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By Marc Turnage

Visitors to the Old City of Jerusalem today can enter the city through seven gates scattered around its eastern, southern, western, and northern sides. These gates, like the walls of the Old City, date to the Ottoman Period (16^th-20^th centuries). 

Along the northern stretch of the Old City walls are three gates, from west to east, New Gate, Damascus Gate, and the Flower (or Herod’s) Gate. The current Ottoman Damascus Gate stands upon the remains of a triple-arch gate that dates to the Roman remains of Aelia Capitolina, which was the name given to Jerusalem in the 2^nd century A.D. by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. The center arch was the largest, and the two side arches were lower. 

Gates are named for what lies outside of them; therefore, Damascus Gate gains its name because the northern road towards Damascus leads out of the city from there. In Hebrew, the gate is referred to as Shechem Gate because the road to Shechem (modern day Nabulus) led out of the city from there. 

After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the city’s footprint changed due to the damage caused by the Roman forces in certain parts of the city, particularly the southern area of the city. This caused the city to shift north and west in the Late Roman Period. From the 2^nd century A.D., Jerusalem began to look like a Roman city, which the Old City of Jerusalem more or less parallels until today. 

The Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Jerusalem, Aelia Captitolina, and the province Judaea, he changed its name to Palestina. As part of the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina), the triple-arch, on which Damascus Gate now stands, was constructed. 

This triple-arch gate marked the northern limit of the city. The triple-arch gate was originally free standing, but in the late 3^rd century, it was connected to the city’s wall. Entering through the arches, one encountered a paved plaza (similar to what one does entering through today’s Damascus Gate) in which Jerusalem’s two main north-south roadways came together. It seems that a column stood in this plaza, probably with a statue of the emperor on it. 

A mosaic map of the Holy Land in the floor of a church in Maedaba, Jordan that dates to the 6^th century A.D. depicts the column, without the statue, standing in the plaza in front of the Damascus Gate. Until today in Arabic, one refers to Damascus Gate as Bab al-‘Amud, the Gate of the Column, which retains the memory of the column in the plaza. 

The triple-arches of the Later Roman Period were built on a stretch of wall that dates back to the first century.

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

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding … if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5 HCSB).

A key difference between us, as modern readers of the Bible, and the ancient readers of the Bible is that we tend to think and express ourselves and our ideas in more abstract ways.

Wisdom for us often refers to a cognitive ability or theoretical exercise. We may say that wisdom represents our ability to use our knowledge, but it remains abstract and disconnected from daily life.

However, in the Bible, wisdom is a spiritual and practical skill that one learns and can acquire through discipline.

In other words, we can train ourselves to be wise—in fact, from the Bible’s point of view, we cannot be wise unless we actively seek wisdom and practice it in our everyday lives.

Read the passage above (Proverbs 2:1-5). Circle how many times the author said “if.” The “if” statements require action on our part: “If” you will do this, “then” you will understand.

So how does one find knowledge? Accept, treasure, seek, and search; cry out for it. Pursue it. This is not something abstract. Rather, it requires our intentional action.

When the author speaks about “directing your heart,” the heart within the Bible does not refer to the seat of emotions; rather, it refers more to what we think of as our cognitive center, our “mind.”

Wisdom, then, is not something we feel; it is something we seek, learn, practice, and do.

Moreover, seeking wisdom does not mean simply learning about the commandments; it means that we internalize them, think about them, meditate on them, and do them.

Within the Bible, true wisdom comes from internalizing the commandments and doing them. One who does this fears the Lord, and that is how knowledge and wisdom are acquired.

PRAYER

Lord, today, let me pursue Your words and learn Your commandments. Let me mediate upon them, so that I might acquire wisdom and fear You. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Due to COVID-19’s untimely appearance last year, the Tokyo Summer Games are still called the 2020 Olympics. Ninety athletes—55 men and 35 women, Israel’s biggest delegation yet—are vying for medals in 18 sports. The games begin tomorrow, July 23, and last until August 8, offering sports fans worldwide the thrill of watching competition from dedicated, disciplined athletes proudly carrying the flags of their nations. 

