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The words of Paul the apostle, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin and former religious zealot of the sect of the Pharisees, to the Gentile believers in God at Rome, regarding the Jews:
“There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God. And this is how all Israel will be saved. As the Scripture says, ‘The Savior will come from Zion and remove all wickedness from the descendants of Jacob’” (Romans 11:25-26 GNB).
Your presence on this planet today is a living proof of God’s existence.
Many Jews have complained that they have been the ongoing victims of hostility from those that call themselves Christians. They say that this hostility, if not overtly physical and life-threatening (the Holocaust and pogroms), is manifest in proselytizing that belittles their faith. Jews have been told, for centuries now, that they are missing something, that their faith is lacking, that they are wrong regarding Jesus Christ. Because of a TV program that calls into question the resurrection of Christ, Gerald Honigman, a Jew, poses this question to Christians in his article, “So, My Friends, How Does It Feel… to at least partially walk in another man’s shoes?” presuming Christians have now been given a reason to doubt, the shoe being on the other foot.
What I want to tell the Jews and the nation of Israel, my brothers and sisters in the flesh, is that you have indeed been wrong about God and Jesus Christ, all of you, whether you claim to have faith or not. You have been wrong, it has been hurting you, it has been hurting God, and you need to know it, for your sake and His. You need to turn away from seeing yourselves as the victims, from looking to men for approval and justice, and look to God your Creator, Who has been responsible for everything that has happened to you.
Whether you believe in God or not, your presence on this planet today is a living testament and proof of His existence, omniscience, and omnipotence. He foretold, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures by your forefathers, that because of your wicked ways He would scatter you to the four winds, casting you out of the land of Israel. Your fathers foretold it and He did it. Yet He also said He would keep you as a people and bring you back into your own land, in unbelief, through no righteousness of your own. He has done that, too.
No one else could do these things, and you certainly could not do it to yourselves, nor would you. Would you have chosen to be evicted from your homes to wander the world in danger of your lives? No. But you chose what led to that, as God warned you. He said it would happen to you if you did not listen and commit yourselves to Him as you should have, seeing that He was your faithful Creator, Husband, Father, God and Savior.
But you would not have Him. You chose to serve yourselves rather than the One Who made you. Therefore, you do not have a leg to stand on complaining about the consequences that followed. You have received the wages of your choice, seven times over now, even as Moses said. Is that enough? Yes, according to Him that purposes all things, it is enough. It is not because you are now different or have changed. You are still insufferably stubborn and set on justifying yourselves. The times, however, are set by God, Who rules over all. He can turn you, and will. That is why He sends us to tell you truth about yourselves and Him.
You will be His people, no longer in ignorance of Him and His ways.
Do not think for a moment that your efforts to be religious please God, or that your “Torah-observance” will win the day. You were not able to keep the Torah before, and you do not and cannot keep it now. When God brought you back into the land of Israel, it was not because you were religiously observant. Ben Gurion was not putting on tefillin and davening every day (not that God ever asked for that; He did not). Israel was brought back from the dead as a secular country, one that did not profess God or know Him, unreligious, but tolerant of all religions of men. To this day Jerusalem is an unholy mess, religious Babylon.
No, it is not because you are “Torah-observant,” or “Torah-unobservant,” that God has brought you back as a nation. He has kept you, even though you have not known Him, and has brought you back to deal with you, not as you deserve, but so that He might yet reveal Himself to you, show you mercy, and show His power and glory to the world. You will be His people, no longer in ignorance of Him and His ways. You turned your back on Him and became strangers to Him, but He has not forgotten you, just as He promised your fathers He would not.
God has determined your fate all along, so you can forget about what others are saying and doing to you, and can stop complaining about them and to them. In fact, not only can you do this, you must do it. Your complaints have been against your Maker. Both directly and indirectly, you have accused Him of injustice. You have done this in pride and foolishness, as though you have been pure and free of offense towards Him. Yet it is He, God, and not you, Who has the legitimate complaint:
“The ox knows who’s boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not Israel. My people don’t know up from down. Shame! Misguided GOD-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals– My people have walked out on Me, their GOD, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back” (Isaiah 1:3-4 MSG).
You are in your situation you are in because you have forsaken God.
