On the heels of the global Isaiah 62 Fast of this past spring — and now with Israel at war — we need to make sure that our prayers for those in these Mideast-centered conflicts are coming from God’s heart and from His Word. As one whose heart was captured decades ago for Israel and the Jews, calling forth God’s restoration of all things of which Israel is the epicenter is no struggle for me, and neither is praying scripturally for Israel and the Jewish people. But what about the Arab nations that surround Israel? What about the so-called Palestinian people? Could it be that we have focused too narrowly on a definition of Abraham’s offspring?

Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:3–7).

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“… By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son — blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:16–18).

Join others crying out to the Lord day and night.

In his book The Mystery of Israel and the Middle East: A Prophetic Gaze Into the Future, intercessor and teacher James Goll recounts God’s direction to him during a weekly Israel prayer watch: “I am calling you to raise up prayer for the descendants of Abraham. Remember that Ishmael also came from Abraham’s seed. In fact, Abraham’s seed went into three different women.”

We will follow the offspring of Abraham through Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah, tracing their descendants all over the Middle East.

” … Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” (Genesis 17:18).

That is the desperate cry of a father’s heart. Can you hear Abraham’s anguish in those words as he pleads with God to allow his firstborn son, Ishmael, born to Sarah’s Egyptian slave woman, Hagar, to remain with him and to carry the prophetic promises? Abraham is now 99 years old, and Sarah is 74, and though he has believed and clung to God’s promise of an heir through Sarah, his faith is now wearing thin. God assures Abraham that Sarah will indeed bear him a son — to be named Isaac and through whom the covenant of Genesis 15 will be established. But note what God says next: “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation” (Genesis 17:20). Ishmael would, like Abraham’s future grandson Jacob, become the patriarch of twelve tribes. After this revelation, God initiates the covenantal sign of circumcision, and Abraham and Ishmael are circumcised together, on the same day (verse 26). The very sign of God’s enduring covenant that would come through Isaac was now cut into Ishmael’s flesh — even before Isaac’s birth. Ishmael is thus marked as a descendant of Abraham.

Genesis 21 records Isaac’s birth and the sending away of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham was in great distress over this, because he loved Ishmael. But God again comforts Abraham’s heart by telling him to heed his wife Sarah’s demand and not to be worried. The son of the slave woman will also be made into a nation, He promises, simply because he is Abraham’s descendant (verses 12–13).

And God’s comfort did not stop there. Hagar, fearing that she and her son will perish in the wilderness, also receives solace and blessing from God. An angel of the Lord affirms to her: “ … I will make him a great nation” (verse 18) — an affirming echo of Hagar’s first encounter with God in Genesis 16. We are then told that Hagar and her son went on to settle in the Wilderness of Paran — modern-day Sinai — and Hagar obtained a wife for Ishmael from Egypt. Though Isaac is the seed that carries the covenant promise, Ishmael, too, carries the destiny of kings and nations.

The firstfruit of Abraham’s body was half Egyptian (through Hagar) and half Moabite-Hebrew (through Abraham’s family tree). As intercessors for the U.S., and as those who obey the command to pray for and bless Israel, we must never view the Arab nations (the descendants of Ishmael) as our enemies. Rick Ridings, who heads the Succat Hallel house of prayer, in Jerusalem, states: “If you love the Jews with a soulish love, you will hate the Arabs. If you love the Arabs with a soulish love, you will hate the Jews. But if you love either people — Jews or Arabs — with God’s heart then you will authentically love the others as well.”

In Genesis 25, we catch up again with Ishmael and his twelve sons — the twelve princes that God promised in Genesis 17. They settle in these regions: They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria … (Genesis 25:18). These are the modern nations of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Some authors would even include Syria in that list (see Why Care About Israel? — Teplinsky, page 237). At the end of this article, we will include these nations in a prayer for God to move in power over these regions of Ishmael’s descendants.

Sarai Becomes Sarah Through Laughter

In terms of praying for Abraham’s descendants, praying for the descendants of Isaac (the promised son, whose name means laughter) is probably the topic about which the most has been written and with which most intercessors are familiar. Let us return to Genesis: Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19). Abraham fell down laughing. So did Sarah when she overheard the Angel of the Lord tell Abraham that she would bear him a son by that time the following year. It seems that this story is full of mirth. I believe that God enjoyed it as well, since Isaac came not from any fleshly attempts to fulfill God’s promise, but rather from God’s El Shaddai nature; the All-Sufficient One needed no help!

