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By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Beloved by Christians for generations, Corrie ten Boom has sustained and inspired millions with her wisdom. One of those sayings is: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

Her book The Hiding Place, published in 1971, tells the story of her family, watchmakers in Haarlem, the Netherlands, during the Holocaust. She was a heroine in the Dutch resistance and survived imprisonment in a concentration camp after Nazis arrested her and her sister for hiding and saving Jewish families.

Both Christians and Jews esteem Corrie. Israel’s Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority honored Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) as “Righteous Among the Nations.” Strolling along the Avenue of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, Christian visitors make sure to stop at Corrie’s tree, which was dedicated on December 12, 1967. I have walked the avenue many times. Her tree has grown tall.

My interest in Israel began when I married my Jewish husband, Paul. When we heard Corrie speak at a church, her testimony motivated our advocacy for Israel. Reading The Hiding Place, seeing the movie, and visiting the Ten Boom House Museum in the Netherlands has remained with both of us, a Gentile and Jewish couple.

Following the horrors of October 7, 2023, I have written every week about Israeli traumas in the aftermath. Israel had instituted trauma treatments in the past, such as the Israel Trauma Coalition and its 12 resilience centers that provide multidisciplinary intervention before, during, and after emergencies. However, with an entire nation traumatized the need is massive.

Avida Bachar, a farmer from Kibbutz Be’eri, watched Hamas terrorists murder his wife and son on October 7. He also lost his leg and makes an observation that the United States and every other country need to understand: “Palestinians must be moved from Gaza … transfer them to other sovereign states.” Since no other nation is willing to relocate them, it leaves Israel under intense pressure to solve the problem amid terrorists threatening them every day and well into the future.

After October 7, Israel quickly began expanding every trauma treatment avenue in its government and in private institutions—joined by Jewish institutions globally and Christian charities, as well. For example, CBN Israel, Regent University, and the Israel Trauma Coalition developed a unique approach to train Russian-speaking Israeli counselors to help Russian-speaking Israelis, who comprise 15 to 20 percent of the Israeli population. The trauma therapy techniques they implemented were learned by counselors during Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Jewish Israelis are attempting to embrace their histories of resilience, yet their process is compounded by antisemitic demonstrations invading the world with shouts of “kill the Jews.” It is shocking that protestors refuse to understand why Israel is forced to defend its nation in the seven-front war it’s currently engaged in.

Jewish traumas are historically deep-seated and brutal amid echoes of expulsions, pogroms, and the Holocaust. My husband Paul’s parents, like millions of Jewish refugees to America (1880-1924), fled Russian pogroms as children with their parents. They stepped into freedom through Ellis Island, later met and married in Bronx, New York, worked hard, and raised five children. His “pops” served in World War II, drove a taxi, and ran a newspaper stand in Manhattan. They rarely if ever spoke about that period, but Paul vividly remembers his mom describing her childhood traumas “hiding in haystacks” to escape the Russian czar’s pogroms against Jews. Paul is a proud first-generation American, a Navy veteran, and has adopted Fiddler on the Roof as his family’s story.

In addition to Israel’s national trauma, it seems that mental health struggles are hovering like a cloud over our world. Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported that we are facing a “mental health catastrophe.”

Our response to this catastrophe is three-fold. Paul and I coauthored the recently published book, Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. We wrote it to help others hold on to hope, as we had amid our own personal dark clouds and blue skies. We have been married for 48 years, and Paul’s lifelong bipolar condition was finally diagnosed 25 years ago. Second, Paul began volunteering in 2022 as a weekly co-facilitator with the national Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA). Finally, and most significantly, as believers we felt compelled to share our own pain to comfort others with the comfort God has repeatedly given to us in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

Corrie ten Boom’s testimony grew even more foundational from years ago, capturing our hearts for Israel, and now when we began writing and formulating messages of hope and help. Her quote, which I mentioned above, is included in our prologue. The train theme became descriptive for our book! Mental Health Meltdown is a reader-friendly book, a traveling companion that pierces the darkness with light—through first-person stories of 35 others who share their sorrows and successes with depression, bipolar, PTSD, and other mental health issues.

