A BIBLE IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE

The oldest language in which the Word of God was first recorded, Hebrew, has finally been revised and translated into Modern Hebrew!

This new edition of the Old and New Testaments have been launched this month by the Israel Bible Society. Many Christian pastors and leaders were invited to attend this momentous occasion and this most wonderful gift was received with great joy.

As Gentile Believers in the Messiah of Israel, we do not realise how privileged we are to have a translation of God’s Word in our own languages. Many languages even have several translations to choose from.

But the Israeli, Hebrew-speaking believers are still using the original 2700 year old version of the Bible. Some passages are very difficult to understand because language is a living thing that grows and changes. In addition, Hebrew has not been used as a spoken language for two thousand years while Israel had been scattered all over the world.

English speakers will certainly struggle to understand the Bible if we had to read and study it in Shakespearean English, even though that was commonly used a mere 400-and-something years ago!

Most Jews do not regularly read Scripture and if they do, most read only the first five Books of Moses and the Psalms. They do not read the prophets and there are even prohibited scriptures like Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9.

Their reading mostly revolves around the Siddur(prayerbook) and the writings and commentaries on the Bible of Rashi and Rambam. They believe in the Oral Law, which has no Scriptural basis.

We who live in Israel, see the zeal that they have. We see their passion for their religion and their waiting on their Messiah and we lament because if we can only get them to read the Tanach( Old Testament) for themselves, they would SEE the Messiah!

Pray that every Israeli Jew will receive a copy of this life – giving book in their hands!

Watch the presentation by the Israel Bible Society:

https://youtu.be/O2etiPTXzgo

PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

  1. Father God, remove the veil You have sovereignly placed over the eyes of Israel, that they would recognize Jesus as their Messiah.(2 Corinthians 3:14)
  2. Lord, show Your mercy and favor to Israel in this set time. (Psalm102:13)
  3. We pray for the current leaders in Israel, including the prime minister, the mayor of Jerusalem, and all those in military service.
  4. He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. (Jeremiah 31:10) Father, continue to draw the Jewish people to You according to Your sovereign plan.
  5. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up. (Psalm 129:5–6) Lord, deal justly and swiftly with Your enemies.
  6. Destroy and divide the tongues of those who would incite violence against Israel. (Psalm 55:9) In the name of Jesus, we bind every false religion and false doctrine that does not acknowledge Your eternal plan for the land and people of Israel.
  7. The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous. (Psalm 125:3) Father, break the strongholds of religion, pride and wickedness that seek to control Israel.
  8. The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make Israel His people. (1Samuel 12:22) Use us to help others understand Your plan for Israel and Your love for the Jewish people. 
  9. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes their plans of no effect. (Psalm 33:10) We declare that God’s purposes for Israel will be completely fulfilled and that He will be glorified.
  10. Show Your lovingkindness to Your people Israel and keep them as the apple of Your eye. Hide them under the shadow of Your wings, from the wicked who oppress them, from their deadly enemies who surround them. (Psalm 17:7–9)
  11. We pray that You would remember your covenants and promises towards Israel, especially when others rise up against her to swallow her alive. When their wrath is kindled against her, the waters will not overwhelm her. God will not give her as prey to their teeth. (Psalm 124)
  12. Sanctify Your great name which has been profaned among the nations, which has been profaned in the midst of Israel. That nations shall know that the Lord is God, when He is sanctified in Israel before their eyes. Sprinkle the clean water of Your Word on Israel and cleanse her from her filthiness and from all her idols, including abortion and the occult. Give Israel a new heart, and put a new spirit within her. Remove her heart of stone and give her a heart of flesh that can respond to the Holy Spirit, and cause her to walk in Your statutes, keep Your commandments and do them.(Ezekiel 36:23–27)
  13. Cause the church to fulfill its commission to preach the Gospel to the whole world, so the full number of the Gentiles would come into the Kingdom. Then all Israel will be saved. (Romans 11:25–26)
  14. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and for it to remain Israel’s undivided capital.
  15. Father, in Your mercy vanquish the tremendously powerful religious spirits which dominate the whole territory—Jewish, Islam, Orthodox Christian and others.
  16. We pray for a spirit of unity—for peace between religious and secular Jews, for peace to exist between believers in the land.
  17. We pray for the body of Messiah in Israel to become a praying, maturing body. We pray that this body would allow the love and compassion of Yeshua to flow through them and touch every one they encounter.
  18. Raise up intercessors for Israel. Put more watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, who would give You no peace day or night until You establish Jerusalem and make her the praise of the earth. (Isaiah62:6–7).
  19. Father, bring glory to Your name through the mercy You show to the land. Bring the necessary seasonal rain upon the country. Cause the crops to be bountiful.
  20. We pray that the three spiritual forces of Humanism, Marxist socialist philosophy, and the spiritual inheritance of the Ottoman Empire will be broken and rendered powerless.
  21. Bless Israel through the many immigrants who are flowing back to the nation. Bring a sovereign, supernatural move of the Holy Spirit among these new immigrants, that they might proclaim Your truth to their fellow Jews.
  22. We pray for a radical change in the Israeli system of government, that divisiveness and partisanship would give way to unity and cooperation; grant wisdom and revelation to all members of the Knesset and Israel’s Supreme Court.
  23. We pray that, in the midst of the pressures, the people of Israel will turn to You, God. We pray that You will hear the heart cries of people in this land and have mercy. As it says in Isaiah 30:19, “You shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer.”
  24. Pour out Your Spirit upon the people of Israel—especially upon the young people so that your works can be declared to future generations.
  25. Raise up “sons of Zion” who take God’s word seriously in opposition to the humanistic “sons of Greece.” (Zechariah 9:13)
  26. We pray for the Holy Spirit to intervene in the current situation in Israel. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59:19)
  27. Turn the hearts of the people of Israel to trust in the name of the Lord for deliverance—not in the “chariots and horses” of their military might. (Zechariah 4:6)
  28. God, raise up elders and young leaders to teach and train the new generation of Israelis who are coming to faith in the Messiah.
  29. We pray that the Palestinian Arabs will come to faith in Christ and embrace God’s end-time purpose for Israel; send forth laborers to bring in the appointed harvest from the whole of the Middle East.
  30. May Israel’s relationship with the others be strong, and may our nation—and especially young believers—recognize and support God’s purposes for Israel.
  31. Lord, we ask that young believers in the nations would come to love the Jewish people as they seek to prepare the way for the return of Messiah.
  32. We pray for The Bible College in Netanya who are doing an amazing work training up leaders, current and future and equipping the saints for works of service. We pray for their protection and provision.
  33. Pray for protection of the good relationships between the Messianic Jewish and Arab pastors especially during times of ongoing terrorism and war.
  34. Pray for the Messianic youth. It is very hard to stand in this secular and/or religious climate. Especially for the believing soldiers.
  35. Pray for the purity of the church. Besides other false religions, there is a pull to return to the Law.
  36. May Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.

