For thus has the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.” And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, and he listened earnestly with great care.” Isaiah 21:6-7
 
Isaiah, in the chapter quoted above, portrays a vivid imagery of distress and the fall of three mighty nations, Babylon, Edom, and Arabia. Amidst looming dread lies the subtle reassurance of God’s omnipotent control. He calls for watchmen to take their place, pay close attention, and declare what’s happening. One of those nations responds and inquires about the time. The watchman says morning is coming, but also the night, suggesting there may be hope if they’re willing to ask again. The watch focus tonight is intercession for three “nations”—the Muslim people, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and for America.
 
The Muslim World
On this night, billions of religious persons around the world are devotedly praying toward a god who cannot save. In Islam this is the commemoration of “The Night of Power,” so called because of their tradition that on this night, in a cave outside of Mecca from a spirit later identifying itself as Gabriel, Mohammed supernaturally received the beginning revelation of the Quran which led to his believing himself the final prophet and his revelation the final word for the whole world. Many persons who hold fast to this belief have long family and national histories of submitting to Mohammed’s tradition and the whole world must ultimately submit to it.
 
Israel
Israel is reeling under assault from within and without. Adherents of Islam, though not all, vow her destruction. A new season of war began on October 7, 2023. At the same time, internal strife is rising, and spiritually many in Israel have long departed from serving God who made covenant with her and have turned to other gods. Those who adhere to the Jewish religion trust in a tradition that cannot save and in ignorance make themselves, as Saul in the New Testament prior to his conversion, enemies of the gospel. While the bible says Israel has been blinded in part that the Gentiles may be grafted in, rejection of Jesus indicates the spirit of antichrist is at work.
 
America
On Monday, the second total solar eclipse exclusive to the U.S. since before the nation’s founding will cross the entire continent. The path crosses seven cities named Nineveh. We observed the container ship that lost power in Baltimore and hit the main support of the bridge named for the author of our national anthem. It is a powerful metaphor of the failure of our trust in the strength of our political and fiscal power to save us, threatening our national destiny. Our response as watchmen is to take a lesson from Nineveh in the bible. We call for national repentance. We recognize that power lies with the church. We call for revival of the fear of the Lord, of prayer in the church, and for patriotism toward America. We call for return to trust in the Lord alone to save us.
 
For the Muslim people, for Israel, for America, we pray the Spirit of Christ be poured out in revelation, supplication, and repentance. In the name of Jesus, we bind the heavenly powers of the antichrist spirit. We loose the power of Christ to save, heal, and deliver every person who calls on God in truth.
 
Isaiah 45:22-24, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone mare deliverance and strength.’ All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame.”
 
According to the Bible, the god of Islam and the God and Father of the Lord Jesus are not the same person. While Muslims, religious Jews, and Christian traditions all claim descent from Abraham, one through Ishmael and the other through Isaac, the God of Abraham ultimately revealed Himself in His Son. The Bible says denying Jesus as THE final revelation, Himself the messenger and Son, and His word as THE final word of God, is the spirit of antichrist which would come to deceive many in the last days.

1 John 22:21-23, “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”

Matthew 16:18-19, “…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”…“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”

Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”

Acts 5:30-32, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Joel 2:12-14, “‘Now, therefore,’ says the Lord, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him—grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”
Our national anthem is taken from the poem by Francis Scott Key having witnessed the battle of Baltimore in 1812:

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

F.S. Key wrote in his introduction: “The annexed song was composed under the following circumstances— A gentleman had left Baltimore, in a flag of truce for the purpose of getting released from the British fleet, a friend of his who had been captured at Marlborough. He went as far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was not permitted to return lest the intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. He was therefore brought up the Bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate, and he was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which the Admiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours, and that the city must fall. He watched the flag at the Fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can be better felt than described, until the night prevented him from seeing it. In the night he watched the Bomb Shells, and at early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country.”