These are dark days in Israel, yes, Dark days, but we are waiting for the sun to shine again over the land of Israel, the Land that God Himself gave to Abraham and to his seed as an everlasting inheritance. Israel was attacked by the Hamas from Gaza in the Southwest and from the Hezbollah in the North. It was a long planned major attack on Israel by radical terrorist forces of Islamic super cruel murderers.
In the last 6 days Israel has over 1300 dead and 3000 wounded and many of the wounded are civilians that were attacked in their homes by murderers with axes and knives and guns. People were slaughtered in their beds and babies were shattered against walls.
The question is why did these murderers succeed in launching such an attack? Why did Israel’s intelligence services, some of the best intelligence services in the world, fail to know and fail to understand and fail to see such a program? It took at least one year to plan, and thousands of people were involved in and prepared to launch an orchestrated attack against Israel and succeed to catch the Israeli army with the britches down!
There is only one answer to this question, and it is a very sad answer. The Bible teaches us the following lesson, a lesson that is hard for us to digest! Here is the Biblical answer taken from Israel’s prophets. Here are the words of Amos the prophet that teach us that nothing happens to Israel that is in the natural. All that happens is from God and God is always righteous.
Amos 3:2,
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.” 3 Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has caught nothing? 5 Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth if it has caught nothing at all? 6 If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it? 7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. 8 A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”
I am forbidden from publishing the horror pictures that the terrorist took and published in their media of how they are cutting the throats of our young recruits in a military camp where these young soldiers were doing boot camp. Yes, as a believer in God, the God of Israel, the only explanation of why God would allow this kind of thing to happen to Israel is one! WE, our leadership and our religious leadership have forgotten that they are not gods and that they are not kings, they all only servants of the people given an opportunity to serve the people and preserve the freedom and the democracy and equality of all citizens in this country!
Now Israel is in the middle of a battle for survival against an enemy that has one goal; only the total destruction of Israel! This is their declared and clear goal in this attack. Netivyah and the Roeh Israel Congregation has three men in the Army now! Among those already in is Yuda our leader and the son of one of our faithful families and two more that attend our congregation. All need your prayers and intercession.
We have received messages from some of the elite units that need essential equipment that the Army has not supplied them. One member of Netivyah in an elite unite said that they have helmets that are 50 years old.
They need modern helmets that have capability to have a light installed in them, and that have the possibility to have to install the cellular phones for communication. This equipment is also much more protective than the old plain helmets that the army supplied them. Each of these helmets can be supplied to this elite unit for 300 US$ each. They need, for that one unit, 100 helmets. Yudah’s unit needs four drones that each cost 6200.00 US dollars.
Yes, it seems like some of our politicians and military leadership were sleeping in their post. Or maybe the government gave funds to political opportunists to buy their votes in place of supplying the soldiers with the much-needed equipment for the battle.
LET US MOBILIZE OUR LOVE AND SUPPORT OF ISRAEL BY SHOWING OUR SODIERS THAT WE ARE STANDING WITH THEM NOT ONLY IN WORDS BUT ALSO IN DEEDS!
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Please pray for the Lord God of Israel and Yeshua, who is seated on His Right hand, to give their support and forgive our nation and its leadership for their sins and mistakes and show mercy to the people of Israel.
The reading of the Torah this coming Shabbat is probably the most important text in the whole Bible. We are starting this Shabbat to read the Torah from the beginning and in fact between the Torah portion and the Haftarah (The portion from the prophets). The reading will be from Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 6:8; from creation of the world to the flood of Noah.
From Humanity being in the Garden of Eden, in the perfect space and in the presence of the Lord and direct communication with the Creator Himself, to the decision to destroy humanity and save only 8 souls in order to repopulate this world.
The flood of Noah was a kind of God pushing the reset button on His computer. Something very basic went wrong to where God says that He regrets that He created men: This is probably one of the saddest texts in the Bible. God, the artist, the designer, the sculpture who made man and woman has to regret that He created human beings and push the restart button saving only 8 souls from the multitudes that forgot who the father of all is and what He demands from us, humans.
There were only very few laws and demands that God made in chapter 9 of Genesis. These are the same four laws that were commanded upon the Gentiles by the Apostles in the book of Acts chapter 15; when the Apostles and leaders of the church met in Jerusalem to decided what to do with the non-Jewish brothers and sisters who accepted, believed and joined the community of the Saints.
