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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Author Joel C. Rosenberg’s latest book links his front row seat to history with his page-turning style. It’s as if he stepped into one of his previous sixteen thrillers. However, his newest book is not a novel. It is real.  

Joel’s conversations since 2016 with key Arab leaders have given him first-hand observations into the seismic shifts taking place in the Middle East. Could those shifts signal peace? 

That’s one of the issues Joel C. Rosenberg addresses in his latest book, Enemies and Allies: An Unforgettable Journey inside the Fast-Moving & Immensely Turbulent Modern Middle East. In an interview earlier this month on The 700 Club, Rosenberg sees two factions at work in the Middle East. The negative one is that Iran is “dangerously close” to nuclear weapons, which could lead to a “nuclear 9/11 and a second Holocaust of Israel.” The positive one is that the Abraham Accords offer evidence of “huge positive tectonic change in the region—of attitudes toward Jews, towards Israel, and towards Christians.”

Enemies and Allies—released on September 7—joins the author’s impressive output of 16 novels and four nonfiction works. This collection of interviews with key political figures of our day—culled from five years of research—offers an insider’s look at events in the Middle East, and what new alliances may mean for the future of this volatile region. In his book, Rosenberg has skillfully fashioned first-person meetings with Arab leaders into another genre—mixing groundbreaking, off-the-record conversations into an intriguing format that makes new developments in Middle East history an adventure. 

Joel’s five-year journey has taken him to meetings in royal palaces, beginning with a surprising invitation in 2016 from Jordan’s King Abdullah II. The monarch invited Joel and his wife for a five-day visit after reading Joel’s novel The First Hostage, which included the king. In describing that remarkable event, Joel says, “The king of a sovereign nation read one of my books! Check that off my ‘Things I never thought would happen’ list.” 

A series of meetings then evolved over the next several years where, by invitation, Joel organized small groups of evangelical Christian leaders to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Reading the details of how God threaded together these remarkable meetings where American evangelical leaders played a groundbreaking part in discussions is a fascinating, history-making story.

One of the most significant moments transpired in 2018, when a group met with Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi. Joel recalls, “When we sat in his palace, he told us he was going ‘to make peace with Israel.’ We were sitting on a huge news story and yet the ground rules at the time were that the conversation was off the record. We couldn’t go out and tell everybody another Arab country—the first Gulf Arab country—is going to make peace with Israel. We kept our word.” 

After his publisher sent me a copy of Enemies and Allies, I interviewed Joel via phone. We first met in 2009 at Old Ebbits Grill, a D.C. landmark eatery when I worked for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Over lunch with Joel and several of his colleagues, we enjoyed wide-ranging discussions about Israel and the Middle East. He had already penned his first novel, The Last Jihad, which was written months before 9/11 and published in 2002, as well as four other thrillers. I later invited him to speak at the annual AIPAC Christian Delegate Dinner. We’ve continued good conversations since then, running into each other at National Religious Broadcasters conventions and Christian Media summits hosted by Israel’s Government Press Office. 

Rosenberg’s resume is packed with impressive credentials. With five million books already sold, he is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of a humanitarian charity, The Joshua Fund. In 2020, he became editor-in-chief of two Middle East news websites: All Israel News and All Arab News. With his newest book, he achieves the rightly deserved descriptor of “historian.” 

I have read all of Joel’s books, some of them twice. After absorbing Enemies and Allies, it is easy for me to recommend that this non-fiction book should be required reading in every middle and high school, home school, university, mainstream media, for pastors’ sermon prep, Sunday school classes, and small group Bible studies. It is replete with facts and an extensive bibliography—a captivating discourse on recent Middle East history. 

Maintaining the confidences shared by Arab leaders, Joel has now, in timely fashion, disclosed little-known facts and conversations that took place prior to the Abraham Accords ceremony on the White House lawn on September 15, 2020. As he said in his 700 Club interview, “It’s the first book ever to take you inside those palaces—and you meet and hear on the record from some of the Middle East’s most powerful, consequential, and controversial leaders.”

In addition to the firsthand observations and discussions on politics, freedom of religion, and a new period of change within Arab countries, Joel openly maintained his fidelity to the Bible and his faith. An evangelical Christian with a Jewish heritage, Joel made Aliyah to Israel in 2014 with his wife and four sons. Now a dual American-Israeli citizen based in Jerusalem, Joel has even more depth and perspective.

About the in-person meetings themselves, Joel reflected, “Not many of us could have foreseen Arab leaders would even invite us. That would have seemed like a totally crazy idea just five years ago. We were the first delegation in the history of the United Arab Emirates ever as evangelical Christians to be invited to come and meet with the leadership.’’