Isaac was the only child born to Abraham and Sarah, and he was circumcised at 8 days old, as God commanded. Isaac in turn married Rebecca, and they bore Jacob and Esau (see Genesis 25). Jacob in turn married sisters Rachel and Leah, and they bore 12 sons (see Genesis 29–30). (In Scripture, 12 is the number representing governmental authority.) These 12 sons would become the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

As the story goes on, Jacob wrestles with the Lord all through a night and emerges with a limp and a new name; thus, Jacob (“deceiver”) becomes Israel (“one who strives or persists; a prince with God” [see Genesis 32:28]). One of his 12 sons is named Judah — which means “praise.” Messiah Himself is known as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (see Revelation 5:5), and it is from this name (Judah) that the words Jew and Jewish are derived. The terms Israel and Israelite are predominantly a national designation, whereas Jew and Jewish are religious and ethnic terms. Abraham’s seed through Isaac will become the Jewish nation through which Messiah Yeshua will come.

Scripture is full of commands to pray for the nation of Israel (see Genesis 12:2–3; Isaiah 62; Psalm 20; Zechariah 2:8); for specific locations within it, such as Jerusalem (see Psalm 122); and for the welfare of the Jewish people, Jesus’ brethren (see Matthew 25:37–40; Romans 10:1). The Greek word translated “brethren” in this passage is adelphos, which means having the same biological parents, or descending from the same national ancestor. It is not a generic word, but rather denotes the Jewish people specifically. We are to pray for them and to do them good in practical ways (see Romans 15:27). We will pray for Isaac’s descendants in our closing prayer below.

A final note: In Genesis 25:9 we have the record of Abraham’s burial and the miraculous statement that Isaac and Ishmael came together to bury him in a cave. These estranged half-brothers both came to honor their father and patriarch. Could this be a picture of things to come — a future in which these descendants of Abraham come together around a future table set by the heavenly Father for the wedding banquet of His son (see Revelation 19:9)?

The Third Wife: Keturah

After Sarah’s death, Abraham marries a woman named Keturah who bore him six sons (see Genesis 25:2). This woman, about whom we know very little, bore him more sons than his other two wives combined! Before he died, Abraham gave these sons gifts and sent them to the east, away from Isaac (verse 6). It is interesting that both Ishmael and the sons of Keturah were sent away from Isaac by Abraham. Many biblical scholars believe that there is a deep root of abandonment and an orphan spirit in the Arab nations, producing unholy jealousy and rage toward the nation of Israel. One of Keturah’s sons was Midian, father of the Midianites. The other five — Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Ishbak, and Shuah — apparently settled in Persia and Assyria.

God prophesies about Keturah’s offspring: The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord” (Isaiah 60:6). Both Ephah and Sheba are Abraham’s grandsons through Keturah (see Genesis 25:3–4). Some people think that the wisemen from the east could have descended from Abraham in connection with this prophecy (see The Mystery of Israel, page 168, Goll). One thing is certain, however — their destiny is to proclaim the praises of the Lord! We can and should pray for that.

A Time of Deep Darkness: Psalm 83

We will look at the glorious prophetic future described in Isaiah 19 — a future in which the offspring of all three wives unite in praise to our God! But first we must look at the time of deep darkness described at the beginning of Isaiah 60. I believe we may be entering that time now, a time filled with warfare and tribulation culminating in “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (see Jeremiah 30:7).

Israel is now at war, and Psalm 83 seems to have been been taken straight from the current news headlines. The psalm describes a time in which a confederation of nations attacks the Jewish state to steal its land and obliterate it from the earth. Let us see who these nations are that declare, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation so that Israel’s name will no longer be remembered,” and that say, “Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession” (verses 4, 12). These nations that rage (see Psalm 2) are listed in Psalm 83:6–8 as: … the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot [Moab and Ammon].

Most teachers agree that this psalm has not yet been fulfilled. In her book Why Care About Israel?, Sandra Teplinsky notes that in Psalm 83, it appears that all the nations in the neighborhood of Israel, except for Egypt, unite against her: Edom and the Ishmaelites are southern Jordan and Saudi Arabia; Moab is central Jordan; the Hagrites are Syria and Arabia; Gebal is southern Jordan; Ammon is central Jordan; Amalek is the Sinai Desert; Philistia is the Gaza Strip; Tyre is southern Lebanon; Assyria is Syria and Iraq. (See also Zondervan Atlas of the Bible to trace these biblical areas to the modern-day states.) These descendants of Abraham’s wives are conspiring against the chosen people and the Chosen Son. It is a regional expression of the spirit of Antichrist manifesting as antisemitism/anti-Zionism, and of a violent outpouring of bitter jealousy against God’s land. The current war is a beginning move into this end-time psalm, and we cry alongside the Psalmist: Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and dismayed forever; yes, let them be put to shame and perish, that they may know that You, whose name alone is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth” (16–18). God’s heart is not for their destruction, but rather for their salvation, that they might know Him! And it is for that destiny that we ourselves now intercede.