“Has any nation ever made a change in their gods, though they are no gods? But My people have given up their glory in exchange for what is of no profit. Be full of wonder, O Heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. For My people have done two evils; they have given up Me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water” (Jeremiah 2:11-13 BBE).
You are not the victims you have thought yourselves to be. You are the perpetrators. Do not avert your eyes from this fact. Not acknowledging this reality is the source of your great tribulations as a people. I will show you. You are in the situation you are in because you have forsaken God, not because He forsook you. He is the Victim, and has chosen to be so for your sakes. The day is coming and now is when you will be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves for blaming Him for what you have chosen.
Why should anyone feel sorry or listen to you when you have not been willing to listen to those God sends to lead you? Moses had this to say about you at the end of his life:
“You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you” (Deuteronomy 9:24 HNV).
“For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?” (Deuteronomy 31:27 HNV).
Moses also foretold the kind of complaint Honigman has made of the Christians, those who tell you that your faith is incomplete:
“They [Israel] have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deuteronomy 32:21 HNV).
Is that not what you have been expressing, an anger and jealousy towards those who profess Christ, the King of the Jews, the very existence of such a people shouting out to the Jew and the rest of the world that your faith is lacking? Certainly it is! If you, a Jew, were walking with the God of Heaven and earth, who could anger you with a charge, or even the appearance of a charge, that your faith is deficient? Who could make you feel jealous, as though you are missing something? Would not others be found to be insecure and jealous in light of your relationship with the Almighty, Whose Presence would be with you and would justify you? Would you not have decent, irrefutable and holy answers to silence the mouths of those in error and to enlighten the ignorant? Should not you be leading the nations in faith, teaching them of God, as God said you would, rather than having them tell you how you have missed your Messiah and Savior?
“And now if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all the nations; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6 MKJV).
Rejecting the Messenger of the covenant, you rejected His covenant.
There is only one reason this has not happened and that is because you have not obeyed His voice or kept His covenant. He has, therefore, removed the instruments of the covenant from your midst, forever. You have no temple or priesthood to offer your sacrifices to make atonement for your souls, according to the Law of Moses. You rejected the One Whom Moses and all the patriarchs and prophets foretold:
“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the Messenger of the covenant, Whom you desire, behold, He comes! says the LORD of Armies” (Malachi 3:1 HNV).
Rejecting the Messenger of the covenant, Who came suddenly to His temple, you rejected His covenant. The old covenant of sacrifices and temple ordinances was made obsolete, and is no longer available to purge you of your sins. To the new covenant of Messiah, which fulfills the former, you have been blinded:
“The LORD says, The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a Husband to them, they did not keep that covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31-32 GNB).
Instead of having the knowledge and wisdom of God, you know nothing about Him, and those who speak on your behalf make small-minded, stupid and evil objections against the good news of the Messiah of Israel, such as Jeff Neckonoff and Tovia Singer in The 76 Questions, which we, those who do have the mind of God, answer with truth that none can challenge. How long will you continue to deny God’s judgment? When will you turn from your wickedness and rebellion? You will be turned, but only by God’s grace, and not by your righteousness, because you have none as no man does:
“As a sweet savor will I accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. You shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into Eretz-Yisra’el, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers. There shall you remember your ways, and all your doings, in which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed. You shall know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for My Name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Yisra’el, says the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 20:41-44 HNV).
Gerald Honigman writes that there are “hundreds of television and radio programs all across America and elsewhere dedicated to converting Jews and proclaiming that their faith is lacking and deficient.” If your faith is not deficient, how is it that a foolish nation frustrates you so and makes you angry? Ought you not to be happy that anyone bothers to talk about you, and that you have such a large and wonderful opportunity to answer for yourselves? Are you not aware that you do not have an answer? Is that not evident by your sickly whining, which fans the flames of those who actually do hate you? How far removed you are from being the people of God who bring truth, light, peace and healing to the world!
Why doesn’t God speak to you anymore? Consider.
Where is your God? If you have faith, why are you not answering for Him? Why are you, Israel, explaining and trying to justify yourselves to men, looking for support, whether from the United States or the United Nations? If your faith is so adequate, why must you have the support of those who persecute you, the “Christian” nations, those who find your faith to be inadequate? Are you not proving your critics right? Your ways serve to bring even more on your heads.