It is clear that God gave favor in this and subsequent meetings. The Christian leaders who witnessed this historic moment kept their promise to Mohammed bin Zayed about the future peace. It would become the first with a Muslim nation since 1994 between Jordan and Israel. When bin Zayed’s decision was not made public, it became a cornerstone of trust for the future between Christian and Arab leaders. Mohammed bin Zayed made the announcement himself in August 2020 during a call with President Trump and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Enemies and Allies was already on the printing presses when the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan grew into a military, civilian, and diplomatic crisis. During the interview, I asked Joel what he would write in a chapter about this calamity. 

He responded, “In Enemies and Allies I emphasize that if you don’t understand the nature and threat of the evil posed by radical Islamism, you can be blindsided by it. Biden’s surrender to the Taliban movement is one of the great catastrophes in American foreign policy. It is clear that he was blindsided.” 

Joel went on to say that with one move, President Biden pulled out the “Jenga stick” and the whole game collapsed. It was a great analogy. Jenga is a game that involves building a tower out of wooden blocks, where players take turns removing a block from the tower and stacking it on top, making the structure increasingly unstable. If the tower falls apart on your turn, you will lose the game. “By doing this, Biden has emboldened our enemies and rattled our allies,” Joel asserted.

Regarding more Arab nations joining the Abraham Accords, I asked for Joel’s observations about Saudi Arabia possibly joining in. While he cannot divulge private conversations, Joel mentioned that he’s had in-depth, off-the-record discussions with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and his inner circle. “It may be a whole process that could take years, but that’s something that we should be praying for.” If the Saudis join, Joel says it would be “the mother of all peace deals.” 

Two Bible verses are wise reminders for all believers in forming relationships with others of no faith or another faith. Psalm 37:3 exhorts: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Joel has grown into a behind-the scenes-goodwill ambassador, an informal bridge between Christians, Israelis, and Arab leaders. The breadth and depth of his newest book reveals the way that God has used his talents during world-changing events—not only to write a compelling, fact-based history book but also to wisely navigate relationships. It is refreshing that someone so prominent in the seismic shifts of Middle East history could remain a role model for humility, prayerful approaches, and authenticity. To better understand the rapidly shifting landscape in Israel and the Arab/Muslim world, read Joel’s book, ramp up your knowledge of Middle East history, and pray for the region.  

Please join with CBN Israel in prayer this week for Israel and the Middle East:

• Pray that we evangelicals will follow the Lord’s lead as His ambassadors, walking in our faith prayerfully and in wisdom with an engaging approach. 
• Pray for Arab leaders taking risks to align with Israel, resulting in benefits to their own people and standing/serving as a bulwark against their common enemy: Iran.
• Pray for deepened cooperative relationships with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region and beyond. 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is now an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel 25 times. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited by Artist Pat Mercer Hutchens and sits on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

Starvation. Assault. Forced to sleep on the cold, wet ground. And the constant threat of death. These are the unthinkable deprivations that many Jewish children experienced as they were seized from their villages and marched to the horrors of concentration camps. No one should have to experience that brutality, then live with the nightmarish memories all their lives. 

Today, some 140,000 survivors of the Holocaust live in Israel, and the trauma of their past is only intensified by the modern-day attacks of terrorists and rockets aimed at destroying the Jewish homeland. Thousands of these survivors are widows or widowers living in poverty, with no family to count on, barely able to stretch their small stipends to cover food, medicine, rent, and electricity. And the isolation imposed by COVID-19 has made their lives even harder. 

But you and I can change this by providing essential food and care to these elderly people. Through our efficient network of ministry partners and volunteers, you can deliver food, medical assistance, home visits, and—most of all—hope to those in great need. When give your support to CBN Israel, you can provide food and care for Jewish women and men in the Holy Land who feel hopeless and alone. 

And what a difference you’ll make! These dear people often tell us that when someone delivers food packages from CBN Israel, it is like opening a window to the world, serving as a comforting reminder that they have not been forgotten. As you share God’s love with the poor and lonely, you can help fulfill the promise of Psalm 107:9, “He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”

Please join us in giving food and care to elderly Jewish widows, widowers, and others in desperate need.

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

The ancient site Gamla sits in the central Golan Heights about six miles east of the northern end of the Sea of Galilee and the Bethsaida Valley. The ancient village sat on the spur of a hill created by two streams, Nahal Gamla and Nahal Daliyyot. The spur that the village of Gamla sat on can be seen easily from Bethsaida and the Bethsaida Valley; thus, while we never find mention of Jesus in Gamla, he would have known the site. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, describes the village and the battle that took place there during the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66-73). 

