Facilitated
by: Dr Sam Tillery
I would like to welcome you all and
thank you for being here tonight. I know that you are
going to be blessed, encouraged, challenged and certainly
have some direction for your prayer and for your walk
in the Lord.
I am going to ask you to stand for
a moment and let me open us in a word of prayer. Father,
we stand tonight to honor you and we invite you this
evening to move amongst us. Free us from any anxieties
or distractions and may we hear the message that you
have through your servant, Eliyahu. Speak through him
and anoint him with your clear word, and then Father
bring into our ears, our hearts, our minds, an understanding
in ways that we have not before. That we may walk uprightly
with clear minds and a vision to see this world as you
see it, and the unique place that Israel has and should
have in our hearts and lives. We invite you to bring
blessing, understanding and direction, Father, have
your way this evening, amen.
I am going to ask Greg Melick to come
and introduce our special guest and he'll give you some
good insight and perspective there. I appreciate you
Greg and your ministry and prayer for Israel and this
community, so would you come and introduce him.
(Greg Melick)
Good evening. I have been given the
honor and privilege to introduce Eliyahu Ben-Haim. I
first met Eliyahu in 1995. A friend of ours and this
community, Will Piltcher took me over to Israel and
we attended a prayer conference there which was hosted
and led by a group called Intercessors for Israel, that
Eliyahu and some of his brothers had been leading. I
went on a tour afterwards. It was my first time in the
land of Israel and I went on a tour. One thing that
I remember that he said that has always stuck with me
and was something that was my own interest, he said,
" you know a lot of people come and they go to
where Jesus walked, but you know, I would like to know
where Jesus is walking and what He is doing in Israel
", and that really stuck with me.
I've gone back I don't know how many
times now. I go into the neighborhoods and I go into
the marketplace and get among the people and that is
something that Eliyahu imparts. He imparts what is happening
contemporarily and what is presently going on in the
society and in politics. What we need to know today.
He is going to bring that to us tonight. It's a real
pleasure and there is going to be a little bit of humor,
I hope that that is alright. The very first time that
I met him we were at a friends that Eliyahu and I both
new and I didn't know them that well, and Eliyahu came
by and picked something up that Will was supposed to
purchase and then bring to him. It was a holster for
his pistol. Tom White had asked me to tell Eliyahu hello
and that he loved he and his wife and when the world
comes to an end, there is no place that I would rather
be than in Israel with Eliyahu and Hannah, because I
love them and because Eliyahu is always packing "heat",
which is a gun.
(Eliyahu Ben Haim)
Shalom. I don't have my gun with me
tonight, but the sword, I have my sword (Bible). I have
injured my knee, so I trust that you'll give me the
grace to preach sitting. I really do want to speak to
you tonight of what I see happening in the world today
concerning Israel, the Jewish people and the church.
Psalm 121- I will lift up my eyes to
the hill from whence comes my help? My help comes from
the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow
your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor
sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade
at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by
day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve
you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The
Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Israel is in an exceedingly difficult
situation right now and I have concern, not only for
the nation of my people, but for the church. It seems
to me that in Israel and throughout the world, much
of the church is asleep. Israel itself is largely asleep
or worse, we are in a pathological state where we are
believing that fantasy and wishful thinking is actually
going to be reality. Looking at the world concerning
Israel, it looks to me more and more that we are stuck
in a situation that reminds me of the 1930's.
Not only concerning Israel, but actually
concerning the whole world. Seventy years ago, mad men
where strutting across the world's stage threatening
not only the Jewish people, but the whole world and
the same thing is happening today. Even as Hitler came
to power and the position of the Jewish people in Nazi
Germany began to deteriorate, many Jews thought that,
" Well, we have had good times, we've had bad times,
we'll live through this as well and we will survive
and get to something better."
What has changed? Speaking of the
Jewish people, we are the same delusional people today
that we were then. Even though polls tell us that most
of Israeli people do not believe that the Palestinians
want to have to peace with us. We do not believe that
this is possible, it well actually not be possible for
generations.
Yet, it appears that a majority of
Israel seems to be willing to make tangible land and
security concessions to those we actually believe want
to destroy us. This is completely irrational and delusional.
An Author named Raul Hillburg, he was writing about
the passivity of the European Jews during the II World
War time and he wrote, " In exile, the Jews have
always been in the minority. They had always been in
danger and they learned that they could avert danger
and survive destruction by placating and appeasing their
enemies.
A 2,000 year old lesson had not been
unlearned. The Jews could not make the switch when their
leaders realized that the modern machinery - like destruction
process would actually engulf and destroy European Germany."
Now here we are 70 years later, Israel
is a sovereign nation. More than 1/2 of our people are
Sabra's. Sabra is the name given to a native born Israeli
and it comes from the cactus plants and is supposed
to epitomize the Israeli character, prickly on the outside
and sweet and soft on the inside, but this native born
Jew was supposed to be of different character, not having
a exile mentality. But we are responding to our world
and to our enemies in the same way that our for-father's
did through thousands of years of exile. Placating and
appeasing our enemies in the hope that this way our
enemies will at least allow some of us to survive.
Just recently, the Israeli army's chief
of staff, the number one soldier in the country, he
said, "The international community of norms, according
to that, the legitimacy of offensive action is on the
decline and we are part of that international community
of norms." That must be why Israel's response to
the rockets that are hitting our villages, our towns
and coming close to our power plants. Our aggressive
response has been the bombing and shelling of empty
sand dunes mostly and of the abandoned sites in Northern
Gaza, where now the bombs are coming from.
We have dropped a lot of propaganda
leaflets upon the Palestinians warning them of this
and warning them of that and actually doing about nothing.
The problem that we have, and I will tell you that it
is the one that you have too, is that the Muslim world
is not part of this international community of norms.
They do not care what the rest of the world thinks or
what the rest of the world does, and for us, this is
the place where we live.
We do not live in a Europe that has
lost the will to fight. We live in a neighborhood where
we have to fight or be destroyed, and I would ask you
a question. Is America losing the will to fight? From
what I hear, there are too many Americans who are not
willing to stand up and fight. Fight for themselves.
