Before I share this amazing true story, which spans 26 years, let me first explain what a mezuzah is.

Three thousand five hundred years ago there was a commandment in the Torah:

“HEAR O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way,
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand,
and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.”
(Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Jewish Publication Society translation)

The mezuzah, which means ‘doorpost’, is a parchment containing the words from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (The Shema) and 11:13-21. In order to protect the parchment and the holy words from the elements, decorative cases were made.

The passage from the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy promises blessing, if we love and serve the LORD, as well as a warning that our hearts not be deceived and we turn and serve other gods. There is a reiteration of Deuteronomy 6:8,9 in the Deuteronomy 11 passage. In Scripture, things are not repeated randomly…rather for emphasis.

Obedience to the LORD’s commandment promised multiplied days (long life) for oneself and one’s children in the Land of Israel. There is also a promise of the LORD’s blessing and protection.

I received a Mezuzah necklace when I was a teenager. It was in the shape of a miniature mezuzah case. Incidentally, while some see such jewelry as a talisman for good luck and prosperity, I wore mine as a reminder of God’s commandments.

Talismen are forbidden in Scripture. It is idolatry to ascribe power to objects.

There is a strong connection between ascribing power to physical objects (idols, talisman, jewelry worn to ward off evil spirits) and demons. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 declares:

“They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods (idols/statues),
With abominations did they provoke Him.
They sacrificed unto demons, no-gods,
Gods that they knew not,
New gods that came up of late,
Which your fathers dreaded not.”

The Hebrew parallelism is clear; the strange gods the Israelites sought after, and sacrificed to, were actually demons.

BACK TO THE STORY:

In 1978, I worked with a man who had previously been a bouncer in the largest nightclub in New York City, and had also been a successful businessman and an anti-Semite. His life was dramatically changed when he found Yeshua as his Savior. He came to love the Jewish people after he read, and re-read, the Bible.

One of our associates, also a believer, apparently had become offended by something we had done. However, we had no idea what that could have been.

The Scripture exhorts us to speedily get reconciled with people.

So, the right thing to do was to call the offended party. As the person lived less than a mile away, I walked over. I spoke with him and his wife, and we cleared the matter.

Then he said, “I’ll drive you to the subway.” I thought to myself: Hey, it’s almost two in the afternoon. Who starts going to work at that hour?

But I let him drive me there.

If he had taken me home instead, I would have walked in on a robbery! Evidently three men had climbed through a sixth floor kitchen window into our basic middle class apartment. There was no fire escape and they got in through a hallway window that was catty-corner to the kitchen window. What they were looking for, I had no idea.

My mother came home to find the place completely ransacked and robbed. She didn’t know where I was.

They took three items…a sentimental, but not particularly valuable, necklace of my mother’s, an unusual gold heart that contained a tree of life with miniature gemstones, and my mezuzah necklace.

Fast forward twenty six years to 2004. The location changes 1,400 miles.

I was making a left turn onto a main road, when I had this thought: Pray for the Jewish people from a particular country, many of whom have come to the States.

I uttered a quick ten second prayer.

Then I thought: That’s an anemic prayer…God’s not going to answer that.

Four days later, my husband met a Jewish man in his late sixties from that country. He took a liking to us and we became friends. He came to love our family and considered himself a member.

Months later, he took us out to dinner for my birthday. He handed me a small box. I thought, what could be inside?

I opened it and gasped!

There was a mezuzah necklace on a beautiful gold chain.

“This had been my grandmother’s in _______,” he said (mentioning the same country whose Jewish population I had prayed for a few months before.) It was obviously very old, as he himself was about seventy.

It wasn’t any mezuzah necklace.

It was the exact replica of what had been stolen twenty six years prior, plus a beautiful gold chain, and was from a place of awesome history!

Every time I wear that necklace I am reminded of the power of prayer, even very short prayers. I also think about God’s promises of restoration.

When we intercede for others, even people and people groups we don’t know personally, we have no idea what is set in motion.

Have you come to a place in your life where you are involved with the most exciting thing in the world? Derek Prince said it best, in the title of his book on prayer: Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting!

Who are you going to pray for today? What are you going to set in motion?

We’ll find out in eternity…if not before, as I did!

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.