Happy Birthday Israel. 65 today!

On Sunday, Israel was remembering its fallen soldiers and victims of terror. Today, 15 April, is Israel’s 65th birthday. 

During the last 48 hours Israelis have  remembered all the people who gave their lives so that they might have freedom and a future to celebrate.

A week ago, I was in Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day of weeping and mourning. Each year there are less and less Holocaust survivors and the number of soldiers and civilians killed in Israel’s struggle for survival continues to grow. Everyone in Israel has lost a loved one in one of Israel's many wars. Either that or they know someone who has lost a loved one in conflict.

Israelis celebrate their country’s birthday every year and they do so because more than any other nation on earth, they never take their existence for granted.

So as Israel celebrates their 65^th birthday, let us pray that the Lord will safeguard that vulnerable little country surrounded by enemies who constantly breathe out threatening and slaughter against them. May their God shine the light of His love on them and remove the veil of darkness that hides Messiah from their view.

Great God of Abraham! hear our prayer
Let Abraham’s seed Thy mercy share;
O may they now at length return,
And look on Him they pierced, and mourn.

Remember Jacob’s flock of old;
Bring home the wanderers to Thy fold;
Remember too Thy promised word,
Israel at last shall seek the Lord.

Though outcasts still, estranged from Thee,
Cut off from their own olive tree;
Why should they longer such remain?
For Thou canst graft them in again.

Lord, put Thy law within their hearts,
And write it in their inward parts;
The veil of darkness rend in two,
Which hides Messiah from their view.

Oh! haste the day, foretold so long,
When Jew and Greek, a glorious throng,
One house shall seek, one prayer shall pour,
And one Redeemer shall adore!
Thomas Cotterill

Happy 65th Birthday, Israel!