Got back yesterday from a region that is as diverse and confusing as this donkey and rider on the rooftop of the Old City of Jerusalem– surrounded by antennas and satellite dishes.
The lingering jet lag that will probably shadow us for a week, has given me a chance, over night, to reflect not only on our last couple of days but also on the significance of what we are seeing in our lifetime.
While some regard the rebirth of Israel as nothing more than a socio-political coincidence, I’m more convinced than ever that what we are seeing is setting the stage for what Jesus and the prophets predicted for the end of the age.
At the same time, it seems just as important for us not to presume either that Christ will or will not return in our lifetime… and not to view either the Jewish people, or their Palestinian neighbors, as our enemies.
Even though many of us sense that we have spiritual roots, a natural love, and an indebtedness to the historic nation of Israel, (Romans 9:1-5), our calling and mission is to love people on all sides of the present stalemate in the Middle East.
Also seems to me that it is unbecoming for us to act as if Israel’s safety depends on America’s political and military support. From Israel’s ancient past, it is clear that God will not share any credit for either the rise, demise, or restoration of his “chosen people.”
He allowed foreign nations to invade and plunder Israel because of his people’s unfaithfulness– before judging those same nations for their own sins. In a similar way he could allow other nations to help Israel, before judging those same nations for the extent that they didn’t see the God and Protector of Israel as their own ultimate source of security.
We can be sure that even if God used, in 1947, a group of post-WW2 nations to partition land for Jewish and Palestinian people, the West will not end up with credit for the birth or preservation of Israel.
Got the quotes of Scripture (Isaiah 35:1; Jeremiah 31:8) and pictures of Israel’s return from Independence Hall in Tel Aviv where Israel’s modern Declaration of Independence was signed on May 14, 1948. Ironically much of the Zionist vision behind the return of Jewish people to the land has been without regard for the spiritual history of Israel. A disproportionately high number of Jewish people remain agnostic, or even atheistic by admission.
Yet in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones that come alive, the prophet foresaw, 600 years before Christ, a final return to their land and a future resurrection of the nation of Israel-that would begin without spiritual life (Ezekiel 37).
The modern leaders of Israel could not have orchestrated the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd on the western shore of the Dead Sea.
At the very time in which the modern state of Israel was being reborn the greatest archeological find of the 20th century produced ancient copies of the Jewish Scriptures that are 1000 years older than previously found manuscripts. One of those manuscripts was The Great Isaiah Scroll which is probably the most Messianic of the prophets.
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls are now regarded as a priceless national treasure, the heavily vaulted Shrine of the Book, on the grounds of the Israel Museum, was built to house them. A copy of the Isaiah scroll is on display in this unusual shaped building that is designed to look like a top of one of the clay jars in which the scrolls were preserved.
Even though Israel was reborn by people who were looking for a homeland more than the God of the Old Testament, there is now a substantial observant community in Israel that prays every day for the coming of Messiah. Some of the most orthodox of the religious community don’t even recognize the validity of the state of Israel. They regard the current government with contempt and believe that Israel’s rebirth depends entirely on the coming of her Messianic King of kings.
Other observant worshipers, however, believe they are seeing the hand of God in the restoration of their homeland.
Ever since the Western Wall areas was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war many have come here to pray for the peace of Israel and for the Messianic Age.
The Western Wall is actually a retaining wall for the plaza above which once held Israel’s temple.
Because the plaza area has been occupied by the Dome of the Rock Shrine (since the 7th century AD) and the looming Al Aksa Mosque, the chief rabbis strictly forbid Jewish people from setting foot on what they call the Temple Mount Plaza.
So Jewish worshipers come to the Western Wall area which allows them the closest proximity to where their ancient temple stood. Some wrap black leather boxes containing Hebrew Scriptures on their arm and forehead. Others rock back and forth as they pray or read, so as to involve their whole, body, soul, and spirit.
Just inside an arch on the north end of the wall there is a synagogue where large, richly colored cabinets (“arks” containing the Torah Scrolls) are lined up along the huge retaining wall rocks. There also the observant read and pray for blessing, and for the coming of the King of kings.
Interestingly, within a few yards of the area of prayer, huge rocks have been excavated and allowed to lie as they fell from the Temple Area when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD. This happened 40 years after Jesus’ prediction that the temple would be destroyed without one rock being left on the other (Matt 24:1-2).
Am convinced that these rocks, along with the remaining retaining wall of the Western Wall plaza, tell not just the story of the Jewish people but ours’ as well. From the beginning, the God of Abraham made it clear that he was calling one man and his descendants to be a blessing to all the nations of the world.
Down through history, followers of the Bible, both Jewish and Gentile, have often regarded our faith as if it were given to us only for ourselves. As a result we have unintentionally insulted those who are lost– by leaving the impression that they are sinners to be avoided and condemned rather than loved in the name and spirit of our Lord.
The Talmud shows how some of the people of Israel developed an attitude of seeing non-Jewish people as “unclean” and even as “subhuman/dogs.” Instead of seeing the sins of the gentiles as what need to be regarded as dangerous and condemned, more than a few teachers of Israel regarded the gentile people themselves as “unclean” things to be avoided.
Bet we’d probably be stunned to know how many of our own neighbors believe that is exactly how followers of Jesus make them feel.
So, on our last couple of days our crew drove to Jaffa (a southern suburb of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem’s ancient port city of Joppa) to tell our own story, and the story of the Jewish people-in the big fish story of Jonah. It was here from the harbor that is now occupied by the modern port city of Jaffa, that Jonah caught a ship in the opposite direction– when God told him that he wanted him to speak in his behalf to the enemy city of Nineveh (today in the region of Basra/Iraq).
By the way, the first picture of the goggled fish I found in the window of a vacant store in Tel Aviv. Am guessing it might have been a diving shop (or maybe an optometrist ??:-). The second is a sculpture in memory of Jonah down near Jaffa’s waterfront. My guess is that the first is probably more like what Jonah had to deal with…
What I find so amazing is that Jonah’s story ends without closure. After Jonah finally ends up in Nineveh, only to see the whole city repent and believe in the God who sent him, Jonah is furious. He’s angry at God for showing mercy to the enemies of Israel, even though Jonah had been happy to receive that same mercy in the belly of the fish. Then his beef is with God for sending a worm to kill the shade plant which had given him shelter from the hot Middle East sun.
So God says, “”You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left — and much livestock?”
At that point we are told nothing of Jonah’s response. Did he have a change of heart? Did he remain angry with God? We’re not told… maybe so that we won’t focus on Jonah and realize that the real issue of this story is now for us to ask…to what extent are we, or our generation, like Jonah? To what extent am I sulking and mad at God because his plans are bigger than my own comfort? That’s the question I left Israel with this time…
And, by the way, I also came home with renewed and deepened appreciation for our Day of Discovery team who worked so hard with Dr. Michael Rydelnik for a week before my arrival-before doing it for another week after my arrival. (Our guide Roni who once again helped us so much is on the left).
Together, they worked so hard, lugging so much heavy equipment, and showing so much patience with those of us who sometimes required many “takes” to say what we meant :-)…
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