We invite readers to ride what we call the hope train through their individual tunnels and to sit with us and our storytellers to gather practical tools and look ahead for Light and trust the Engineer. In voicing wide-ranging life experiences—ours and others’—we want the stories to help readers grasp insights about differently wired brains from a variety of people.

Public perceptions are changing and hopefully erasing stigmas. No one chooses a physical disability or illness, and no one chooses a mental illness. When the public views mental illnesses with the same kindnesses offered to those with physical illnesses, it will serve to reduce the reality that “no one takes my status seriously because no one can see the disability.”

We have discovered that pastors are often at a loss about how to approach mental health support within their congregations. We included a chapter with one inspiring and insightful pastor’s sermon where he kindly and honestly spoke about mental illnesses. He clearly emphasizes that “God works through miracles and medicines,” and adds, “If you are in Christ and suffer with mental health issues, it does not mean you are less of a Christian nor is it a sin to have a mental illness.” He illustrates King David’s depression in Psalm 139:7-12. His chapter is incredibly helpful!

Personally, knowing others with mental illnesses—and knowing Israelis are determined to survive amid profound grief and traumas—let us recall the prophet Elijah falling asleep under a juniper tree due to emotional, spiritual, and physical exhaustion. In 1 Kings 19:3-4. Elijah asked God to take his life, yet God responded with comfort, encouraging him to rest and providing food and water for him. When it comes to Israel and anyone you know grappling with mental struggles, following God’s example of focusing on prayer, with help and comfort as your watchwords.

You may order our words in Mental Health Meltdown on Amazon.

Our CBN Israel team welcomes you to pray with us this week:

• Pray for an outpouring of help for Israelis in their daily national trauma.
• Pray for the hostages imprisoned by Hamas amid traumas we cannot even imagine.
• Pray for families of hostages suffering emotional pain and grief.
• Pray for Americans and their families who are facing mental health crises.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Two glorious celebrations converge on December 25, 2024: Christmas Day and the first day of Hanukkah. Also called the Festival of Lights or Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah lasts eight days. The first candle is lit at sundown on December 25. Although it is a time of gift-giving in the Jewish community, its significance is spiritually splendid. 

The Feast of Dedication marks two compelling events. First, an unexpected military victory when the brave Maccabees, beginning in 164 B.C., reclaimed their desecrated Second Temple from the Syrian dictator. Secondly, the Maccabees discovered one small cruse of Temple oil that proved to last eight days—far beyond its normal capacity—while a batch of specialized olive oil was made by Temple priests for the candelabrum. These miracles transpired 165 years before Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) birth. 

We will return to Jesus’ profound words as He walked in Soloman’s Portico during the Festival of Lights, as written in John 10:22-23. You may ask, how does the United States Congress fit into my Hanukkah perspective? And what is the connection between the Festival of Lights and Christmas?

It has to do with Judea and Samaria, Israel’s biblical heartland. For 369 years the Tabernacle, located in ancient Shiloh, served as Israel’s capital and thrives today! Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Judaism’s two Temples were located in Judea.

These historic credentials were reinforced a few short days ago, on December 5, 2024 (Hebrew month Kislev). Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R-A.R.) and House Member Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) introduced legislation to dismiss using the term West Bank in federal documents. The short title of the bill is the “Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act.”

The bill requires using only “historically accurate terminology” to align U.S. policy language with the geographical and cultural significance of the region. Senator Cotton emphasized, “The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria goes back thousands of years. The U.S. should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.” Sen. Cotton and Rep. Tenny recognized Israel’s ancient and modern sovereignty by proclaiming the facts. Congresswoman Tenny added, “At this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this.” 

