Category: Standing With Israel

Although the entire civilized world recognizes the teaching of Messiah, His promise of blessing extends beyond the spiritual realm into everyday life. In fact, if you have a cell phone, a huge company in Israel probably made your antenna.

In the reading this week drawn from Genesis 12: 1 17: 27, the Creator tells Abram He is going to bless the world through his descendants. In case you’re thinking He’s talking about all people, including biological and even spiritual descendents, He’s really not. He’s talking about Jews.

Journeying to the isolated state of Mizoram in northeastern India, Rabbi Jonathan Bernis and his team offer food and medical care to 5,000 Bnei Menashe—a starving community believed to be descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel, the Manasseh. Taken into captivity when Assyria conquered Israel 2,700 years ago, the tribe’s oral histories suggest that a remnant migrated to India, where they continued Jewish traditions.

It was a passage in Zechariah 14 that clinched it for Susan Jones, a Christian supporter of Israel from the United Kingdom. Immediately after reading the passage, Susan knew the time was right to plan her first trip to Israel.

“I was reading the book of Zechariah where it says that the nations will come up to Jerusalem after Jesus comes back,” she said. “I thought, ‘I need to do this now, before Messiah comes back. I need to come up to Jerusalem on behalf of my nation and worship Jesus.”

Torah-observant Jews are extremely respectful of the Torah scroll. In each synagogue, the Torah scroll is placed in a special case called an ark. The scroll is rolled up, and a beautiful, embroidered cover is placed over the scroll to keep dust from collecting on it. When the time comes to remove the scroll for reading, a man is appointed to carefully remove the scroll from the ark and uncover it, placing it on the platform for the speaker.

The speaker actually never places his finger on the scroll itself but will use a metal or wooden instrument about eight inches long, called a yad, which resembles a small hand with a single index finger pointing upward. Called the finger of God, this object is used by the reader and speaker to follow the lines of the text. This serves a dual purpose: it preserves the sanctity of the scroll, and it prevents oily, human fingers from eventually erasing the black-inked letters on the parchment.

In the second weekly reading of the Torah, Noach (Noah), we meet a man of God building an ark at his Master’s direction. This ark, built in a dry desert must have seemed so strange to the neighbors. “Hey, look at that nut, Noah; his god told him to build a huge boat, far from water, and he is doing just that. How odd, they must have thought. But Noah persisted because he was “righteous, wholehearted and walked with God.”

Yet, as godly as this man was, one of his sons didn’t inherit much of that spirit. In fact, Ham, one of three sons, was cursed through his son, Canaan. What would cause a godly man like Noah to curse the descendents of one of his own sons, his actual grandchildren? Did he have a bad temper? Was he given to fits of anger? Was he just hung over from his drinking bout the night before? All this might be possible, but there’s a greater meaning to this curse.

Last week, Simchat Torah was celebrated in synagogues all over the world. Immediately upon reading the last portion of Deuteronomy, the Torah scroll containing the Five Books of Moses, is rolled back to the beginning, to B’resheet and Genesis 1:1-5 is read.

This way we remember that the Torah is God’s never-ending teaching for right living. It’s a handbook for how to obtain blessings in our lives. This is a fun time, when we actually “dance” around the ark or building, holding the scroll in our arms. It’s always exciting to have a new beginning, which is why we enjoy Simchat Torah so much.

We are living in the last days, and many of the prophecies in God’s Word about Israel have been fulfilled. One of these main prophecies is in our reading in Jeremiah today.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks of a time when Israel will no longer say, “‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers” (Jer. 16:15).

Nearly everyone has a special place he would like to visit during his lifetime. For many people, that place is Israel.

The mere mention of the country’s name evokes a wide range of emotions, one of which is longing. For thousands of years, Israel has held great significance for people from all walks of life, and those who have a heart for the land yearn to see it.

Though Jesus clearly said of His return to the earth, “Of that day or hour no one knows” (Matt. 24:36, NKJV), there are signs throughout Scripture that point to the second coming of the Lord. One of them is the increasing number of Jewish people who are coming to recognize Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah, and another is the growing body of Messiah in the land of Israel itself.

The Messianic movement refers to the growing number of Jewish people who have become believers in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. This movement began with the Jewish disciples, continued into the first four or five centuries and then was lost. After a terrible season of forced conversions during medieval times, more reasonable attempts to help Jewish people find Jesus began during the post-Reformation period.

Some 5,000 Christians from 100 nations marched through the streets of Jerusalem Tuesday to show their solidarity with the nation of Israel.

March participants waved Zionist banners and flags, while others wore T-shirts that read “Jerusalem United” as part of a campaign responding to political pressure on Israel to stop construction in the largely Arab eastern part of the city.

The Israel Antiquities Authority in Migdal near the Sea of Galilee discovered a 2,000-year-old synagogue from the Second Temple period this month during archaeological excavations.

The 390-square-foot synagogue contains mosaic floors and walls covered with frescos. Also, a square stone featuring sides adorned with reliefs and engraved with a seven-branched menorah was discovered in the hall atop a pedestal with a triangular base.