For the first time, Israelis are participating in archery, surfing, equestrian, and baseball events. Israel’s 24-member baseball team plays their first game against the United States team! Israel’s fans can choose from a smorgasbord of 18 events that include gymnastics, judo, shooting, surfing, swimming, taekwondo, and triathlon, among others. The Paralympics follow close behind on August 24-September 5, adding to Israel’s inspiration and accomplishments showing their skills in kayaking, power lifting, and wheelchair tennis, among others.

Olympic competitions are often electrifying, and the personal stories of the athletes stir hearts all over the globe. Israeli competitors are no exception. The young athletes are exemplary role models. They press on toward high goals to represent the world’s only Jewish state—despite a backdrop of past Olympic anti-Semitism and terror. 

Indeed, spoken anti-Semitism, the parent of terror acts, is again at work. This, despite the particularly warm welcome from Watari, Japan, as Israelis’ host city. Israeli flags have flown at Watari’s city hall for two years since they signed on as hosts—because Israel was the first country to send medical help following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011. We can only hope and pray that other nations, media, and athletes will follow Watari’s grateful example.

However, anti-Semitism has escalated, infesting the world even further with slander and terror during last May’s Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. 

Ignoring—or ignorant about—Israel’s humanitarian aid to Watari and many other spots on the globe, Spain’s TV3 sports reporter Clara Basiana slandered Israel. At the June 13 pre-Olympic games in Barcelona, Spain, Israeli swimmers Eden Blecher and Shelly Bobritsky had just won the fourth slot in the Women Duet Artistic Swimming Qualification, earning their ticket to Tokyo. 

The Israeli duo had barely climbed out of the pool and dried off when Basiana said, “Israel’s international presence in the field of sport and culture is another strategy for the laundering of genocide … against the Palestinian people.” Her anti-Semitic comments didn’t end there: “It seems that during these events, the war crimes of the Israeli state disappear. We have to be aware as spectators and make this situation visible so as not to normalize it.” 

Unfortunately, it is anti-Semitism that is normalizing.

In 2016, at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, an Egyptian judo fighter, Islam El Shehaby, refused to shake hands with Israeli competitor Or Sasson, who won the first round. The crowd understood the breach of etiquette and loudly booed Shehaby. In another incident, Lebanese athletes objected to Israelis boarding their bus—unsportsmanlike behavior for which they received just a slap on the wrist. In fact, the following month Jewish Journal noted that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) merely warned the Lebanese delegation that “a similar situation would not be tolerated in the future.” To avoid escalating Lebanese hostility, the Israelis took another bus.

In one of his speeches, current IOC President Thomas Bach mentioned political neutrality and “being an ally to all in promoting peace and human rights” as part of the IOC’s mission. His words are certainly welcome, yet more than words are necessary when one considers the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. 

Forty-nine years ago, Palestinian terrorists calling themselves “Black September” took Israeli athletes and coaches hostage in the Olympic Village on September 5. Not allowing Israeli security members to save their team, Germans bungled the rescue, and Palestinian terrorists murdered the “Munich Eleven.” The murders set off an emotional bomb of grief that exploded among Israelis and the Jewish community worldwide. The memory of this horrific event has not faded. 

On July 19, 2021, Joseph M. Siegman, founder of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, gave a fascinating history of Jewish athleticism with My Jewish Learning. No conversation of Jewish Olympic history can ignore the horrific day when terrorists took the lives of Israel’s nine gifted Olympic athletes and two coaches. And Siegman, author of Jewish Sports Legends, did just that, mentioning a lingering IOC omission. No commemoration or acknowledgement of the murders has officially taken place at the games themselves since the 1972 murders. 