If you think being in Iraq has nothing to do with the
United States, then you are living in an illusion. The
time has long gone when the United States could say,
" we have the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific
on the other.
We have the Canadians and the Mexicans,
we don't care what the world does or says, we can live
alone." Remember 911. People seem to be forgetting
it. Now kasam rockets are reaching one of Israel's major
cities, it's called Ashkelon. We have one of our few
power plants there and this is a direct consequence
of our retreat, our running away from Gaza and the uprooting
of the Jewish communities there. Many of us warned that
this would happen and when it does happen. You would
think that they would withdraw and see that this was
a bad political move, but on the contrary, both the
Israel and the world. The retreat analysis considered
it a positive move.
Never mind that it is putting Israel
at greater risk. I wish I had the map up here behind
me, because I would like to draw you a picture. You
have this strip of land called Gaza, and just do north
of that is Ashkelon and at the very top of Gaza there
are three communities that were abandoned and ripped
out. As that happened and the terrorists were able to
come that much closer to Ashkelon, they actually came
within range of the power plants there. So, now this
place where hundreds of people used to live productive
lives, has become a no fly zone and the Israeli army
said that is you come into this area we are going to
kill you.
So, here it is, a place where hundreds
of people used to live and kept the terrorists from
reaching their border, now no one can live or be there.
Is this logic? Is this what the world says is a good
move? A good move for who? What of the world?, Is the
Jewish question today. Seventy years ago that is what
it was called, today you could say what of the world
in the Israel question. Because to most people in the
world and especially to the Lord Himself, Israel and
the Jewish people are synonymous.
If you speak of Israel in a Biblical
sense, your speaking of three things, your speaking
of a physical land, a nation, and of the Jewish people
wherever they are on the face of the earth. Here too,
as 70 years ago, we have remarkable parables of what
happened then and what is happening in the world today.
In 1938 after Germany made a union with Austria, and
Austria became part of the greater German right, the
situation of the Jewish people in Austria deteriorated
within days.
The American president, president Roosevelt,
called a conference in France and the theme of the conference
was, " What are we going to do about the refugees?"
meaning the Jewish people. The answer that came very
clearly from all of the countries was. "We are
going to do nothing". The Australian representative
said that they did not have a race problem, and that
they were not about to import one.
Hitler had a spy at that conference
and he reported back to Hitler saying that he could
do anything he wanted with the Jews, because the world
doesn't care, the world doesn't want them.
The president of Iran has said over
and over again that Israel should be destroyed and the
leaders of the world have clucked their tongues and
used ignorant statements like. "We won't let them
visit our country".
Soccer is the big sport in most of
the world. The world cup is going to be held in Germany
and one of the threats that they have said to Iran is,
"We won't let you come play ball with us at the
world cup". Does anyone think that this kind of
a threat is going to effect him in the very least? Just
think of it. The world calls this man Ahmadinejad crazy
as if he wasn't serious when he said these things.
Now, the world called Hitler crazy
too when he spoke of destroying the Jewish people. People
said when Hitler came to power that all of the Nazi's
will have to moderate their politics, because now they
are responsible. Ahmadinejad has not moderated his politics
at all. People are saying today that Hamas who won this
democratic election in the Palestinian authority is
going to have to moderate their policies. Rubbish!
These people are not moderates, they
are telling us what they believe, they are telling us
what they do. When Hitler re-armed Germany, the world
did nothing to stop him. Iran is now building a nuclear
bomb and the world is doing just about nothing. Now,
finally the U.S. and the European Union they say that
they are going to bring this question to the security
counsel.
What will the security counsel do?
First of all, if they impose sanctions, you've got to
realize that Russia and China are economically tied
to Iran, besides the fact that they are competing with
the United States. So, even if they agree to impose
sanctions, what good will that do?
Lybia, a much smaller and poorer country
was offered international sanctions for over 10 years,
but Lybia is not Iran. What effect would sanctions have
on Iran? Almost nothing. It will raise the price of
oil, which will get people to squeal, but it won't stop
them from building their nuclear weapons and it won't
stop them from using them.
You know,
maybe it's not them who are crazy, maybe it's us who
are crazy.
Crazy for not believing them when they
actually tell us what is in their hearts, in their minds,
and what they purpose to do. Another example of these
similarities: Hitler put the Jewish people in a very
crafty trap. He actually designed a self fulfilling
prophecy. He publicly warned the Jewish people in 1939.
He said, "They succeeded in causing the world war".
Can you imagine? The Jewish people causing the second
world war that they would be destroyed, that that would
be his response.
That of course was his plan anyway,
one to start the war and two, to destroy the Jewish
people. Now, by making this linked publicly between
the coming world war and the Jewish influence upon that
world war, he actually succeeded in removing the slaughter
of the Jewish people from the stated war games of the
allies. Both the American and the British foreign services,
which were anti-semetic. They were able to ignore and
hide the slaughter of the Jewish people to any consideration
to fighting the war.
More than that, they actually stated,
I mean, in the records that you can actually go and
read for yourself, the British stated that if they exposed
the fact that the Jews were dying in such massive numbers,
they were afraid that British soldiers would not be
willing to fight the war, because they would think that
they were saving Jews.
Now, I don't know if that is true or
not, but that is what they thought and how they acted
and the DBC did the exact same things for the exact
same reasons. When Winston Churchill was finally appealed
to to bomb Auschwitz, the Jewish people wanted them
to bomb it, and stop the gas chambers, the ovens and
this mass killing of the Jewish people. He finally agreed
to do it, the British air force (The Ministry of Defense)
refused to obey his order and it was never bombed.
President Roosevelt was appealed to
do that and he never even went as far as Churchill.
It was not considered a valid war game to stop that
slaughter.
About a year ago, the European Union
took a poll among their neighbored nations and the question
they posed was, "Which nation of the world is the
greatest danger to world peace?" And the answer
by a wide margin was Israel. Not Iraq, North Korea,
Sudan, not these places where people are being slaughtered
day by day where there is no freedom.
