Hi and welcome to our Sunday look inside Israel! Thank you for being here as J of Jerusalem shares some of her insights and experiences as a Jewish believer in Israel. God bless you and yours today as you pray for Israel and for J! Now, here’s J . . .
On our southern border, we now have Egypt…lead by the Moslem Brotherhood…the parent organization of Hamas, (which was birthed out of it) ‘Democracy’, Gaza style. I watch Syria with disbelief at the reaction of the world, siding blindly with el kieda linked rebels and accusing the government of all of the ‘crimes and massacres’, quoting ‘human right’s watches’ as the sources… the same ‘human right’s watches’ that is constantly accusing Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’. Meanwhile, we are waiting as the rockets hitting our south ‘slow down’ again. But the polarization is definitely not just international…in each country around the world. The divide between the secular and religious seems to be widening. There are some very large issues facing this, the only Jewish nation on earth, pertaining to drafting of Haradi (ultra orthodox) and Arab students, shabat desecration and even circumcision – the very ‘covenant’ made between God and Abraham. We just saw the “Ulpana” neighborhood in Judea and Samaria, evacuated on the basis of a judicial ruling that the secular court passed down while facts still were not established. We have deepening tensions between the rich and poor with the social protests starting up again (the weather is now conducive to it!) sadly, more often then not, politically instigated and agitated by outside groups.
And in the midst the pomegranates form their crown!
What a time to seek to walk in BALANCE! A dear friend of mine recently was told by her grown married child, that they were no longer going to be seeing them or allowing them time with their grandchildren as they felt that they had ‘ideological differences’ which made them a ‘bad influence’. I will tell you nothing more about this particular family (whether they live in the country or out of the country etc) except that they all claim to be strong Christians and the parents stand firmly with Israel. I asked them permission to share this much of their painful story as a stepping stone to something that I have mentioned before but has been deeply on my heart…and I share it with serious trembling. It is this: I have grown to believe more and more that Israel, as The Lord Himself, has become very often a ‘dividing line’ and a source of real testing. Indeed, some people who suddenly see the place of Israel in God’s economy have gone to extremes…even to the turning away from The Lord and becoming identified (they feel) with the Jewish people, embracing Judaism. But we have all seen this among new believers as well, have we not? Someone will get seemingly gloriously saved, but then they have gone off on some strange tangent, and many whom we have been praying for drag The Precious Name through the mud as a result…satan laughing! And how satan also laughs when this happens concerning Israel. Satan loves extremes…division…lies ‘Has God REALLY said not to eat that fruit?’ … a little ‘twist’ here and there and the Truth becomes NOT the Truth!’ This incident, though, has had me thinking of all of those who have had their eyes open and see The Lord’s plan WELL…and begin to pray and to stand in understanding…and suddenly personal disaster has hit! I can think, off the top of my head, of atleast 8 of you whose situations I would site as examples, but you are reading this letter and I do not want to cause added pain. But it is through YOUR lives that I have come to believe that God IS bringing many of those who understand into true ‘identification’ with the sufferings of Israel and the Jewish people. I pray that that does NOT sound strange, particularly because I know that there has been abundant teaching over the years for a long time now of ‘blessing’ in the form of physical blessing being a sign of the ‘spiritual believer’ and suffering being looked at as ‘lack of victory or of faith or even of sin being present’. “…And I will give you the hidden treasures of darkness…” I look at all of the prophets…all of the Apostles…and Our Lord Himself and I see acute suffering, so I personally am not sure where this understanding came from…except perhaps a fleshly fear of pain (don’t we all have that!) coupled with (also perhaps) memorizing our favorite verses and shying away from those that balance them…the ones that are ‘more difficult’ and express ‘the other side’ of God’s intricate character? And SURELY everyone who loves Israel with His understanding and even would willingly embrace suffering is NOT given such a path! No no! I am NOT trying to put forward a ‘new doctrine’. But sometimes we do think it ‘strange when a fiery trial tries us’…and others speak with scorn about the ‘cults’ who stand with Israel- coming within the body this is particularly painful. May God strengthen each of us to STAND in the place that He has given us…and having done all…to STAND!
with love from our Sis in Jerusalem
(more of this letter next Sunday!)
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