Isaiah 19: A Holy Alliance and the Highway of the Lord

Juxtaposed with Psalm 83 is Isaiah 19. That chapter begins with God’s decree of judgment against Egypt, but ends with a glorious prophecy describing a future time in which there will be a holy alliance among Egypt, Assyria, and Israel — an economic and spiritual partnership that will see Egyptians speaking Hebrew (verse 18) and crying out to the Lord, being saved, and sacrificing to Him (20–21). Then a highway will be built connecting those three nations, allowing commerce, trade and spiritual pilgrimage. The three nations will together be a blessing to the Lord: In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria — a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance” (23–25).

Goll writes that this move of God will impact Assyria, modern-day Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and other Middle Eastern territories. Keturah’s children were scattered through the vast lands of Assyria. Abraham sent many of them eastward into the Transjordan and beyond. Lands that appear now to be held captive through Islam will be delivered and cleansed of their impurity. Hatred and enmity between Arabs and Jews will cease. This will be a glorious day in history — a day in which the curse is reversed and the blessing of the Lord emerges.

At the 2023 Tikkun Global Conference, Messianic leader Asher Intrater was joined onstage by several Spirit-filled Arab leaders from around the Middle East. This panel shared testimonies of how God is moving powerfully in this region, with leaders being raised up from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and other Muslim nations. Perhaps Isaiah 19 is about to be fulfilled! Who is better poised than the Arab nations surrounding Israel to become followers of Messiah and thus provoke Jews to that jealousy leading to fulfillment of the prophecy that all Israel shall be saved? (See Romans 11:26). We pray for that day.

A Prayer for All of the Descendants of Abraham

Abba God, the Father in whom all families of the earth are blessed, we thank You that although the Middle East looks like a complex knot impossible to untangle, nothing is impossible for You. Acts 17 tells us that You created the boundaries for each nation so that they would look for You, find You, and know You.

You have created nations from all of Abraham’s seed.

Forgive us for our soulish prayers that we pray for either the Jewish people or any of the Arab nations. When we see atrocities or injustice, help us to remember that these happen because people are still trapped in sin. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

We cry out for the descendants of Ishmael to abandon Islam and return to Abraham’s God. Let the blinders fall off their eyes so that they might receive Yeshua as their Savior, and the Jewish people as their brothers.

You say that one day kings will come to the brightness of Your shining, so we pray that the descendants of Keturah, who were sent eastward, will return, bringing gold and frankincense to worship the one true God and to give Him praise and glory.

We pray for the descendants of Sarah — the children of the promise, the Jewish people — to fulfill their destiny as a light to the whole earth. We pray that in the midst of their current trials and those to come, they will cry out to You and find You when they seek You with their whole heart.

We bless the descendants of Keturah and Hagar, who in the fullness of faith are returning to Israel and helping to open the Jewish people’s spiritual eyes. This is Your design, Father, that the surrounding Arab nations would come to know You and provoke Your chosen people to jealousy.

We thank You that Your heart is to have each of these descendants of the seeds of Abraham at Your table, participating fully in the wedding banquet of the Lamb! Salvation belongs first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles. Thank You for grafting us in and for crafting a plan to save the whole earth that is beyond our comprehension! We give You praise and glory. Amen.

Share in the comments your own prayers and insights about Israel and the Middle East.

Lori Nicole Meed (Bachelor of Science; Bachelor of Education, Special Education) is a wife, mother, and grandmother who home-schooled her now adult children. In 2004, God moved her family from Canada to the U.S., imparting His heart for the U.S. and for revival. Having walked out her own journey of freedom after being radically born again in 1992, Lori has a heart to see others set free to walk fully in their destiny. She is a leader of an inner-healing and deliverance ministry at her home church in Pennsylvania. She also gathers and equips prayer groups for the U.S. and Israel. Lori has a passion for teaching on aliyah (“going up,” the return of the Jews to the land of Israel), the feasts of the Lord, and the rich connections of the gentile churches to Israel. She is a prayer leader on IFA’s Headline Prayer, as well as being a contributing writer. Photo Credit: Guven Ozdemir/Getty Images Signature.