How did the senator and congresswoman come to their historically correct conclusion? It goes back to 1967. It is commonplace among Christians worldwide to refer to Jesus’ birthplace as Bethlehem. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that Bethlehem and its fields were and are in Judea. After Arab armies instigated the 1967 Six-Day War against Israel, part of Israel’s victory took place when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recaptured Judea and Samaria and reunited Jerusalem, also located in Judea. 

Since then, however, much of the world refers to Bethlehem as being in the West Bank and refuses to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital. The description “West Bank” simply refers to the region west of the Jordan River. After Israel’s modern independence was announced on May 14, 1948, Jordan had occupied Israel’s biblical heartland for 20 years before the IDF liberated it from Jordanian occupation. Like so many other dismissals of the heritage of Jews in the land of Israel for thousands of years, the West Bank nomenclature has overtaken the true geography called Judea and Samaria, Israel’s biblical heartland. Jews are historically the indigenous people of Israel. 

It is not surprising that the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act is already creating controversy. The idea of a two-state solution, one for Palestinians and one for Jews, has served as a sacred cow for decades and was promoted by successive U.S. administrations (both Democrat and Republican), the United Nations, and the European Union. President-elect Trump briefly considered the idea in his first administration, but it is crystal clear now that after the October 7 war was launched, Israelis will not consider it. Nor should they. The inhuman nature of terrorists and oppressive Islamic ideology and actions are in plain view everywhere the Israelis turn. No “peace” partner exists.

Cotton and Tenny are following in big footsteps. During President elect-Trump’s first term he opened doors wider for Israel’s biblical heartland, populated by 500,000 Jews, when he announced that what the world calls “settlements” are not illegal, nor are they a violation of international law. Returning the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem (in Judea) marked the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, when most of the Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, passed the law to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv back to Jerusalem. 

Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden bypassed the congressional decision in a loophole that allowed them to delay the embassy move every six months. Then and now, some members of Congress are opposing Cotton and Tenny’s legislation. Let us pray for success in this important legislation—as a Hanukkah gift to Israelis in their time of war.

When it comes to the eternal plans of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, no amount of opposition will hinder His timetable. When Jesus attended the Feast of Dedication, walking in the Second Temple, He made Himself clear. John 10:22–42 are the only verses in the Bible about Jesus celebrating the victorious Festival of Lights. Questioned by crowds pressing in to tell them “plainly” if He was the Messiah, Jesus created an uproar with his answers. He declared Himself to be both Messiah and Son of God (10:24) and added, “I and the Father are one” (v. 30). Jesus already knew His destiny as the Light, the Redeemer. 

In this particular passage, Jesus does not declare Himself in the phrase, “Light of the world.” Nevertheless, the Apostle John emphasizes that Jesus had proclaimed earlier in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.” While the Maccabees recaptured, then restored, the Temple from the darkness of evil, Jesus’ birth in Judea fulfilled prophecies and brought Eternal Light to our world. His light cannot—will not—be extinguished. 

Jesus is the eternal Hero that John declares in John 1:5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John goes on to write later in Revelation 21:23 that “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” 

Just as Jesus attended the Feast of Rededication, let us take a moment to rededicate ourselves and our families to Him in this 2024 season of Light with luminous candles, Advent, and Hallelujah choruses. May Israel miraculously experience The Light during their eight days of Hanukkah. 

Our team welcomes you to celebrate with us while reflecting on Yeshua’s assuring words in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.” 

Prayer Points:

• Pray for more Christians to rediscover the Jewish roots and foundation of our faith. 
• Pray that Israeli Jews will be able to observe Hanukkah 2024 in peace. 
• Pray for the hostages and all Israel that Light will shine into their traumas. 
• Pray for Israel’s IDF, the new Maccabees, for victories and security. 
• Pray that the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act is passed.

