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“Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple’” (Luke 14:25-26 NKJV). 

Jesus identified the greatest and most important commandment as “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

His Jewish contemporaries would have considered this command to be the central confession of ancient Judaism. But how does one love God with all his or her heart, soul, and strength? What does that mean?

Jesus and His contemporaries sought to give practical explanation to their listeners. That’s why they juxtaposed Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” to Deuteronomy 6:5. In other words, I am called to love God with all my heart, soul, and strength by loving my neighbor who is like myself. 

On another occasion, though, Jesus sought to help people understand how they should love God with all their heart, soul, and strength by contrasting it with the closest relationships within a person’s life—their family, even their own soul—which He calls upon them to hate. In other words, by offering a counterpoint of one’s closest relationships that He says must be as hatred, He seeks to define how one should love God. 

However, before we think we have to hate those closest to us in order to follow Jesus, let’s say a word about the word “hate” in Hebrew. Hate can mean hatred or severe dislike, as we would use it in English, but hate can also mean to prefer something else more than a certain object.

Thus, when He calls upon those who would be His disciples to hate their relations, even themselves, He means that there is something they prefer more: their relationship with God, i.e., loving God with all their heart, soul, and strength. 

Not everyone who followed Jesus became His disciple. He demanded a single-minded devotion and obedience of those who would become His disciples. He expected them to love God with everything, even if it meant their own life. Not everyone could agree to that level of commitment.  

If we are going to call ourselves His disciples, then we have to approach our lives with radical devotion to God. We must seek to love Him in all that we do. We must hold Him above all other relations, even ourselves. 

Too often we want to call ourselves disciples of Jesus and simply add a relationship with God to our lives, but Jesus did not allow that then and He doesn’t allow that now. If we want to be His disciples, we must love God with all our being. 

PRAYER

Father, we seek to love You with all our heart, soul, and strength. Nothing can compare to You. May we walk in Your ways today as a sign of our single-minded love and devotion. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Recent news about the upcoming auction of a van Gogh watercolor titled Meules de Blé (“Wheatstacks”) jubilantly swept through the art world. The Dutch artist’s painting has not appeared in public since 1905, when Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam exhibited it. 

However, the painting’s provenance was tarnished at the hands of Nazis who stole the masterpiece as well as hundreds of thousands of other works of art owned by Jews. Hitler’s evil regime of genocide crossed every boundary by murdering 6 million Jewish men, women, and children while also attempting to rob the Jewish community of their highly esteemed culture. 

Wheatstacks is a prime example of looted art. Its journey identifies a change of hands at least nine times since Vincent van Gogh painted it in 1888. Berlin industrialist Max Meirowsky bought the masterpiece in 1913. Fleeing to Amsterdam in 1938, Meirowsky left the painting with a Jewish art dealer. It was later bought by a member of the Rothschild family, from whom Nazis stole it. Wheatstacks continued its convoluted, post-World War II travels, to finally arrive at Christie’s New York for an auction that will take place November 11, 2021. Preceding the auction, the last heirs from the Meirowsky and Rothschild families negotiated a settlement with the family of Texas oilman Edwin Cox—the current owners. Its sale may capture a 30-million-dollar price at auction.

The scale of Nazi looting is staggering. On April 8, 1945, U.S. intelligence alerted American allies about treasures located in the Merkers, Germany, salt mines. The Nazis had stored most of their booty in German banks and museums, but when Allied bombing intensified, they used slave labor to deposit gold, jewels, and priceless artworks into the salt mine in Merkers, a small town located 200 miles southwest of Berlin. After the war, American soldiers heard rumors from the laborers and investigated the site. Later included among the “Monuments Men” who sought to find, repair and return the vast number of art, books, and other treasures looted by the Nazis, they entered the salt mines and discovered the vast array of Nazi plunder. They worked in the damp and dark, scouring a miles-long maze of tunnels. In today’s money, the gold’s worth alone is estimated at around $9 billion. Eight enormous bags of gold rings and teeth, a grim reality, were found in the salt mines. It was one of far-too-numerous signs that Nazis brutally enslaved the European Jewish community. 

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and George S. Patton, three of our top generals, rushed to see the monumental stash of gold bars, silver, art, bags of foreign currencies (including 2 million U.S. dollars), artwork, and statues. Aware that this area of Germany was slated for Soviet occupation, the American generals hastened to move the treasure to Frankfurt, which was part of the American occupation zone. The National Archives estimates that Nazis stole more than 20 percent of Europe’s cultural treasures. The Merkers salt mines were deemed the largest depository of the Third Reich’s stolen treasures. 