Although private memorials had taken place, it wasn’t until 2016 that the IOC hosted an official memorial—not at the games but in the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Olympic Village. The 11 victims were finally recognized—after decades of appeals and activism—due to the unflagging determination of Ankie Spitzer. Her husband, Andre Spitzer, was one of the Munich Eleven. He had been the Israel team’s fencing coach. Sometime earlier, Mrs. Spitzer had won a case in which the German government was forced to admit their criminal negligence to provide effective security. 

IOC President Bach spoke in the Rio Olympic Village, saying, “We commemorate them because this was an attack not only on our fellow Olympians, but also an assault on the values that the Olympic Village stands for. It was an attack on the universal power of sport to unite all of humanity in peace and solidarity.”

He added, “The Olympic Games are always an affirmation of life, so let our commemoration today also be an affirmation of their lives. Through this act of remembrance, the spirit of those who have departed continues to live on.”

The seeds of the horrific 1972 Munich Eleven massacres were planted during Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, with a stake of anti-Semitism in German soil that would manifest 36 years later in Munich. Hitler’s monstrous fingerprints—and those of his Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels—set an unholy standard in place. Goebbels had made it clear on April 23, 1933: “German sport has only one task: to strengthen the character of the German people, imbuing it with the fighting spirit and steadfast camaraderie necessary in the struggle for its existence.” 

His statement sounds rather innocuous, but its agenda was poisonous. Non-Aryans, meaning Jews, part-Jews, or Gypsies, were excluded from competing. Noticing signs of anti-Semitism, the U.S. and Europe called for boycotts, which failed. Finally, 49 nations including the USA sent their Olympians to compete in Berlin. Goebbels oversaw a dazzling presentation of flags, Richard Wagner’s music, and the building of an impressive stadium. The Berlin Olympics was the grandest propaganda production ever seen, hiding the dark undercurrent of what was to come. Three thousand runners relaying from Greece to Germany lit the Olympic flame in August 1936. Only three years later it grew into the murderous flames of anti-Semitism when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.  

Joseph Siegman hopes that next year, many commemorations will take place on the 50th anniversary of Black September’s deadly assault. He further hopes that additional institutions will follow the Eli Wiesel Foundation and some synagogues to plan commemorations, somberly recalling the athletes whose lives were snuffed out only because they were Jews proudly representing the world’s only Jewish state. For that matter, churches may want to plan commemorations.

If you are watching any part of the upcoming Olympics, remember to pray especially for Israeli athletes. Vigilance against violence is necessary, since anti-Semitism is shockingly spreading as it once did in Nazi Germany. 

Please join CBN Israel in prayer for Israel and her people this week:

• Pray for Israeli athletes in the coming weeks using Isaiah 40:31, that “They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
• Pray that security in the Olympic Village and all athletic venues will be tight.
• Pray that any hidden plans or acts of terror will come to light and be prevented. 
• Pray that Christians of good will toward Israel and Jewish communities worldwide will clearly take a stand against anti-Semitism wherever it is found. 

Before the 2012 London Games, Ankie Spitzer persisted with IOC President Rogge, asking why the IOC really could not memorialize the murder of the 11 Israeli Olympians. Rogge eventually explained that there were 46 Arab and Muslim countries that would threaten to boycott the Games if the IOC agreed to include such a memorial. 

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.

“I never thought I would hear the horrifying sound of bombings again, especially in Israel,” said Tauba, an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor. When the Nazis invaded Latvia, she was just a little girl living in Riga. Her father put her and her mother on the last train to Kazakhstan—where they hid during the entire war. He saved their lives—yet sadly, he died just days later. 

Her childhood was lonely, and she says, “My mother worked for the family that hid us. I wasn’t allowed to cry, laugh, or make any loud noises.” When her mother died after the war, Tauba ended up in an orphanage. At age 15, she had to work in a factory, and fend for herself. 

Years later, Tauba married, had a daughter, and finally enjoyed a normal, happy life. The couple moved to Israel in 2000. But in recent years, Tauba began battling hardships again. 