Gamla offers an important window into Jewish village life in the Galilee and Golan during the first century. Once the Roman army of Vespasian destroyed the site (A.D. 67), it was never reinhabited, and therefore, functions as a time capsule into a first century Jewish village. The primary settlement of the site began in the Hellenistic period. It started as a Seleucid fort. The fort eventually became a village inhabited by Jews in the first centuries B.C. and A.D. 

Excavations at Gamla uncovered only a small percentage of the village, but they provide significant information about the Jewish life in the village. Towards the upper part of the hill, excavations uncovered a large olive oil press with a Jewish ritual immersion bath (mikveh) attached to it. This indicates that the inhabitants sought to prepare olive oil with concern for ritual purity. Excavators also uncovered a second large, industrial olive oil press indicating that Gamla served as a center for olive oil production exporting it to other Jewish communities. The community also seems to have grown grain and even practiced viticulture. 

Excavators uncovered the largest known urban synagogue discovered in Israel from the Roman period. At the entrance of the building, they found a ritual immersion pool. The synagogue itself consists of the main hall, with benches around the walls of the hall. The focal point being the center of the hall where the reading of the Scriptures and explication would have occurred. To the right of then entrance, in the north wall, was an inset into the wall, which most likely housed a cabinet where scrolls were kept. A small study room is also next to the main hall. 

Excavations also yielded evidence of an affluent class within the village. Painted fragments of plaster indicate the presence of wealthy homes. Finger rings and earrings, as well as gemstones and other jewelry attest to an affluence among some of the citizens. The presence of Jewish ritual immersion pools, as well as stone vessels indicate that the population of the village adhered to Jewish ritual purity. 

Excavations also attest to Josephus’ story of the fall of Gamla. Evidence of battle, destruction (including the breach in the city’s defensive wall), arrow heads and ballista balls were discovered throughout the excavations. Its destruction preserved this first century Jewish village, which offers one of the best examples of the villages known to Jesus.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV). 

This statement is made about God more than any other in the Old Testament. If you want to know God’s character, memorize this. Internalize it. It represents the varied nature of His character and personality: merciful and gracious, forgiving, yet holy.

Our world, even within Christian circles, often wants to make God in its image. We tend to prefer a loving and forgiving God, so that’s what we typically focus on the most.

The God we imagine would never judge anyone harshly. On the other end of the spectrum, there are some who want God to bring judgment quickly. However, we don’t get to make God what we want Him to be.

This passage describes who He is. He is merciful and compassionate. He forgives our sins, yet He also holds us accountable, especially if we do not repent. He doesn’t deal with us as we deserve, but that in no way lessens His holy and righteous demands.

We tend to gravitate to either extreme—a loving God who tolerates everything or a harsh God who forgives little. Yet the Bible makes clear who God is. It never loses the balance of His mercy and His justice. In fact, it makes clear that you cannot have genuine mercy without justice, just as you cannot have justice without mercy.

Unfortunately, we find ourselves swayed by our own personal preferences or what our world tells us God should be like. We look to our society to define biblical ideas like justice, mercy, righteousness, and holiness; yet these characteristics find definition in God within the Bible—how He acts and how He expects us to act.

He is compassionate and gracious, forgiving of sins. If we want our world to see Him, then we must behave the same way. He is just; we must demonstrate His justice too.

That’s hard for us; we tend to go one way over the other. But God is not like that; He keeps His mercy and justice in perfect balance.

When God passed before Moses and proclaimed this, Moses bowed down and worshiped God. Please take a moment today to let the words of this confession penetrate your heart and soul. This is who our God is.

PRAYER

Father, we stand in awe of You. You are merciful and compassionate. You are just. How mighty and awesome are You. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Apartheid is an ugly term with an ugly history. Dutch for “separate” or “apartness,” apartheid was the official policy of racial segregation against nonwhites as formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa. Between 1948 and 1994, 170,000 white Afrikaners—descendants of Dutch, German and French settlers—wielded cruel policies against 40 million Black people.  

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) successfully led the resistance movement against apartheid. Arrested in 1962 and charged with treason, he remained imprisoned until 1990. In 1993, he and then-President F.W. de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. Soon afterward, Mandela was elected as South Africa’s president, serving from 1994 to 1999. 

Just a few years later, the United Nations held the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Taking place in Durban, South Africa—called Durban I—its advertised noble theme turned into an opportunity to bludgeon Israel with  apartheid accusations. Nations, NGOs and Palestinian activists rose up against Israel, one of the most inclusive nations on earth. The anti-Israel lies were cemented at the first Durban Conference and continued in Durban II, III, and now IV, mistakenly claiming that Israel displays discrimination against the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza.

At Durban I, both PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro castigated Israel. Venomous hypocrisy was on display from Arafat, the man who had planned the 1972 Black September murders of Israeli Olympians, and from Castro, a communist who had subjugated the Cuban people for decades. The gnarled anti-Semitic roots of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement can easily be traced back to Durban I.

