Despite the “ring of fire” strategy surrounding Israel with terrorism on every side, God’s heart is full of love and compassion for all the nations around Israel, some of whom are Israel’s sworn enemies, while others Arab nations are now allies. God’s plan is to glorify His own name so that everyone can know who He is and be saved.
“And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:5)
The fire of God’s glory will be seen by all the nations surrounding Israel.
“That they may know”: the ring of fire
Psalm 83 gives a vivid picture of Israel’s enemies surrounding them on every side. But who are “they”?
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”
For they conspire with one accord;
against you they make a covenant—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Asshur also has joined them;
they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah
- Edom refers to an area south of Israel, in northern Saudi Arabia, and southern Jordan. It also includes the very southernmost part of Israel today.
- The Ishmaelites were the descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael who ended up on the Arabian Penninsula.
- The Moabites were descendants of Lot who became enemies of ancient Israel and ended up to the east, in what is now Jordan.
- The Hagrites are a bit of a mystery – perhaps related to Hagar and living in Egypt or the Sinai Penninsular, but also described as living in the East by the land of Gilead, perhaps Jordan or Syria
- Gebal is thought to be in present day Lebanon, on the coast.
- Ammon is also from Lot, they lived in the area of northern Jordan and Syria.
- Amalekites were nomads, but are associated with the area southeast of Gaza.
- Tyre is in Lebanon, and is still there today.
- Asshur is Assyria, an empire that sprawled through much to the Mesopotamian basin including Iraq and part of Iran.
- and by now you know about the children of Lot.
After a 2000 year hiatus Israel is back, and the dynamics are once again much the same, surrounding Israel with a ring of fire. However, in protecting His covenant people, God’s name is exalted and people are saved. God’s desire is for all to seek Him:
“That they may know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalm 83:18)
Bible promises for the Arab peoples
The Bible also has much to say about the future destinies of these countries, with promises of revival and glory to come. Often the prophecies involve destruction first, then salvation for many. God wounds and he heals. Here are a few examples:
“And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.” (Isaiah 19:21-22)
“Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab [Jordan] in the latter days, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 48:47)
“But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam [Persia / Iran], declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 49:39)
There are also promises about Sheba and Dedan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen:
“A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. (Isaiah 60:6)
One day all these peoples of the ring of fire will know, and will live in peace with Israel. There is coming a day when the earth shall be full of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
Finding faith in the Arab / Muslim world
There are 22 Arab states and more than 380 million Arabic speakers in the world, two million of whom live in Israel. One out of every five Israelis speaks Arabic. Our team at ONE FOR ISRAEL also includes Arabic speakers, and our ministry goes out in both Hebrew and Arabic. Here’s some of the news from the Arabic Outreach team, to help you pray and catch a glimpse of what they’re seeing God do in the Muslim world.
Hadil, one of the team said,
“Many Muslims are approaching us, every day I open the messages I see so many messages. Carlos is answering people all the time.”
Since our videos in Arabic can be understood throughout the whole Arabic-speaking world, we get many responses from people all over the Middle East—and beyond. But in the past we didn’t see so many Israeli Arabs making contact with us. This has now changed. Hadil surmised that Israeli Arabs could live in comfort, even abandoning Islam for atheism in Israel, since it’s generally an advanced nation with a high standard of living. In other countries with worse conditions, they are more likely to think spiritually, but life conditions inside Israel are not normally so desperate. However, the war is now also bringing Muslims and Druze to seek the truth from within Israel. Now that our situation has become much more precarious, it has caused us all, Jew and Arab, to think more deeply about life, death, and spiritual matters. There’s a great search for meaning and answers.
“We are seeing much, MUCH more than before the war,” Hadil emphasized. People from within Israel and also from the “ring of fire” all around.
Relative of famous Saudi imam sees Jesus in a dream
A little while back our Arabic ministry team made a video about one of the most popular imams who loves to attack the Christian faith at every opportunity. Abdel-Rahman al-Arifi is an imam at the central mosque in Riyadh with more than 35 million followers on his personal page. The video was about whether God had a son, and due to the imam’s popularity, our video quickly gained more than 2.5 million views. One of the people watching it was a Palestinian man who was related to that imam’s family. He saw several of our videos and contacted us, and after conversing with him, He accepted Jesus. The Lord then appeared to him in a dream and this strengthened him greatly for the step he took. He started to read the Bible, and slowly gave up on going to the mosque. When his father asked him why he’s not going, he explained his reservations about Islam and how he now believes in Jesus. The father called the imam to try and persuade him to change his mind, and then an uncle started to intervene until it erupted in violence. His uncle started attacking him with a knife. He had to run from his home and he cannot go back. This is just one of many similar stories of Muslims who are finding Jesus and paying a high price to follow Him.
Baptism by zoom!
A guy from a closed Muslim country who worked in hi-tec came to faith recently. He spent a long time talking with our team about the principles of Christian faith. When it came to baptism, he studied the matter and decided that he wanted to get baptized. But how? It could mean death in his country. In the end he hired a private room at the gym with a pool, and asked our team to baptize him by zoom! It was a joyous day that the whole team was able to be part of, even though they were in a different country. There are no barriers for God.
Lives changed in Gaza
A Gazan man who has recently found the joy of knowing Jesus was very reticent to share the gospel with father, but was surprised to find the response wasn’t nearly as bad as he feared. So now he knows about Jesus too.
Another believer in Gaza had a similar experience with his mother. They had to stay in a Baptist compound when they were evacuated by the IDF from their homes, and ended up having access to the library there. They were able to read and listen to the Bible using the resources at the library, and even when they went back home she had questions about the Bible. The man was concerned she’d be very much against his decision to follow Jesus, but he said, “They see what Islam is doing,” and that his mother thinks Christians are “better than Muslims”. Life is very difficult for the whole family, but he has started to send his mum Bible verses to encourage her.
Druze man from near Majdal Shams gets a Bible
It’s quite rare for Arabic speaking Druze people to come to faith in Jesus, but it’s happening. A Druze man from a village in the Golan heights, near Majdal Shams where the 12 children were killed, has made contact with our team. He came to faith recently, and Carlos has arranged to get a Bible to him, and put him in contact someone who can encourage him in the faith.
From shouting Houthi slogans to proclaiming Jesus
A Yemeni man named John who has been involved in our Bible studies is a Muslim background believer who had an epiphany while on pilgrimage to Mecca! In the past, he used to shout with the Houthis, “God is the greatest! Death to America, death to Israel! Curse on the Jews, victory to Islam!” Now he is a passionate servant of God who loves the Jewish people, and has even led Israelis to faith through his powerful testimony.
View this post on Instagram
There are many others from the Arabic speaking world who have had their hearts changed by God, and now love Israel instead of being full of hatred. So much so, that the gift of the gospel is being brought to Israel by people from supposedly enemy countries. That is the power of God: peace, shalom, and reconciliation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)
How to pray
- Please pray for the new believers from Muslim backgrounds—for courage, protection, and to grow in their faith.
- Pray for us to find the right people to join our Arabic Outreach team to cope with the large numbers of enquiries we get about Jesus, and the resources to take on more people.
- Pray for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, the “head of the octopus” which is funding and coordinating the “ring of fire” to terrorize Israel. Pray for a new day for Iran and the whole Middle East, when the Gospel can travel more freely, and believers in enemy countries can be united.