Do you know how many Christians have
been slaughtered in Sudan in these last 10 years? None
of these places came up on the radar screen, they were
way down on the list. Number one was Israel. When we
build this fence, I am actually against building this
fence, because my Bible tells me that we should not
divide the land and all of that land is God's gift to
the Jewish people.
So we are building a fence to save
Jewish lives. Now it is not a sure answer all, but it
does make it more difficult for terrorists to come into
our cities, get on our buses and kill our people. So,
the world says by building that fence, we are diminishing
the Palestinians quality of life. I believe quite frankly,
we probably are, but how do you put this in a balance
scale?
Here you have Jewish life itself and
on the other hand you have the quality of life for the
Palestinians, which in the eyes of the world, outweighs
the very life of Israeli citizens. They have lived without
a fence for a long, long time. Why do we build a fence?
Because bombers are getting onto our buses, coming into
our cafe's. How many of you have actually been to Israel?
When you go into a mall or a cafe, there is a guard
that looks into your bags and takes a metal detector
and puts it up and down your back to make sure that
you are not carrying a gun, knife or a bomb, and we
do it not because we want to, but because we have to.
Israel becomes the cause of world conflict
and the logical conclusion seems to be that we must
be sacrificed so that the world can have peace. If you
think that I am being far fetched, let me give you an
example. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur war, the American
National Council of Churches met in special session
to talk about the war. First, they came up with a proposal
and they called for the immediate cessation of arm shipments
for both sides of the conflict. Now, remember this was
before the cold war was over, so you've got the Soviet
Union supplying Egypt and Syria and you've got the United
States supplying Israel.
Now, do you think that there is any
possibility that the Soviet Union will listen to the
American Council of Churches and say, "Ok, we won't
give the Arabs any more weapons." Look who they
are talking to. It was a one sided resolution and actually
a representative of the American Jewish congress there
as a observer and David Stowe, an official of the United
Church of Christ said to this Jewish man. "Israel
just might have to die for the cause of world peace."
The more things change, the more they
remain the same. How close are we getting to that day
spoken of in Zachariah 14 when the Lord says, "I
will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem."
If we do not take a firm stand based upon the word of
God, we are going to find ourselves drowning in a humanistic
sea of relativism.
No standards, no absolutes, just the
particular flavor of the month in the world's list of
good guys and bad guys, and let me assure you that Israel
is always going to be on the list of bad guys. Let me
ask you a question. How many born again believers, how
many of you, take the Bible not only as personal instruction,
but allow God to be the God of history? Not just your
personal life, but for what is happening in the world
today, for what is happening in your nation and in my
nation.
How much of the Bible is about nations
and people groups? How much of the Bible is about the
coming end of the age? You know, when Pat Robinson had
the courage in a very kind way to say that Ariel-Sharon
was a very likeable man, and I prayed with him, but
let's look at the Bible... and Pat was referring to
Joel Chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. It says very clearly
that in the day and at that time when I (God) will destroy
the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. I will gather all
nations down to the valley of Jehosaphat and I will
do judgment with them there, because you have scattered
my people and divided up my land".
This is the Lord speaking, not the
prophet, not me, it's the Lord himself, it's His land.
And He says, "I am against anyone who divides it."
Well, when Pat Robinson said that, what happened? He
said, "Now, let's look at the Bible", and
he was blasted from the left to the right. The President
of the United States who calls himself a born again
believer criticized him, American Christian leaders
criticized him or they were absolutely silent and didn't
say anything.
Personally, I and many of the men and
women that I am in ministry relationship with, we have
quoted from and prayed from Joel 3:1-2 for years, and
now the man who has divided the land has been struck
down.
Don't we have to look to the word
of God for guidance? Do we know that Ariel-Sharon's
stroke was God's judgment?
Do we know that hurricane Katrina and the destruction
of New Orleans was God's judgment and it was linked
to American pressure for us to abandon Gaza and the
Jewish communities there?
We cannot know it 100%, but we have
to look to the word of God. We have to acknowledge that
God is the God of history and that He will not be mocked.
We need to realize that He rules in the affairs of men
and although His time-table is not ours (thank God),
and His patience is beyond our understanding, yet His
word will be fulfilled.
If we look at the dividing of the land
of Israel we can see that it is not only Ariel-Sharon.
Menachem Begin, one of our best Prime ministers, he
made a peace treaty with Egypt, which was ok, but he
gave away to Egypt part of the land of Sinai, which
is part of the promised land to Israel.
I remember this, we went to sleep
one night and Begin was the prime minister of Israel
and when we woke up the next morning and the first thing
on the headlines of the news was that the prime minister
has resigned. He didn't even speak to the people! He
wrote a little note stating that he couldn't stand it
anymore. This was a man who loved being with people.
He was a very gregarious man, he was a compelling speaker
and he left a little note and went home to his little
apartment in Televive and was never seen in public again,
accept for when he went to his wife's grave or to the
hospital. Was that God's judgment?
We all remember what happened to Prime
Minister Ravine when he signed the Oslo record and gave
away much of the land of Israel. Now, I am not saying
that the assassin was led by God, but yet there was
God's judgment involved.
Netanyahu, when he was Prime Minister
of Israel, he inherited a treaty that said that we had
to divide Hebron, he divided it and within a month he
had lost the prime ministership. Actually, he is a unique
politician in some ways, because he actually apologized
to the people of Israel for doing it and said that it
was a mistake.
I find it quite sad, but Pat Robinson
in the end backed down to what he said. He gave in under
enormous pressure from Israel, the United States and
the church as well. And then, there are friends of Israel
who have been up on lecturing us and telling us that
we are losing the land, because of our sin.
Is Israel a sinful nation? Absolutely,
but is it their place to lecture us about our sin? I
don't think so. Please do not get me wrong, I believe
that there is a place for hell-fire and brimstone teaching
and preaching, in fact we don't hear enough of it, because
it is a real thing.
The Devil is real and Hell is a real
place. I don't want our friends to ignore or explain
away our sin. Sin is sin. A relevant scripture here
is Matthew 7:3-5" And while you lift the speck
in your brothers eye, you do not consider the plank
in your own eye. How can you say to your brother let
me remove the speck in your eye and look a plank is
in your own eye, hypocrite! First remove the plank from
your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brothers eye."