Is not the borrower servant to the lender? Why are you in the inferior position? Why is everyone telling you, Israel, what to do, and what they tell you tends to your annihilation? Why are you listening to them? Will it not be different, and will you not know it when God blesses you? It will be clear as day:
“For the LORD your God will bless you, as He promised you: and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you” (Deuteronomy 15:6 HNV).
Where are your prophets and men of God, as in days of old, when Israel was led by such? Why doesn’t God speak to you anymore? Consider.
In all beggarliness, you search for some rabbi or wise man, who, at best, can only give you scraps to eat, yet you take him as a possible Messiah. You listen to the “sages” of long ago who gave their opinions but did not hear or report the Voice of God, Who gives simple Truth, not considered opinion, wise counsel, or studied speculation.
While it has been His choice that you be, above all nations of the earth, His glorious and peculiar treasure, you instead have chosen to be taken out with the garbage. Yet you blame Him and those who carry you out. It is your doing. As He has said, “Contrary are your ways.” The first step to a sure and complete reversal is to confess it so.
Christ came to give us the nature of God, by which we can fulfill the Law.
Honigman complains about forced conversions. Who has been forcing you? The work of the Catholic Church has nothing to do with God or Jesus Christ. Anyone reading the New Testament will see for him or herself that, far from being forced, every person professing faith had his or her own conviction and, if pressure was applied, it was done so by those that did not believe, not by those that did. The first believers were Jews who believed in Messiah, not because of pressure to conform, but despite it, some suffering even to death because of their belief. These children of Israel laid down their lives, as did Messiah Himself, for your fathers, those who did not believe, but who compelled and even took the lives of those who believed. Their rejection of Messiah is your inheritance today.
The conversions spoken of in the New Testament were not from Judaism to Christianity, that is, from one religion to another, but were from one nature to another. Jesus Christ did not come to start a religion, but came to fulfill the promises of God through Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, by giving the power of a new nature to those who receive Him, from carnal and self-serving to spiritual and life-giving. He came to give us the nature of God, by which we can fulfill the Law of God. That is what the Messiah comes to do – He is the Bridge to God by Whose power we are made anew in His likeness.
Religious practices do not change men, but the resurrection power of God through Jesus Christ does. The sacrifices of clean animals did not change the nature, being necessary year by year, but the blood of Messiah does once and forever. This is what God promised through the prophets of Israel:
“The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the LORD, because all will know Me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken” (Jeremiah 31:33-34 GNB).
But before this will happen to you, you must face yourselves, Israel, and see yourselves for the culprits you have been. You cry foul at attempted conversions, whether by force or subterfuge or honest preaching of the gospel, but what about your record of force, intimidation, and murder, from long before there was a Catholic Church or phony TV evangelists? How about how you have treated your own brethren who did the works of God?
The Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious counsel, conferred amongst themselves about what to do with the Jews who were disciples of Christ:
Acts 4:16-21 MKJV
(16) Saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle has been done by them is plain to all those dwelling in Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it.
(17) But, so that it spread no further among the people, let us strictly threaten them, that they speak to no man in this name
(18) And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus.
(19) But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it is right before God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
(20) For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
(21) So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way as to how they might punish them, because of the people. For all glorified God for that which was done.
Verbal threats not sufficing, they resorted to physical punishment:
Acts 5:16-42 WNT
(16) The inhabitants, too, of the towns in the neighborhood of Jerusalem came in crowds, bringing sick persons [to the apostles of Christ] and some who were harassed by foul spirits, and they were cured, one and all.
(17) This roused the High Priest. He and all his party–the sect of the Sadducees–were filled with angry jealousy
(18) and laid hands upon the Apostles, and put them into the public jail.
(19) But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,
(20) “Go and stand in the Temple, and go on proclaiming to the people all this Message of Life.”
(21) Having received that command they went into the Temple, just before daybreak, and began to teach: So when the High Priest and his party came, and had called together the Sanhedrin as well as all the Elders of the descendants of Israel, they sent to the jail to fetch the Apostles.
(22) But the officers went and could not find them in the prison. So they came back and brought word,
(23) saying, “The jail we found quite safely locked, and the warders were on guard at the doors, but upon going in we found no one there.”
(24) When the Commander of the Temple Guards and the High Priests heard this statement, they were utterly at a loss with regard to it, wondering what would happen next.
