EVERYTHING

"Because He has kept His Word to Israel."

AN IDF soldier in captivity decided to escape at his next opportunity. Then he began to doubt. What would happen to him if he escaped? What will be with his family? They would be heartbroken. He decided to talk to God. “God, I know you are here. But give me a sign you are here,” he prayed. He said, within 10 minutes, the radio suddenly changed to an Israeli channel, and there was a mother, speaking about her kidnapped son; there was a known Jew describing the then recent loss of over 1,400 lives, people murdered, and of the hostages in Gaza. There was the sign, he said. And he said, “I have to be more restrained and more patient. God is with me. Eliya, everything’s going to be okay.”

6 is less than 7. 6 repeated however many times will always be less than 7. 7 is completion. It is God’s. 6 is man’s effort to be God.

John’s Revelation says, “Babylon is fallen (Revelation 14:8).” Babylon, notice, and not Egypt. Babylon is a different picture. Where Egypt was slavery, Babylon was capture. Israel was taken from their homes, their cities were destroyed, and they were forced to live in Babylon. They were there for 70 years. Many died. Died getting there, died in Babylon. When they were released, they returned to their Promised Land to rebuild Jerusalem, the city of God. A foreign king gave them their freedom, his money to rebuild their lives, and he returned the artifacts of their temple to them.

Sound familiar? In World War II, the Jews were taken from their homes, their things were destroyed or stolen, and they were forced to live in Babylon, a place not of their own making. There, they were numbered, not God’s numbers. There, 6 million of them died. After the war, a “king” gave them their Promised Land. He was us, these United States.

What we’ve taken as prophecy for the church was Israel’s and, for us, is past tense. What the apostle John looked at as in the future, has already happened. The Jews know covenant. For the most part, we don’t. Their lives are centered on it, and on prayer to Hashem, who has been revealed as Jesus. This isn’t whether or not they call God Jesus. But that they encourage prayer, knowing G_d answers. Because He has kept His Word to Israel.

The Torah is His Word. Their covenant is not “old” to them. It is eternal. So is our new one. Jesus’ blood both fulfilled their covenant and wrote another that we, those born outside of Israel, can stand firm in. Just as they do in theirs. They teach it to their children. They pray it over their sons and daughters, going into the IDF. They speak it in the synagogue as blessing over the sick. It is Light because God is Light. And in Him, we know, is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). Where we’ve made God distant, in so many denominations, they see Him as all around them. As Savior. As Father. As King of Kings.

How does a Jew speak Jesus’ words having not read them? The Spirit of Christ, who is our loving Father, walks among them, bringing revelation and assurance. John 20:22, and those were Jews. I have changed, seeing their confidence. I would the church knew it. Minus the whoop-and-hollering and in opposite, the criticism and debate. To a Jew, they are here to be Hashem’s arm extended. They are here to love, to give, to support.

The words of a psalm rise up within me. They are so Jewish.

Psalm 66:9-12 says, “He has kept us alive and has not allowed us to fall. You have tested us, O God. You have refined us in the same way silver is refined. You have trapped us in a net. You have laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads. We went through fire and water, but then you brought us out and refreshed us (GW).”

This is such a Jewish way of thought. The church would teach against it, saying God doesn’t place burdens on people or test us with evil, and there is Truth in that. But also Truth in the way a Jew sees it. To them, He is in control of all things, so they can endure. He is with them, so they are never alone and without wisdom. Here are the words of Hebrews 13:5. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

And Proverbs 3:5-6, from their books of wisdom. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

We have EVERYTHING in common – us and the Jews.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com