Please preach to your own country
about their sin, before you preach to Israel about our
sin. Preaching to us might be right, but it is not righteous.
How can Christians preach to Israel, an unsaved nation,
when there are still charges that have been left undone,
their economic portfolio's of Israel and telling us
how we are persecuting the Palestinians and not saying
a word to the Palestinians about their murdering us?
Is there a right and wrong, or is everything
shades of gray? Yes, we've suffered loss because of
our sin, it's clearly happened twice and it has happened
according to the word of God. Doesn't the word of God
teach us that today the great, vast majority of Jewish
people will return to the land in unbelief?
That is what the Bible says, brothers
and sisters. Only once does it say, " therefore
the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with
singing unto Zion." But over 100 times it speaks
of the return of Jewish people from exile to the land
of Israel and it's always a coming back in unbelief.
In Ezekiel 37:15-28, again, the word
of the Lord came to me saying," As for you son
of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, 'for Judah
and the children of Israel's companions', then take
another stick and write on it for Joseph, the stick
of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel and him companions',
then join them one to another for yourself into one
stick and they will become one in your hand.
When the children of your people speak
to you saying, " Will you not show us what you
mean by this?" Say then, thus says the Lord
God: Surely I will take the stick of Joseph which is
in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel's companions
and I will join them with the stick of Judah and make
them one stick and they will be one in my hand and the
sticks on which you write will be on your hand before
their eyes, and say to them, ' thus says the Lord God,
surely I will take the children of Israel from among
the nations, wherever they have gone and will gather
them from every side and bring them into their own land
and I will make them one nation on the land. On the
mountains of Israel, one king shall be king over all
of them. There shall no longer be two nations divided
into two kingdoms again. They shall not defile themselves
anymore with their idols nor with their detestable things
or with any of their transgressions. I will deliver
them from all of their dwelling places in which they
have sinned and I will cleanse them, then they shall
be my people and I will be their God. David my servant
shall be king over them and they shall all have one
shepherd.
They shall also walk in my judgments
and observe my statutes and do them and they shall dwell
in the land that I have given Jacob my servant where
your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell there, they
and their children and their children's children forever
and my servant David shall be their prince forever.
Moreover, I will make a covenant of
peace with them and it shall be an everlasting covenant
with them. I will establish them and multiply them and
I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. Our
tabernacle will also be with them, indeed, I will be
their God and they shall be my people. The nations will
also know that I the Lord sanctify Israel when my sanctuary
is in their midst forever.
How much of this is a sovereign work
of the living God? Was not Israel blinded by God for
the sake of the gentiles, that you might come into the
kingdom? Does not the Lord say that a time will come
when all of Israel shall be saved and they shall be
grafted back into their own olive tree?
Isn't this a sovereign work of God
himself? You know, each individual has a responsibility
and a need to repent and get right with God, yet concerning
a nation, this is a work of and by God himself. God
has not called the church to be Israel's fruit inspector.
He has called the church to a position with Israel.
In Isaiah 40:1-2 it says, " Comfort, yes comfort
my people says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem
and cry out to her, That her warfare has ended. That
her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from
the Lord's hand double for all her sins".
This is not just proclamation, this
is spiritual warfare. So, the world is seeking to drive
us from our land and destroy us and much of the church
is telling us that we are losing the land, because of
our sin. What does the church have coming to it, because
of it's sin? How come the Catholics and the Lutherans,
many main line and even charismatic churches still exist
when they have those who have viciously done sin for
generations?
Does God have a different standard
for the church than He does for Israel? Let me tell
you something, when I came to faith, my dear mother,
she's 98 years old now and she doesn't know the Lord
yet, and so this was over 30 years ago. When she found
out about me coming to faith, the first words out of
her mouth were, "Now you are like Hitler, you are
an enemy to our people".
I grew up as a Jew in New York and
I knew the church, Christians were an enemy. I mean,
what did I know about someone who was born again or
someone who calls themselves a Christian? And what is
shown to the Jewish people? Did it show the love of
God? Did it point to Him who hung on the tree to pay
for our sins? Over 2,000 years, how much of the church
took that cross that Jesus paid for our sins upon and
turned it upside down and made it a sword to persecute
and even kill the Jewish people?
Is it any reason why it is so difficult
for a Jewish person to come to faith in Jesus as their
Messiah? How about us, you and me? How much did we repent
from our evil ways when we first got saved? Isn't repentance
an on-going work? Isn't it our responsibility to come
before the Lord and say, "Lord, put your light
upon me. Show me those things that are not yet surrendered
to you and those things that offend you". You know,
we need to separate the governmental thing that happened
when we were saved, when we were forgiven, end of story.
But yet the things that we actually
confess to the Lord, are just a tiny, tiny, little fraction
of the sin that we have carried. Why does the scripture
say, "Work out your salvation in fear and trembling"?
The Lord truly wants to cleanse us from those things
which we have kept hidden from ourselves. What does
that say about Israel? Isaiah 43:4 says, Since you were
precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have
loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people
for your life.
In Jeremiah 31:3 it says, The Lord
has appeared of old to me, saying: " Yes, I have
love you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving
kindness I have drawn you." You know those people
who wave their finger around at us and preach about
our sin, they are forgetting that it is the love of
God that draws men to repentance.
Now, God is a God of judgment, He has
to be, but a judgment always has the purpose not of
destruction, but to wake us up to our sin that we confess
and them ask Him to forgive us. In Malachi 1:2 He says,
" I have loved you," says the Lord. "
Yet you say, ' In what way have You loved us?' Was not
Esau Jacob's brother?" Says the Lord. "Yet
Jacob I have loved. What did He say about Esau? He said
that he hated Esau. Esau is actually the only person
in the Bible that God himself says, "I hate this
man." After all of this was said, he despised his
inheritance. There is a lot of teaching today about
the Father Heart of God.