This week, on September 22, apartheid was once again on prominent display at the United Nations in what is called “Durban IV.” In a preparatory declaration on December 31, 2020, the United Nations Third Committee stated they would hold a one-day high-level meeting of the [United Nations] General Assembly to “commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action” at its 76th session, on the theme “Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent.”

None of the Durban conferences has ever recognized Israel as a nation filled with champions of diversity or as the only nation in the world that has brought people of African descent to freedom instead of slavery. 

Israel has rigorously acted on “equality for people of African descent.” In its covert operations beginning in 1984, Operation Moses airlifted to Israel 7,000 Ethiopians who had walked to Sudan to escape the communist dictatorship of Ethiopian Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam. Thousands died on the roughly 700-to 800-mile walk. The biggest airlift in Israeli history took place on May 24, 1991, when the Israeli Air Force undertook Operation Solomon. After removing the seats, Israelis used 34 planes to safely ferry 14,500 Jews to Israeli soil in just 36 hours. The Ethiopian airlifts took place from 1984 into the 1990s. In recent years, smaller groups have been flown out. 

All the huge airlifts took place before the first Durban conference. Wouldn’t it be correct in the justice genre for the United Nations to recognize Israel’s historic fidelity to the theme of “equality for people of African descent?” Ethiopians are now settled in their ancestral homeland and, as mentioned, they are citizens, not slaves. Possessing full rights, around 165,500 Ethiopians are citizens serving in all sectors of Israeli society—from Knesset to military leadership, on college faculties, in the media, and as medical personnel. 

Israel’s history reveals the true story of a nation willing to rescue those at risk while also recognizing and undertaking the initial challenges of cultural and absorption issues. Hardships, conflicts, successes, and belonging in a free country have lived side by side within the Ethiopian community. Yet the challenges do not erase the overwhelmingly inclusive character of the Jewish nation in welcoming its new Jewish citizens from across the world. 

On many of my trips to Israel, I have visited an immigrant absorption center provided for Ethiopians first coming to their modern homeland. These were centers of help to give new citizens the tools to begin Israeli life, since most Ethiopians had left agrarian villages. People at the centers taught them how to shop, turn on electric lights, speak Hebrew, and pay bills. 

I have met and interacted with—and listened to briefings from—Ethiopians from several Israeli sectors. Among them was Shlomo Molla, who served in the Knesset from 2008 to 2013 and at one point served as its deputy speaker. I met Mr. Molla at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference in 2010 when I was on AIPAC’s staff as their Southeast Region Christian Outreach Director. He also spoke in my church that year. His story is remarkable and inspiring. AIPAC’s video of his talk is worth watching (view here). In it, he tells of leaving Ethiopia on foot and walking toward Sudan. He was rescued in the middle of the night in the Sudanese desert and airlifted to his new home. In one of his interviews, he described his walk into Sudan as “praying with our feet.”

If planners of any Durban Conference decided to abandon anti-Semitism, they would surely have invited Shlomo Molla to speak. Malcolm Hedding, another leader rich with his perspective about apartheid, would also deserve an invitation. 

Reverend Hedding is an acclaimed international speaker, one of the world’s preeminent scholars on biblical Zionism. He grew up in South Africa and later lived in Israel. He knows exactly what apartheid looks like and how it operates. As an Assemblies of God pastor planting numerous churches throughout South Africa, he began confronting the evil system head-on by speaking out against apartheid from the pulpit. When he came to the attention of South African authorities, he faced a coming arrest. Urged by a congregant to leave South Africa as soon as possible with his wife and three children, the pastor and his family fled to Israel. There he served as executive director of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem for 10 years. 

In his article, “Israel and Apartheid,” Hedding reflects on living in apartheid South Africa and living in Israel: “Essentially apartheid was a totalitarian system of governance … obsessed with racial superiority.” He defines the apartheid system of segregation as “Aryanism in a new form.”

In one example, he mentions that blacks could not sit on a bench designated for whites only. He notes, “There is absolutely nothing equivalent to this in the dispute that rages between the Palestinians and Israel today. Arabs, Jews, Christians, and Palestinians share the same shopping malls, benches, hospitals, theatres, and in many cases, suburbs.” He also points out the critical distinction that Israel is a democratic state, rather than being governed by a “totalitarian minority.”

Israel and the United States walked out of Durban I in 2001 and boycotted it again this year. Around thirty-two nations joined them. Indeed, the light is growing brighter; nevertheless, the hate and lies persist. 

