Leaders in the Messianic Jewish community are asking us to pray along with the Jewish people and with Messianic Jewish communities in the name of Yeshua on a day of prayer and fasting against the devastating COVID-19 virus.
Since biblical times, the Jewish community has banded together to face the threat of plague and disease by declaring a day of prayer and fasting. The Talmud tells numerous stories of similar occasions when the Jewish community was faced with threats like infectious diseases. What did the Jewish people do? The leadership came together and agreed to declare a day of fasting as the prophet Joel did in response to the locust plague:
Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD!” (Joel 2:15-17)
The Messianic Jewish community has designated Monday, March 9, for a day of fasting to ask God for mercy on the people of China and the whole world in the name of our Master. On the Jewish calendar this year, March 9 is the date for the Fast of Esther, a fast day observed in memory of the three-day fast that the Jewish people of Persia undertook before Queen Esther went to appear before the king.
This year we are going to combine that traditional fast day with a special focus in prayer asking our Father in heaven for mercy on his people and on all of his creatures. I invite you to issue the same summons to prayer and fasting in your local community of worship.
Here is a link to a PDF of a prayer we have composed to petition God for protection from the virus. The important thing is that we come together in unity and agree to pray together in our Master’s name and in his merit and virtue. We want our prayers to rise like incense from the censer of the high priest Aaron who interposed between the living and the dead to stop the plague.
Will you make March 9 a day of prayer and fasting for those who are sick, suffering, and dying from this dreadful virus? Please join us and ask your brothers and sisters to pray, too. May God keep us all healthy and protect his people.
Grace and Peace,
Boaz Michael
Jerusalem, Israel
Source: First Fruits of Zion