(25) And some one came and brought them word, saying, “The men you put in prison are actually in the Temple, standing there, teaching the people.”
(26) Upon this the Commander went with the officers, and brought the Apostles; but without using violence; for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
(27) So they brought them and made them stand in front of the Sanhedrin. And then the High Priest questioned them.
(28) “We strictly forbad you to teach in that Name–did we not?” he said. “And see, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and are trying to make us responsible for that man’s death!”
(29) Peter and the other Apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than man.
(30) The God of our forefathers has raised Jesus to life, Whom you crucified and put to death.
(31) God has exalted Him to His right hand as Chief Leader and as Savior, to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
(32) And we–and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him–are witnesses as to these things.”
(33) Infuriated at getting this answer, they were disposed to kill the Apostles.
(34) But a Pharisee of the name of Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, held in honor by all the people, rose from his seat and requested that they should be sent outside the court for a few minutes.
(35) “Israelites,” he said, “be careful what you are about to do in dealing with these men.
(36) Years ago Theudas appeared, professing to be a person of importance, and a body of men, some four hundred in number, joined him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and annihilated.
(37) After him, at the time of the Census, came Judas, the Galilaean, and was the leader in a revolt. He too perished, and all his followers were scattered.
(38) And now I tell you to hold aloof from these men and leave them alone–for if this scheme or work is of human origin, it will come to nothing.
(39) But if it is really from God, you will be powerless to put them down–lest perhaps you find yourselves to be actually fighting against God.”
(40) His advice carried conviction. So they called the Apostles in, and–after flogging them–ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then let them go.
(41) They, therefore, left the Sanhedrin and went their way, rejoicing that they had been deemed worthy to suffer disgrace on behalf of the NAME.
(42) But they did not desist from teaching every day, in the Temple or in private houses, and telling the good news about Jesus, the Christ.
The physical threats and punishments did not diminish the faith of those persecuted, but served to increase it. The Jewish believers in Messiah did not fight back or complain of abuses to Rome. They did not react in kind, but looked to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and continued to testify of Him:
Acts 6:8-15 MKJV
(8) And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
(9) Then there arose certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and from Asia, disputing with Stephen.
(10) And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
(11) And they induced men to be saying, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
(12) And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes. And coming on, they seized him and brought him to the Sanhedrin.
(13) And they set up false witnesses, who said, This man does not cease speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law.
(14) For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
(15) And looking intently at him. All those sitting in the Sanhedrin saw his face as if it were the face of an angel.
Stephen, after speaking of all the wonderful things God had done for the Jews in their history, told them the truth about what they had done to Him, for which they murdered him:
Acts 7:51-60 MKJV
(51) O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so you do.
(52) Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of Whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers;
(53) Who received the Law through disposition of angels, and did not keep it.
(54) And hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts. And they gnashed on him with their teeth.
(55) But being full of the Holy Spirit, looking up intently into Heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
(56) And he said, Behold, I see Heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
(57) And crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and ran on him with one accord.
(58) And throwing him outside the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid their clothes down at the feet of a young man named Saul.
(59) And they stoned Stephen, who was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
(60) And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Saul continued the persecution with great zeal:
Acts 8:1-3 MKJV
(1) And Saul was consenting to his death. And in that day there was a great persecution on the church at Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
(2) And devout men buried Stephen and made a great mourning over him.
(3) But Saul ravaged the church, entering into every house. And dragging men and women, he delivered them up to prison.
Believing he served God, Saul continued, until God stopped him:
Acts 9:1-6 MKJV
(1) And Saul, still breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
(2) and asked letters from him to Damascus to the synagogues; so that if he found any of the Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
(3) But in going, it happened as he drew near to Damascus, even suddenly a light from the heaven shone around him.
(4) And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?
(5) And he said, Who are you, lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus Whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
(6) And trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what will You have me to do? And the Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city, and you shall be told what you must do.
Saul, also known as Paul the apostle, went on to bring the message of the good news of God’s salvation in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to the nations, being sent of God to preach Him. As much as he desired to preach the Messiah to his people, the Jews, and did, it was not yet your time to believe, seeing you had rejected Messiah and thrust Him from you, as God had hardened your hearts:
Acts 22:17-21 GNB
(17) “I [Saul] went back to Jerusalem, and while I was praying in the Temple, I had a vision,
(18) in which I saw the Lord, as He said to me, ‘Hurry and leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your witness about Me.’