Join CBN Israel this week in prayer for the Jewish nation and people:

• Pray with thanks for the growing number of nations who have decided not to support the lies and slander about Israel. 
• Pray for leaders like Reverend Malcolm Hedding for even more opportunities to speak truth about Israel.
• Pray for Christians worldwide who support Israel to remain steadfast in their support and not grow weary. 

May we collectively reflect upon the truth of 1 Peter 3:10-11—“For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good. They must seek peace and pursue it.”

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is now an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel 25 times. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited by Artist Pat Mercer Hutchens and sits on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

“Remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV).

Remember! One of the most frequent commands throughout the Bible is “Remember!” Remember the road you’ve traveled, the struggles and trials you’ve faced. And remember Who brought you along your path.

Remember Who provided for you, cared for you, and calls you to remember and obey His commandments. Remember.

We often turn to God in our times of need. When relationships, circumstances, finances, diagnoses, and life are too overwhelming, then we turn to God. We cleave to Him through those wilderness times of our life, relying upon His presence and provision.

But, once He brings us through those times and we find ourselves upon a firm footing, standing in the Promised Land, how quickly do we forget, rely upon ourselves, and ultimately turn from His ways? Remember.

The festivals that God gave Israel within the Old Testament served two purposes: 1) They were connected with the agricultural cycle, particularly the harvest times, and 2) they called the people to remember what God did for them in the wilderness, how He led them and provided for them.

The agricultural nature of the festivals called upon the Israelites to remember Who sent the rain in its season so the crops could grow, and ultimately Who was responsible for their sustenance and provision. The connection with the wilderness wanderings called upon the people to remember a time when their need for God and His provision was more acute, to remember where they came from.

During the fall harvest festival, Sukkot, God instructed the children of Israel to construct temporary shelters, or booths, that they lived in for the duration of the festival:

“Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:42-43 NIV).

Dwelling in booths was to remind future generations—those that did not experience the hardships and uncertainty of the wilderness—how God provided for His people.

When later generations found themselves living prosperously in the land, the booths reminded them of a time in their history when their forefathers lacked such prosperity, and in that moment, they should remember God, Who brought Israel out of Egypt.

What is the ultimate goal of this remembrance? We find it in the passage from Deuteronomy quoted initially: “Remember … whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

We confront our limitations and smallness in times of need. We realize how finite we are. It becomes easy to turn to God in those moments. And, as a loving Father, He comes to us. But when we find ourselves in times of prosperity, it’s too easy to think we stand alone on our own two feet, and turning from God and His commandments becomes easy.

Remember where you have come from. Remember where He has taken you. Remember His commandments and purposes for your life. Remember that He is your Savior and King.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for taking us through the wildernesses of our lives and providing for us. May we always—in good times and in bad—remember You and all that You have done for us. Amen.

By Julie Stahl

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. … Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:34-35, 42-43 NIV).

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is one of the three major festivals in Judaism. It is both an agricultural festival of thanksgiving and a commemoration of the forty-year period during which the children of Israel wandered in the desert after leaving slavery in Egypt, living in temporary shelters as they traveled.

Some call this holiday a Jewish camping trip with the conveniences of home. It’s an ancient biblical command that’s still being kept today and it begins just four days after Yom Kippur. For thousands of years, Jewish people around the world have followed the biblical injunction to live in temporary dwellings during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles.

“It helps us remember,” says Israeli Seth Ben-Haim. “First of all, we’re commanded to remember the Exodus from Egypt and how we needed to wander through the desert for forty years without permanent dwellings, but it also reminds us that even though we’ve been brought into the land of Israel, we haven’t reached our final destination,” he says.

Sukkot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals, when Jewish people were commanded to go up to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to worship.

For seven days, families eat, sleep, study, and pray in the sukkah or “booth.” Rabbis say it must have at least three sides and the roof must be made in such a way that the stars are visible through it at night and it’s open to the elements. Most people use either palm fronds or a straw mat for the roof. And many are decorated at least in part by the children.

“Otherwise, we’d be in the protection of our homes and the purpose of living temporarily in this flimsy tabernacle is so that we can remember that ultimately we’re under HaShem’s [God’s] protection,” says Ben-Haim.

Another part of the Sukkot celebration is recorded in Leviticus 23:40 (NLT), where the Bible commands the Israelites to take four species of fruit from beautiful trees—a citron or Etrog, a palm branch, a bough of leafy trees (myrtle), and a willow branch and “celebrate with joy before the LORD your God for seven days.”

Great care is taken to choose an Etrog without a blemish but with many bumps. During morning prayers each day, Jewish men wave the Lulav (the three branches) and Etrog before the Lord.

“We wave them in many different directions, and we really look above and that’s what this type of roof helps us to remember. We’re looking above because that’s where our help is going to come from,” says Ben-Haim.