Their government-issued apartment near the Gaza Strip faced the constant threat of terrorism. Due to unrepaired damage from a previous rocket attack, water came leaking through the ceiling. The walls smelled damp and horrible, and made the air toxic to breathe. Added to that, Tauba’s husband became very sick with Alzheimer’s disease and brain cancer. The couple lived on a meager fixed income and needed help.

Thanks to friends like you, help arrived. CBN Israel fixed the entire roof, and replaced the mildewed walls. Tauba is thrilled that her home is safer, with clean air to breathe!  

And CBN Israel is also providing others in need with food, groceries, medicine, supplies, and other essentials. Your support is crucial as cries for help continue in the Holy Land. You can bring assistance and God’s love to terror victims, lonely refugees, and immigrant families making a prophetic return to their ancestral homeland. 

Please join us in bringing help and hope to others!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

The Western Wall refers to the western retaining wall built to support the Temple Mount platform. In the first century, this wall faced the city of Jerusalem, and as such, it had four gates in it that led onto the Temple Mount platform. 

The gates alternated in their access lower and upper. A street ran along the western wall in the first century. The two lower gates offered access to the Temple Mount from this street. The two high gates were accessed through a bridge and a stairwell supported by a massive arch. 

Today, we refer to these gates by the names of the modern explorers who rediscovered them and identified them. From north to south, they are Warren’s Gate, named after the British explorer Charles Warren. The next gate, accessed by the bridge that led from the Upper City of Jerusalem is Wilson’s Gate, named for the British explorer Charles Wilson. 

The third Gate, which today can be seen on the women’s section of the Western Wall prayer area, is Barclay’s Gate, named for the American missionary doctor, James Barclay. The final gate was named after the American explorer, Edward Robinson. Robinson identified the spring of an arch protruding from the western wall, which was the remains of a large arch that supported a monumental staircase that led onto the Temple Mount. 

Today visitors to Jerusalem encounter three areas of the Western Wall. The most famous in the Western Wall prayer plaza. This has served as a place of Jewish prayer for hundreds of years. It was a small area of the western wall of the Temple Mount retaining wall that was left exposed where Jews could come and pray. 

The Western Wall was not considered holy when the Temple stood but developed into a place of Jewish prayer centuries later. Today it functions as a synagogue and is the most holy site for Jews around the world. Men and women have two separate areas designated for their prayers. 

North of the Western Wall prayer plaza, one can go through a tunnel created by construction in later periods of buildings up against the western wall that follows the Western Wall. In these tunnels one sees the pillars that supported the bridge in the first century leading to Wilson’s Gate; one can even see Warren’s Gate, which is sealed up. 

Following along the tunnel, the first century street is visible in places, as are the massive hewn stones used to build the Western Wall. On the northern end of the tunnel, one encounters a pool, which was an open-air pool in the first century known as the Struthian Pool (or “Sparrow’s Pool”). 

South of the Western Wall plaza, one can walk along the first century street that ran along the Western Wall. On the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, the spring of Robinson’s Arch is visible as are the small shops where vendors sold sacrifices for the Temple and changed money in the first century. 

The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans can be seen in a pile of large hewn stones from the Temple Mount, which remains where they fell in the first century. So too, the buckling of the street from the collapse of the walls of the Temple attest to the destruction inflicted by the Romans. 

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

All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!”

So He told them this parable: “What man among you, who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’

I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance (Luke 15:1-7 HCSB).

We often read this parable of Jesus identifying Him as the shepherd and ourselves as the one, lost sheep that the shepherd leaves the 99 to find. While such an interpretation makes us feel good and valued, it actually misses Jesus’ point. He told this parable to explain to the Pharisees who complained about His association eating with sinners (i.e., those who were ritually impure). 

In it He expressed the value of even one lost sheep to the shepherd, with the goal of His listeners understanding the value of one to God—and, by extension, the value that each one, even the lost, should have to them.

The purpose of the parable was not to make the “sinners” feel good, but rather to reframe the perspective of the critics and calling upon them to behave in a manner similar to how God behaves—valuing the one. 

