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By Marc Turnage

Located on the southern part of the rock cliff that marks the hill of the City of David (in Jerusalem), near the southern end of the Tyropoean Valley sits the Pool of Siloam. The pool was accidentally discovered in 2004 by workmen laying a new sewage line in the southern part of the City of David. The Gihon Spring, Jerusalem’s primary water source, supplied water to the pool in antiquity via the so-called Hezekiah’s Tunnel. 

Archaeologists uncovered two flights of five narrow steps separated by a wide landing that descend into the pool. This enabled people to descend to different levels based upon the fluctuation of the water level due to either the rainy or dry seasons within the land of Israel. Although the archaeologists only uncovered one side of the steps of the pool, it seems that such an arrangement of steps surrounded the pool on four sides. The pool covered roughly an acre of land. Coins and pottery date the construction of the stepped pool to the mid first century B.C.

To the north of the pool, archaeologists uncovered a fine pavement of stones that resemble the first century street that runs to the west of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Discovery of column drums and column bases protruding from the pavement suggests that a colonnade ran along the pavement. 

The Pool of Siloam appears twice within the New Testament (Luke 13:4; and John 9:7). In John, Jesus instructed the blind man to wash the mud from his eyes in the pool to be healed. It served the water needs of ancient Jerusalem (along with other pools in the city), and it also served as the largest ritual immersion pool within the city. Jewish pilgrims, who needed to be ritually pure before entering the sacred precincts of the Temple (see Acts 21:26), could use the Pool of Siloam for ritual immersion. Its size and proximity to the Temple makes it a suitable location for the baptism of the three thousand who responded to Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). 

Archaeologists have suggested that the holes found on the steps leading into the pool might have supported screens made of wood or mats to provide privacy for those ritually immersing in the pool. Jewish ritual immersion, like what we find in the New Testament, required privacy as the person immersing did so in the nude, nothing can come between the bather and the water. 

During the first century, on the last night of the festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles), water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and brought to the altar of the Temple and poured out as a libation. The festival occurs at the end of the summer (around October), and the water libation requested rains from God (see John 7:37). This ceremony, known as the Beth HaShoeva, occurred at night. Jewish sources describe how pilgrims lined the route from the pool to the Temple carrying torches.

The first century Pool of Siloam likely covers the same pool mentioned in Nehemiah (3:15). Then, at a later time, the pool was enlarged and constructed in the manner of a Jewish ritual immersion bath. 

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

“Blessed is he who considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; you will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; you will sustain him on his sickbed” (Psalm 41:1-3 NKJV).

Our Western Christianity often relegates our spirituality solely to our own relationship with God. However, this is not the view of spirituality we find in Scripture. In the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, our path of relationship to God lies through other people, particularly the poor and suffering.

“Blessed is he who considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.” This is a rather challenging and profound statement, because it ties our deliverance from God in the day of trouble to how we serve and take care of the poor.

Our treatment of others, especially the needy, influences God’s reaction to us. According to the psalmist, He protects those who consider the poor, sustaining them on their sickbed, healing them from their illness.

Some want to interpret the “beatitudes” in the Bible—those passages that begin with “blessed” or “happy”—as “I will be blessed and happy” when I do such a thing. However, that is not necessarily the meaning in the Bible. A person who lives as the “beatitudes” instruct walks in the ways of God. This is the path of obedience. That makes them blessed.

We meet God in the poor, needy, suffering, and broken in our world. Loving and caring for them shows that we recognize His image in them. God then responds by protecting and delivering us in our time of need.

Jesus also embraced this worldview. In Matthew 25:35-46, He identified the righteous as those who cared for the poor and suffering; they receive the reward of eternal life because they recognized God’s image in the “least of these.”

One of the hallmarks of the Christian faith since the beginning has been the care for the poor, needy, suffering, and broken. The Roman world of the first century did not care about the poor. Roman society had no moral obligation or mechanism to care for the poor and needy.