The New Testament records that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for Sukkot: “The Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, so His brothers said to Him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so Your disciples can see Your works that You are doing.’ … When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple complex and began to teach” ( John 7:2-3, 14 HCSB).

For Christians (actually the whole world), the Feast of Tabernacles has prophetic significance. In the book of Zechariah, the prophet says that one day all nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast.

Since 1980, thousands of Christians from around the world have come up to Jerusalem every year to see prophecy fulfilled and to celebrate at the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s Feast of Tabernacles event. Other Christian ministries also hold Feast celebrations now.

“They’re following the invitation of Zechariah 14, where it says that one day all the nations will come up to celebrate this biblical feast here in Jerusalem, to worship the Lord and keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Our showing up here now for this feast is a statement of faith that there’s coming a day when the Messiah will rule here,” says David Parsons, ICEJ spokesman.

Zechariah 14:16-18 says, In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the [Feast of Tabernacles]. Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the LORD will punish them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go (NLT).

Holiday Greeting: Hag Sameach (“Happy Holiday!”) and during the intermediate days, Moadim L’Simcha (“a joyful holiday!”).

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel full-time for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN—first as a graduate student in Journalism at Regent University; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. She is also an integral part of CBN News’ award-winning show, Jerusalem Dateline, a weekly news program providing a biblical and prophetic perspective to what is happening in Israel and the Middle East.

By Marc Turnage

Many travelers to Israel make the mistaken assumption that the boundaries of the modern State of Israel overlap biblical Israel. Apart from the fact that even within the Bible what constitutes the boundaries of Israel shifts from period to period, the modern State of Israel does not share the same footprint as biblical Israel. 

Biblical Israel extended east of the Jordan River into the area of Gilead. The southern part of modern Israel south of the Beersheva basin, towards the Gulf of Elat, lay outside of biblical Israel; in fact, this area comprised the Wilderness of Zin and Paran. Thus, one can tour the Wilderness of Zin in modern Israel and discuss how Moses sent spies from here into the promised land (Numbers 13:21). 

So, Moses made it into the modern State of Israel, but not inside the boundaries of biblical Israel. What further compounds this confusion is the use of biblical place names within modern Israel that do not refer to the same geographic areas, for example, the Negev. Today, the Negev refers to the land south of the Hebron Hills down to Elat. In the Bible, the Negev refers to the Beersheva basin, which cuts east-west across the central hill country that continues to the south. This can be confusing to the modern traveler to Israel. 

The largest river west of the Jordan River is the Zin River, which extends from the hills south of the Beersheva basin east towards the Jordan Valley. This river does not always run with water, but around Avdat (a Nabatean trading center) springs flow into the Zin year-round. It is fitting that in this area Moses sought water for the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness (Numbers 20). It was here that Moses in his frustration with the people struck the rock to bring water from it rather than speaking to it as God had commanded. 

Because of his disobedience, God did not permit Moses to enter the promised land; he could only look into it from Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 34). Water was essential in the dry wilderness, yet shepherds, like Moses, often herded their flocks in such inhospitable terrain. The sheep depended upon the shepherd to provide water for them; thus, shepherds became adept at finding water in seemingly waterless wastes. 

The Nabateans, a desert people, who lived in the region in the first century, whose capital was the rose red city of Petra, learned to navigate the desert by sophisticated water collection. Their water reservoirs were known only to them, which enabled them to traverse the harsh dry land and capitalize on the trade routes between Petra and the port-city of Gaza. Avdat, which sits above the Zin Valley, served as one of their stations along these desert trade routes.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The Day of Atonement (Hebrew: Yom Kippur) is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community worldwide. It began yesterday at sundown and ends tonight, September 16, when the stars become visible in the night skies. No work is done. Traditions of fasting and prayer fill the day with themes of repentance and forgiveness. The prayers are called selichot, which means “forgiveness.” Yom Kippur ends with shofars sounding to confirm the ideals of repentance, forgiveness, determination, and optimism for the year head. 

Yom Kippur originated in the desert. In Leviticus 16:30, God enshrined the Day of Atonement, saying through Moses, “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be cleansed from all your sins before God.” The Israelites were on their 40-year trek from enslavement in Egypt. Yet, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai, sin abounded below. Israelites built the golden calf idol to worship, and sinfulness went wild in the wilderness. Enslavement of another kind emerged. 

Moses had quite a climb, since the mountain is 7,497 feet high. However, when Moses walked down, the Israelite iniquities required a radical remedy: a Day of Atonement. 

Two goats were at the center of the ancient priestly ceremonies in the sands near Sinai. One goat was sacrificed. The living goat—the scapegoat (Azazel in Hebrew)—was sent out of the Israelite encampment, symbolically carrying the Israelites’ burdens of sin. 

