“I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)
We write this letter to you on August 10, 2026, a date infamously etched into Jewish memory. On this same Gregorian day in the year 70, Roman troops breached Jerusalem’s walls and set God’s Holy Temple ablaze. Nearly two thousand years of exile followed.
Jewish tradition teaches that baseless hatred among our own people was the deepest wound and main cause of that exile. The ancient historian Flavius Josephus chronicled not only the widespread neglect of God’s laws, but years of infighting and bitter dissensions of Jews turning viciously against other Jews. In effect, Israel unraveled into civil war. As believers in Yeshua, we would add one more grief to that list: our leaders’ collective rejection of Messiah.
Today, as tensions rise feverishly in Israel, as domestic strife intensifies, and as leaders themselves openly warn of the potential of civil war, we might ask: Could history repeat itself?
Not while a faithful remnant is praying in the power of God’s Spirit!
Not while we are proclaiming His covenant promises over this land!
We’ve just entered Elul on the Hebrew calendar. Rabbinic tradition regards Elul as a month of special closeness with YHVH, a time of spiritual awakening that prepares hearts for the fall feasts ahead. Each day through Elul, the shofar sounds and Psalm 27 is recited. This year, that rhythm of preparation carries extra weight. National elections will follow soon after the feasts on October 27, and they may prove to be among the most consequential in Israel’s history.
The Road to October 27
The past few years have tested Israel like no period since her founding. Since 2020, the country has weathered domestic, international, and military shock waves that in some ways surpass even the upheaval of 1948. Confidence in the current government and political system sits at a sad, historic low.
Israelis still carry the unhealed weight of October 7, 2023. Many are angry that accountability for that catastrophe remains unresolved. No clear determination has even been made about who should be investigated. Israel remains, in a real sense, a nation in collective trauma. Even amid remarkable intelligence and military achievements, the country remains locked in simultaneous wars against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, with no clear end yet visible. Against all this is the knowledge that Jewish people are increasingly hated with unprecedented fury all around the world. Israel’s real war is global in nature.
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government has repeatedly moved to curb the judiciary’s power, shifting weight toward the legislative and executive branches. The Supreme Court leans strongly left but has also long served as a guardian of individual and minority rights. At the same time, the current coalition has continued to shield the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community from military service—a decision landing especially hard on reservist families who are shouldering heavy burdens from lingering wars.
As Israelis climb out of bomb shelters, prepare to celebrate the feasts, and then head to the polls on October 27, the stakes have rarely seemed higher.
How should Yeshua followers view the dilemma?
God is refining and chastening Israel, as He is the Church worldwide, in preparation for Messiah’s return. As a good father lovingly disciplines his children, so God lovingly disciplines His own (Hebrews 12:6-7, Deuteronomy 8:5). Famed writer of the 20th century C.S. Lewis called it a severe mercy. A mercy unto salvation and sanctification.
A Democracy Unlike Any Other
In a democracy, every voter carries spiritual authority and responsibility for the government they help elect. How does that play out in a nation like Israel, one without a governing constitution to anchor the process?
Israel’s electoral system is both refreshingly simple and maddeningly complex. We do not vote directly for a prime minister. Instead, we vote for a political party, dropping a single slip of paper into a ballot box on behalf of one of dozens of political parties.
Before the general election, each party chooses its own leader. After the election, the President alone decides which party leader seems most capable of stitching together a coalition holding at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. No single party ever governs alone. Every coalition is, by design, a patchwork, and every patch comes stitched with its own demands.
Consider the ultra-Orthodox community, a sizable and fast-growing minority that has, since the state’s founding, refused to serve in the military. Although it pays fewer taxes than other communities, it uses state funds to run its own educational system that bypasses subjects like math, science or history in order to study rabbinic interpretations and commentaries on Jewish traditions. They believe that study and devotion to tradition is their form of national service. Occasionally, draft-dodgers among them are arrested. When that happens, ultra-Orthodox protests take place that shut down major highways and rail lines. Many secular and non-Orthodox Israelis see this, and the present government that accommodates it, as outrageously disruptive and unjust.
Problems are not confined to the extreme religious right. A coalition that excludes religious parties would need to lean instead on hard-left, woke type factions whose platforms strike many Israelis as existentially dangerous or otherwise deeply troubling.
Israel’s Arab population is larger than the ultra-Orthodox community. Their parties typically hold 10-15 Knesset seats. Some openly advocate against Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Only once has an Arab party joined a governing coalition. Typically, they sit in what is called “the opposition,” thereby shrinking the effective pool for coalition-building down to 105-110 seats. To fill these seats, outsized leverage is given to Israel’s smaller factions.
Benjamin Netanyahu has led the country for most of the past 17 years. Many Israelis genuinely struggle to picture a government without him. Yet, after years of turbulence and thin accountability, many dread the thought of returning him to office as-is. His corruption trial, now entering its sixth year, could ultimately bar him from the premiership. But that would require the country to actually enforce Supreme Court rulings, something it has grown increasingly reluctant to do.
To our knowledge, PM Netanyahu has not groomed a successor. Former allies who once stood beside him, including Gideon Sa’ar, Yuli Edelstein, Benny Gantz, and Avigdor Lieberman, now lead their own small parties. They have signaled strong reluctance to serve under Netanyahu again. A few names keep surfacing as potential alternatives: Gadi Eisenkot, the respected former IDF Chief of Staff who resigned from the war cabinet over disagreements with Netanyahu in 2024; Naftali Bennett, once a partner and now a leading rival; and Yair Lapid, the centrist opposition leader whose support does not yet appear strong enough to seriously challenge Netanyahu’s hold.
Several years ago, Avi Lipkin formed a small Bible Bloc party. He is not at all hostile toward Jewish believers and many Messianics support him. The party staunchly upholds biblical values. It is lacking in political experience and expertise, so it has yet to gain traction.
Recall that between 2019 and 2022, Israel endured five election cycles before a lasting coalition could form. The nation may be heading toward similar territory—at a time when it is at prolonged war on many levels.
But nothing is impossible with God. He raises up one and takes down another. He is never dismayed and does not grow battle weary. He has promised that Israel remain a nation before Him as long as the heavens and earth exist (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
“There is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1).
How to Pray
Like all other nations, Israel cannot have righteous government without righteous people electing it. Righteousness flows only from God. As a righteous remnant by His grace, we can contend in faith and prayer:
- That God raises up leaders who glorify Him in thought, word, and deed (Isaiah 1:26, Dan. 2:21);
- That He shuts the door on those whose agendas run contrary to His purposes for Israel (Rev. 3:7);
- That hearts are transformed as mistakes and sin are confessed, and pride is laid down (1John 1:9);
- That the electorate seeks God’s best plan for the road ahead (Prov. 16:9);
- That God’s Spirit sweeps through the halls of government (Acts 2:1-4);
- That a spirit of grace and supplication pours out over the nation in genuine repentance (Zech. 12:10);
- That God grants Jerusalem peace and safety (Psalm 122:6).
Israelis are extraordinary people, carrying burdens most Western countries can barely imagine. Like the Jews of Nehemiah’s day, they rebuild with one hand while gripping a weapon in the other—out of sheer necessity. Israelis need, now more than ever, the prayers and support of Jesus followers around the world. Stand with us and the Jewish people worldwide, even in our collective stumbling.
Do not let your love grow cold. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).