JERUSALEM, Israel – More than one thousand pastors from the U.S. and other countries, the largest delegation to visit in modern Israel’s history, continued their journey through the land. They visited the iconic Western Wall and heard from the chief rabbi about the importance of their visit.
They began with prayer and worship on the ancient Southern Steps that led to the Temple Mount in Jesus’ day, then toured and prayed at the Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
Referring to the visit, Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion, one of the tour’s co-sponsors, told CBN News, “It’s going to have an incredible impact. The president of the United States is going to see this. He’s going to be aware of this. Virtually everyone of significance is going to see this, and they’re already aware.”
Evans added, “There are many people from the white House here on our team. And there are over 200 pastors connected to Donald Trump here.”
Some 16 million people pray at the Western Wall each year, but this is the first time such a large group has come to offer a unique blessing and prayer.
Evans explained that each of the pastors and influencers was given a prayer slip. “I have Uri Arad – and this is a person who was massacred on October 7th. Every one of them, they’ll hold (a paper with a prayer) in their hands. They’ll take it, put it in the cracks of the Wall, and they’ll pray for their families.”
Evans worked with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to bring the group to Israel. He emphasized the importance of prayer.
“The Bible says this. ‘We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper, who love thee,'” Evans noted. “And we need to pray for these precious (Israeli) people. They’ve suffered such unspeakable pain, and we’re here to show compassion and love and solidarity with them.”
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The pastors met with Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, who began by reading Psalm 121, about how God keeps Israel. He commended the group for their support.
“They are a group that came to confirm the friendship between America and Israel,” Rabbi Rabinovich stated. “The group that came says, ‘We are searching for the good, we want to fix the world and the Kingdom of God, to confirm that this world is a world that the Holy One created for good, to reject the evil, to be against those who want to do evil and not good.’ And what we share between us is much bigger than what separates us.”
Rabinovich told us Israel wants to convey the message to the U.S. that Israel and the Jewish people cherish and appreciate them.
“We want to say to them, thank you for everything that they support us, especially in this very hard time – a period when so many people wanted to hurt us, to kill us. On seven fronts, we are fighting, and America stands at our side. We want to say, thank you. These thousand leaders will bring this message of thank you – thank you to the American people,” he declared.
The Rabbi defines Israel as a people that knows how to “rise from the ashes” and rebuild, even though its enemies still want to hurt Israel.
His prayer is “That we will have peace, that we will have a thriving economy, that we will have good, and that our bitter enemies will stop trying to hurt us. We don’t want to kill them. We only want them to stop hurting us.”
