PREPARE THE WAY by Wendy Beckett
God Keeps Covenant
Day 13
“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” (Isaiah 57:14)
Day 13 of God Keeps Covenant: PREPARE THE WAY by Wendy Beckett
The focus of our study on Day 12 was how the Lord worked miracles to fulfill His word and bring home thousands from Europe and the countries surrounding Israel. What about the more than 2,000,000 Jewish people who were virtual prisoners of the communist system in all the countries of the Soviet Empire? A small number were allowed to emigrate each year, but many were being watched and imprisoned without cause.
In 1985, a group of international prayer leaders gathered in Jerusalem for a major prayer conference that was convened to intercede specifically for the release of the Soviet Jews. The Lord had been preparing the hearts of some of the men, and during the gathering, they agreed to take a prayer journey behind the Iron Curtain.
What followed was amazing. Skirting the Russian KGB, these intercessors prayed powerful prayers for the release of Soviet Jews in front of the Kremlin, the statues of Lenin and even the headquarters of the KGB itself.
They traveled to Odessa in the Ukraine, to the famous Potemkin stairs, which lead from the port up an embankment into the city. Invaders through the centuries scaled those stairs as their point of entry. The most recent had been the Nazis bent on conquering the Ukraine and destroying the large Jewish population of the country. The intercessors descended the long stairs – praying again for the Jews’ release as they went. As they turned at the bottom to ascend the stairs, they almost bumped into the KGB agents who were following closely behind them, trying to figure out what these odd tourists were doing.
Suddenly, cracks in the Iron Curtain began to appear. In front of the Berlin Wall in June 1987, President Reagan announced, “This wall will fall.” And yes, down it came and ruthless regimes toppled. The peoples held captive by communism had their first taste of freedom! The Lord had heard the prayers of those intercessors as well as the worldwide prayer that had ascended to His throne during the 70 years of Soviet domination.
As a result, in 1990 alone, more than 185,000 Jewish people left the former Soviet Union for Israel. In 2002 that number reached 1,000,000 immigrants (in 12 years), helping to fulfill Isaiah 49:25 (NKJV) “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered.” How terrible the communist massacres were.
Look at how specifically the Scriptures apply to the Aliyah (return) from Russia, the land whose capital, Moscow, is directly north of Israel.
“I (the Lord) will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’” (Isaiah 43:6)
“See, I will bring them from the land of the north.” (Jeremiah 31:8)
“‘Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 2:6)
So yes, “the obstacles” are being removed and there is a highway for “my people” to go home from “the land of the north.”
Lord, what a privilege to be alive in a day when Your Word is being fulfilled before our eyes. Thank You for all those who have been faithful to pray! May Your Jewish people still in the “land of the north” return to their homeland!