In the wonderful Name of Jesus, our Messiah

Song of Songs

We were so blessed by this very rare and valuable teaching on marriage by our pastor and friend, Tim Cantrell from Antioch Bible Church in Johannesburg, that we would like to share it with you.

This is a link to the first of the series. https://www.antiochbiblechurch.org.za/multimedia-archive/why-the-whole-church-needs-the-song-of-solomon-song-11/

(to continue with the series press “newer sermons” at the bottom of the page)

Feast well!

 

Valley of the Dry Bones

70 years after the Messiah was born, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
70 years after God restored the land of Israel, the body of the Messiah is restored and growing too!
All praise to a faithful God who keeps His Covenant!

 ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. ‘
Ezekiel 37:21 -22

‘The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord , you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord ! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord .’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord , when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord .’ ” ‘ Ezekiel 37:1-14 https://www.bible.com/bible/111/EZK.37.1-14

The people of Israel live!

At exactly 10:00 this morning, the sirens wails all across the land and for two minutes all activity stops and every mind recalls that fateful event. 

Every year, for 70 years, the nation commemorates this day, they remember their dead, they remember the atrocities of the Holocaust. Every year more stories get told, more horrific than the ones told before. Every year, the shockwaves of the utter depravity of the heart of man shoot through the hearts of these people. 

The ones who were children at this time, are old men and women now and as they share their stories, every disturbing detail is remembered. 

One man sneered: ”Closure?, closure is for people who have never experienced hard times.”

With pain, this land was born (again).

From the stench of rotting corpses, smoke from ceaseless incinerators , the sound of gunfire, Typhoid fever, starvation, from the clutches of an enemy determined to obliterate the Jewish people, this nation rises on the wings of their faithful God!  

My friends, in our shock to learn of the horrors of the Holocaust, let us not forget that we are not fighting flesh and blood and neither are the Jewish people.

God’s people have been hunted, persecuted and slaughtered since time began.

But guess what? 

They are still here! 

Listen to this song of Ofra Chaza. The words are so profound, I want to share them with you:

“I’m still alive!

Hear my brothers

I’m still alive

And both my eyes still look toward the light 

I’ve suffered thorns

And yet borne flowers

Ahead are years too numerous to count

I ask and also pray

How wonderful that hope is not yet lost

A Psalm passes

From generation to generation

Like a spring from long ago

And on to eternity

I’ll still sing on and on

I’ll reach out

To friends across the sea

I ask and also pray

How wonderful that hope is not yet lost

I live, I live, I live,

yes, I’m still alive!

This is the song my grandfather

Sang yesteryear to my father

And today I sing

I’m still alive!

The people of Israel live

My days are full of life

The pillar of fire still rises …”

The Jews are tough people. They are also stiff-necked and stubborn, but they are still the apple of God’s eye and He is busy fulfilling His promises to them because He is a faithful God!

My dear brothers and sisters, you might ask “Why should we care?”- we should care !…

Because God is at work and is busy doing a great miracle.

Because the Messiah of Israel is also our Messiah.

Because He is faithful to them, He is also faithful to us.

Because He watches over them, He also watches over us.

Because He is our Hope, He is also their Hope!

Because He lives, they live!

Because He lives, we live forever!

Halleluya!

‘But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring! ‘

Romans 11:12

“For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Romans 11:15

Their deliverance is near! It is at the door! 

Look at their faces as they sing. 

God did that.

He saved them over and over again!

“Sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvelous things;

his right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for Him.

The Lord has made His salvation known

and revealed His righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered his love

and His faithfulness to Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.”

Psalm 98:3

While hope is not yet lost, let us earnestly pray to God for this life from the dead!