I would like to read you a few scriptures
that to me epitomize God's father heart. Hosea 11:1,
"When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out
of Egypt I called My son. Verses 3 and 4, I taught
Ephraim to walk. Taking them by their arms; But they
did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle
cords. With bands of love, and I was to them as those
who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed
them. Verses 7 - 11, My people are bent on backsliding
from me. Though they call to the Most High, None at
all exalt Him. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can
I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah?
How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within
me; My sympathy is stirred. I will not execute the fierceness
of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I
am God, and not man, The Holy One in your midst; And
I will not come with terror.
They shall walk after the Lord. He
will roar like a lion. When He roars, Then His sons
shall come trembling from the west; They shall come
trembling like a bird from Egypt, Like a dove from the
land of Assyria. And I will let them dwell in their
houses. Says the Lord.
In the midst of Israel's sin and backsliding,
God cries out from the depths of His heart. "I
love you and I will not execute the fierceness of my
anger upon you. You know, while the Bible is full of
the accounts of Israel's sin and God's judgment on her
for that sin, it's never, never, never the final word.
Throughout the scriptures, God's final
word for Israel is, "Return, Restoration and Redemption".
Return is referring to the Jewish people scattered throughout
the nations coming back to their own land. Restoration
is the actual physical restoration of that land. If
you had gone to Israel 100 - 120 years ago, it was a
wasteland. Mark Twain was there and he wrote a book
about it and he said that there were more Jackal's and
Owls than people, deserts, nothing.
What does the Lord say in Ezekiel,
He says, "Say to Israel, Prepare yourself.  You
are going to sprout again. You are going to bear fruit
again, because your people are coming home. In Isaiah
it says that a day will come when the desert shall blossom
as a rose, and if you go through the desert of Israel
wherever there are people living, Jewish people, it's
fruitful. Winter strawberries, watermelons, flowers
and even winter wheat in places that once were desert.
The actual physical make up of the land has been changed
in the last 120 - 130 years as the Jewish people have
began to come home. And of course God's heart and His
purpose in that restoration in that return, is the redemption
of Israel, the salvation of the Jewish people.
In Ezekiel 36: 23,24, let me read verse
24 first which gives us the prophetic and historical
time frame, " For I will take you from among the
nations, gather you out from all countries, and bring
you into your own land. The scripture was written thousands
of years ago and it's never, ever been as appealed as
it is today. Even when Jesus himself walked on the land
of Israel, most of the Jewish people were in exile.
Today, more than 1/3 of all of the Jewish people are
back in their own land and more are coming back every
day.
Verse 23, " And I will sanctify
My Great Name, which has been profaned among the nations,
which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations
shall know that I am the Lord," says the Lord God,
"When I am hallowed in you before their eyes. For
I will take you from among the nations, gather you out
from all countries, and bring you into your own land.
The return, the restoration, and the redemption of Israel
is not just because God has made a promise to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. It is a sign to the whole world that
He is the Almighty God.
Do you
want to see the kingdom being built on the earth? Do
you want to see highway prepared for the return of the
Lord? Then, labor for the return, restoration and redemption
of Israel, because the Lord says that when that happens
and when He begins to save Jewish people in the land
of Israel that He will be lifted up Holy in sight of
all the nations. Are you going to believe the word of
God, or not?
In Isaiah 54:7 - 10, "For a mere
moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I
will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from
you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will
have mercy on you," Says the Lord, your Redeemer.
"For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For
as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer
cover the earth.
So have I sworn that I would not be
angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed. But My kindness shall
not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace
be removed," Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.
Now, it seems at that moment when the
Lord has hidden His face from us, it has lasted an awful
long time, yet we are back in our land. Jews are getting
saved in the land of Israel. For the first time in 2,000
years there is a living Messianic body, those are Jews
who are believers and followers of the Lord Jesus, Yeshua.
At this time, the Lord is preparing for Himself to come
back.
There were words that were spoken to
the exiles in Babylon and to me, they are not only true
today, but perhaps truer today than they were to those
Babylonian exiles. Jeremiah 29:11-13, For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, Thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a
hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to
Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and
find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring
you back from your captivity; I will gather you from
all the nations and from all the places where I have
driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the
place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
Brothers and sisters, we need your
help. We need your prayers and we need you to pray and
stand with us with open eyes and with open hearts. When
we stand up against the dividing up of God's land we
are not ignoring Israel's sin, we are praying according
to His word. His word tells us that the dividing up
the land is sin itself and will cause more death and
more suffering, both for us and even for our families.
When we pray for Israel's well being and survival, we
are not ignoring the fact that we are worthy of God's
judgment. We are standing on His promise that He has
brought us back and given us a hope and a future and
that in that hope for that future, that we ourselves
will be exalted and lifted up high in the sight of all
the nations.
We stand with Israel, because we understand
and believe that Israel's return, restoration and redemption
is a necessary preparation for the building of the kingdom
and preparing the way for His return. Maybe we need
a big leap of faith, or maybe we just need to say, "The
word of God is true, and though it tarries, it shall
all take place." And so, all of Israel shall be
saved as it is written. The deliverer will come out
of Zion and He will turn un-Godliness from Jacob, this
is my covenant with them.
In the natural eyes, it looks
impossible, but God is going to do a work.
It's not a work that will glorify the Jewish people,
it's not a work that will glorify the nation of Israel,
it's a work that is going to lift up the Lord and be
a sign to all of the nations, Amen!
Do any of you have questions? I do
not promise to answer all of them, but if I can I will
and if I can't, then I will tell you that I can't. If
you have a question raise your hand and Pastor Sam will
hand you the microphone.
(Question) - I have
a daughter who is on an outreach and is now in Egypt
and I was wondering how should I encourage her to show
God's love to the Jewish people?
The answer to that is found in Romans
chapter 10. It tells us how to evangelize to the Jew
and it says that we are to provoke them to jealousy.
That doesn't mean wagging your finger at them and calling
them sinners, shove a Bible up their nose or invite
them to a crusade, it means letting the love of God
that is within you to come forth. Not expecting anything
or even looking for a response, but just loving them,
because God loves them. You know, each and every human
being will respond to the love of God.