The Jewish Virtual Library reports that artworks numbering in the hundreds of thousands of pieces and worth billions of dollars were stored not only in the 2,000-foot-deep Merker salt mines but in 1,000 different locations throughout Germany, including churches and museums. The Nazis described some of the artwork as “degenerate” and thus didn’t want them—works by such artists as van Gogh and Matisse and other practitioners of impressionism and expressionism. That gave two Nazi henchmen, Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels, an open door to contact art dealers who sold the art and sent funds to Third Reich banks to finance their genocidal war. It is horrifying to know that the Nazis used art, gold, silver, and other treasures looted from the very European Jewish community they had enslaved in order to murder them.

A history professor at Boston University, Charles Dellheim, authored a book published in September 2021 entitled, Belonging and Betrayal: How Jews Made the Art World Modern. At one point he observes, “The Nazis asserted their own cultural claims and economic hunger through the systematic, racially driven theft of Jewish-owned collections.” He went on to say, “Fine art, therefore, became a bloody crossroads where culture and money, aesthetics and avarice, collided with disastrous consequences.” 

After World War II, when the dark caverns of Nazi looting fully came into the light of day, the complexity of identifying Jewish ownership emerged. It is still an issue today, as is evident with the Haystacks auction happening next month. The U.S. Army identified 700,000 pieces of artwork and returned the art to Germany and Austria whence they were plundered. Those governments were tasked with tracking down Jewish owners. Nonetheless, the governments were not able to forward thousands of the pieces, as their Jewish owners either could not be identified or had perished. 

Worth renting or purchasing, one of the best-known stories about tracking down stolen art from the Nazi period is the 2015 film Woman in Gold. It stars Dame Helen Mirren as Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann and Ryan Reynolds as her lawyer, Randol Schoenberg, grandson of the famed Austrian American composer. Woman in Gold is based on Schoenberg and Altmann’s experiences, which are also the subject of the Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, the 2012 book by Anne-Marie O’Connor. In 1938, Nazis plundered the private residence of Maria’s uncle, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer in Vienna, Austria. The “Woman in Gold” was Adele Bloch-Bauer, Maria’s aunt. Ferdinand, a wealthy sugar mogul, had commissioned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt in 1907 to paint his 25-year-old wife.

The movie is a splendid story of true justice and restitution when the exquisite portrait of Maria’s aunt finally came into her possession after hanging in Vienna’s Belvedere Gallery for 68 years. Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann (1916-2011) began her seven-year court battle when she was 82 years old. In 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court thankfully ruled that Maria—who had escaped Nazi Germany and lived in Los Angeles—could sue the Austrian government. Sadly, detective work undertaken for countless other Jews has not been highly successful. 

The traumatic effects of Nazi looting remain an active restitution issue since various entities and governments have finally grown more proactive. Some of them include the German Lost Art Foundation, the World Jewish Restitution Organization that was established in 1993, and the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets. Thirty-nine countries pledged to identify stolen art from Holocaust victims and compensate their heirs. Most European countries—along with the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Russia—signed on. 

Diego Gradis, a Swiss citizen, has now received four art drawings that were once owned by his great-grandfather, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, an industrialist who lived in Paris. Henry passed them down to his daughter—Diego’s grandmother—who escaped when the Nazis marched into Paris. The invading army looted the family mansion, then occupied it with Third Reich officials. The drawings’ destination is among countless fascinating yet deeply disturbing stories. The drawings ended up in a stolen collection by Hildebrand Gurlitt, Hitler’s art dealer. The art dealer’s son, Cornelius Gurlitt, inherited all of this Nazi plunder. In 2010 he was arrested in an unusual set of circumstances. When police searched his Munich apartment, they discovered one of the most dramatic art collections of the 21st century: 1,500 pieces of art, including works by Monet, Renoir, and Matisse.

The genocide of the European Jewish community by Hitler’s Nazis remains incomprehensible. In a Forbes magazine article, Diego Gradis—whose family members in the Holocaust generation did survive—describes another kind of suffering, the result of totalitarian cultural theft. “Looting artwork does not just deprive a person of a belonging with a financial worth, it deprives a person of part of their identity.” And he movingly describes their continued importance as reminders of their past: “They need to be the witnesses and messengers.”

