Recently, on a beautiful sunny, breezy day, I was walking into a building and noticed the name tag of the security guard.  The first and middle names were strong German ones.  The last one was my maiden name! (My paternal grandfather was a German Jew).

I asked where he was from.

“East Germany.”

“When did you come here?”

I can’t remember the exact year that he told me, but it was decades ago.

“How did you get out of East Germany, since there was a wall?”, I inquired.

“I escaped before they built the wall.  I was lucky.”

“Well, it really wasn’t luck.  Someone was watching over you.”

I asked him, “How old were you during the Holocaust?”

He then proceeded to tell me that he was eleven when Kristallnacht happened.  For those of you unfamiliar with Kristallnacht, it means “The Night of Glass,” when the Nazis smashed the glass windows of Jewish homes and businesses, and went on a murderous rampage.  It happened November 9-10, 1938.

With a painful look in his eyes, he said, “It was terrible.”

Since we shared a generally Jewish surname, I asked if he was Jewish.

“No.”

Then I asked if he had been a member of Hitler Youth.

“Yes, we had to be.  I was sixteen.  They would have hurt us if we didn’t join.”

Then, in a distinctly broken voice, he shared how he had been in Dresden:  “They bombed us three months before the war ended.”  You may recall from the history of World War II that Dresden was decimated.

“How did you survive?”

“I hid underground for months.  I was lucky.”

Again with “lucky.”  “No, Otto, Someone was watching over you,” I countered.

I then asked if he was Lutheran, which many Germans are.

He replied that he had no faith.  This is not unusual for those who lived through the hell of World War II.

I began to share the Good News with him.  Unlike the nonsense propagated in the 1960’s, that everyone was good and there really wasn’t a thing called ’sin’, it wasn’t hard to introduce into the conversation the idea of evil, because he had seen it firsthand.

I explained that a Holy God must punish sin–there is a cost to sin, a price to be paid.  It just doesn’t go away.

“You know, the Living God, the God of Abraham, was watching over you all these years.”

I could have used the generic, “Lord” or “God”, but I wanted to relate to him that the Almighty, who is in covenant with the Jewish people, had also seen every painful event in the Holocaust.  I wanted Otto to know this merciful God of Abraham had protected him as a young man, even though he had participated in evil against His people.

I didn’t know if he understood the power of the message of the Good News of Messiah…that Messiah paid the price for all of our sins.

“Otto, are you familiar with the Jewish holiday, Passover…it was just celebrated?”

“Yes.”  I was a bit surprised.

I then briefly reviewed the story.  The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years.  God had sent nine plagues into Egypt as judgment.  The final plague, the tenth plague, was the slaying of the first born of the Egyptians.   The Israelites were told through Moses to take a one year old, unblemished male lamb, examine it, slaughter it and place some of the blood on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they ate it.

For God would send the Angel of Death through the land of Egypt on that night, to strike down all the firstborn there, “both man and beasts.”  Everyone who was in a house with doorposts covered with the blood would be spared, for the LORD said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” (Ex. 12:3-7,12-13)

I then explained that in the New Testament Yeshua (Jesus) is called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and “Messiah our Passover!”

So here I was, a Jewish believer who had lost relatives in the Holocaust, speaking to a man who had the identical last name as my maiden name…and he had been in Hitler Youth.  How do I communicate?

I knew the love of God was in the whole situation, for who else could set up this type of unexpected encounter?

I asked if he wanted to receive forgiveness for his sins by believing in the Messiah’s finished work on his behalf; the Messiah, I assured him, who even bore all the sins of the Nazis, in His body on the tree.

“No.”  But it was said with gentleness.

Well, I went into my appointment and came out about one hour later.  I saw Otto again.

My husband said to me, “You really need to share this verse of Scripture with him, ‘For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.’” (John 3:17 KJV)

I told him those words and gave him some literature which he received with thankfulness.  We said goodbye.  I did not sense a shred of hostility from him, only a broken gratefulness.

Do you need His mercy today?  We all do.  The fact that the LORD reaches out to people we would deem ‘unworthy’ proves how gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…” (Joel 2:13 KJV) He is.  That’s a “whole ‘nother discussion” about the redemption of deeply evil people.