(19) ‘Lord,’ I answered, ‘they know very well that I went to the synagogues and arrested and beat those who believe in you.
(20) And when your witness Stephen was put to death, I myself was there, approving of his murder and taking care of the cloaks of his murderers.’
(21) ‘Go,’ the Lord said to me, ‘for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
And what did his fellow Jews who heard Paul’s testimony, say to this? How considerate were they about not insulting his faith, treating him as you wish for men to treat you, though he forced not one soul to believe his way? How did they react when told that their faith was inadequate, and because of this God was reaching out to others?
“The people listened to Paul until he said this; but then they started shouting at the top of their voices, ‘Away with him! Kill him! He’s not fit to live!’ They were screaming, waving their clothes, and throwing dust up in the air” (Acts 22:22-23 GNB).
You have not changed, have you? Tell me, Jews, are those Christians telling you about Jesus acting this way towards you? You did not want Paul to preach to them, but he did, and now that the whole world knows about your God, the God of Heaven and earth, how gracious are you to hear about Him from them? How great the disparity between what you desire from others, and what you have done to them! Ungodliness is expecting others to treat you as you wish to be treated, while you have treated them however you please. Do you not see yourselves in the mirror?
Paul, the arch persecutor, turned from his evil ways, became the persecuted. Do you disagree? It seems you are caught between a rock and a hard place, because you do not want to appear to sanction his murders, but you deplore his free speech about what God did for him. You want others to respect you, but you cannot respect others. As a result of his testimony to you, his countrymen, Paul reports on some of the things you did to him:
“Five times the Jews gave me forty blows but one. Three times I was whipped with rods, once I was stoned” (2 Corinthians 11:24-25 BBE).
If you were beaten or stoned, did you forgive your persecutors?
Let me ask you, Gerald, and all you Jews, those who complain that your faith has been insulted, how many times have you been beaten by Christians for your profession of faith in God to them? How many times have you been whipped or stoned, even if verbally, for your profession? And can you tell the difference between valid criticism and verbal stoning? No, you cannot, because insecure in your victim mentality. You cry foul when someone says you do not have faith, whereas those who do have godly faith see a golden opportunity and are thankful to give an honorable defense and testimony of it.
If you were beaten, whipped, or stoned, did you forgive your persecutors, and not return in kind, even in thought, as Paul and other believers in Messiah did (and do), laying down their lives for you?
If you were to be beaten, and put in stocks in prison for your testimony, would you be found singing praises to God at midnight, Who brings an earthquake on the prison and opens the doors, your jailor falling at your feet asking, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16) What is your testimony of God before the nations, besides crying foul about how you are treated?
When you, the Jews, were forced by the Catholic Church to convert or suffer death, or were persecuted and forced by others, such as the Muslims, into servitude, and found yourselves helpless against the power of evil men, you should consider that it was you, by dint of your ancestors, who sowed for this by persecuting those whom God had sent to you to turn you away from your sins that you might have life in Him. Of the One manifesting all the Character and Virtue of God Himself, Whom your ancestors called on the Romans to crucify, you said:
“His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:23-25 EMTV).
His blood has been on you, not to salvation, as He means it, but as condemnation, as you chose it. Death and suffering were chosen for you, as God is witness and has happened to you. Nevertheless, every person reaps as he or she sows.
Do you really think the Jewish people have been suffering without cause? Is your God an unjust tyrant, or too wimpy to protect and keep you? Of what do you presume to accuse Him? Do you think it was merely coincidence that Jerusalem fell within a generation of crucifying the Messiah, with so many crucifixions taking place around the city that Josephus, the Jewish historian, reported that during the final siege of the city the Romans ran out of wood for the crosses? To this very day, you, Jews, and Israel are still unsure and insecure about your place in this world, just as God foretold through Moses:
“The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. Among these nations shall you find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life” (Deuteronomy 28:64-66 HNV).
Israel, you have insisted on being like other nations.
You have been living in fear of man because you chose to serve man, whether being religious or not, and your life has indeed been hanging in the balance ever since. God has brought fear on you because you did not remember or fear Him, and then lied, saying that He forgot you. It was the other way around. You left Him, and He let you have your choice, but not forever.