Join CBN Israel this week to pray about restitution for the Jewish community:

• Pray that God will shine a spotlight into all locations where stolen art is hidden. 
• Pray for remaining Holocaust survivors, that any factual connections will emerge for restitution to take place. 
• Pray for German and Austrian citizens to reveal information about Nazi looted art. 
• Pray for the organizations that are focused on finding lost objects of art and locating their true owners (or heirs).

Leviticus 6:4 is a description of restitution. “When they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found.”

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.

Excavations in the 1990s at the site of Dan in northern Israel, which sits at the foot of Mount Hermon, uncovered three fragments of an inscription from the 9^th century B.C. Written in Old Aramaic the fragments form part of a victory stela of an Aramean king (Hazael?) who claims to have killed the king of Israel and the king of the “House of David,” i.e., Judah. It seems that this stela was erected in connection with the events of the revolt of Jehu (2 Kings 9-10).

From its initial discovery, scholars have noted the significance of this inscription, and especially the mention of the “House of David” with reference to the king of Judah. This is the first ancient inscription that connects the royal house of Judah with David. Moreover, this language, “House (meaning a dynasty) of David,” appears a number of times in the Old Testament.

For example, in 2 Samuel 7, God makes a covenant with David that his heirs will sit on the throne in Jerusalem: “Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom” (2 Samuel 7:11-12; see also 1 Kings 12:26; 14:8; 2 Kings 17:21; Isaiah 7:2; 22:22; Jeremiah 21:12; Zechariah 12:10; 13:1).

The inscription from Tel Dan indicates that within the 9^th century B.C. the royal house of Judah identified itself as belonging to the House of David, as can be seen from the biblical text. Since the discovery of the Tel Dan stela, an inscription discovered in the 19^th century in Transjordan, the Moabite Stone, which is also a victory stela of Mesha, king of Moab, has been reread, and some scholars have detected a reference to the “House of David” also in the Moabite Stone.

The Tel Dan inscription is also important because, if it refers to the rebellion of Jehu, it provides extrabiblical evidence that can shed light on how we understand this event recorded within the Bible. It suggests that Hazael, king of Aram-Damascus, and Jehu conspired in the rebellion, which may be hinted at in 1 Kings 19:15-18.

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

“But take care that this freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will his conscience, if he is weak, not be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge the one who is weak is ruined, the brother or sister for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brothers and sisters and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to sin” (1 Corinthians 8:9-13 NASB).

The Corinthians had written Paul a letter. In it, they asked him questions about a number of issues, one of them pertaining to food sacrificed to idols.

The Greco-Roman world was a polytheistic world. The worship of gods and goddesses was everywhere. It was not only a religious action, but it penetrated into society, into civic life (even going to the theater included sacrifices to the gods). 

In Acts 15, the Jerusalem elders forbade non-Jews eating meat sacrificed to idols. But apparently the Corinthian believers brought it up in their letter to Paul. They no longer believed in the polytheistic gods; they had turned to the one true God. Eating meat offered to idols would enable them to “fit in” within the social and civic life of their city. 

Paul, however, saw a major problem. He spoke about those who are “impaired” or “weak” in contrast to the believers in Corinth, who had knowledge. The “impaired” or “weak” seem to have been people in Corinth who remained polytheists and had not yet turned to belief in the one true God.

Paul tells the believers that their liberty cannot be the source of causing those on the outside, who have not yet come to faith, to stumble. 

If the impaired see those with knowledge eating meat sacrificed to an idol, that raises doubt as to whether the message of the believers is true. The believers look like hypocrites. It may even affirm to the impaired that they could simply add the God of Israel and Jesus to their polytheistic pantheon of gods. Paul would not allow this. 

We like to talk about “freedom” and “liberty” in our Western Christian circles today. We often run scared from anything that seems to impinge upon our rights as believers. Paul instructed the Corinthians to curtail their liberty for the sake of those who had yet to come to faith.

As believers, we are to live for others, not ourselves. Our lives should reflect the reality of our claim that Jesus Himself lived for us and not Himself. 

Is our freedom worth the stumbling of others, those who have yet to come to faith? The outside world watches us. Do we call them to follow the one true God by our lifestyles? Or do we encourage them to simply add Jesus to the life they currently live, which is not the worship that God demands? 