We must remember that there is no sin which Yeshua did not bear in His Body on the tree when He provided atonement for us all 2,000 years ago.

None of us really knows the depth of evil in our own hearts.  We are all capable of evil acts. Of course, many evil people already have a seared conscience and are unable to respond to the Gospel.

But the Scripture says, For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee. (Ps. 86:5 KJV)  “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered.” (Joel 2:32 NASB)

Even a former Hitler Youth!

Welcome to the Prophetic Prints blog!  May the content bring you a measure of encouragement, peace and joy…and cause you to open your heart to the love and wisdom of the Living God.

For over thirty-five years I have drawn water from the “wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3b)!  This blog will thus focus on what I have drawn from these wells.

The context of ‘wells of salvation’ is as follows:

“I will give thanks to You, O, Yahveh (Hebrew for LORD); For although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, And You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation (Hebrew: Yeshuati), I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD God (Hebrew: Yah Yahveh) is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation! Therefore you will joyously draw water from the wells of salvation.“  Isaiah 12:1-3

Today’s passage in Isaiah Chapter 12 shows us the progression from being separated from a Holy God (Yahveh) to being comforted, strengthened and refreshed:

1. “Yahveh was angry with me”

For some, the idea that the Master of the Universe is angry with you is outrageous and unrealistic because you doubt the very existence of a Supreme Being.  For others, you carry a heavy weight of sensing deep in your psyche, every day, that He is angry with you.  Most of us hope there is, in reality, a God who is indeed personal…so personal that He could touch us in the empty places of our hearts and lives.  The fact is He does know us and is indeed intimately acquainted with all of our ways (Psalm 139:3)  He also knows where we have blown it…come short of His holy standard (not your pastor’s, rabbi’s, priest’s, mother’s, friend’s standards). The God revealed in Scripture is indeed angry with sin and sinful, unredeemed mankind.  HOWEVER…Please note the tense of the action:  was angry.

2. “Your anger is turned away”

How is His holy wrath turned away?  Let me use the truths drawn from the Passover story (Exodus Chapters 3 – 13) to illustrate.  For those unfamiliar with the facts related to the Jewish feast of Passover, I’d like to give you a brief summary: Thirty five hundred years ago, the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years.  Moses, whose name means “drawing out of water”, was instructed by the One whose name is I Am That I Am (In Hebrew called Yahveh, Yehovah, Yod Hey Vav Hey, the tetragrammaton and commonly referred to by the name “LORD” in English) to deliver the Israelites out of bondage.  Thus he commanded Pharoah, the ruler of Egypt, “Let My people go!”  Nine plagues were inflicted on the land and people of Egypt, in response to Pharoah’s hardness of heart and refusal to let the Israelites go.  The final plague was the killing of the firstborn son of all the Egyptians.  Sadly, the consequences of bad leadership can affect an entire nation.  In Exodus Chapter 12, the LORD instructed Moses to tell the Israelites to take a lamb on the tenth day of the first month (Nisan–in the Spring), an unblemished male a year old; they were to examine it and keep it until the fourteenth day of the first month.  Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel was to kill it at twilight.  They were then instructed to “take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.”…The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you.”  (Ex. 12: 7, 13)

Sometimes we excuse ourselves from adhering to G0d’s standards by thinking that we are sincere, relatively good people, we have a relative who is a rabbi, pastor or priest, or we’ve already suffered enough in life.  However notice, it was not enough to be sincere, to be related to Moses, or to claim that years of suffering should exempt one from this plague. Unless the blood was (1) on the doorpost of the house in which they abided,  and (2) the first born was in the house, the first born would have been destroyed.  Intellectual assent was not enough.  Action was required (go in the house).  Have you gone into the house?Also, In the Torah, in Leviticus Chapter 17, verse 11, it says:  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”

In the New Covenant (Testament), Yeshua (Jesus) is called the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) by John the Baptist (who was not a Baptist, but an Essenic Jew).  Yeshua is also called the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:8).  In 1 Peter 18-19, we read:  “…we are redeemed from our futile way of life with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, of Messiah.”

