Last but Not Least Apr/May 1975

Joel Of Jerusalem

It is difficult to believe what has happened here in Israel. We must put everything in the Lord’s hands, for with Him everything is possible.

When I came back home recently from the army, I found a surprise. Two ladies were waiting for me, but why? They came from the Aqudat Israel, a fanatic Jewish group, and were very angry.

“What do you wish of me?” I questioned.

“We have come to save your family from death!” was their reply.

“What death?” I asked. “Who wants to kill us?”

“Jews,”’ they replied. “We have heard about you, that you are a convert. We want to help you and your family. We want to save you.”

“First of all,” I began, “YOU need salvation, I AM saved, so you don’t need to worry about me and my family. I am happy in my heart at what God has given me. Even if you want to do something, you cannot because you have no power. You are very weak in faith, so how can you help others. I am sure that God sent you to me so that you could be shown the way of salvation by the Lord, our Saviour, who died on the Cross and now lives. Only in His power can you be saved and all those who sent you. They are blind people.”

“We have not come to you to hear your missionary propaganda,” they said.

“You are also missionaries because you came to me with your propaganda,” I told them.

“We are not missionaries, you are!”

“Yes, I am. I am not ashamed of Whom I believe. Even Abraham was a missionary, along with Jonah and the other prophets. Why am I forbidden to be a missionary?”

The ladies threatened to have my position published in all the newspapers, saying that I am sowing poison against God in the Holy Land.

I asked them, “Please tell me, how do you know that I sow poison, and are you so holy and right?”

They didn’t answer me, but finally one of them said, “If I could, I would kill you.”

I opened the New Testament and read for her Romans 12:13-21, where we learn of the Lord’s love to us. “If you call this poison, then I don’t know what to say anymore,”’ I replied. “I know that all those people, to whom I speak about our Saviour, are alive. None of them has died, and they are happy because they have hope. They shall never die.”

“If so,” she threatened, “we will write about you, and you will be sorry.”

“Never, never,” I told her. Then I read for her Romans 8:38-39. “Not only will I read for you, but I’m also ready to face every obstacle you place in my path. I’m not afraid.”

“We are weak women,” they said. “We will send our husbands to you, they are stronger.”

“If you like, I can go with you to your homes now. I’m alone,” I said.

“Are you not afraid that our husbands will make trouble for you?” they asked.

“No one can do me harm, if it is God’s will,” I insisted. “I am ready, and I’m not afraid.”

One lady asked the other, “What shall we do now?” Now they were speaking between themselves in Russian, not knowing that I know Russian well. Continuing in Russian they asked one another, “How can we go with nothing? What should we say to him, for he is right?”

“No he is not right,” the other insisted.

“But how can you show him?” she said.

“I know how,” the other assured her. “We will say to him that we will come again to continue our conversation.”

So they told me in Hebrew what they had decided, but to their amazement, I replied to them in Russian, “I must share with you what is right because you are not right.”

“Since you know Russian, we must be honest with you. You are right, we have no power, but we won’t give up,” she insisted.

“Yes,” I said, “don’t give up. Pray to our Father in Heaven and ask that He reveal the truth to you.”