The apostles decided exactly on these four laws that were given to all of humanity long before God chose Abraham. Humans could keep these few and healthy and wise laws that God gave them, and they corrupted the flesh of their humanity to the point that God said:
“And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:6-7)
I am going to keep this lesson short and not continue to elaborate on this very sad and strong and difficult text – probably some of the saddest words of God.
Pablo Picasso the great painter, may be the greatest painter of the 20th Century, didn’t make each picture that he painted good enough for him to display it or sell it. Some of Picasso’s works didn’t come out the way he envisioned them, but they were his babies, his handy work, his creations: he didn’t destroy them.
He didn’t cast them out into the garbage. He took them to a special and private room in his house and enjoyed them privately. Upon his death, Picasso’s daughter sold these paintings for millions of dollars. They were authentic Pablo Picasso creations.
God didn’t do what Picasso did. He, the creator, pushed the reset button and just left 8 souls to start over. Eight souls that were willing to do something outside the box, something that was never done before, something that has never happened again. Yes, the world will never be destroyed by water, but it will be destroyed by fire, or something else.
The lessons that we must learn from the is Torah Portion that is called Genesis, are these; 1) We are created. Yes, each one of us is created by God. God is the only one who gives life to us as humans and to the fly and the bee and the lion and the hippopotami. Yes, also to the birds of all kinds and colors, and to the flowers in the field and the trees in the forest.
2) We are guests in God’s world; tourists, pilgrims and strangers. The only positive mark that we will leave in this world is our families and our good deeds, the things that we did for others, not the things that we did for ourselves.
3) We are given each a number of talents; some are given 10 and others are given 5 and some like most of us are given 1 talent. These talents are not only for safe keeping in the bank. They are given so that we can grow and develop and multiply the talents and gifts that God has given us. We are given life to use it and bless others with it; be it family, neighbors, or just other pilgrims and strangers.
4) This life is our boot-camp – it is the testing ground to prepare us for eternity; to be in the land where the souls of men never die. For those who pass the test of life and the exhibition of the divine that is in us. That is to be used to bless our families and our neighbors and just anyone who gives us an opportunity to do something good and something beneficial with the talents that God gave us originally.
The biggest challenge and the biggest sin that we could do is to waste our gifts and blessings and not to put them to use to show honor and glory to our Father in Heaven for what He gave us. To use the opportunities that He set before us to do good to be a blessing to care for those who are less fortunate. This is our lesson from Genesis!
God even gave us examples of what not to do! How not to live just for ourselves and hate our brothers, and how not do pervert that divine spark, our soul, that was given to us pure and clean. And, of course, how to enjoy our fellowship with God through our fellowship and friendship and brotherhood with our fellow human-beings.
The last lesson from Genesis, my dear brothers and sisters, you can try to hide from God, but He will always find you. You can put on a mask, and He will call you to the task. You can change your name and move to another country and change the color of your hair, but remember God knows us by our DNA and that my dear brothers and sisters, we can’t change.
So, dear brothers and sisters, why not learn to enjoy fellowship with God, in prayer, in silent meditation, in reading the Bible, in worshiping the Almighty, in doing good to those who need us and. Why not show our humanity and our divine nature in just a few simple acts of kindness as we display the nature of God our Father who so loved us human beings, that He sent His son to save us even at the price of death on a cross!
This is not a very difficult lesson to study – but it is the most difficult lesson to preform and live out in practice. We start every year in this season after Sukkoth a new cycle and new opportunities to do good and act according to God’s rules and God’s commands. Yes here is the words of the Psalmist of what God’s word ought to mean for us:
Palms 19: 6-14,
“He is rising from one end of heaven, and His circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from His heat. 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they then gold, Yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
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Dear brothers and sisters, now is the time! Let us come together in prayer especially for each and every person who is dealing up close with this horrible situation.
We invite each and every person who is ready and able to give to please do so, for the purpose of providing necessary aid to those suffering from the war that Israel is experiencing right now!
We also encourage you to share with others you know for whom Israel is close to their hearts, who may wish to take part as well in supporting our soldiers and civilians on the frontlines.
Share it now with people who want to help Israeli soldiers!
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