When we read this parable, we should find ourselves in the position of Jesus’ original listeners, those who needed to be reminded that God values the one. And, in the same manner that the shepherd sought out the one, lost sheep, we too should seek those who are far away from God.

Without reading too much into the parable, the shepherd sought the sheep, not the other way around. The shepherd rejoiced at finding the sheep, and he didn’t scorn it or chastise it. We tend to read the Bible placing ourselves in the position of the hero or the one God reaches out to; when we do, we often make our faith very self-centered.

The purpose of this parable sought to confront the Pharisees with the reality of the value that God places on the one. The hoped-for response was a change in their actions that came to value the lost one instead of condemning them.

Are we seeking out the lost with the sincere hope that they will return to God? Do we rejoice upon finding them? Do we value the one in the same way that God does? If not, then we need to hear the words of Jesus afresh and anew today.

PRAYER

Father, You value the one. You seek the one. You call the one to return to You. May we act as You act manifesting Your mercy and forgiveness in our world. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

An American-based reading-aloud Bible initiative—the Nationwide Bible Reading Marathon—was just completed yesterday morning, July 14, at 7:14 across the world virtually in respective time zones. In Israel, the birthplace of the Bible, the reading uniquely brought Jews and Christians together to recite the assigned chapters 25-66 in Isaiah. American Christian Dianne Bentley began the initiative in Iowa as a local happening a few years ago. It has now grown into an international reading of the Old and New Testaments that takes place in dozens of countries. 

In a “divine appointment,” Israeli Jonathan Feldstein encountered one of the state leaders of the Nationwide Bible Reading Marathon. He then launched the effort in Israel and recruited readers from both communities where each chose their own virtual location. Participants read in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Russian, Amharic, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Feldstein, president of the Genesis 123 Foundation (Genesis123.com), is no stranger to uniting Jews and Christians in various events and projects. 

Indeed, his foundation has created a smorgasbord of connection possibilities between Jews and Christians, including Run for Zion, Art for Zion, Helping Ethiopian Jews, and multiple other ways to connect the two communities. An Orthodox Jew, Feldstein made Aliyah from the United States in 2004 and writes for prominent Christian and conservative websites. He also hosts Inspiration from Zion, a popular webinar series and podcast. 

The date and time, July 14 at 7:14, was specifically designated based on 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people, upon whom My name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek My presence and repent of their evil ways, I shall hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.” The modern readings certainly follow oral traditions of Old Testament scrolls being recited aloud in ancient times since few people knew how to read. 

Isaiah is one of my favorite books of the Bible, so I was delighted to read The Jerusalem Post article about yesterday’s Bible reading, completed by the Jewish and Christian participants. If a Nobel Prize for Literature existed in ancient times, the prophet Isaiah would be the unrivaled recipient for his captivating prophetic writings. The book of Isaiah and its 66 chapters overflow with unsurpassed biblical eloquence. Prophecies, prayers, and promises feature a tapestry of images and words that provide the highest-definition picture of Jesus in the Old Testament. The word “salvation” appears in Isaiah 26 times, and the prophet’s name means “Yahweh is salvation.” Chapter 53 describing the Messiah is quoted 85 times in the New Testament, and Isaiah offers us 29 titles for Jesus! 

The just-completed marathon opened a door for me to also learn about Israel’s International Bible Quiz for Youth. Israel’s national pride emerges in the historic competition held annually on Israel’s Independence Day where the televised contest draws a big viewership. The quiz is a key part of countrywide barbecues, ceremonies, flag waving, and fun on Independence Day.  

The Bible Quiz contest, which is held in Jerusalem, is sponsored by the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The Jewish Agency’s website says this is a competition that “raises awareness among the general Jewish public, especially high-school students, about the importance of the Bible to Jewish identity and heritage.”

Jewish youth worldwide between the ages of 14 and 18 can apply. Israel’s prime minister, minister of education, Jewish Agency for Israel chairman, and other dignitaries attend the event, giving it high marks of prestige and importance to Israeli citizens and the ancient history of their state. 

