Apples of Gold Mar/Apr 2022
Many dictators, like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, have called themselves righteous; and people, like sheep, worship them. Such people persecute the Chosen People of Israel, and their followers are so sure of themselves because of their great majority. They think they can do whatever they want to do to Israel, even erase us from the map.
But what has the Lord said to us? “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isa. 43:5) and “‘I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to save you’” (Jer. 30:11). But not many people know what the Lord has said because they do not know the Lord. I often go to such people, and sometimes we have long conversations. Many times these conversations take place when I take my wife to the medical clinic. While people sit and wait for the doctor, the Lord presents an opportunity to bring them the Good News.
Many are discouraged by their situations. We are surrounded by enemies and live here as if on an active volcano. Few people can live this way and have peace. When I get to know some of them, I can slowly begin to speak about the Bible.
I had such an opportunity at the clinic as I waited for my wife.
“We are the Chosen People of God, and we have suffered so much,” one told me. “Our enemies are so happy and sure of themselves. But what about us?”
“We must put our trust in the Lord, and He will never forsake us,” I said.
I showed them what the Lord has done to our enemies. I read Exodus 15:4 to them and how the Lord hurled the mighty army of Pharaoh into the sea. I showed them what the Lord did in Exodus 14:4 before He punished Pharaoh.
We live in the same situation now. The Palestinians are so sure of their victory, but they do not know they will be defeated. In 1948, when Israel’s enemies thought they would cast us into the sea and erase us from the earth, who was on our side? Psalm 124:2–3 says, “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . . they would have swallowed us alive.”
Many times I read this passage to such people, telling them not to live in fear but to put their trust in the Lord. Usually, they listen to the ultra-Orthodox activists who are against us, calling us traitors because we believe in Jesus.
But when I spoke on this point, I was happy because I could show them who the real traitors are. “We who have believed in the Lord according to the Bible have jobs,” I said. “We are constantly working, not eating charity bread. We are not like those who never serve in the army to defend their country. Yet they are considered holy angels, and we are the traitors?”
I told them people have come to our home because they have seen how the ultra-Orthodox manipulate them. I explained that we never go to people with a stack of books, trying to persuade them to follow rabbinic tradition. We bring only one Book—the Holy Bible. They were surprised; and one asked me, “How can you believe in the Bible and also in Christ?”
I was not surprised, as I have heard this question many times. “I believe in Christ not because of a stack of books but because of what is written in the Bible,” I said.
They asked where it is written about Christ in the Holy Bible. This was my great chance to share Isaiah 53 with them. I gave them my Bible so they could read it for themselves. As they read, one asked me, “How did you come to this?”
“I never boycott the Word of the Lord, as many rabbis do,” I replied. “They are afraid to see the truth. So they boycott this very important chapter, hiding the truth of the Lord from you. Now write what you have heard, and bring this before your teachers. Listen to the fictitious stories they will tell you.”
One of them said, “It was so nice to hear what you have told us, what was once so far from us. We will think about it.”
I pray the Lord will lead them to salvation.
From the Friends of Israel archives