PRAYER

Father, help us today to live our lives for others, especially those who do not yet know You. May they see in us a life submitted to You that draws them to You. Amen. 

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Calling Israel “Palestine” is commonplace today. However, the history of that name goes back millennia. First coined by the ancient Greeks for the five-city area in the Philistine confederacy and then adopted by Roman emperor Hadrian, Palestine was more recently copied by former Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat in the last century. Arafat’s use of Palestine and Palestinians has expanded into a propaganda machine that is successfully echoed worldwide, as part of an effort to eradicate all Jews. 

But first let’s consider one of its earlier and notable uses. The Roman emperor Hadrian reigned for 21 years between 117-138 A.D. From 132–136 A.D., a Jewish messianic figure, Bar Kokhba, led a revolt against Hadrian that resulted in the deaths of more than half a million Jews in their desperate bid for independence from their pagan conquerors. But their valiant attempt was in vain against the overwhelming power of Roman legions.

Hadrian’s genocidal ambition intensified when he then decided to strip the Jews of their biblical name. He sought to change their identity and sever them from their ancestry by renaming the land Syria Palestina after the Philistines in the Bible—enemies of Israel, although not Arabs. Hadrian then made it worse. He renamed Jerusalem—the already 1,000-year-old Jewish capital—Aelia Capitolina and turned it into a pagan city.

While Bible translations and methods differ, the name Israel is said to appear in its pages over 2,500 times. In Genesis 32:28, we read an example of God’s official nomenclature when Jacob wrestled with God: “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” The title Palestina or Philistines is only briefly mentioned eight or so times in the Old Testament and nowhere in the New Testament. 

The League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, identified Great Britain as a kind of “manager” of Israel after World War I. The Ottoman Empire’s defeat had led to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, where two men—Sykes (a Brit) and Picot (a Frenchman)—were commissioned to carve up the Middle East for Great Britain and France. They kept the name Palestine, although in a 1938 report to the League of Nations, the British made this important distinction: “The name ‘Palestine’ is not a country but a geographic region.” 

In pre-state Israel, when Jewish people began making Aliyah in high numbers, they adopted the name. In 1932, their newspaper was called The Palestine Post. Their first symphony orchestra (1936) was called the Palestine Orchestra. Then, in 1948, the orchestra changed its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Palestine Post also later became The Jerusalem Post in 1950. 

The world embraced the name Palestine until May 14, 1948, when Israel’s founder and first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, made the historic announcement of modern statehood at a Tel Aviv art gallery (now Independence Hall). He sent a message of reunification and correction between ancient and modern Israel when he announced the name of the world’s re-established Jewish state: Israel.  

Other names had been considered prior to May 14, 1948—names such as Judea and Zion. Ben-Gurion took a vote among his cabinet-in-waiting. After much debate, and with time running out, they voted favorably for the ancient name. Some thought that Ben-Gurion was especially drawn to the name since the Bible is filled with the name Israel. Although Ben-Gurion was an excellent student of the Bible, he was secular in his views. Nevertheless, in naming the modern Jewish country Israel, he recaptured the correct name, rescuing it from Hadrian’s identity theft 2,000 years earlier. My view is that God moved in the minds and hearts of Ben-Gurion and his cabinet.

Yet just two decades later, another identity thief was on the move. The power of Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat began expanding into a 35-year reign of terror that was masked by smiles and lies, although they were obvious to those who saw through his clever smokescreen. Arafat grew up under the tutelage of his great-uncle Haj Amin al-Husayni, a Nazi collaborator who became Grand Mufti in Jerusalem. Arafat learned his lessons well.  

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has created an informative timeline about Arafat’s terrorism. One of Israel’s newspapers, Yediot Ahronot, carried his revealing statement made at a rally near Bethlehem on October 23, 1996: “We know only one word: jihad, jihad, jihad.” Jihad is a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam.  

On February 4, 1969, Arafat took over the PLO. A master of propaganda, he took the name Palestine and turned it into a new group of people—Palestinians—and a new country: Palestine. They were and are Arabs, still living in an Arab dictatorship alongside one and a half million Israeli Arabs who live free in a democracy. 

Then, both directly and indirectly, he advanced numerous terror acts that included airline hijackings and the Black September murders of Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The world did not know about Arafat’s arrival at the United Nations headquarters November 13, 1974, until minutes before he spoke at the General Assembly. He walked into the lobby wearing a holster and gun. (He was asked to leave the gun at the entrance.) In his speech, he said he “held an olive branch in one hand and a pistol in the other.” It was a half-truth. The olive branch imagery was fake. 

