Several years ago we were moving and did not want to keep a treadmill.  So we placed an ad in the local newspaper.  We got a call from a German man who had slurred speech.  Evidently he had had a stroke, so his wife got on the phone to complete the call.  They wanted to see the treadmill and said they would come over.

They had given me their last name, a long German one.  It complemented their pronounced German accent.  I wondered, “What is their feeling toward Jews?”  You see, in the nineteen eighties I had been introduced to a friend of a friend, who after speaking with me a while, confided, “My dad is a Nazi.”  Thus, I was a bit wary.

This older couple came to our home.  I don’t know why the wife, out of the blue, began to mention Jesus as a master.  I surmised she was into New Age thinking.  I spoke about deception; that people are searching for truth, and in their openness open themselves up to lies.  I explained that the true Jesus, Yeshua, was not a founder of a religion, or a means to some form of peace, but was the One who proved to be the Messiah and Savior of the world, by fulfilling the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, rising from the dead, and afterward appearing to more than five hundred people; clearly He has been setting millions of people free from bondage over the past two millennia.  He is the Prince of Peace, not merely the means to peace.

Then she told me her story.  She was Jewish and was one year old when the Nazis came into power.  She had been hidden in a subway for an entire year as an infant!  I began to cry because of the pain she related.  I also felt badly because I had presumed. I had been wrong.

Her heartache caused her to search for meaning.  Unfortunately, her vulnerability emotionally and spiritually drew her into a pit–the pit of deception.

We spent four hours talking.  It was a profound time.  I had the privilege of telling them about the Messiah, who heals the brokenhearted and bore our sins in His body, on the tree.  I told them Messiah surely bore their griefs and carried their sorrows. He carried all the sorrows of the Holocaust.   What love, what compassion.  But there is even more amazing thing to contemplate:  That Messiah bore the profound evil that every Nazi committed against the Jews and all humanity…”He died once for ALL, the just for the unjust to bring us to God.”

I gave her a biography I had just read about a Jewish doctor who likewise learned not to prematurely judge people.  During the Holocaust this doctor had a very moving experience.   While in a monastery to which he fled after escaping Sobibor, a concentration camp, he masqueraded as a Catholic for several months.  He finally went to confession and told the priest.  To his great surprise and comfort, the priest led him in the Shema, in Hebrew! (Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad–Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God the LORD is one.)  The priest had suspected all along that the doctor was Jewish!   The doctor never expected this Polish priest would have a special love for the Jewish people!

Back to the treadmill story:  I did not expect that the potential buyer for my treadmill was a Holocaust survivor.  I also did not expect to hear her German Gentile husband  speak of his deep love and compassion for the Jewish people, which he did that day.

There are times we simply judge situations too quickly and do not  know to whom we are talking. The LORD is leading us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, and everyday events are the context for His gaining glory!

Well, the couple bought the treadmill and we drove thirty miles to get it to their home.  We set it up.  We prayed together.

We had touched history, and the God of all comfort had touched each of us!

How to get off the treadmill of searching here and there for peace and truth and meaning, and get onto the sure road of life:

1. Speak to the Creator.  His name is Yahveh…the God of Israel…the God of the Bible.  The call is free!
2. Agree with Him that you deserve to be judged for actions, thoughts and/or words that you have done that have violated His law.
3. Tell him about those actions, thoughts and/or words.  This is what the word “confession” means:  “to agree with”; you agree with Him that these things violated His Holy standard and are worthy of judgment. Reviewing the 10 Commandments may help jog your memory. (See Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17)
4. The first commandment says, “I am the LORD, you shall have no other gods before me.”  Tell Him about other gods–false religions or other types of idols you may have had in your life.
5. Acknowledge your rebellion toward Him and that in many respects you did not realize that in HIM you live, and move, and have your being.
6. Believe that Yeshua the Messiah, loved you so much that He gave His sinless life for you.  Acknowledge that His work alone, not your good deeds, are sufficient to soothe a Holy God, who, though HE IS LOVE, must punish sin.
7. In prayer, receive Messiah Yeshua into your life and heart.  (Say audibly:  “Messiah Yeshua, I believe You died for my sins,(Your death atoned for my sins), and I receive You now into my life and heart”)
8. Tell someone else what happened.  For it is written in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 – 13:  “that if you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God 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, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says,  “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; 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.”

*Picture above is of the Sobibor Railway Station. Picture from the Wikipedia Commons, courtesy of Jacques Lahitte.

Some twenty years ago while on business in a rural area, we passed a honey farm.  It was about 4:45 in the afternoon.  The owner said he was closing in fifteen minutes.  We got into a nice conversation, having learned that we attended the same university years before.

Ten minutes into the conversation, an orthodox Jewish man and his wife walked onto the farm.  I could not tell from his clothes if he was Orthodox or Hasidic.  He looked at me.  There I was in short sleeves and slacks.  Normally Hasidic men do not speak with women (other than those in their families), let alone one that is not “appropriately” dressed in a long skirt/dress and long sleeves.  Summoning the courage to speak with him, I asked: “Are you Orthodox or Hasidic?”.  He said, “Hasidic.”  I told him that my ancestors were Hasidic and mentioned the family name.  He said, “I just completed the artistic genealogy of that family name!”  “But, beside being an artist, I am also a rabbi”, he added.