Maybe there were some people that were
so demonized or given over to the enemy that they'll
respond in rage, but every human being has a hole in
their heart if God is not in there. It is the love of
God that will cause a Jewish person to say, "Why
do you love me?" Then of course there is the light
of the Lord that lives within us. When you are with
Jewish people understand what is going on in Israel,
maybe in their lives. I would never tell anyone to excuse
sin, but didn't God love us when we were sinners? He
died for us when we were sinners. It's not a real mystery
or technique, just walk in the Holy Spirit, walk in
the love of God and let it come forth.
( Question ) - Would
you tell us a little about your testimony?
Ok, do we have an hour or two? ( ha,
ha, ha) I was raised in New York city and you can probably
tell that I am an American as well as an Israeli. I
have two passports and they haven't taken one away yet.
I was raised in a Jewish family and we knew that we
were Jews. We were not Orthodox and we were not liberal
either. I went to the synagogue after a normal day at
school, we called it going to Hebrew school. I learned
about some of the Bible and I was prepared for Bar Mitzvah.
I knew that I was a Jew. Even though we were taught
religious instruction, we were taught the moral law,
but we were not taught the love of God the Father. I
was very zealous.
I went to synagogue and especially
after I got Bar Mitzvah 'd, I was trying to be more
and more religious, and as I went into high school and
then to the university, I became a hippy and I rejected
religion. I was still looking for spiritual things,
because in the early sixty's, the hippies actually were
looking for reality and they were looking at the world
and saying, "This material and godless world is
not true and it's not what I want to live in."
We looked in all of the wrong places
and we looked in all of the wrong ways, but actually
from the hippie movement, God has taken an enormous
harvest. I know that many of the scriptural leaders
in Israel that came from the United States were hippies
at one time and I think that there are probably many
pastors and leaders in America who were also of that
generation. I was living in a commune in Oregon and
I decided that I needed to go to Israel, because that
is my home. I went there and was there for about 10
months. I began my return to the land. I didn't have
spiritual eyes, even though I was looking for them in
1969-70 and it was a hard place. I originally went there
saying, "If I can't find God in Israel, then
I will go onto India."
Actually, a dear friend of mine, one
of my closest partners, said he found God in India,
in an Oshram. I decided that Israel was a place that
had been scorched by God and there was no way that I
was going to experience God there, so I came back to
the United States, met my future wife. Eventually we
married and then headed out to Montana to see if we
could find another commune.
We had some very close friends, other
hippies of course, and something happened, they got
saved! I was very liberal and so I said, " Well,
they are gentiles, they found the God of the gentiles.
Good for them, but that is not for me." But you
know something, they did not cut us off. Maybe they
didn't know any better? Actually, they did, it was love.
They kept being our friends, which began to provoke
me to listen, just like in Romans 10. I saw that they
had something in their life that was a change. They
had something that I didn't have and something that
I knew, I didn't want this Jesus fellow, but I wanted
what they had. Well, they said," why don't you
come to a Bible study?" It was being led by the
man who had led them to the Lord. This man knew the
love of God and some of the power of God, but he didn't
know the word of God.
We were reading out of the book of
Matthew when the Jews betrayed Jesus and got him crucified,
and I just got up and said, " I knew it! It is
an anti-semetic book, I don't want anything to do with
it." My friends were just babes in the Lord, the
leader didn't really know the word, so no one could
explain anything to me, so I said, "Enough, forget
it." They kept loving us and being our friends
and being with us and eventually they said, "Well,
why don't you come to church with us?" Now, I was
raised believing, if I entered into a church, God would
reach down and grab one of his thunder-bolts, sharpened,
and would throw it down and pierce me right through
my heart to the church door. I was 33 years old and
had never been in a church in my life.
I went into that church, it was an
Assembly of God Church, and I experienced two things
that I had never experienced before. People were worshiping
God. I didn't even know what that was, I didn't even
use that term, but that is what it was. It was good
and I liked the songs. Churches were full of hippies,
mostly. If any of you came from the hippie movement,
we talked a lot about love, but we did very little of
it. These people in church were. And on top of it all,
the Pastor was an Elk hunter and every Sunday after
church he would invite us over for elk, and I love elk.
So, if you spend sunday afternoon with the Pastor, you
might as well stay for the evening service. This whole
experience reminds me of the saying, "The Lord
catches His fish and cleans them later." Elk was
part of the bait (ha,ha,ha).
So, I have started to go to church,
I am not interested in this Jesus guy, but I liked the
people, I liked to be there and I liked the elk steak.
Then, they started a little Bible study in my little
village. A village of about 30 people and 2,000 cows.
It was in the Methodist Community church and most of
the people were not saved, even though they thought
they were Christians. The first book of the Bible that
I studied, which I studied in a very Jewish way, left
to right, so naturally in the Bible was the book of
Revelations. And so, I am going to church and I am going
to the Bible study. One day, I am walking home from
church. We lived in a shack that had no running water
and no electricity, well we did have cold running water,
but no plumbing. So, I stopped out under the stars and
I prayed. I said, " God, I don't know about this
Jesus. I can't believe that He is the Messiah and he's
your son as my friends tell me.
They can't tell us, what do they know?
I can't believe it because it says so in the new testament,
I don't know that this is really the Bible, so you'll
have to tell me. You know, God is not afraid or
challenged by us coming to Him and asking Him difficult
questions. He is looking at our heart. So, nothing much
happened that night. For the next few days, the Lord
started to reveal to me my heart. Remember, I had gone
to the synagogue and I had had religious instruction,
and even though I was a hippie and had all of the excuses
of why I could live the way I wanted to live, deep down
inside I knew that I was a louse.
I didn't use the word sin, but I knew
that I was breaking God's law all the time. God was
beginning to show me the depth of my sin and it was
getting heavier and heavier and my wife and I were finding
it harder and harder. The next Sunday, I dragged myself
to church, not really wanting to go and the Pastor preached
the salvation message, which he didn't do every week,
but he began to share how Yeshua was the savior for
my sins. I went forward and confessed a little bit,
whatever God had been dealing with me about. A couple
days later, coming back from the Bible study again,
I had stopped to pray at the same place, but this time
I had stopped to thank the Lord for what He had done,
and the Lord began to speak to me. He said, "You
have come to me through my son Yeshua (Had He not have
used Yeshua, which is Jesus Hebrew name, I would not
have known who He was talking about).