Israel, you have insisted on being like other nations, partaking in their ways, even leading them in their worldliness and sins. You epitomize the Diaspora Jew among the Gentiles, a nation that lives in a hostile world, no matter how friendly or assimilated you think yourself to be.
You find yourself surrounded in a sea of murderous, insane Muslims, who are aided and sympathized with by the rest of the world, including two-faced “Christian” America. (Do not think that “Christianity,” the man-made religion that comes in a wide variety of sectarian forms, is representative of Messiah, your Savior, any more than rabbinic Judaism is representative of the ministry of Moses and the prophets of Israel. All of men’s religions are bogus, unacceptable substitutions that are born of self-righteousness and create hell, not Heaven.)
On top of this, you are divided from within, every man or woman exercising his or her right to an opinion considered equally valid (an impossibility), but never knowing the will of God and coming to a unanimous agreement in Him, the Bedrock Truth. In God alone, your Savior, will you become invulnerable and prevail. How can there be peace or security otherwise? The prophet said:
“There is no peace for the wicked, says my God” (Isaiah 57:21 GW).
Which says that there is peace for the righteous.
You have been unrighteous. There never will be peace for you, Israel and the Jew, until you confess that you have been against God, and that He has been against you. There will not be peace until you stop playing the victim and start admitting you have been the perpetrator, firstly against your God, Who has been judging you. Hear what Moses said of you, along with instruction of what you need to do and of the sure promise held out if you obey:
Leviticus 26:40-45 HNV
(40) “‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that, because they walked contrary to Me,
(41) I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;
(42) then I will remember My covenant with Ya`akov; and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham; and I will remember the land.
(43) The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected My ordinances, and their soul abhorred My statutes.
(44) Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God;
(45) but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.'”
You say you are waiting for your Messiah. Is not your God your Messiah?
You have declared that you know better than God and will do it your way. Your way has not been working. If your way has been working, what is failure? But if your way has not been working, and you look to God your Savior, what happens when He succeeds?
You say you are waiting for your Messiah. Is not your God your Messiah? Your forefathers also wanted a man to save them from their enemies. They asked the prophet Samuel to give them a king. You are no different today:
“But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from Me, not desiring Me to be king over them. As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from Me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you” (1 Samuel 8:6-8 BBE).
What you are awaiting is not your Messiah, but your God, because He is your Messiah. Only God can save you. When you are saved from yourselves, your true and worst enemy within, your God-hating, self-serving, miserable selves, you will then also be saved from your external enemies.
Then your eyes will be opened, and you will be thoroughly ashamed of the way you have been and what you have done to God your Savior. You will loathe yourselves for your selfishness and pride in which you killed Him and put Him away.
Your Creator has loved you, and was faithful to you, but you have been contemptuous and unfaithful to Him. When you admit that it is your fault, not His or anyone else’s, then you will be on your way to restoration and peace. He has not forgotten you, but you will not see Him until you say, “Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord.”
A testimony of Moses, quoting God:
“He said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy’” (Exodus 33:19 HNV).
He is not a liar that He should not bestow mercy on those to whom it is due. Again, Moses records in the Torah:
“The LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, ‘The LORD! the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation’” (Exodus 34:6-7 HNV).
Consider on which side of that equation you stand. Is your God unjust, Israel? Is your God unjust? Complaining as if you are only the victim, and have not been the perpetrator, would say so, would it not? How can you escape the continuation of what you complain about, if you do not confess and repent of the acts and attitude that brought those things upon you?
The time of estrangement from your God and Savior draws to a close.
The world, full of troubles, turns its eyes to the Jews and Israel, and says, “Get rid of them; they are the problem!” Do not fear those who kill with the sword, Israel. Fear your God. He is over the nations that threaten you.
Consider that you have no leg to stand on, that the nations are right, you are the problem. Confess it wholeheartedly, and God will stand for you. Stop blaming Him, whether directly or indirectly, by complaining about your enemies that He sends to you. You are actually standing with your enemies that also blame Him for their circumstances by blaming you. You have earned and deserved them, all of you standing against God. Admit it. Thank God for them, that He would send them to turn you to Him, as you so greatly need to do, finally putting your trust in Him and committing yourself to Him as your faithful Judge.
Stop looking to men for approval and help:
“The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in GOD protects you from that” (Proverbs 29:25 MSG).