But Jesus’ movement did. His followers had a strong sense of obligation as given by their Lord, and they grew because of it.

Do we see God in the poor and suffering of our world? If not, we need to listen more carefully to the psalmist and look a little harder, because those who do are blessed of the Lord.

PRAYER

Father, give us eyes to see the poor and suffering around us. Move us to action because this is where You reside. Amen.

By Julie Stahl

“Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel” (Exodus 34:22-23).

“When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. And tongues, like flames of fire that were divided, appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages” (Acts 2:1-4).

What’s the connection between God giving the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai and pouring out His Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts? They are both celebrated on the biblical Festival of Weeks or Shavuot, known in the New Testament as Pentecost.

Fifty days or seven weeks after Passover, Jewish people celebrate Shavuot (“weeks” in Hebrew). At the same time, Christians celebrate Pentecost (“fifty days” in Greek).

According to Jewish tradition, God called Moses up to Mount Sinai and gave him the Law—the two tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written—as well as the entire Torah on Shavuot.

Rabbi Welton adds, “Some Jewish people feel that the Torah is like the wedding ring between them and God in the spirit of the verse, ‘I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the LORD’” (Hosea 2:19-20). 

He adds, “Each year on Shavuot we renew our nuptial vows to our Beloved. Many people have the custom to stay up all night, engaged in studying Torah to reenact the great excitement and love one has on their wedding night.”

Boaz Michael, founder of First Fruits of Zion, comments: “There’re so many beautiful parallels that take place for Shavuot. Imagine Mount Sinai with the mountains above it, the covenant given to the people of Israel. This reminds us of a chuppah [“canopy”] over a bride and a groom. It tells us that God is making a covenant with His bride, Israel. There’s a marriage that takes place.”

“Shavuot is the culmination of a series of events,” Michael continues. “We’ve finally been freed from slavery in Egypt, we’ve wandered through the wilderness, and now we’ve come to Mount Sinai. It’s here that we enter into an intimate relationship with God, through the giving of His commandments and then the covenant that He gives to us, the Torah.”

He concludes: “So this event links us to Acts chapter one verse eight, where Jesus tells His disciples that they’re going to receive the Holy Spirit and take His message to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Three times a year, God commanded the Jewish people to come up to Jerusalem, and one of those times was Shavuot.

“All your males are to appear three times a year before the Lord your God in the place He chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. No one is to appear before the Lord empty-handed” (Deuteronomy 16:16).

The New Testament records that Jews were gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

Many Jewish people stay up all night on Shavuot to study the Scriptures. The Ten Commandments are read, and in many Jewish communities, the Book of Ruth is also read. Before dawn, those in Jerusalem head to the Western Wall on foot where they pray and bless God.

Shavuot has become a time of eating dairy foods, chief among them cheesecake!

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 Arlene Bridges Samuels 

A bipartisan light sometimes shines in the United States Congress despite its numerous gridlocks. This holds true for an important bill that, if passed and signed by the President, will help military veterans in both the United States and Israel. Called the United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act (H.R. 852 and S. 221), it has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Michael Waltz (R-FL), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and in the Senate by Jerry Moran (R-KS), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Ben Cardin (D-MD).

The bill would task the Secretary of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of State to cooperatively carry out a grant program between the United States and Israel to boost research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If Congress moves quickly, the bill could pass in June or July. 

How important is the United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act? Let’s look at some disturbing facts about PTSD’s tragic reality. It is defined as a “psychological condition caused by exposure to traumatic events that are outside the normal range of human experience.” The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that up to 20 percent of our veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—both men and women—suffer the agonizing effects of PTSD in a given year. These can include disabling flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety. Some of our fine military personnel serve several tours of duty. It is a grim truth that many Gulf War veterans—and up to 30 percent of Vietnam veterans—still suffer. 

