Prayers of Israel

In this Bible Devotion, The Prayers of Israel, I find it interesting that the words, when they cried to me are used when expressing the prayers of Israel. Who is they? What implication does that have for us today?

Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

Nehemiah 9:27, NKJV

In Nehemiah 9, we encounter the rather long prayer of Nehemiah for the nation of Israel. Nehemiah recounts again and again the answered prayers of the nation of Israel when they cried out to God in the midst of their troubles.

I find it interesting that the words, when they cried to me are used when expressing the prayers of Israel. Who is they? What implication does that have for us today?

Does this mean that every single person in the nation of Israel cried out to God for help? What about our own country? Does every single person in our country need to cry out to God for help in order to receive His help? What responsibility does this imply to the Christian regarding his own nation?

God has placed us, His children, in various countries all over this world. Our responsibility before God and to our country is to continually bring our country, and our leaders before God in prayer. Realizing that God is greater than our heart, and that, The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will, (Proverbs 21:1) we understand that God can and does answer our prayers for our country.

Take time today to go before God in prayer for your country and its leaders; God alone has the power to turn your leaders whatever way He wills.