“Do not trust influential people, mortals who cannot help you” (Psalms 146:3 GW).
Lift up your eyes, Israel. The time of your estrangement from your God and Savior, the Messiah, draws to a close. It is the most terrible and wonderful of times:
“The LORD will judge His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and that no one is left, neither slaves nor free people. Then He will ask, Where are their gods? Where is the rock they took refuge in? Where are the gods who ate the fat from their sacrifices and drank the wine from their wine offerings? Let them come to help you! Let them be your refuge! See, I am the only God. There are no others. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal, and no one can rescue you from My power. I raise My hand toward heaven and solemnly swear: As surely as I live forever, I will sharpen My flashing sword and take justice into My own hands. Then I will take revenge on My enemies and pay back those who hate Me. My arrows will drip with blood from those who were killed and taken captive. My sword will cut off the heads of the enemy who vowed to fight. Joyfully sing with the LORD’S people, you nations, because He will take revenge for the death of His servants. He will get even with His enemies and make peace for His people’s land” (Deuteronomy 32:36-43 GW).
The promises of God are all true and not even your unbelief can stop Him from fulfilling them:
“The rest of Israel will do no evil and say no false words; the tongue of deceit will not be seen in their mouth: for they will take their food and their rest, and no one will be a cause of fear to them. Make melody, O daughter of Zion; give a loud cry, O Israel; be glad and let your heart be full of joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away those who were judging you, He has sent your haters far away: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is among you: you will have no more fear of evil. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, Have no fear: O Zion, let not your hands be feeble. The Lord your God is among you, as a strong Saviour: He will be glad over you with joy, He will make His love new again, He will make a song of joy over you as in the time of a holy feast. I will take away your troubles, lifting up your shame from off you. See, at that time I will put an end to all who have been troubling you: I will give salvation to her whose steps are uncertain, and get together her who has been sent in flight; and I will make them a cause of praise and an honored name in all the earth, when I let their fate be changed. At that time I will make you come in, at that time I will get you together: for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth when I let your fate be changed before your eyes, says the Lord” (Zephaniah 3:13-20 BBE).
Who is your God? Jesus Christ: the root and stem of Jesse.
This is what we are sent to tell you:
“Go up a high mountain, Zion. Tell the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Jerusalem. Tell the good news! Raise your voice without fear. Tell the cities of Judah: ‘Here is your God!’” (Isaiah 40:9 GW)
Who is your God? The One Who has always been: Jesus Christ, the root and stem of Jesse, Yehoshua HaMashiach:
“And I will pour on the house of David, and on the people of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they shall look on Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be bitter over Him, as the bitterness over the first-born” (Zechariah 12:10 MKJV).
Isaiah 11:1-10 KJV
(1) And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
(2) And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
(3) And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
(4) But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall He slay the wicked.
(5) And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.
(6) The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
(7) And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
(8) And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
(9) They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
(10) And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious.
He is here to judge you, Israel, to save you, and to bring you peace. The will of the Lord be done. Amen.
What the God of Israel has done for me, and what He will do for you.
A Letter of Promise, Hope, and Exhortation to the Dispersed and Oppressed Uncircumcised-in-Heart Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
We witness the ungodly and unjust hatred for Jews everywhere and consider there is something important going on. We are also in awe of the marvelous historical developments and events, knowing very well, by God’s grace, that man cannot do what has developed concerning the Jews at any time, perhaps especially in this last century. Here is a letter of promise to God’s chosen in the flesh, based on His faithfulness and awesome power:
“I, even I, am He Who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass; and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched forth the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth…?” (Isaiah 51:12-13 HNV)
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2 HNV).
Israel, come hear the Word of God, and let your hearts be revealed; know the Truth and be reconciled to Your Father. It is time. Of what value is it to continue in darkness, not knowing Him and His heart towards you, Who has loved you from days of old and draws you with lovingkindness?
Israel, your God knows and sees what you suffer. He is not remote, unfamiliar, or unaffected by what is happening with you. There is a reason for your predicament, however, a reason that holds the key to the solution for all. There is an answer from God, which you need to hear and know.
Jews, you have tried everything to be at peace, to have dialogue with, and to appease, the world. You have tried everything, and nothing has worked, because you lacked the simple solution. Here is the key for Israel, the Jew, and the whole world.