The consequences are extensive, not only for our military overseas but for their families back home who live with separation and stress, unsure if their loved ones will return. One statistic is heartbreaking and almost incomprehensible: According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 40,000 of our veterans are homeless. PTSD also contributes to mental illness and drug addictions. 

Some 7,000 miles away, our ally Israel celebrates its 73rd modern birthday tomorrow, May 14. Nevertheless, every birthday marks another year of trauma in conventional wars against the small nation and/or from terrorists. The Israeli military deals with PTSD from near-daily attacks on their own soil. Tel Aviv University’s National Center for Post Trauma and Resilience found that 5 to 8 percent of Israeli combat soldiers experience some form of PTSD, and during wartime that figure rises to between 15 and 20 percent. 

Modern Israel endures a specialized form of stress that I call “Continual Traumatic Stress.” This is a disturbing daily reality that millions of persecuted Christians worldwide can easily understand. Trauma has been part of the Jewish experience for centuries. But it took on a new dimension in 1948—when Israel officially became the world’s only modern Jewish state and found itself constantly under attack by hostile forces. 

Seventy-three years ago, a verse in Isaiah 66:8 came alive under God’s plans to restore Israel as He promised. “Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment?” Yes! It happened on May 14, 1948. Israelis celebrate the miracle, since it’s the only ancient country with an ancient language that has been revived in modern times. Yet despite that miraculous event, trauma is an ever-present part of Israel’s emotional landscape. 

On many trips to Israel, I have often visited southern Israel and talked with kibbutz residents who lived next door to Gaza. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all 8,000 of its Jewish citizens from Gaza. Then in 2007, the Gazans elected Hamas, a terror organization, to take over. Since that time, rockets—and even balloons and kites with attached explosives—are sent into southern Israel, literally a stone’s throw away in some places. Invasive tunnels were dug into Israel to let Palestinians launch deadly attacks against unsuspecting Israelis. The civilian stories I heard were heartbreaking, among them much-delayed potty training for their frightened children, never knowing when to take a shower since the Red Alert might go off at any time, or trying to figure out which young child to grab first to make a run for the safe room or a bus stop bomb shelter. All of southern Israel, not only the military, is dealing with traumatic stress—especially for the last 14 years with terrorists ruling Gaza. Non-stop stress.

However, there is good news to offset the bad. Research efforts to reduce PTSD have been underway for years in both the United States and Israel. Therapeutic solutions are taking hold to heal broken bodies, minds, and spirits. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the world’s leading research and educational center on PTSD, with seven academic centers across the United States. Its headquarters are in White River Junction, Vermont. The VA describes PTSD as “a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault.” A VA list of the most high-risk professions includes members of the military, police officers, firefighters, and emergency personnel. 

Israel is also a world leader in PTSD research and treatment. Several times, I’ve visited one of Israel’s key centers located in Tel Aviv for briefings. NATAL, the Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center, is a multidisciplinary treatment and support organization for direct and indirect victims of trauma due to terror and war. Its extensive reach ranges from an emergency phone bank and courses to therapy of all kinds and programming options too long to list here. NATAL is already working cooperatively with many American groups, including Christian communities that are ministering to locals suffering from PTSD. 

In fact, the 117th Congress—House and Senate—might gain tremendous respect from the millions of Americans and their families who are dealing with PTSD in its many forms. COVID-19 has also intensified PTSD. Advancing research and treatments due to the large numbers of Americans and Israelis who are suffering is a noble endeavor.

 What can we do? Contact your members of Congress to pass the United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act. Click here to easily locate your members of Congress: Urge Congress to Support U.S.-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act (aipac.org). It will be two minutes of your time well spent! 

Six hundred million of us pro-Israel evangelicals worldwide reach out with a resounding, “Happy modern 73rd birthday, Israel!” Let’s pray that soon we will also celebrate the passage of the United States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act. 