“Scapegoat” is a familiar word, but less known is its origin. In Leviticus 16:21-22, God gives detailed instructions about the scapegoat. “Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man. Thus, the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.”

The ancient Day of Atonement is another signaling shadow in the Old Testament of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Psalm 103:12 encapsulates Jesus’ sacrifice as our true, perfect, holy scapegoat: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” His sacrifice was not a complicated annual ceremony like the ancient ones. It was a one-time event in the history of the world, so profound in its unconditional love that that we can barely grasp it. When we bow before God through the words of the Bible, we can—with deep sorrow and repentance for our own sins—invite Jesus into our lives. Not one of us is an exception, because we all sin. Nevertheless, all of us are welcome at the foot of the cross. 

Jesus is now our High Priest advocating for us with God the Father. He shoulders our burdens daily in a trustworthy relationship of grace. In His resurrection, God’s beloved Son seals our opportunity of new life forever. Hebrews 9:12 describes Him this way: “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

In our brief Yom Kippur tour here, we move from ancient times, when the Israelites left Egypt in 447 B.C., to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, then on to the modern Jewish state in 1973. Only seven years after the Six-Day War—when Israel victoriously united their capital, Jerusalem, and regained their holiest site, the Western Wall—Egypt, and Syria triggered the Yom Kippur War. The day chosen for the attack—October 6, 1973—was no mistake. Egypt and Syria knew Israel would be shut down on its holiest day.

At the time, Israeli intelligence failed to detect the clandestine Egyptian and Syrian preparation months before Yom Kippur. Israel, of course, was praying, fasting, not working, and the IDF was observing the holy day, too. The surprise attacks left Israel completely exposed in a mad scramble, with their enemies attacking on two fronts—in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights. Israel had recaptured them in the 1967 war. Nonetheless, Israeli victory seemed completely out of the question on October 6, 1973, the first day of the war.  

 The Arab attacks indicated a quick victory while Israel rushed to get the IDF and their reserves into action. The Israelis were losing ground and equipment fast. After four days—on October 10, beset by indecision and domestic crisis—former U.S. President Richard Nixon finally decided to send armaments to Israel. Made nearly half a century ago, that decision has been mostly overlooked due to the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s subsequent resignation. 

However, since the communist Soviet Union was supplying the Arab nations with weapons, Nixon understood the seriousness of an Israeli defeat in the surprise attacks. Jim Byron, executive vice president of the Nixon Foundation, penned an article on October 8, 2010, “How Richard Nixon Saved Israel,” in which he listed the incredible, against-all-odds facts: “180 Israeli tanks faced over 1400 Syrian tanks; closer to the Suez Canal, a mere 436 Israeli infantry were poised to fight over 80,000 Egyptian soldiers—this even after Israel’s military buildup. The attacks by Egypt and Syria were backed by nine Arab states—as well as one non-Arab state: the Soviet Union. “He [Nixon] knew that his enemies… would never give him credit for saving Israel. He did it anyway.”

 The operation Nixon authorized was an airlift code-named “Operation Nickel Grass.” It replaced all of Israel’s lost munitions. “Planeload after planeload of supplies literally allowed munitions and materiel to seemingly re-spawn for the Israeli counter effort. 567 missions were flown throughout the airlift, dropping over 22,000 tons of supplies. An additional 90,000 tons of materiel were delivered by sea.” Nickel Grass was an astonishing and timely rescue by any measure and resulted—at the time—in forcing the Soviet Union out of the Middle East. 

The 1973 war took a terrible toll, killing 2,688 Israeli soldiers. The Nixon Foundation also offered this commentary: “The Yom Kippur War would instantly go down in infamy as the bloodiest military confrontation between Israel and its Arab neighbors totaling nearly 53,500 total casualties on all sides involved; compared to 5,500 casualties during the 1967 Six-Day War, and 10,000 casualties during the 1956 Suez Crisis.”

Golda Meir, Israel’s prime minister (1969-1974) during the Yom Kippur War, referred to Richard Nixon as “my president.” Her accolades for the 37th president speak volumes. “For generations to come, all will be told of the miracle of the immense planes from the United States bringing in the materiel that meant life to our people.”

In the ever changing, surprising history of the Middle East, on November 19, 1977, Egypt’s daring president, Anwar Sadat, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport—the first Arab leader to visit Israel. He spoke at the Knesset in a groundbreaking speech saying, “I declare it to the whole world, that we accept to live with you in permanent peace based on justice. We do not want to encircle you or be encircled ourselves by destructive missiles ready for launching, nor by the shells of grudges and hatreds.” 