Are you aware that Messiah Yeshua (Jesus the Messiah) was presented as the Passover Lamb to be slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the month (Nisan) approximately 2000 years ago?  As a Jewish child, I used to wonder why the Christians had their holiday (Easter) around the time of Passover.  It’s because the atonement and the resurrection were accomplished by the Jewish Messiah during this Jewish Feast in Israel!

In summary, the sacrifice of the Lamb (seen through the Passover story) is the means Yahveh (the LORD) initiated to atone for our sins and soothe His very real wrath.

3. “You comfort me”

In Revelation 7:13-17, we learn that those who had suffered (in the great tribulation) “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.  They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the waters of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Note here that the believers are cleansed.  They are comforted.  They are shepherded by the Lamb Himself.  Yeshua the Messiah is the same: yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews chapter 13 vs. 8). This same Lamb can cleanse, comfort, and shepherd you today.

4. “I will trust and will not be afraid for the LORD my God is my strength and my song”

Trust has to be earned.  The Living God can be trusted because He proved His love for us: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (the Lamb of God) that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) The reward of trusting God as your strength and song is your not being afraid! Hundreds of times in the Scriptures we are exhorted to not be afraid, because God is with us, God is for us, God Himself fights for us. Many times He commands us not to fear.  Why? Because He loves us, knows us, is with us, and wants to help us.  What a promise!  It is important to note that the basis of being fearless in this life is to change the object of our fear/fears: To fear (and reverence) the LORD rather than life, the economy, people, etc.”Do not fear, for I AM with you.  Do not anxiously look about you for I AM your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you.  Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  (Isaiah 41:10).  Messiah is the One seated at the Father’s right hand.  He became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) and has been touched with the feeling of your infirmities (Hebrews 4:15 KJV) and knows the basis of your fears.  Trust Him.

5. “He also has become my salvation”

Notice however, that Isaiah says “Yahveh (the LORD) my God, is my strength and my song.” (Isaiah 12:2, italics mine)  This is not just an intellectual thing.  Yahveh must become your LORD, my LORD.  As Bob Dylan rightly sung a few decades ago, “You gotta serve somebody.”  We are all serving/trusting someone or something to make us feel valued, or simply feel better in this painful world. The Great Someone is the Master of the universe, whether we acknowledge Him or not.  “In Him (the Creator) we live and move and have our being/existence. (Acts 17:28).  To be disconnected from the Source of life is like an electronic device that is not plugged in.  It doesn’t work!

6. “Therefore you will joyously draw water out of the wells of salvation”

We already noted, in Revelation 7:17,  that the Lamb guides us to the springs of the waters of life.  However, He Himself is the well of salvation! The word “salvation” in Hebrew, as already noted, is “yeshua”/Yeshua (these translations have the same Hebrew root letters: yod, shin, ayin).  Indeed, Yeshua said in John Chapter 7, verse 37, on the last day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot):  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Are you thirsty?  Has life dealt you many heavy blows where you have felt sadness, disappointment and the lack of love?  Come to the Well of salvation.  “Whoever is thirsty let him come to Me and drink!”  (John 7:37)  This is a personal invitation from the One who proved His love for you!

Here’s what to do: Acknowledge the truth that your thoughts and actions, like mine, have offended a Holy God–the God of Israel.  “…if you confess with your mouth (acknowledge/declare) Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that Yahveh raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses (literally ‘agrees with, acknowledges’), resulting in salvation.  For the (Hebrew) Scripture says (in Joel 2:32), “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed” (literally ‘put to shame’).  For there is no distinction (with respect to how we are saved and sanctified) between Jew and Greek (Gentile); for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the LORD (Yahveh) will be saved’.”  (Romans 10 verses 9-13)

Please write and let us know if you went to the Well today in humble repentance.  There is much more to know about your inheritance as a child of the Living God!

Blessings and shalom!

P.S. There’s a simple Israeli folk dance called “Mayim”, which means ‘water’.  Many of you know it. The Hebrew words sung to the music are, “U-shav-tem mayim besasson, mi ma-ah-ney ha-yeshuah”.  Most of us did not know that what we were singing was, “With joy you will joyously draw water out of the wells of salvation!”