October 7, 2023 began as a lusciously lovely Saturday morning. I remember waking up to an azure blue sky, warm sunshine, song birds, and the sweet shalom that permeates Jerusalem every Shabbat. It was a special moed according to Leviticus 23:36, the Eighth Day of Assembly, observed every year on the heels of Sukkot. By tradition, the Eighth Day is celebrated as Simchat Torah, a rejoicing in the gift of God’s Word. Simchat Torah marks the end of Judaism’s traditional, annual cycle of Scripture readings and start of the next year’s new cycle.
October 7 was to start a new cycle indeed.
Kerry, who usually wakes up earlier than me, greeted me that morning with an unusually somber look on his face. “Terrorists have broken into the country. They attacked a kibbutz near Gaza … I can’t tell much more from the news … Nobody seems to know what happened.”
Virtually all news services in Israel shut down on Shabbat. Apart from rumors running wild on social media, we would not even begin to comprehend the magnitude of what took place until later that evening. Meanwhile, we prayed. We decided to proceed with our normal Shabbat holiday plan.
It never occurred to us our that lives would change forever that day.
On this one year anniversary of the deadliest occasion for Jews in my lifetime, I’d like to share a few thoughts. I trust these summarized reflections will help you know better how to pray, how to better relate to Jewish people in the coming year, and how to even better glorify God in all He does.
I also hope you’ll catch glimmers of the beauty He’s beginning to bestow on His people in place of their ashes.
Lastly, I pray you’ll be encouraged for the future of the international remnant ekklesia. When God initiates a new thing in the earth, He often moves first in Israel; after that, He works with His people in the nations. “First to the Jew and then to the Gentile” is a principle that still applies (Romans 1:16).
To begin, Israelis have a uniquely strong empathy with each other. We are a small country and close community connected by family bloodlines going back to antiquity. Embedded in the Israeli psyche is a profound awareness of our need for each other—despite our sharp differences. For the more religiously observant, that awareness relates to shared covenant destiny. For others, it may stem mostly from trauma bonds owing to millennia of murderous persecution. In any case, when one of us hurts, we all hurt, deeply.
For the past year Israel has been in heart shattering, gut wrenching pain. But we must set it aside to fight for our lives. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has roared over the nation. His troops are willing in the day of battle.
Those of us who cannot fight militarily fight in the Spirit, knowing our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers of darkness in high places and evil principalities (Ephesians 6:12). Much of our battle concerns the turning of our people back to the God of our fathers. And in that, we’ve begun to see victory.
Never in our modern history have so many Israelis, including soldiers, turned to the Lord, cried out to Him, asked His forgiveness, prayed daily and acknowledged that He is our defense, as in the past one year. We have had opportunities to share the Lord with Israelis as never before. As we’ve written in other newsletters, we see God tenderly softening Jewish hearts in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 3:15-16.
Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke prophetically on October 25, 2023, when he said that “Israel will be reborn” as the result of October 7.
As you probably know, Kerry and I are not only Israeli, but American. We spent most of our lives in the US, where both our families still reside. In recent months I have read countless articles and surveys describing the shock, anxiety, mistrust, insecurity and despair of American Jews due to spiking antisemitism since last October 7. Many fear the once unthinkable: another holocaust.
As Americans, it is deeply grievous for us to watch the rise of Jew hatred in that country. As a result, we foresee a soon coming, major wave of aliyah from the US.
At the same time, we are joyfully blessed to learn how Messiah’s ekklesia remnant is standing with, caring for, and comforting the sons and daughters of Jacob in the spirit of Isaiah 40:1.
Apart from the pain we feel for our fellow Jewish Americans, we weep over the current condition of the United States and pray for a return to her Judeo-Christian roots. We carry an unshakeable intercessory burden in our hearts for that formerly great nation. I personally grieve the loss of a few dear American Christian friends who have turned against Israel and the Jews, and therefore us, since October 7.
As followers of Yeshua, Kerry and I resolved long ago that our lives are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Still, it is a new reality that because we are Jewish, we can no longer expect the same level of normal human interaction, treatment and protection we once experienced in the US—or anywhere else in the world.
About that, we are sadder for the world than for ourselves.
Here in Israel, living under threat of terror attack, missile barrage, or nuclear war with Iran is challenging. Yet we would not want to be anywhere else. We have been catapulted by grace into a new, hour by hour dependency on God. We have been blessed with deepening trust and intimacy with Him. We have come to experience His goodness, grace, faithfulness, love, peace and provision as never before. We have witnessed history-making miracles.
We have been privileged to serve alongside some of Yeshua’s highly cherished ones, precious brothers and sisters in the Spirit driven by passion for His kingdom purposes. Together we have been thrust into new heights of persevering prayer, contending for God’s contention against His enemies. Though we would not have asked for it, Kerry and I have been honored to be a small part of His prophetic Ezekiel 37 army: “This is what the sovereign Lord says, ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ … and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army”(verses 9-10).
In closing, it has been a somber day in Israel. Across the country there have been memorial ceremonies, prayer gatherings, and sadly, more soldier funerals. Hostages are still hellishly trapped under the earth. Thousands or millions of tears have been shed today. Meanwhile, our enemies have celebrated with aerial and other terror attacks on us. In cities around the world, multitudes of Hamas sympathizers and other anti-Zionists have rallied and cheered for Iran to complete the job started a year ago, the annihilation of Israel.
Since October 7, I believe we have shared in some small way in the sufferings of Messiah. But this also means sharing in the joys of His resurrection victory. (1 Peter 4:13, Philippians 3:10-11) It means beauty for ashes!