Sixteen months later, Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin stood on the White House lawn hosted by former President Jimmy Carter. They signed the peace treaty on March 26, 1979, which took effect in January 1980. Their warm handshakes and smiles set the treaty on a course that has thankfully lasted 41 years.  

Now, with the Jewish New Year off to its start in 5782 and the end of Yom Kippur 2021, we convey our sincere wish to Israelis and the Jewish community worldwide: “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life.” 

Please join CBN Israel in prayer on this Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement: 

• Pray for the Jewish nation and people that they would experience a renewal of faith and hope on this holy day.
• Pray in overflowing gratitude for Jesus’ sacrificial death carrying our burdens and sins away for us.
• Pray with thankfulness for the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, and for the rich meanings in ancient Jewish practice and culture.
• Pray that other world leaders will follow the peacemaking examples of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and nations in the Abraham Accords.   

Today, may we Christians meditate on this wonderful verse that symbolizes Jesus’ gift of life for all who believe: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). 

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is now an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel 25 times. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited by Artist Pat Mercer Hutchens and sits on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. Arlene has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times and hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

By Julie Stahl

“Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month—nine days after the Festival of Trumpets. You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to the LORD” (Leviticus 23:27 NLT).

Yom Kippur is the Holiest Day in the Jewish year, the “Day of Atonement.”

The 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the “Ten Days of Awe.” This is your chance, so to speak, to get your heart and relationships right before Yom Kippur. According to Jewish tradition, this is the time that one’s name is either inscribed or not in the Book of Life for another year.

“These are heavy, heavy days of repentance, reflection, and seeking God’s face as we prepare to go stand before Him in a state of fasting, a state of humility on the day of Yom Kippur,” says Boaz Michael, founder of First Fruits of Zion.

In some traditions, worshippers pray Selichot or slichot prayers (“forgiveness”) as much as a month before Rosh Hashanah to make sure they are prepared for that day.

“The Bible speaks about Yom Kippur in terms of being a great day of judgment, of us standing before God. It’s traditionally, according to a Jewish perspective, a time in which we will literally be standing before the Father on that Day of Judgment,” says Michael.

It’s customary to wear white on this day. In some traditions, men wear a white robe or, in Yiddish, kittel. That tradition comes from Isaiah 1:18 (NLT), where God says, “Come now, let’s settle this. … Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”

Yom Kippur has five prayer services throughout the day, which is more than any other Jewish holiday.

“The Viddui is the central prayer of confession and forgiveness of the Jewish people on Yom Kippur. And it’s a prayer that they pray not only on behalf of themselves but on behalf of all the Jewish people around the world,” says Reverend David Pileggi of Christ Church in Jerusalem’s Old City.

He says that the Viddui prayer recognizes the words of Jeremiah: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”
(Jeremiah 17:9 NLT).

“One thing we learn from the Jewish people about Yom Kippur is that it’s not enough to say you’re sorry. You have to confess, say you’re sorry, and then at the same time take practical steps to change your behavior,” says Pileggi.

He says there’s a parallel between Yom Kippur and the teachings of Jesus.

“We have a saying of Jesus, don’t we? It says, if you bring your gift to the altar and your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled with your brother. Jewish tradition says, to go get your relationship right with your neighbor, with your brother, with your family member, forgive and be reconciled and then on the Day of Atonement, when you begin to fast and pray and to confess, God will hear your prayer and forgive you as you have forgiven others,” says Pileggi.

“It’s the teaching of Jesus and it’s also something that’s part and parcel of Jewish tradition and here the two line up very nicely,” Pileggi adds.

In the synagogue, the Book of Jonah is read.

“Jonah is a symbol of repentance. He’s commanded by God to call the people of Nineveh to repent, but he himself was struggling through his own reflections about who receives God’s judgment and who receives God’s mercy,” says Michael.

“So, Jonah can so often symbolize our own actions—doubting God, disobeying God, and determining who’s worthy of His redemption. But, like Jonah, we’re invited to repent of our disobedience and prejudices so that we can rejoin God in building His kingdom,” Michael adds.

He affirms that Yom Kippur holds a deep meaning even for those who believe in Jesus.

“It’s through the work of Messiah that our sins are taken away. He is our great atonement. I think this is a beautiful biblical understanding for us to affirm and hold onto in the context of our daily lives, but at the same time, we also need to be reminded to live a life of repentance,” Michael concludes.

Holiday Greeting: G’mar Chatimah Tovah (“May you be sealed for good in the Book of Life”) and Tzom Kal (used to wish others an “easy fast”).

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel full-time for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN—first as a graduate student in Journalism at Regent University; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. She is also an integral part of CBN News’ award-winning show, Jerusalem Dateline, a weekly news program providing a biblical and prophetic perspective to what is happening in Israel and the Middle East.