Please join CBN Israel in praying for the people and nation of Israel, especially in light of this week’s tragic terror attacks:  

• Pray for Israelis currently facing heightened tensions in southern Israel, Jerusalem, and other areas.
• Pray for Israeli families and communities who have been impacted by this week’s onslaught of rocket attacks from Gaza terrorists.  
• Pray for Israel’s leaders to make wise decisions to quell the violence and for Arab leaders to stop calling for terror. 
• Pray that Americans will join up with two biblical lobbyists, Moses and Esther, who appealed to a Pharoah and a King! Let’s call Congress. 
• Pray for the U.S. Congress, that members will move quickly to pass this significant legislation. 
• Pray for military veterans and families, asking for God’s mercy and help. 

In closing, it will likely take a miracle for quick passage of this bill in Congress, and so please add your voice to make sure it passes. James 2:17 eloquently reminds us, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” 

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.

How sobering it is to know that we are witnessing the last generation of Holocaust survivors in Israel. Most are in their 90s, and many came to their ancestral homeland following the horrific events of World War II. They were broken but determined to fight the war of Israel’s birth and independence—straight from the ashes of Europe. And this is our last opportunity to bless and serve them. 

Life is still a struggle for these aging seniors, even with government benefits. For instance, Zeev is a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor in Israel. He still remembers the bombing of his Ukraine town when he was 10, being taken to a concentration camp—and not knowing for two years that his mother was in the same camp until they were reunite by chance. 

Today, Zeev lives in the city of Sderot. His wife died five years ago, and he lives alone. Zeev endured a terrible scare when his apartment was hit by a missile attack from Gaza. Basic repairs were made, but more work was needed. Thankfully, you were there to help. Zeev belongs to a congregation that partners with CBN Israel to offer aid to Holocaust survivors and terror victims—and they told us about Zeev’s plight. 

We provided a special grant to make needed repairs and repaint his apartment, making it safe and clean. Zeev is grateful, saying, “Thank you so much for your help, and for enabling me to live in a much better living space, and breathe cleaner air!”

And your gift to CBN Israel can bless many other Holocaust survivors, terror victims, refugees, and single mothers, who need our assistance to survive. Your support is urgently needed as we reach out with food, housing, and financial aid to those in need. 

Please help us extend God’s love to those who are hurting!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

Located in the modern Negev Desert on the spur of a mountain ridge, overlooking the plain around the canyon of En Avdat (the “Spring of Avdat”), sits the ancient ruins of the Nabatean city of Avdat. Avdat sits along the ancient caravan routes that crossed the barren lands from Elat (ancient Aila) on the Gulf of Aqaba, and Petra, the Nabatean capital in the Transjordan, to the Mediterranean coast and the port city of Gaza. 

The Nabateans, a nomadic people, immigrated out of the Arabian Peninsula, and in the period of the New Testament, their kingdom stretched from southern Syria to the northern Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula. Their capital was Petra, in the south of the modern Kingdom of Jordan. Although the land of their kingdom was vast, they had few urban centers. They controlled the trade and caravan routes through the Transjordan, including those that extended west to the Mediterranean coast. Their ability to travel through the dry desert regions, in part by using their caravansaries, like Avdat, enabled them to acquire a great degree of wealth. 

In the New Testament, Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist, was originally married to a Nabatean princess, the daughter of the Nabatean king Aretas IV. He divorced her in order to marry Herodias, the wife of his brother with whom he had an adulterous affair (Luke 3:19-20).

Avdat was originally settled at the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B.C. as a station on the caravan routes. By the end of the first century B.C. and into the first century A.D., Avdat had become a religious, military, and commercial center. Nabatean shrines were located at the site. 

The Roman annexation of the Nabatean kingdom into Provincia Arabia in A.D. 106 did not hurt Avdat. In fact, the second and third centuries A.D. saw the site flourish, as both agriculture and herding became part of the local economy. With the rise of Christianity in the fourth century A.D., two churches and a monastery were built on the site replacing the pagan shrines. Avdat relied upon the cultivation and production of a fine variety of grapes and wine during the Byzantine period. The site was abandoned in A.D. 636 with the Arab conquest. 

