Greetings in Yeshua’s name, hope this finds you and yours well!
Praise God there have not been any new emergency or otherwise prayer requests for quite some time though please do keep in your prayers those needs that are ongoing.
The title of this email is actually something I thought of trying to do at least a couple or a few years ago. However, the focus has been on producing, I hope, in-depth and innovative teaching content. John and I are very excited about some particularly new and very innovative content that we’ve added, praise God. God willing more on that another time!
I had hoped at some point to be able to write some blogs based on Rachel’s and my experiences and observations while in Israel, particularly Jerusalem.
So, the following is the first blog/essay along those lines.
I had hoped to get it out a couple of weeks ago during Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days, but being a little under the weather and other circumstances prevented it. On the other hand, God willing a week from today is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel on May 15,1948! (Palestinians call this day in Arabic the “Naqba” “Catastrophe”).
Israel has, as some of you know, mandatory military service for 18- to 21-year-old males, 18 to 20 for females. It is a true citizens’ army. Israeli men serve a month a year in what’s called in Hebrew literally “exercises”, i.e., reserve duty until they’re into their 40’s.
Many of us in the US bitterly complain about taxes, especially those living in what is sometimes called “Taxachusetts” (Massachusetts). Israelis pay very very heavy taxes, upwards of well over 40% because something like 45% or so of the national budget just goes to defense.
On multiple occasions we have been blessed to visit a charity in Jerusalem that works with blind multi-handicapped children. Those who regularly donate to our work should know that you’re blessed because a part of that is sent to this charity!
I bring it up because for one of the meetings with the then director, a seventh-generation resident of Jerusalem, he was late because he was at a meeting with the government. This was during a particularly difficult time for Israel when they were undergoing a lot of terrorist attacks. The government informed him that government support for this charity would have to be cut 10%.
I remember being angry when we visited this wonderful facility once because they had to have an armed what’s literally called in Hebrew “trust/security”, i.e. “security guard”, at the building’s main entrance. I remember thinking that it’s as low as you can go and also a work of you know who, that there has to be armed security for a facility dealing with blind multi-handicapped children!
Though Israel is very very safe for tourists there was recently an incident in which a Jewish resident originally from Britain and her two daughters were shot on one of the roads in the settlement areas.
Perhaps more on these types of things another time….
Americans are of course very familiar with Memorial Day and Independence Day. Memorial Day is seen as the unofficial start of summer and typically a weekend of barbecues, ball games, and family gatherings and parties. There are of course remembrances to honor those killed serving and defending the US.
Independence Day the 4th of July is also seen as a very festive time, although Independence Day of course has much more festivities and is of course a much happier occasion than Memorial Day and features lots of fireworks!
Unlike Israelis, not every American family has someone or knows someone who was either killed serving the country or in a terrorist attack since 9/11.
In Israel virtually every family – every family – either has someone who was killed defending Israel or killed in a terrorist attack or who knows a family of someone who was either killed defending the country or in a terrorist attack.
Memorial Day in Israel is a somber day. At 11:00 a.m. all Israelis get off their phones and if driving pull their car over to the side of the road and get out. Air raid sirens across the country wail for 2 minutes.
I remember a trip Rachel and I were on with other Jewish and Gentile brethren in Israel during that time. I neglected to mention above that in Israel Memorial Day and Independence Day are back-to-back.
On the trip we were on we had hoped to go to the top of the Mount of Olives where the military was conducting a memorial. Out of security concerns we were not allowed to so we had to walk up from the bottom of the Mount of Olives until the military told us we could go no further up.
I remember asking one of the soldiers, “Why are these gravestones of Jews here on the Mount of Olives of all places broken up?” He replied that until they liberated Jerusalem and the surrounding area in 1948 the Jordanians would break up the headstones and use them for paving roads.
Incidentally, when Israelis were forced some years ago to leave the very southern part of Israel bordering Gaza, they also dug up all the graves in order to rebury the remains elsewhere in Israel. Why? Because they knew the Palestinians would desecrate the graves….
It’s a whole other discussion and it doesn’t apply to every single Palestinian of course, but overall the hatred of Israelis and basically all Jews for that matter, knows no bounds. As an Israeli once told me after a mother and her two children were shot and killed on a road in the settlement area, “When you put not one but two bullets in the head of a 2-year-old, that has nothing to do with land or politics, it’s pure hatred and evil”….
In short again, not all Palestinians are like that and it is sad to see a people who really have great potential but who have been badly taken advantage of and poorly lead by their leaders.
The leader of our group wanted us to be at the top of the Mount of Olives by 11:00 a.m. Again, though we could only go about 3/4 of the way up, nonetheless it was quite an experience to hear the air raid sirens go off and look down from our vantage point on the mountain and watch Israeli drivers pulling over to the side of the road and getting out of their vehicles….
In 24 hours Israel goes from a very somber time to one of great jubilation and celebration!
The first trip that Rachel and I took alone to Israel was quite miraculous in its own way. We were supposed to go as part of a group of those in ministry that the Jewish Brother who was my mentor put together. When he called us at what was about 1:15 a.m. Israeli time, I knew it wasn’t good. He called to say that since the Israeli Defense Forces had recently killed the head of Hamas there was a lot of fear as to what would happen; perhaps even, God forbid, some sort of outright war.