Sadly, every U.S. and Israeli leader failed to reach a peaceful resolution to Arab-Israeli conflicts. Instead, terror went into overdrive during the Second Intifada (2000-2005), when more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered. When Arafat died in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas, his partner in terror for 40 years, took over. Abbas remains intransigent, wielding a corrupt dictatorship over his “Palestinian” population while running a kleptocracy like Arafat’s, pocketing millions of dollars while the terrorist activity he incites continues.

Truth about the PLO’s terrorist intent has leaked out over the years from Arab leaders in that organization. Arab countries that have signed on to the Abraham Accords have grown impatient with the Palestinians. But even before then, in 1977 PLO spokesman Zahir Muhsein made a statement that should be heeded to this day. In an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw he declared, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. … Today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people.” 

Yes, the Palestinians are Arabs. Nothing has changed since Zahir Muhsein’s 1977 statement except that Gazan Arabs are now ruled by Hamas terrorists and much of the Palestinian population under Abbas still suffers from a corrupt leadership that funnels hate for Jews and Israel through their media day and night. 

In conclusion, while Roman Emperor Hadrian, former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and all Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) activists shout the name Palestine, it is not a country. 

The Holy Bible, the very words of God, tell a different, profound, and world-changing story. It is an enduring story of God’s land, a land He calls Israel. He deeded it to the Jews and equipped them to serve as the ancient vessels for our Scriptures and our Jewish Savior. Today, Israel and Israelis remain a light to the nations with innovations bordering on the miraculous to bless the world. 

Please join CBN Israel in prayer this week for the Israeli and Palestinian people:

• Pray with thanks that we can trust the Bible as it clearly expresses God’s intent for the land to belong to the Jewish people. 
• Pray for the Arabs suffering under President Abbas and Hamas. 
• Pray for new, fresh leaders who will initiate policies that provide help and hope for Palestinian Arabs. 
• Pray for the Abraham Accords that it will continue to prove to the world that Israel and the Jewish people desire peace with their Arab neighbors. 

Praying for the nation of Israel today, let’s recall the history of Israelite slavery in Egypt. God spoke to Moses saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to … a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:16-17). God’s word is eternal.

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.

When Monica and her husband immigrated to Israel in 2000 with their infant son, they were full of hope. Settling in Ashkelon, their family grew to nine children, and Monica’s husband worked hard to provide for his wife and kids. But this past year, life took a tragic turn. 

As COVID-19 hit, Monica’s husband became extremely ill, and had to be hospitalized. She prayed fervently for his recovery, as she took care of the children at home. Sadly, he died in the hospital at just 50 years old. At age 48, Monica was now a widow with nine children—and no other family in Israel. Too stunned to cry, she said, “I was in deep shock … All that went through my mind was that I have to stay strong for the kids.” 

Then, just months later, Israel endured a constant barrage of rockets from Hamas-ruled Gaza. For 11 days, over 4,000 rockets hurtled into Israel—with Ashkelon as a major target. The effect on this grieving family was traumatic. The children were terrorized, hiding in the bomb shelter for days, with constant sirens and explosions nearby. There was nowhere safe to go. 

Thankfully, CBN Israel offered respite for Monica’s family. We gave them temporary shelter away from the frontlines, as well as nutritious food. It offered the children some peace, and Monica says, “It gave us some needed space to process that pain and grief.” 

As more people in Israel call for help, your gift can also provide them with groceries, housing, essentials, and financial aid—along with hope. At this critical time, your support is greatly needed and appreciated, as we bring aid to lonely refugees, Holocaust survivors, single mothers, and more. 

Please help us bless those who are struggling to survive in the Holy Land!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

Lachish was one of the largest cities within the kingdom of Judah. Located in the Judean lowlands (Shephelah), it sat in the southern branch of the Beth Guvrin-Lachish Valley system, which provided an east-west corridor between the hill country (the area around Hebron) to the coastal plain (towards Ashkelon). Ample water meant that settlement prospered at Lachish in all periods and enabled the cultivation of the land around it. Even today it is in a very fertile area of the Judean lowlands known particularly for its cultivation of grapes. 