This year the competition took place on Israel’s 73rd modern birthday: April 15, 2021. A 16-year-old Israeli, Gilad Abrahomov, won. MyJewishLearning.com describes the winners in a joyous way: “The victor is crowned ‘Groom’ or ‘Bride’ of the Bible and wins a scholarship to study at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. The best non-Israeli champion wins a scholarship to study at Machon Lev, the Jerusalem College of Technology.”

Winners, who studied the 39 books of the Old Testament for months, have proven themselves truly knowledgeable about these finer points. The International Bible Quiz is the official annual event for Jewish youth, but numerous informal Bible quizzes take place between adults around Independence Day. The quiz questions are drawn from the first five books of the Bible (the Torah), from the prophets (including Isaiah), and from Psalms, Job, and other books in the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh). 

The questions are often composed of biblical minutiae. Here’s a sample question: “Where did the false prophet Hananya Ben Azor in the time of King Hezekiah live? (Answer: Givon.) Here’s another: “How much money did the mother of Micah the prophet give a goldsmith?” (Answer: 200 shekels.)

As to the special timing of the International Bible Quiz, Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion chose Independence Day for quiz day. The first quiz took place in 1963. It may not be surprising that he gave the Bible Quiz such a prominent place when he once said, “We have preserved the Book, and the Book has preserved us.” On the other hand, he himself described his outlook in another of his famous comments: “Since I invoke Torah so often, let me state that I don’t personally believe in the God it postulates … I am not religious, nor were the majority of the early builders of Israel believers. Yet, their passion for this land stemmed from the Book of Books … the single most important book in my life.” 

Nevertheless, this brilliant intellectual held a weekly Prime Minister’s Bible Study Circle, was conversant in Scripture, and spoke 11 languages. One year I toured his home in Tel Aviv and gasped at the 22,000-book library he had left just as it was when he sat at his desk.  

In closing, one key reason that the Christian community is robust in its stand with the world’s only Jewish state, is our gratitude for the Bible. The Bible guides our faith in both the Old and New Testaments written in the ancient soil of Israel through Jewish scribes. 

Yesterday’s Bible marathon chapter assignments of Isaiah 25-66 are a powerful reminder of a shabbat 2,000 years ago. When visiting His Nazareth hometown, Jesus stood up in the synagogue and read Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD anointed me to bring good news to the humble; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” 

After reading the scroll, He astonished everyone by saying, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” How fascinating to note that Isaiah 61 was one of the chapters assigned to Jewish and Christian readers yesterday morning. 

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

• Pray for Israel’s new Prime Minister Bennett, for wisdom in making decisions. 
• Pray with thankfulness for the IDF Search and Rescue team that left Surfside, Florida, to cheers of appreciation for their help in the condo tragedy. 
• Pray for alertness in Israel’s cybersecurity personnel for any terrorist plans. 
• Pray that the Jewish people will renew their hope, recalling that for centuries God has “redeemed them, summoned them and says, ‘You are Mine.’” 
• Pray that the Lord will reprimand those in our nation and around the globe who spread lies and distortions about Israel and the Jewish people. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20).” 

Let us recall Isaiah 43:1-3 in our prayers for Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

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.

Shortly after her parents emigrated from Bulgaria to Israel, Shoshana was born. Growing up, sadly, her home never felt like “home.” The fighting and screaming… Her childhood was filled with constant anxiety and stress, and she had a difficult relationship with her father. 

So, when it was time for her mandatory service in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces), Shoshana was thrilled to have a reason to leave home. Serving as a mechanic, she only saw her father every few weeks, which was healthier, and made her visits home more bearable. 

But when she was released from the army with a meager stipend, she was forced to move back with her parents, as most recruits do. After being on her own, it was hard to go back to the place she wanted to escape. She had no peace and knew that in order to save her relationship with her parents, she needed to leave. Yet with little money, where could she go? 