The earliest periods of settlement left little in terms of remains, especially a lack of architectural remains. Coins and imported pottery provide the main discoveries on the site from the fourth century B.C. to the early first century B.C. During the first century, public buildings were erected on the site including a shrine (temple) where the Nabatean pantheon were worshipped. 

Although not mentioned in the New Testament, Avdat and the Nabateans stood on the edge of the New Testament world. Herod the Great’s mother likely belonged to the Nabatean aristocracy, if not the royal family. We already mentioned the wife of Antipas. Throughout the first century, the Herodian lands came into conflict with Nabatean territory, which sets the backdrop for life in the region.

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

“He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good” (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 NKJV).

We usually approach our Bible reading hoping to find something for our “spiritual” lives, but the Bible is not always “spiritual” in the way this word is often understood.

Many of the stories and wisdom sayings of the Bible represent the everyday reality of the people living in ancient Israel and Judah. They are not innately religious, but they can help us embrace a more holistic form of “spirituality” that encompasses all aspects of our lives.

And this, in part, provides the opportunity to teach us about biblical spirituality. It penetrated everyday life—the common, ordinary existence of the people. It did not solely pertain to those moments of religious practice and observance, but offered regular, commonsense wisdom. The book of Ecclesiastes is filled with this.

Ecclesiastes has an abrupt and abrasive outlook and message. The Teacher has sought understanding and wisdom and concludes that it really does not matter, since the end of everyone is the same. Along the way of his discovery, he shares practical wisdom. Our text for today offers one example.

His message: Do not sit idle waiting for the right moment or the right time. If the farmer waited for the proper wind, he would never sow. If he tries to time the rains, he won’t have seed in the soil when the rain comes because he waited for the proper moment.

The Teacher notes that the only way one can ensure he or she will prosper is to practice industry all day, sow in the morning and in the evening do not sit idle, for no one knows what will work, The Bible encourages a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility. This probably derived from the people living in a world where existence required daily effort and attention.

But even after the farmer labored sowing his seed and reaping his harvest, he blessed God who brought food from the earth. The farmer viewed God as being part of the common and ordinary aspects of his life.

So, too, our lives offer us the opportunity to continually invite God into our everyday moments. The writer of Ecclesiastes certainly viewed our labor, our work, and all of life as being spiritual. Why? Because God wants to be involved in our daily lives, and we are invited to welcome Him into all aspects of our existence.

PRAYER

Father, as we labor today and live our lives, may our work and energy be pleasing before You. May we seize every moment and bless You for all that You provide. Amen.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

The United Nations initiated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 after the Nazi genocide of six million Jews. Its words affirmed the dignity of all world citizens, regardless of who or what they were or where they lived. Indeed, it was a fine and desperately needed effort to coax the world into a common bond of cooperation after the 20th century’s devastations in World War I and World War II.  

Today, 47 countries sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The founding goals of the UNHRC have faded into a pattern of outright hypocrisy and hatred against Israel. The fact is 59% of the Council’s membership is made up of nations governed by dictatorships of varying degrees, with some of the world’s most oppressive human rights violators: China, Cuba, Libya, and Venezuela. 

The United Nations Human Rights Council is an example of Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” That’s because under the UNHRC, the emphasis on protecting “human rights” has unfortunately been turned into inflicting “human wrongs—not only against Jews and Israel but by neglecting millions of suffering humans in countries run by dictators. 

Just consider: Since 2015, UNHRC has passed 219 resolutions against Israel—but exactly zero against China, Cuba, Libya, and Venezuela. Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, rightly diagnoses it as a “pathological obsession” against the world’s only Jewish state. The non-profit organization tracks United Nations policies and actions with a focus on accountability. UN Watch is important in codifying a clear, factual understanding of the unreliable, inept, and often treacherous nature of the United Nations. 