The ancient site of Lachish encompasses about thirty-one acres. It first appears mentioned within ancient sources in the 18^th century B.C. in an Egyptian document. Excavations at the site have uncovered twenty layers of settlement, which underscores the site’s importance and prominence. 

According to 2 Kings (14:19; 2 Chronicles 25:27), Amaziah, king of Judah, fled to Lachish following a revolt against him in Jerusalem. The rebels killed him at Lachish. During the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 B.C., under Sennacherib, the Assyrian army laid siege to Lachish (2 Kings 18:14, 17; Isaiah 36:2; 37:8; 2 Chronicles 32:9). While besieging Lachish, Sennacherib sent a force against Hezekiah in Jerusalem. 

Excavations at Lachish have revealed the extent of the Assyrian siege. In addition to the biblical account, Sennacherib documented his conquest of the city on wall reliefs, with which he decorated his palace in Nineveh. Both Sennacherib’s wall relief and the archaeological excavations show that the Assyrians built an earthen siege ramp that was used to bring siege engines against the walls of Lachish. Excavations uncovered a number of iron military implements like arrow heads. Archaeologists found a large number of slingshot stones. 

The Assyrian siege devastated Lachish and the kingdom of Judah, but they did not conquer Jerusalem. Lachish was rebuilt after the Assyrian siege but was again destroyed by the Babylonian conquest of the kingdom of Judah in the 6^th century B.C. This conquest destroyed Jerusalem as well. During the Babylonian conquest, the prophet Jeremiah notes that the only cities remaining to Judah were Jerusalem, Azekah (in the Elah Valley), and Lachish (34:7). 

Excavations at Lachish uncovered a number of inscriptions written on broken pieces of pottery. One of them, a letter, notes that the people of Lachish could no longer see the signal fires of Azekah, which lay to the north. Azekah had fallen, and the Babylonians were coming to Lachish. 

Excavations at Lachish also yielded a number of royal, Judean, storage jars and jar handles bearing a stamp with the Hebrew phrase, lemelek, meaning “belonging to the king.” These type of storage jars have been found at certain sites throughout Judah and date to the reign of King Hezekiah. Excavations at Lachish have uncovered more of these storage jars than any other site in the kingdom of Judah.

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

“Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10 NKJV).

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to begin their prayer with these three phrases. Hebrew poetry, like prayers, often utilizes parallelism; it is a way of conveying various nuances of the same idea. The three statements Jesus began His prayer with represent variations on the same theme.

In the Bible, God’s name is hallowed—sanctified—either by how He acts or how we act. Since He always acts to sanctify His name, His name is at stake in us. By our actions, we either sanctify His name or profane it.

Too often we blame the world around us for God’s name being profaned, but that’s not accurate. His name is profaned when His people live disobediently to His will. The opposite is also true. When we obey Him and do His will, His name is sanctified in the world. 

Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries described God’s kingdom as His reign or rule. They said that whenever Israel did His will in the world, they caused Him to reign. The Bible is written from the standpoint of a king’s court. The king ruled supreme; he made the rules. His subjects followed them.

God is King in the Bible. Our job, as His servants, is to do His will and follow His ways. When we do, we help establish His reign and rule in the world. Thus, establishing His reign through our obedience also sanctifies His name.

God’s name is sanctified when we trust and obey Him. Is that our deepest passion—our heart’s desire? To seek His Kingdom and do His will? The phrase, “on earth as it is in heaven” refers to all three requests; it represents the realization that God’s heavenly servants live to do His will perfectly, obediently.

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He instructed them to begin with a request that through our obedience God’s name will be sanctified, His reign established, and His will done.

They say the same things, but with slight differences. To follow Jesus means that we seek to sanctify God’s name in all we say and do. 

Prayer is not only about the words we say to God; prayer is about the genuine posture of our hearts and our daily decision to live in faith, trust, and obedience to Him.

When we pray, do we tend to focus more on what we need or want? Or do our prayers passionately seek God’s will first and foremost? Those are the prayers Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

PRAYER

Father, may Your will be done and may Your Holy name be sanctified in our lives and in everything we say and do. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

In a stunning upset on October 9, “The Twelfth Man” seemed to play a significant role in the victory in College Station, Texas, when the Texas A&M (Aggies) football team beat the No. 1 University of Alabama Crimson Tide. It ended Alabama’s 19-game winning streak in a game that Aggies and Crimson Tide fans will undoubtedly discuss and dissect for decades.  

