in the solution by asking them to pray, to ask, to beseech, to intercede, with the Master, with the Lord of the Harvest.

I think that this is a great lesson to learn about our prayer of intercession. This kind of a prayer is not for our own sake only, but for the sake of the Harvest and for the sake of the last days and for the sake of what is good for the Master. By this kind of prayer we become partners in the solution of the problem and we take a place of participants and not only observers and evaluators of the problems. WE can do something to solve the problem, we can pray to the Lord of the Harvest and tell Him what is needed, in this case the need is more laborers. See and evaluate what the problem is realistically and turn to the Lord in prayer as a partner in the solution asking for what you need to make the best of what His Harvest can yield.

In Israel the situation is very serious. We had a very peaceful boarder with Syria, but this week President Bishar Assad decided to try to divert the attention of the world to the massacre that he is perpetrating against his own people in the city of Daraa, and Homs, and Banias, and Damascus, where he has killed more than 850 people. He sent thousands of Syrians to the southern border of Syria with Israel and instructed them to break down the security fence and cross into Israel. At that time there were only ten Israeli soldiers in the area and they wisely did not shoot the Syrian intruders, they let them come into the Druze village of Mag'dal Shams and dance in the streets until re-enforcements came and drove most of the Syrians back across the border. A few Syrians managed to sneak into Israel and arrive in Tel-Aviv. This was an unsuccessful attempt of Bishar Assad to break the statuesque in the Golan. However, for Israel this was a very serious precedent to export the Arab uprising that was motivated and encouraged by facebook and other social media into the conflict with Israel. This could happen again and it probably will happen again. We need to pray for Israel and for the Israeli leadership to have wisdom and find ways to stop this kind of un-armed social uprising without blood-shed. We need to pray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have wisdom when he addresses both houses of congress in Washington D.C. this week. We need to pray for the whole Middle East and Arab situation in Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain. Remember that we are partners with the Almighty God of Israel for the sake of the Harvest, the final Harvest.

In Netivyah things are keeping extremely busy. We have lost one of our part time volunteers and the volume of work has not diminished in any way, so the relevance of Yeshua's words above is very big for us. We are praying for the Lord to send us more laborers, but we need someone who knows English on a mother tongue level and Hebrew very well, and is willing to work for a small salary. Right now it is not easy to find someone with these qualifications.

Everything else is working and doing well. I am teaching special seminars every week and the response is good especially among the younger generation and that is very encouraging for me. Next week we are already starting another major seminar with brothers from Japan and from Israel. It is a very important seminar because it is a subject for prayer for many years among Japanese brothers and sisters, prayer for the salvation of Israel. If we, as local Jewish brothers can't work together toward this great goal no one can actually do it in our place. Please pray for this seminar. Please also pray for the first Messianic Jewish conference in Italy that will take place from June 2nd to 5th near Bologna, Italy. I will be traveling with Marcia to Italy for this conference and teach about the Restoration.

We continue to pray for the sick among our brothers and friends: Ruby, Tim Tucker, Paulo, Liz, June, Horace, Anna Majia, Ishiida San, Abe San's mother in law who is way over 90 years old and has been praying for Israel's salvation for over 75 years. In Israel we continue to lift up for divine healing, Liora, Ahuva, Ilana, Leah, Sarit, Marcia, Merav, David, and David S., and myself, and Marcia.

We pray for many brothers and sisters who are suffering from unemployment and from issues of finances. We help everyone whom we can, but we are very limited in our ability to help all those who are in need.

Thank you all for your prayers for Israel and for Netivyah and for us all who serve in God's Vineyard here in the land of Israel.

Blessings upon you all and joy from above every morning of your life,

Joseph Shulam