How do nations that violate the human rights of their own citizens end up on the UNHRC? Every year, the U.N. General Assembly holds elections where nations are voted into three-year alternating terms. Their guidelines are determined by something they call the United Nations Regional Grouping System. The regional groups are designated African, Asia/Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American/Caribbean, and Western European/Others. The guidelines are based on what they call the “equitable geographic rotation.”

Therein lies the problem. “Equitable” can be a positive word, meaning “dealing fairly and equally with all concerned.” But in cases of right, wrong, and common sense, it falls far short of producing the right results. “Equity” assumes that all involved will operate from a desire to achieve the best values for everyone. 

Unfortunately, UNHRC membership is not based on whether the nations are democratic or have a good track record with their own citizens. Andrei Sakharov, Russian nuclear physicist, then dissident and Nobel Prize winner summed it up best: “A country which does not respect the rights of its own citizens will not respect the rights of its neighbors.” 

Unlike the United Nations, Israel since its modern inception in 1948 has maintained a parliamentary democracy for its 1.5 million Arab citizens, as well as Druze and Christian citizens and the Jewish majority. Israel guarantees freedom for the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Israel has prospered with innovations, a larger Jewish population returning to their ancestral homeland, and a nation that is active in the betterment of the world. 

Nevertheless, Israel has had to fight off eight wars, two Palestinian Intifadas (uprisings), and three defensive armed conflicts with Gaza terrorists. Israel’s borders with Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria are hotbeds of strife, with weapons stockpiled by the Iranian Imams who are the skilled and hateful puppeteers of anti-Israel terror. These continuous threats against Israel have resulted in their need to develop an enormously skilled military to survive—and to protect the nation that only longs for peace. 

Iran’s threats are well known; the nation’s leaders consistently broadcast their goal to destroy Israel. Now, they are ramping up their uranium enrichment to the highest levels ever. They are testing the Biden administration in many ways. The Middle East is decidedly changing with President Joe Biden’s efforts to be accommodating, efforts that portray only weakness. His administration’s highly controversial pursuit of restarting the flawed Iran deal is opposed not only by Israel but also by Arab states in the region. The accomplishments of the Abraham Accords are expanding between the signatories, but nervousness is evident as Israel and the Arab Gulf States wonder what President Biden will undermine next. 

For example, he has restored contributions to the Palestinian Authority, thus undoing U.S. bipartisan legislation. The Taylor Force Act prohibits U.S. contributions to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for paying compensation to terrorists who murder Jews and Americans. The PA has not stopped these payouts or their hateful public incitement since the March 2016 attack that killed former U.S. Army officer Taylor Force. Additionally, the U.N.’s habit of decrying Israel’s “terrible” treatment of Palestinians is inexplicably matched only with silence when it comes to the more than 200,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon—where they languish in poverty, are denied citizenship, and allowed only low-level jobs. 

In addition to the silence about Palestinians in Lebanon, the UNHRC still focuses on the theme of self-determination for the Palestinian people in Israel. As well they should! Once again in 2020, their agenda item on the issue laid the blame for lack of self-determination at Israel’s doorstep. 

Self-determination bespeaks of freedom, and the Palestinians surely need it. Yet, the UNHRC ignores Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s governing style, what I describe as a “soft dictatorship.” The 85-year-old Abbas has held office since 2005. It was a four-year term. He finally announced an election scheduled for May 22 after 15 years in office. He has now canceled new elections again in a decade-long habit of finding excuses to blame Israel. The real reason—according to many in the know, including the Arab press—is the level of infighting among Palestinians. 

With elevated concerns about Iran in the Middle East and the UNHRC, President Biden’s new Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will hopefully be well served with her notable 35-year State Department resume. When the Senate confirmed her, the New York Times crowed in its headline, “Diplomacy Is Back.’’ It was a backhanded slap to Donald Trump’s two excellent appointees, Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft. Neither had State Department credentials but both were fully armed with smart, keen common sense and courage, especially regarding support for Israel and calling out the hypocrisy of the dictators filling the U.N. hallways. 