Sensing I was in a “divine appointment” with a Hasidic rabbi in the middle of nowhere, I asked what he thought about Messiah.

“Messiah will come in on a white donkey,” he said firmly.  He then added, “But, we do not know when He will come.”

Tears came to my eyes.  The rabbi thought I was in need of his counsel.  I was overcome with emotion because I saw how my steps had been directed in the middle of nowhere to this rabbi, who under normal circumstances, might never have had the chance to hear about the love of God through Messiah Yeshua.

Through my tears I said, “Rabbi, Messiah has come.  His name is Yeshua.”  I then offered the English translation (Jesus), so he did not think I was speaking about a Messiah named “Joshua”.  (Please note that the names Joshua, Hosea and Isaiah all come from the same Hebrew root, and have the meaning “salvation” or “Yah saves”.  Incidentally, when I was growing up, I thought Jesus was his first name, Christ was his last name, and Mr. and Mrs. Christ had a son, Jesus.  ”Christ” is actually the anglicized form of the Greek “Christos”, which means “anointed one”.  This is translated from the Hebrew word for Messiah, “Mashiach”.  In another post I will discuss how Yeshua of Nazareth was so far removed from his Jewish roots after the first century, that many Jewish people could not recognize or embrace Him as one of their own.)

The rabbi was a little taken aback, but was not hostile.  I asked him, “How would you recognize the Messiah when He came?”  Are you aware that there are many prophetic clues in the Hebrew Scriptures that identify Messiah.  For instance, the Hebrew prophet, Micah, (who prophesied in the 700s BC (BCE))(chapter 5 verse 1 (Hebrew Bible; vs. 2 in other translations)) states the where of Messiah’s birth: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days (literally, ‘eternity’–Hebrew word is “Olam”). The ruler of Israel, was said to be from eternity, and yet was to come out of Bethlehem.  It’s common knowledge that Yeshua was born in Bethlehem.  The Hebrew prophet, Daniel, (chapter 9 verses 24 -27) states the when of Messiah’s coming:  Messiah will be cut off, and then the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed. (summary)  The city is Jerusalem; the sanctuary is the Temple.  Both were destroyed in 70 AD (CE) by the Roman Titus.  Messiah thus had to be “cut off” before 70 AD (CE).  Yeshua was “cut off” in 33 AD (CE).

Back to the story…We spoke for a half hour.  I was able to distill down the main difference between a Messianic Jewish believer in Yeshua, and a Hasid or Orthodox Jew who did not acknowledge Yeshua as the Messiah.  “Basically,” I said, “it breaks down to two things:”

1. I KNOW I have the blood atonement (I know my sins are forgiven and on Yom Kippur every year I don’t have to hope that God forgives me for I have been forgiven completely and forever when I trusted Messiah’s atoning work on my behalf when he was led like a lamb to the slaughter 2000 years ago and died for me, “the Just for the unjust to bring me to God.”) 
2. I also KNOW I have the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God, living in me. This gift of the Holy Spirit was imparted when thirty five years ago I came into a personal relationship with Yeshua as my Savior and Messiah.

While acknowledging our differences, he then shared what had happened earlier that day:  “My wife took a nap in the afternoon.  About a quarter to five she awakened and insisted we go to the honey farm.  For sixteen years, every summer, we stay at a (Hasidic) camp next door to this farm. In all those years, we have never been to this farm before!”  I replied, “I know that happened because the G-d of Israel loves you and wanted you to hear about Messiah.”  He answered, “Maybe it was to bring you back to Judaism.”  I said, “On the contrary, I know whom I believe…I didn’t find a religion but a person.”

Seven years later I searched and located him.  I sent him one of my Prophetic Regathering of Israel lithographs and a Jeremiah 31 print (these can be seen in our gallery on this site). The latter print contains the words, “Behold, days come saith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which, my covenant, they broke.  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel:  After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law within them, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest; for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:31-34 Jewish Publication Society translation.)  Clearly, the basis of “knowing” the LORD is to have the problem of personal sin dealt with.  The basis of forgiveness is through faith in the atonement provided through the death of Messiah Yeshua.

He responded by sending me a six page letter filled with hostility.  Most of it was not against me personally, but directed against the New Testament and people who believe in that book.  This is not hard to understand.  Please note that the Hasidic Jews have suffered greatly over the past few centuries, with whole populations wiped out in Europe during pogroms and the Holocaust.  Clearly this rabbi grouped the perpetrators of the crimes against our people, who claimed to be “Christians”, with the New Testament.  He never read that Yeshua wept over the Jewish people, as did Rav Shaul (also known as the Apostle Paul) who said “I am telling the truth in Messiah, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit), that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Messiah for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the Temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers and from whom is the Messiah according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever.”  (Romans 9:1-3)

Readers, I share the same grief.  Pray for the Jewish people, and all people everywhere, to find peace and healing through Messiah.