You have a new family and it's called
my church, My body, but you have not become a Gentile,
you are still a Jew. I knew that, but then He really
dropped both shoes and put about 100,000 pounds on me
when He said, "This is not your home. Your home
is the land of Israel, the only home for the Jews."
Remember, I had been to Israel and had left and said
that I was never going back. I said that I was glad
that it exists, but that I was never going back.
Here I was in Montana, the rocky mountains
where there were deer and bears in my backyard, fish
and no city. I mean it was like the garden of Eden and
here God was telling me to go back to the desert? When
I had gotten home, I woke up my wife and told her what
the Lord had said and she said. "Well, I don't
know if your going, but I'm sure not going."
She was only a couple months older
in the Lord than I was and I am glad that the Lord didn't
say pack your bags and go, so He gave us quite a few
years to be disciples and to grow with them and He starts
to do a work in my wife's heart. After some time, I
knew the day was going to come where the Lord would
say, ok, it's time to get going. Finally, my wife got
to the point where she said, "In obedience to you
as my husband, I will go. I don't want to go, but I
will go." By the time the Lord said that it was
time to go, she wanted to go more than I did, because
she had never been there, but I had been there and knew
why I didn't want to go there. So, that was 22 years
ago and it was my friends love that provoked me to jealousy.
That's how I became a christian.
( Question ) - You
spoke earlier about us being practical and you said
to pray and to stand with open arms, hearts and eyes,
but what can we do on a day to day level?
Well, prayer is prayer and it is the
foundation of all that we do. Prayer moves mountains.
Why did God say so much about it in scripture? He didn't
give it to us so that we could be wise in our own mind.
There are so many people who are revelation minded and
are really into eschatology, which is the study of the
end days. They've got charts and they've got books and
as they are reading the newspaper they are checking
off events on their chart. ( ha,ha,ha ).
Is that why He has given us the scriptures?
He has given us the prophecy so that we would know the
season that we are in and what He wants us to do and
then He is saying to us, " Will you cooperate with
me?" "Will you pray into being what I said
that I am going to do?" I am not being disrespectful
of the Lord, but I can give you an example. It's as
if the Lord is sitting on His hands and He has given
us the word and as we begin to pray the word back to
Him, He releases His own hands to move from heaven to
earth. One of the ways that you can do practically is
you can be informed about what is really happening in
Israel, and I am not just informed, remember.
He said to pray in the spirit and with
the understanding. So, when your neighbors and colleagues
start bashing Israel and speaking lies, you can come
in with the truth. It is the truth that sets us free.
Although, I want to warn you that if you are going to
stand up for Israel and speak up for it, you are going
to pay a price, because you are going to be attacked.
You may reach one or two or ten people and allow some
light to come into their lives. The other thing is that,
one of the other hats I wear is the chairman of the
Ebenezer Emergency Fund
called, Operation Exodus. This is a ministry that helps
the Jewish people return from exile to Israel. Since
we started in 1991, we have been able to help over 114,000
people come back to Israel, mostly from the former Soviet
Union, and so that is something that you can actually
make a financial contribution to.
It costs money to get the Jewish people
back. A passport can cost up to 1,000 dollars by the
time that they have come back and forth and signed their
papers. Some people actually go and volunteer. We do
require a 3 month minimum commitment and they go into
little villages, knock on doors of Jewish homes and
say, "Your God is calling you to come back."
I'll tell you, to have Christians come from the nations,
knocking on Jewish doors and telling them that God is
calling them to come home is provoking people to jealousy.
Most of the people who have gone and spent time, have
had life changing experiences. There are a lot of other
ways that you can help, but that is enough to get you
started.
( Question ) - Can
you recommend any books that would be good to read to
get more information on the history and all that you
have been addressing here tonight?
There are many good books. One book
that is a very good history book for the whole of what
they call the Israeli / Palestinian Conflict is book
by a woman called Joan Peters and it's, From Time Immemorial
. I think that it is available. There are many books,
but this one is really good on an historical level,
it's not spiritual. She is a liberal Jewish woman, a
journalist who set out to prove that the Jews stole
the land from the Palestinians, but she actually did
research and she actually wanted to be an honest reporter
and she came out with the conclusion that it just wasn't
true. That actually, as the Jewish people started coming
back in 1880's, as I said before, the land of Israel
was a waste land.
The Jewish people started draining
swamps, building industry, making schools and bringing
doctors, they began to attract a place to live for the
Arabs, and so they began to come from all of the surrounding
nations. Also, I write a prayer letter every now and
then. I actually have a bunch of copies of my last one
which is mostly about the elections, but I have brought
those and they will be available. You can get them by
internet or e-mail. There are other letters coming out.
Intercessors for Israel, we have a prayer meeting every
Friday in Jerusalem and sometimes that day, on the internet,
on our website, we post the prayer points that we prayed
for that day. We can then give you insight into how
you can pray and be informed.
There are so many letters coming out.
Miles might have more at his fingertips than I do, but
there are a lot of good books available. You know, Israel
is not only where Jesus walked, He is walking there
today, fulfilling His word in our midst. The return,
restoration and redemption is the living proof that
the Bible is true. I can't understand how Christians
and churches say that this is a political battle, when
it is the fulfillment of God's word.
Things that God's people have waited
for and prayed for for thousands of years coming to
pass before our eyes and we don't want to look at it.
It must cause the Lord to weep. I get angry, but the
Lord weeps.
( Question ) - I
heard that, especially in Jerusalem, that the church
like, Lutherans, Catholics, that the Jews are somewhat
against the true born again believers.
Not somewhat, absolutely, mostly!
Someone asked me the other day how many Jewish believers
there are in the land and we are about ten thousand,
maybe twelve to fifteen, we don't keep numbers, but
we are approximately .02% and if you look at the Arab
side, the Arab Christians, those who are born again,
are about the same percentage. The traditional churches
in Israel are basically very anti-semetic and anti-Israel
and they haven't changed much. Some of them excuse themselves
quietly and say that they have to do that otherwise
their people would be persecuted by the Muslims, and
it's happening anyway.
