English – Chinese
I once heard an Israeli describe the predicament of the Jewish nation as follows: It is as if you are in a padded cell with a psychopath who is trying to kill you while the world watches from the outside, saying, “Look at those maniacs in there trying to kill each other!” Meanwhile, you are trying to communicate to those on the outside what is really going on, but you can’t be heard, and the cell is locked.
The observer must wonder at the gross injustice exercised towards Israel.
Actually, it is worse than that. Today, many are looking in the room and pointing at the Israeli, exclaiming, “Look at the psychopath, we must stop him!”
Any objective observer would most certainly conclude otherwise. Seeing what Israel has accomplished, building a prosperous nation from scratch while hemmed in and enduring unwarranted hostility and much adversity, the unbiased onlooker would have to say:
“If men employed just scales, Israel would be sought out as a friend and role model among the nations.”
The objective observer must wonder at the gross injustice and perverse enmity exercised towards Israel, which the Jew, and particularly the Israeli, acutely perceives:
“Why is this happening to us? Why, among all nations, are we the only one whose existence is called into question? Why are we alone condemned for winning wars of aggression against us? Why are we, as such a tiny nation, so unduly important as to be scrutinized and blamed for everything? How is it that all other nations get away with murder, but we are forced to give our country to those who would murder us? How utterly contradictory are these judgments against us! Why, LORD, why, why, why? We do not understand!”
Even the secular Israeli and Jew, who do not believe in God, ask Him why, because no man can give a satisfactory answer to this enigma.
But there is no mystery to God. He has answered, providing the key that unlocks the cell, not only for Israel, but for the whole world. God has set up His nation of Israel in these last days to bless the world, which is in a mess, not because of Israel, but because of how they have treated and do treat the God of Israel.
Your God came to bless you, but you turned your faces away from Him.
Now Israel – regarding your God – you suffer contradiction, do you? When you do right, you are blamed for doing wrong. Men hunt your lives, in fact, when your desire is to live with them in peace and to share the goodness God has given you, even as you have already done with your enemies. The world, however (and even your friends), supports your enemies against you.
This is all happening to you because you treated your God as men now treat you.
Your God came to bless you, and did, but you turned your faces away from Him. Your leaders convicted Him of wrongdoing and you consented to His murder. All He had ever done and desired was your good:
“God sent His Son unto you first, to bless you, by turning you away from your iniquities” (Acts 3:26).
Who has suffered greater contradiction than your God, Yeshua HaMashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ? And He suffered it from your hands, His own people:
“He came to His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11 MKJV).
The Roman authority, Pilate, asked what should be done with the One you delivered up for judgment – “What then shall I do with Jesus, Who is called Christ?” – and you answered, “Let Him be crucified” (Matthew 27:22 MKJV).
You have reaped what you have sown.
Luke 23:13-25 MKJV
(13) And when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people,
(14) Pilate said to them, You have brought this Man to me as perverting the people. And behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no fault in this Man regarding those things of which you accuse Him;
(15) no, nor even Herod, for I sent you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death has been done by Him.
(16) Therefore I will chastise Him and release Him.
(17) (For it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast.)
(18) And they all cried out at once, saying, Away with this One! And release to us Barabbas
(19) (who was thrown into prison because of a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder).
(20) And Pilate, willing to release Jesus, spoke again to them.
(21) But they cried, saying, Crucify! Crucify Him!
(22) And he said to them the third time, Why? What evil has He done? I have found no cause of death in Him, therefore I will chastise Him and let Him go.
(23) But they pressed on him, with loud voices, requesting that He might be crucified. And their voices and those of the chief priests prevailed.
(24) And Pilate gave judgment that their request should be granted.
(25) And he released to them the one who had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder, for whom they had asked. But he delivered up Jesus to their will.
Pilate washed his hands in front of you and replied: “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.” And you said: “May His blood be on us, and on our children!” (Matthew 27:24-25 MKJV)
So it has been, and is, His righteous blood. You have reaped what you have sown, as God promises by His Law that He gave and taught you and will teach you again.
Don’t think because this happened long ago, or because you weren’t there, that this doesn’t apply to you. Don’t think because you aren’t part of the Jewish religion, or even don’t agree with the existence of a Jewish nation, that, as a Jew, you aren’t held responsible for God’s blood. Until you reconcile with Him, you are responsible, just as God always held you collectively responsible for what He gave you. You are named after one, Israel, and are as one people to God. You cannot escape your identity or destiny.
God came to Israel and endured that contradiction at your hands.
God has not let you forget who you are, has He? How do you think you are back in your own land again, sovereign for the first time in 2,500 years? You are still His own.
And of Him it is written:
“For consider Him Who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be weary and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:3 MKJV).
The Messiah, God, came to Israel in human form, and endured that contradiction at your hands. Consider what the Hebrew prophet Isaiah foretold of His coming, and see if you cannot now identify with your Messiah, after having a full serving of what He tasted on your behalves, rejection by those He came to bless:
Isaiah 53:1-12 MKJV
(1) Who has believed our report? And to Whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
(2) For He comes up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He has no form nor majesty that we should see Him, nor an appearance that we should desire Him.
(3) He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as it were a hiding of faces from Him, He being despised, and we esteemed Him not.
(4) Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on Him; and with His stripes we ourselves are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
(7) He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
(8) He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken.