Though my Jewish Brother didn’t want to cancel the trip, it wasn’t his decision. I paused for a moment and said, “Okay, now how do we get over?” It’s a separate writing on its own but in short, praise God in less than 3 weeks we went from having absolutely no travel arrangements and not knowing how to make any to get to Israel and having no place to stay, to arriving in Jerusalem on Independence Day!
We arrived at our hotel not too far from downtown Jerusalem late in the afternoon. The shuttle we took from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem is called in Hebrew “Eagle”. It always reminds me of the verse in which God says He carried the Israelites on eagles’ wings.
The shuttle had to slow down very considerably on one of the main streets near the hotel. At first, we couldn’t see why; then shortly we did. On the street was what I would call a river of people literally flowing down the street. The street was just filled with Israelis and Jews flowing down the street, and again, it just made me think of a river the way it was moving. The people were all flowing in unison down the street to the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem, about 2/3 of a mile or so southeast of where we were.
Rachel and I checked into a small hotel near the legendary King David Hotel where Presidents have stayed. It was a long trip so we rested a bit then got something to eat. We decided to go down to the corner and look to our right just so we could see Jaffa Gate and the walls of the Old City.
We said, “We’re exhausted but we at least want to see Jaffa Gate and the walls of the Old City. God willing tomorrow we’ll walk down and go to the Western Wall”. (Back then though it wasn’t easy, but Rachel could do it. Today unfortunately I don’t know if she’d make it to the corner and back to the hotel).
However, as we looked at Jaffa Gate and the walls of the Old City, I can only describe what felt like a “magnet” pulling us to go down the street towards the Old City. We said, “Okay, we’ll just go a block to take a closer look”.
However, that “magnet” kept pulling us closer to Jaffa Gate. We’d go a block and say, “Okay now we’ll turn back and God willing come back tomorrow”; but that “magnet” had a force we couldn’t resist.
Finally, we made it up and walked past Jaffa Gate on our left, with the Citadel of David on our right, and continued up the narrow roadway heading towards what’s called the Rova (basically “wide place” although it’s all alleyways) the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. We walked past a small Israeli police station on our left. We were on Saint James Blvd – hardly a boulevard – and then took a left down a narrow walkway that was the beginning of that part of the Jewish Quarter.
Though by now this was well after 10:00 p.m., there was still a stream of Israelis and Jews flowing into this part of the Old City as it was the fastest way on foot to get to the Western Wall. We definitely noticed when we went past Jaffa Gate and turned right, that all of the usual Arab shops that are usually open and often with owners aggressively trying to lure you into their shop, were very tightly closed up. (One time driving through here in daytime, I’d not locked the doors. An Arab “huckster” hopped in the back seat haranguing me to visit a shop until I yelled at him that I was stopping at the Israeli police station a Stone’s throw away).
On this occasion not a single Arab to be seen!
We just seemed to flow down through the Jewish Quarter over stones worn smooth over many centuries by countless pairs of feet. In not more than 5 minutes or so we came out to a vantage point that you may have seen in a photograph of the Western Wall.
It’s one in which the Wall is a 45° angle to your left. From there if you turn 45 degrees to the right, you’ll see the Mount of Olives a little more than a mile or so away. Just past the Dung Gate (the Gate that animal refuse from the 1st-century Temple was brought through to be disposed of; a flyball away) is Gehinnom, the Valley of Hinnom. This is what Yeshua referred to originally in Hebrew or Aramaic, called “Geena” in Greek, in English “Hell”.
Today it is populated by Arabs. Tour buses, after visiting the Mount of Olives, typically pull up outside the Dung Gate to unload their passengers who next are being taken to the Western Wall.
We made our way over to the left because the Western Wall Plaza a couple of stairways down below us was packed with people. We managed to find a place we could sit and looked out over the scene.
Perpendicular to the Western Wall at the left end of the Plaza a stage had been set up. Orthodox Israelis were playing western electric instruments whose sound of very joyous music and song was being carried over very loud loudspeakers. I remember thinking I hope no one in the surrounding area is trying to sleep!
The Jews and Israelis who packed the Plaza were singing and dancing with tremendous celebration. This went on until after well after midnight! Rachel and I looked at each other and said, “This is a taste of how things will be when the Mashiach returns!” This is what we kept thinking to ourselves; wow, just imagine what it will be like when none of God’s enemies nor the enemies of the Jewish People will be there to disrupt the return of Israel’s own! (Scripture – on at least 3 occasions – specifically sees Israel’s enemies as God’s enemies. Cf. esp. the second half of Ex. 17!).
Just try to imagine the uncontrolled joyous celebration. One day and as we say in Hebrew, “May it be speedily in our days”, this will be as real a reality for Yeshua’s followers as that unforgettable experience and night was for Rachel and me! Zech. 8 also will be a reality!
May we be strengthened and encouraged to look and hasten the Day of God 2 Pet. 3:11-13.
Jacob