Actually, two days ago I got an emergency
e-mail that the Bible society in Gaza is surrounded
by masses of armed men and they are giving them so many
days to evacuate and get out and then they said that
they are going to blow up the building. They have gone
to the land lord and said that we are going to destroy
your building. They have gone to the Bible society and
said to get out. They have gone to the people who live
in the building and said that they better get out, because
they are going to destroy it. Hamas who won this democratic
election is a absolute, ultra orthodox, Islamic group
and under their theology, which is normative Islam,
Christians are a second class people and if they are
attempting to convert Muslims, that is a death sentence.
Both for those who convert and for those who taught
the convertees. So, these people have asked for a lot
of prayer. They need to know what to do. I have to say
that some of our Arab brothers that work in that community
and in that situation, they are people of courage, but
it's not in the main line churches. These are people
who are born again.
( Question ) - Who
are the Palestinians and don't they deserve the land?
Not according to God. God says that
I have given it as an everlasting inheritance to the
Jewish people and He does say that a stranger has an
inheritance in the land, but they have to meet a condition.
He says that you have to acknowledge Him and His people,
so Arabs who say, "The land has been given to the
Jews and I am privileged to live in the Jewish state."
They have an inheritance in the land, but if an Arab
says, " It is mine and the Jews have to go."
God says, "I have a controversy
with you." Actually, what He says is some very
stiff judgment, so maybe in the eyes of the world they
have a claim, but not in the eyes of God.
The reality is that they don't just
want Gaza, they want the whole land. This may sound
very strange to you all, but I and many of my colleagues
prayed that Hamas would win the election, because spiritually,
Hamas and the Palestinians are the same. The difference
is, the Palestinian authority says in english one thing
to the world, but in Arabic they are saying the same
thing that Hamas is saying, that they are going to drive
the Jews out of the land into the sea, it's all para-led,
so it's better for the truth to come out.
It will challenge people and are we
going to live with the truth, or are we going to be
back in the 1930's which is what I am seeing happen.
Spiritually, their purpose is the exact same thing,
it hasn't changed. With the Palestinian authority that
has been over the past 10, 12 or 14 years, which glorifies
suicide bombers as the epitome of Palestinian society,
it's not just Hamas, it's the Palestinian authority.
What did the Arabs want to say, "In fire and in
blood, let them break Jerusalem."
He didn't say, "Let's sit down
together with the Jews and we'll make a peace treaty
and we'll get a little bit and they'll get something."
No, they said, "In fire and in blood." They
have never given up the arm struggle, as they call it.
You know, we live in a place where if someone gets on
the bus and they look a little strange, you put your
hand on your gun. A man that I know, who is a gun instructor,
he was coming to work with me on the bus and a guy got
on the bus and started clicking, and as my friend went
for his gun the man set the bomb off. This friend of
mine is now paralyzed from his neck down, but actually,
because he went for his gun and the bomb went off, it
went off on a virtually empty bus and it was going to
a bus station where it would have been filled with people.
This is what we live in.
The only solution is the salvation
of the Palestinians and all. People ask how we can have
peace and I say that without Yeshua, we cannot have
it. The former Chief of Staff, in his parting address
to the people of Israel said, " We've been fighting
for over a hundred years and you don't want to hear
this, but we are going to have to fight for at least
another hundred years. The people we live with and the
people who surround us all want to destroy us."
What is happening in Israel?
There is a wonderful quotation that
Winston Churchill left. The British army is driven out
of Europe, all of Europe is under Hitler's sway and
the next invasion will be Britain. Winston said to his
people, "We will fight on the beaches, we will
fight in the hills, we will fight in our mountains and
if they invade our country, we will fight in the city
streets, and if they conquer us, we will fight from
the underground until we have victory."
The present Prime Minister of Israel
may be defeated at the end of next month. He said just
a little while ago, "We are tired of fighting.
We just want to be left alone in peace." I think
that many americans feel the same way, but it's not.
I ministered a lot in Europe and Europe is a post-Christian
society. They have lost moral standards and the will
to fight. Let me tell you brothers and sisters, Islam
has NOT lost the will to fight.
Please, don't get me wrong. God loves
the Muslim people. He died for them just like He died
for you and me, but God hates Islam. Islam is a principality.
It's a world movement that has influence all over the
world. Normative Islam says that we are at war until
all of the earth comes under the sway of Islam. When
the President of the United States thinks that Islam
is a loving religion, he is deceived. Islam is a militant
religion that believes that to slaughter is good. That
to get on a bus and blow up innocent men, women and
children just because they are Jews, is OK!
It's a religion that says to hijack
an airplane and drive it into the Pentagon of the World
Trade Center is OK and those men supposedly went to
paradise where they have 70 virgins waiting for them.
This is what they believe brothers and sisters. About
a year ago on Palestinian t.v. they were interviewing
two 12 year old girls and the interviewer said to them,
" Which of these two are better, to have a Palestinian
nation or to be a jihad (to die killing a Jew),"
both girls said it would be better to be a jihad.
They said, " We don't want this
world, we want the world to come, through death."
When Palestinian children play, they dress up like little
suicide bombers. This is a people and a culture that
has been trained to hate. Only God can deal with this.
I mean, if you want to use human education which they
have not done, it would take generations to get them
out of this. It is only by the hand of God that can
deal with this. Left to themselves, they are going to
be destroyed. So, this is reality brothers and sisters.
You live in a beautiful place. I used to live in California,
but I have been delivered to Israel. (ha,ha,ha) Sometimes
when you are living in such a beautiful and easy place,
it's hard to interpret reality, but God wants us to
look at reality, remember, it is the truth that sets
us free.
( Sam Tillery )
We are going to have Miles come up
and invite you to respond to what we have just heard
and then for those of you who would like to stay, we
will be having a time of actually praying into and for
Israel, so this first part is come to a close now, but
please stay and join us in some scripture and prayer
time for Israel.
Special Thanks to Christelle Eddy
who transcribed this document.
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