The Feast of the Ingathering, also known as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles, is mentioned in Exodus 23:16–17 as one of the three major gatherings when the men of Israel were to appear before the Lord. Following the seven days of Booths (Sukkot in Hebrew) was the great eighth day called Shemini Atzeret. Shemini means “eighth,” so this holy convocation is recognized as the “eighth day of ingathering” (Leviticus 23:34–36). Simchat Torah is part of this celebration and means “rejoicing with the Torah.” This day is significant because it completes the annual cycle of Torah readings and is celebrated with great joy, dancing, and rejoicing. It was at this joyful dance festival on October 7, 2023, that Israel was attacked.

In Isaiah 62:6–7, God says,

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;

All day and all night they will never keep silent.

You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves;

And give Him no rest until He establishes

And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.[1]

When the Lord said, “I have appointed watchmen,” it struck me that God is appointing the watchmen. There is a commission and an appointing by God Himself of those who are going to have deep within their hearts this revelation of prayer for Israel and the Jewish people. We are not to keep silent. We are to give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. But this is not something we can do in our own human ability; rather, it is something that God Himself is going to do. God will fulfill His Word and establish Jerusalem. We are not making up prayers about Israel. These are things God has spoken in His Word through the mouth of His prophets over millennia. We are to find these Scriptures and pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6–9).

Israel has seen massacres, conflict, and contention—but that is not to be the future of Jerusalem as it is spoken of in the Scriptures. God’s Word will be the future of Israel. The Jewish people represent God’s unwavering determination that whatever He has said is going to happen: “My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips” (Psalm 89:34). This is the bedrock foundation of our intercession. God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3).

Anti-Semitism in the world has increased at a shocking rate to levels we have not seen since the 1930s in Germany. We cannot allow anything in our hearts that would be sympathetic or entertain the world’s negativity toward Israel and the Jewish people. We are to believe the Word of God over Israel and declare its fulfillment in our day. The Lord promised the Jewish people that Israel “will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it” (Jeremiah 33:9).

The Lord will bring a peace to Jerusalem that will leave the nations with their jaws on the floor in shock over what God will do in His blessings and His restoration of the fortunes of Judah and Israel. We must be anointed to cry out to God to see that the peace of Jerusalem and the fulfillment of His Word to the Jewish people happen in our day.

[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).