Last Saturday, in the last minutes of the fourth quarter, unranked Texas A&M and national champion Alabama tied at 38-38. The Aggies then made football history in a thrilling game from beginning to end when they beat Alabama in the last seconds with a field goal. Final score: 41-38. A big part of their win may have been “The Twelfth Man.” 

Who or what is “The Twelfth Man”? It’s A&M’s entire student body—and fans. The expression goes back a hundred years, when the Aggies were faring badly against a top-ranked school. A&M’s 11-man football team was exhausted, with injuries mounting. Hope of a win grew weaker with every yard played. 

Their coach, Dana X. Bible, remembered that one of his former teammates, E. King Gill, was up in the press box helping reporters identify the players on the field. Bible summoned Gill to play if needed. Gill suited up under the bleachers in an injured player’s uniform. He stood on the sidelines for the entire game. The Aggies won, cheered on by Gill. He later said, “I wish I could say that I went in and ran for the winning touchdown, but I did not. I simply stood by in case my team needed me.” Gill’s attitude of service and support won the hearts of the student body and has grown into a tradition, a trademark, and a legacy that envelops the entire university.

A 6-foot-4-inch bronze sculpture of E. King Gill stands near Kyle Stadium as a reminder that the Aggie fans are “The Twelfth Man.” They stand for the entire game; they chant, shout, and surround their team with roars of high-spirited support. Their war hymn’s lyrics sing about unity whether they are down or up. 

As fans of Israel, our “war hymn” is the Bible. It teaches us how to support the Jewish people—God’s “chosen people”—and His covenants with them that last forever.  

When it comes to Israel, the concept of “The Twelfth Man” is a way to describe Christians as Israel’s Twelfth Man and Woman. Cheering with “Next year in Jerusalem” and being ready to do whatever is necessary to support the Jewish state, Christians stand up against anti-Semitism and for Israel. 

Christians’ obvious support for Israel has grown exponentially in the last 30 to 40 years. We are some of the Jewish nation’s most enthusiastic fans! God has given us a second chance to stand with His people after centuries of well-founded Jewish suspicions leading up to and after the Holocaust. Suspicions and fears about Christians intensified in 1930s-40s Germany.

Putting it in simple terms, during Hitler’s rise to power, German pastors and priests believed Hitler’s March 23, 1933, speech where he outrageously claimed that Christianity was the “foundation” for German values. Silence reigned even as evil broke out into the open. Deportation trains rumbling through German towns and villages sounding with cries of anguish were ignored. Like a twelfth man for Jews, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was eventually hanged in Flossenbürg concentration camp for his outspoken opposition to the evil regime. The fact of Jews distancing themselves from Christians may be even better understood knowing that the SS sang Christmas carols about baby Jesus while daily acting as murderous thugs.

Nevertheless, thousands of courageous moments stand out during the Nazi oppression, as catalogued by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. For the last 50 years, they have undertaken a project of thankfulness and honor to recognize the Righteous Among the Nations. Presently nearly 28,000 Gentiles, who saved Jews in many nations, are honored. Each of them acted as “The Twelfth Man.”

Good signs have indeed emerged, but opposition to those of us who support Israel is growing. This is why we need more and more leaders like Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), who made a solemn vow to God in 1974 that he and the organizations he headed would always stand with Israel—no matter the cost. For nearly 50 years, Robertson and CBN have kept that promise and have influenced millions of Christians worldwide to support the Jewish nation and people.   

Then  in 1980, when International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) came into being, Israeli hearts began to warm up to Christians backing the State of Israel. Forty years of their trustworthiness has blossomed into multi-level blessings, including their annual Jerusalem March, which in non-COVID years is one of the biggest events in Israel—another manifestation of The Twelfth Man, with 7,000 Christians waving flags and singing in the streets of Jerusalem. 

Evangelical fact-based media has made a considerable difference, with the CBN News Middle East bureau established 20 years ago and Erick Stakelbeck’s popular program, The Watchman, on Trinity Broadcasting Network. Smaller media outlets likewise retain their importance in their commitment; they are The Twelfth Man, too.

Another manifestation of Christian support occurred during the Second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) of 2000-2005, when Arab terrorists murdered more than 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children. Although many Jews fled their country and most Israel tours were canceled, many groups of Christians decided to come anyway. Israelis noticed.

