“Appointment in Jerusalem” by Lydia and Derek Prince
Lydia Christenson was appointed to Jerusalem by God and this is the fascinating story of her adventures from December 1926 until August 1929. The contrast of her luxurious life in Denmark with her poverty in Jerusalem and the historical details of the Pentecostal Church in Denmark are vividly described. Lydia’s story is one of total joy in her Bible studies and her love for Jerusalem as she learns to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in every area of her life.
A dying baby girl is brought by struggling Jewish immigrant parents and as she nurses Tikva (meaning Hope) Lydia discovers her work in Jerusalem caring for abandoned children. In her efforts to improve her English and Arabic, Lydia studied the Bible every day in three different languages: Danish, English and Arabic. She no longer read the newspapers every day with her coffee or listened to the radio and so was quite unaware of the Arab–Jewish tensions culminating in the deadly riot and siege of August 1929. The Swedish missionary lady who met her at Tel Aviv when she arrived warned her of the riots and went home while her friends and family sent money for her fare home but Lydia was oblivious to the real danger until her home was under siege for three days without water with the toddler Tikvah. Her miraculous escape makes riveting reading and I would have been very interested to read more of her experiences up until her marriage to Derek Prince in 1945.
This book is dedicated “To Jerusalem, the city of the great King, with love”, and Lydia’s love for Jerusalem is evident throughout this book, but to me the most moving part is the letter she sent to her mother straight after the riots in 1929:
“You ask what you can do to help. I believe there are some things that you – and every Christian – can do. In the midst of all the fighting God showed me something which has changed my whole outlook. I suddenly came to see that we Christians have a debt that has gone unpaid for many centuries – to Israel and to Jerusalem. It is to them that we owe the Bible, the prophets, the apostles, the Saviour Himself. For far too long we have forgotten this debt, but now the time has come for us to begin repaying it – and there are two ways we can do this.
First, we need to repent of our sins against Israel: at best our lack of gratitude and concern; at worst, our open contempt and persecution.
Then, out of true love and concern, we must pray, as the psalmist tells us, ‘for the peace of Jerusalem,’ remembering that peace can only come to Jerusalem as Israel turns back to God. God has shown me that from now on to pray in this way for Jerusalem will be the highest form of service that I can render Him.”
Lydia concludes this section of the book with the following:
“On my way to the post office next morning with my letter to Mother, I paused to look at the now familiar outline of the Old City walls. What would it be like to stand up there as a watchman, enduring the burning heat of the sun and the silent cold of the night?
That would be a hard and lonely task, I thought. The walls are so big, the directions from which danger can come so many. But suppose there were many watchmen, a vast company standing shoulder to shoulder…. Lord, help me to take my place as a watchman on the walls!”
The epilogue which Lydia insisted that Derek write for this book is about the prophetic future of Jerusalem from the book of Zechariah, beginning with the violent Arab reaction (Zechariah 12:2) from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Arabia and Egypt which happened in 1948 and again in 1967. “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.”
Next was the Heavy Stone of verse 3, “And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples: all who lift it will be severely injured…” Derek Prince writes, “In a measure this, too, has already happened…Great Britain tried to lift the stone, but was ‘severely injured’... When Britain laid the stone down, Count Bernadotte of Sweden sought to intervene as a mediator – but was assassinated. The stone was then handed over to the United Nations (representing ‘all the peoples’) and has become the most intransigent issue in international politics. God has issued a warning to any nation, any government, any politician who would seek to impose a merely human solution on Jerusalem. All who attempt this will be ‘severely injured.’”
Later Derek Prince adds some interesting teaching from Matthew 25:31-33 about the sheep and goat nations: “There will be one clear principle of separation between the ‘sheep’ nations and the ‘goat’ nations – the way they have treated the Jews during their period of persecution…”
I highly recommend this book because it can be read as an interesting story about a Danish woman who chose the adventure of the mission field over the conventional luxury of her home life. It is also an inspirational testimony of faith and an historical documentary of the years from 1926-1929 but truly it was the captivating story of Lydia’s love for Jerusalem and the Israeli people which I enjoyed most.