Other troubling decisions are cropping up within the U.N. In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke at a UNHRC meeting announcing that the U.S. will rejoin the group. Trump withdrew from UNHRC in 2018 due to its heavy-handed anti-Semitic policies. It is frustrating that, in joining up again, Biden has thus far not stipulated that funding cannot be used to promote hostility toward Jews in the educational curriculum and programs for Palestinian children. 

Lastly, among a growing list of concerns, UN Watch reported a secret ballot that elected Iran to the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women. When asked about it at the State Department press briefing on April 30, spokesperson Ned Price did not condemn the vote but repeatedly declined to answer whether the Biden administration voted in favor of Iran. UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer observed, “Electing the Islamic Republic of Iran to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief.”

CBN Israel invites you to stay tuned to our news reports for timely updates and join us in prayer this week:

• Pray for the Biden administration. 2 Peter 3:17 cautions: “Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position.”
• Pray for Hillel Neuer at UN Watch for success and strength.
• Pray for wisdom and safety for Gilad Erdan, currently serving in a dual role as Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. and Ambassador to the U.S. 
• Pray for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., for good judgment and discernment.
• Pray for families and friends of 45 Israelis who died in a tragic stampede at a religious festival last week in northern Israel. Include the many hospitalized.

One can only hope and pray that the United Nations can return to its 1948 original intent: to restore the dignity of all the world’s citizens. 

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 Marc Turnage

Shiloh served as the place where the Israelites erected the Tabernacle and placed the Ark of the Covenant after they conquered the land (Joshua 18:1). It became a place for religious pilgrimage and the celebration of festivals (Judges 21:19; 1 Samuel 1:3). The parents of Samuel, Hannah and Elkana, came to Shiloh and encountered the priest Eli, who delivered God’s promise to Hannah’s prayer that she would give birth to a son (1 Samuel 1). Then, when Samuel came of age, she brought him to serve the Lord and Eli at Shiloh, and, at Shiloh, God revealed himself to Samuel (1 Samuel 3:21). 

News of the capture of the Ark by the Philistines reached Eli in Shiloh, as well as the death of his sons, Hophni and Phineas (1 Samuel 4). Shiloh apparently suffered a destruction, not mentioned directly in the Bible, prior to the period of David and Solomon because, when the Ark returns to Israel (1 Samuel 6), the people did not return it to Shiloh, and the prophet Jeremiah mentions its destruction in his oracle against Jerusalem and the Temple: “Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel…therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh” (7:12, 14; 26:6, 9).

Shiloh sits about twenty-five miles north of Jerusalem. The book of Judges provides a clear description of its location: “north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah” (Judges 21:19). Shiloh, then, sat on the primary north-south roadway that ran through the central hill country. Other well-known biblical towns and villages also resided along this roadway, Hebron, Bethlehem, Gibeah, Ramah, Mizpah, Bethel, Shiloh, and Shechem. Jerusalem sits just to the east of this road. 

Excavations of the site of Shiloh revealed a destruction layer caused by a fierce fire in the eleventh century B.C., which coincides with the period of the priesthood of Eli, Samuel, and the capture of the Ark. The destruction of Shiloh likely coincided with the Philistine victory against the Israelites, which resulted in the Ark’s capture. Excavations also attest in this period that Shiloh served as a religious and economic center. 

The Tabernacle and Ark remained at Shiloh for a long period of time prior to the city’s destruction. Although a small settlement appears in the latter part of the monarchy, it never had the importance that it previously had. In Jeremiah’s oracle, it became an object lesson for those who thought the mere presence of God’s dwelling place insulated the people from his judgement and destruction. What mattered to Him was obedience; if you don’t believe Him, just go and look at Shiloh.

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.

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