The years since the end of the Second Intifada have accelerated and deepened ties between Israelis and Christians. An historically Jewish institution, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) began proactively welcoming evangelical Christians into their ranks in 2005. They have become expert advocates with the U.S. Congress to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship legislatively. In 2006, Reverend John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI)—now with more than 10 million members—which launches important petitions to Congress and holds educational events across the U.S. 

AIPAC and CUFI are considered leaders in educating and reaching out to the 535 members of the U.S. Congress on legislation that benefits the United States and Israel, especially in our mutual security interests. 

Congressional support is significant with votes on our annual security aid to Israel. As Iran’s threats via surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria are relentless in their anti-Israel hatred, multiple Christian individuals and organizations are active in supporting, I daresay, thousands of prayer groups, humanitarian aid, donations, tours, and fact-based media. They are also loyal in their opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which promotes economic warfare against Israel. Individual and small group relationships between Israelis, Christians, and Jews worldwide undergird the bigger landscape of tangible pro-Israel support. 

The question must be asked, though: Will Evangelical Christians—an estimated 600 million worldwide—turn our numbers into a far greater Twelve Man/Woman operation with anti-Semitism surging in so many parts of the world? 

We have plenty of options for supporting Israel. I have mentioned only a few of them. So let us keep in mind the unity, support, and longevity of Texas A&M’s Twelfth Man.

Eli Gold, known as the “radio voice of Alabama Crimson Tide football,” summed up the concept of “The Twelfth Man,” saying in the last two seconds of the game, “Let the crowd tell the story.” Gold remained silent, and when the stadium echoed the roar of fans overcome with joy, every listener knew that their home team in College Station, Texas, had won! Gold is now in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, not because he played in the game, but because he contributed via his own popular broadcasts. In an interview, he observed that he was thrilled that a “Jewish kid from Brooklyn with zero athletic talent would make it into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.”

As Christians, may we stand strong as enthusiastic fans of the world’s only Jewish state, unified and active on behalf of Israel. We don’t have to be the star on the field. Like E. King Gill, we can cheer on the sidelines for Israel—by encouraging them with our support in multiple ways. 

Think of what we can accomplish with the example of “The Twelfth Man”—to cheer Israel on in word and deed as they confront the unrelenting hostility from the U.N. and global mainstream media, are singled out for condemnation, boycott, divestment, and sanctions, and endure the constant threats of war and terror along their dangerous borders.

Please join with CBN Israel this week in praying that Christians will support Israel like never before:

• Pray for an exponential increase for Christians to get in the game and stand up for the Jewish nation and people.
• Pray with deep gratitude that God is enabling Christians to support Israel in thousands of effective and impactful ways.
• Pray that Christians will gain strength and not grow weary in their steadfast commitment to support Israel and the Jewish people.
• Pray that CBN Israel will continue to successfully mobilize thousands of Christians worldwide to stand with Israel and bless her people in need. 

As we join together in prayer, may we reflect upon Ephesians 6:11: “Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

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.

Kalia and Havier became Israeli citizens in 2000, and lived in Beersheva with their four children. Havier has been the full-time pastor of a large Spanish-speaking congregation for years—but when money was tight during the pandemic, he tried to find additional work. Being in his fifties and living in a rural area, jobs were scarce. However, he was an excellent carpenter. 

So, he took out a loan, bought tools and equipment, and opened his own small business. Tragically, soon after, someone broke into his workshop and stole everything. Havier was devastated. He is still paying back the loans, and now manages on a small government pension.  

Meanwhile, during an onslaught of rockets from Gaza into Israel, Kalia’s health took a turn. She had surgery, and while resting at home, she endured pain and panic attacks. One evening, the emergency siren sounded, and the family hurried to their bomb shelter. When they emerged, they were horrified to see that a rocket had hit their home. The water pipes had burst, flooding the interior, and all their belongings were destroyed. The couple was overwhelmed.

But CBN Israel was there to help. We provided emergency rent for a temporary place to stay, while their home is repaired. And we offered them trauma counseling from local professionals. Havier exclaimed, “We have been so blessed by your kindness and compassion!” 

Your gift to CBN Israel can rush relief to more terror victims—while supplying groceries, housing, financial help, medical aid, and essentials to those in need. So many are hurting in Israel. Your support can reach out to single mothers, refugees, Holocaust survivors, and others who are struggling. 

Please join us in bringing hope to those in crisis!

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