Paul and Sennacherib

Jesus commands us to pray for those who persecute you. I'm not very good at that. Jesus also tells us to pray for those in prison as if you were in prison yourself. I'm trying to get better at that.

For the last several weeks, i've been praying for the Christian minorities in northern iraq, who have been subjected to a brutal program of ethnic cleansing by the terrorist group IS. But, recently, i've also been praying for the men on the other side, and i think there are two different people we need to remember when we're praying for them.

We need to remember Saul on the road to Damascus. This Hebrew of Hebrews, this leader of the Christian killers was on assignment to round up the members of the Nazarene sect. Convert them, arrest them, kill them, whatever you need to do to bring them back to orthodoxy. Sound familiar? Saul was happy to take on this task, serving the God of his fathers. And then? Knocked off His horse by the glory of the Happy God. Blinded by a light brighter than the sun. And what happened? All the brothers who he'd been trying to kill heard he was now preaching the faith that he was trying to destroy and praised God for him.

Wouldn't it be an extraordinary thing if members of the IS, those rounding up Christians were so moved by their faith, so convicted by their calmness in the storm that they see the glory of God, and are saved? We should pray for that.

But i think we need to remember Sennacherib at the walls of Jerusalem as well. 'Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Serphavain, Henna and Ivvah?' he cried. Well where indeed? This king and his army had swept through the wilderness, wiped out idol worshippers and their false gods, and now had Jerusalem in his sights. No other provincial god had stood in his way, why should this one? But Jerusalem is The City, and their God is The God. And despite the best efforts of man, the plan of this God will not abort. Sennacherib was miraculously defeated, returned home, and was betrayed and killed by his sons.

So pray for the defeat of the IS. Whatever means this takes, whether by US airstrikes, the Kurdish army, internal strife,  or mass conversion to Christ, we know it will come from the hand of the Lord.

Pray their purposes would be defeated, their hubris punished. Pray their feet will slide in time. Pray the time is soon.