Thanks to friends like you, CBN Israel was there. We sponsor a special home for lone soldiers. It’s a safe place for those without family or a strong support system—and for recently released soldiers in transition, like Shoshana. We gave her a stable, healthy environment, and she is now applying to study biblical counseling in college next year. She says, “The people here are my family. I’m so thankful… You’re truly filling in a gap for so many of us who have felt alone.” 

And your gift to CBN Israel can do so much more. You can deliver compassionate relief to victims of terrorism, lonely refugees, single moms, and more. In these uncertain times, your support is crucial, and can bring food, shelter, financial help, and essentials to the hurting. 

Please join us in blessing those in need across the Holy Land!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

In the northeastern corner of the Jezreel Valley sits the dome shaped hill of Mount Tabor. The steep slopes on all sides of the solitary mountain lead to a plateau on top, 1000 meters by 400 meters in area. The tribal territories of Zebulun, Issachar, and Naphtali meet at Mount Tabor.

Mount Tabor played a prominent role in the story of Deborah and Barak. They gathered the Israelite forces at Mount Tabor prior to their battle with the Canaanite forces of Jabin, king of Hazor, that were led by his general Sisera (Judges 4). The Israelites used the steep slopes of Tabor to their strategic advantage against the Canaanite chariots. So too, their gathering at Tabor prior to the battle may have to do with the connection of the mountain to cultic worship (see Deuteronomy 33:18-19; Hosea 5:1).  

Mount Tabor served as the site for several battles during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Josephus, who became a historian of ancient Judaism, fortified the mountain as part of his efforts in the Galilee during the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (A.D. 66-73). 

Christian tradition, from the time of the Church Fathers, identified Mount Tabor as a possible location for the site of the event of the Transfiguration. The Gospels do not specify the location of this event, simply calling it “a very high mountain” (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2). The earliest tradition identifying Mount Tabor as the location of the Transfiguration comes from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 

This work no longer exists, but Church Fathers quote passages of it in their works. Origen, citing the Gospel according to the Hebrews, identified the location of the Transfiguration as occurring on Mount Tabor. If this was written in the Gospel according to the Hebrews, then this tradition dates to the late first or early second century A.D. Cyril also knew the tradition that placed the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. 

Both Eusebius and the Bordeaux Pilgrim do not mention the mountain being a sacred mountain. Thus, while some early Christian traditions located the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, it was not treated as a sacred mountain or site within the early Byzantine period. Today, visitors to the mountain find a church on its summit.

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

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:37-38 NKJV).

Matthew’s parallel adds, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (chapter 7:2). This is perhaps one of the most sobering statements of Jesus. Yet we rarely pause to internalize it.

We often take it to mean that if we do not judge others, others will not judge us, but that misses Jesus’ point entirely. It’s not others who will not judge us; it’s not others who will not condemn us or forgive us; rather, it is God.

You mean how God will judge me and even forgive me depends on how I treat others? According to Jesus, the answer is yes. 

So, how do you want to be judged by God? If we desire God’s mercy, we must show mercy to others. If we want Him to forgive us, then we must forgive. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And, if we want Him to give to us, we must generously give to others. 

In the manner we want God to act and treat us, we must behave to another as we would to ourselves. In fact, for Him, we demonstrate our love of God and obedience to Him by how we love others. “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” 

How different would our world look if we took this startling statement of Jesus’ to heart? How would we relate differently to our families? In our workplaces? To strangers? Foreigners? Enemies? 

If we treated others in the same way that we want God to treat us, what testimony would we demonstrate to a world filled with anger, bitterness, judgment, condemnation, and unforgiveness?

We often water down the impact of Jesus’ words. We need to let them hit us anew—and afresh. How do I want God to judge me? Then I must judge others in the same manner. 

We all hope for God to show us mercy, so let us show mercy to others. When we hear Jesus and truly internalize His words, His challenging message rings just as relevant for us today as it did to His listeners 2,000 years ago.

Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.

PRAYER

Father, forgive us for judging and condemning others without kindness and mercy. God, we need Your mercy; let us therefore show mercy toward others like ourselves. Amen.