(9) And He put His grave with the wicked, and with a rich one in His death; although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
(10) Yet it pleased the LORD to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
(11) He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. He shall be fully satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify for many; and He shall bear their iniquities.
(12) Therefore I will divide to Him with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul to death; and He was counted among the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for transgressors.
You suffer these things, Israel, because God has remembered you.
Are the nations not turning their faces away from you, despising and esteeming you not? Are they not willing to sacrifice you to relieve themselves of those who clamor for your blood, thinking to buy themselves peace at your cost? Do they not act towards Israel as your high priest spoke of Jesus Christ to you? Can you not hear this counsel being spoken to the nations of the world regarding their Israel “problem”?
“You do not know anything at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one nation should die for the people, and not that the whole world perish” (adjusted from John 11:49 MKJV).
You suffer these things, Israel, not because God has forgotten you, but because He has remembered you:
“For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:7-8 KJV).
Like a father desires good for his wayward son, so has your Father desired good for you and now gives you to know of your wrong in order that things can be made right for you. Your suffering contradiction from the world is not a sign that He has cast you away, but is a sign that He identifies with you. That is why we stand with you, Jews and Israel. Chastisement from God does not mean that His mercy is not extended to you – it is a sign that it is.
When will you turn to Him? That is also in His hands. You have harvested what you have sown, and the harvest is coming to an end, yes, it is at its end. And your judgment will turn for you, not because of any righteousness of your own, but because your Messiah has purposed to be merciful to you, for your fathers’ sakes and for yours.
Let us make something very clear: There is no just cause for anyone to use these truths to persecute the Jews. God forbid. The Jews were merely the scalpel in the hands of humanity. We, humanity (including Jews), and not only the Jews (or Romans), are all guilty.
Jews were chosen to perform the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
Humanity, thou art the man, as indignant as you are against Jews. The Jews (and Romans) were merely instruments in God’s hand to do your dirty work for you. You (we) are the culprit. As sinners (and all have sinned), we are guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ.
In fact, the Jews were fulfilling the function of high priest for the world. They were chosen to perform the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. While they meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Did not Joseph (Israel’s son) say this to his brothers, who had thought to kill him and sold him into slavery? Did he not forgive them? If Christ is willing to forgive His people (as Joseph forgave his brothers), who are you to withstand Him and His chosen?
Therefore, should anyone choose to serve evil and persecute the Jews, know that you will be destroyed though Israel will remain, just as God has always kept a remnant throughout the ages. You shall not touch the apple of His eye.
Zechariah 2:8-13 MKJV
(8) For so says the LORD of Hosts: He has sent me after glory, to the nations who stripped you; for he who touches you touches the pupil of His eye.
(9) For behold, I will shake My hand over them, and they shall be a prize for their servants. And you shall know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me.
(10) Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion. For lo, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says the LORD.
(11) And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you.
(12) And the LORD shall possess Judah, His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
(13) Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for He has risen out of His holy dwelling place.
Then you will know His power, glory, and favor such as no nation has ever known.
And if God has shown such favor to Israel and to the world through Israel during Israel’s disobedience and chastisement, what will happen when Israel returns to Him?
“For if the casting away of them [the Jews] be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15 KJV)
When you, as a people, confess that you condemned to death the Perfectly Innocent One, and have suffered the fruits of your contradiction against Him for the past 2,000 years until today, and when you call out with broken hearts, with broken and contrite spirits to Him for mercy, then you will know that the God of Israel has turned His wrath from you. You will know that He lives and has not abandoned you forever. Then you will know His power, glory, and favor such as no nation has ever known.
Leviticus 26:40-42 MKJV
(40) If they shall confess their wilfulness and the wilfulness of their fathers, with their sin which they sinned against Me, and that also they have walked contrary to Me,
(41) I also will walk contrary to them and will bring them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they then pay for their iniquity,
(42) then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham I will remember. And I will remember the land.
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10 KJV).
Victor Hafichuk
Jews, Why I Am for You
What the God of Israel has done for me, and what He will do for you.
Your God Stands for You, Israel
A Letter of Promise, Hope, and Exhortation to the Dispersed and Oppressed Uncircumcised-in-Heart Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
We witness the ungodly and unjust hatred for Jews everywhere and consider there is something important going on. We are also in awe of the marvelous historical developments and events, knowing very well, by God’s grace, that man cannot do what has developed concerning the Jews at any time, perhaps especially in this last century. Here is a letter of promise to God’s chosen in the flesh, based on His faithfulness and awesome power:
“I, even I, am He Who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass; and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched forth the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth…?” (Isaiah 51:12-13 HNV)
Israel, Is Your God Unjust?
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2 HNV).
Israel, come hear the Word of God, and let your hearts be revealed; know the Truth and be reconciled to Your Father. It is time. Of what value is it to continue in darkness, not knowing Him and His heart towards you, Who has loved you from days of old and draws you with lovingkindness?
Israel, the Explanation for the Horrendous Contradictions You Suffer
Israel, your God knows and sees what you suffer. He is not remote, unfamiliar, or unaffected by what is happening with you. There is a reason for your predicament, however, a reason that holds the key to the solution for all. There is an answer from God, which you need to hear and know.
The Key for Israel and the Jew
Jews, you have tried everything to be at peace, to have dialogue with, and to appease, the world. You have tried everything, and nothing has worked, because you lacked the simple solution. Here is the key for Israel, the Jew, and the whole world.