It is so easy to become disconnected from other people in the world. After reading Arlan’s post on the nations, I remembered an email someone sent that challenged my thinking and prayer patterns for one nation in particular.
Right behind the nation Israel, the second most mentioned nation in the Bible is the nation of Iraq. You may not recognize it at first, because in the Ancient Near East it was called a number of things (including Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia).
Some Biblical events involving Iraq:
- Likely the location of garden of Eden
- The Tower of Babel was in Iraq
- Abraham was from Ur (southern Iraq)
- Jacob met Rachel in Iraq
- Jonah preached in Nineveh (jut of the Tigris)
- Daniel was in the lion’s den in Iraq
- Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were throne into the furnace in Iraq
- Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the “writing on the wall” in Iraq
- Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq
- Peter preached in Iraq
We are all so connected to each other. “Their” story is our story. Our story is about God creating a people to know and love Him.
Do you find yourself disconnected from our story as a people? Does it change anything for you to reconnect?
Thanks Steven. As you know from Sunday, that post wasn’t my original intent. Just shows you how the Holy Spirit can change the direction of your think(ing), blog(ing) - I had no idea Iraq was so involved in biblical history.
Steven, I’m attending a tea party on Saturday and we will all be committing to pray for Africa for 30 days. I’m pretty pumped up about it because I haven’t prayed for continent or even a part of the world specifically for a period of time.
IRAQ - i had no idea. i’m going to put iraq in my prayers while I’m praying for Africa!