Arlene Bridges Samuels is the weekly feature columnist for CBN Israel since 2020. Working on the staff of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as their SE Regional Outreach Director for nine years, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as the Leadership Outreach Director part-time for their project American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel, is published at AllIsrael.com and The Jerusalem Connection, and has traveled to Israel since 1990. By invitation, she attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits as part of Christian media worldwide. In 2024, Arlene and her husband Paul co-authored Mental Health Meltdown: Illuminating the Voices of Bipolar and Other Mental Illnesses. www.TheMentalHealthMeltdown.com.

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Attending a sing-along of Handel’s magnificent Messiah is one of my favorite traditions during Christmas. Singing carols in our church choir is also a fresh reminder of the past and a hope for the future. Our decorated tree and our simple, gently used manger scene are displayed. On Christmas Eve we will open my 80-year-old family Bible and read about Messiah’s birth in Luke, Chapter 2.

I choose to keep those traditions. However, exploring Genesis 35:21 and Micah 4:8—and doing research about the Tower of the Flock and the professional role of Bethlehem shepherds—add the richness of the Jewish context.

Recognizing the Jewishness of the Bible is more necessary than ever due to Israel’s defense of its ancestral homeland and the resulting tsunami of accusations against it. Christmas 2024 is an excellent opportunity to quietly emphasize Messiah’s birthplace in Bethlehem, Israel, and His Jewish background through Mary. God chose the young Jewish virgin, the only woman in history to receive this singular miracle. Emphasize the fact that our Christian faith was birthed in Israel, and we honor God for enlisting His Jewish scribes to preserve His words in our Bibles.

Neither war nor antisemitism can erase Messiah’s birthplace. Yet, hating Israel is by association a hatred for our Messiah (Y’shua). God in human form chose to come to a little land in a humble act of world-changing redemption as noted in the Bible, which is distinguished by Guinness World Records as the best-selling nonfiction book of all time. In research by the British and Foreign Bible Society, their best estimate is that between 5 and 7 billion copies have been printed since the printing press was invented in the mid-1400s. 

In a recent column, I mentioned research suggesting that King David and Jesus were born in or near Migdal Eder (Micah 5:2), where Levitical shepherds raised and oversaw the births of Passover lambs. Today I’d like to more deeply explore. In ancient times, Migdal Eder (the Tower of the Flock) stood on the road between Bethlehem Ephrath (Bethlehem’s ancient name) and Jerusalem. Migdal Eder no longer stands, but it was known long before Messiah was born.

Genesis 35:19-21 informs us that Jacob (renamed Israel) cast his tent at Migdal Eder, where he buried Rachel, the love of his life. “So, Rachel died and was buried on the way to Bethlehem Ephrathah. Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb and Israel moved on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder.” Today it still marks Rachel’s tomb.

Micah 4:8, a prophecy written around 700 years before Jesus’ birth, reveals, “As for you, watchtower of the flock, stronghold of Daughter Zion, the former dominion will be restored to you; kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.” God offered His planned intervention into humankind for Messiah’s coming birth at Migdal into the established Jewish ancestry.

Fast forward to Caesar Augustus’ imperial census decree that set the stage for Joseph to lead Mary, sitting astride a donkey, on the 90-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Caesar ordered all Jews to their ancestral home for a census. Bethlehem was the couple’s destination, as Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father, was in King David’s lineage.

It was part of God’s plan that Mary would give birth to Jesus in Bethlehem—within or near the Tower of the Flock. Micah 5:2 reiterates, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, Whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” The Tower of the Flock, where sacrificial Temple lambs were born, seems the perfect place for The Perfect Lamb’s birth, which signified His sacrifice for us 33 years later.

Jewish sages writing in the Mishnah (Jewish oral tradition) and the church historian Eusebius (deemed the Father of Church history) confirm the existence of the Tower of the Flock. Eusebius lived from about 260–339 A.D. The tower’s existence was also reinforced by shepherds retelling stories around campfires for hundreds of years before a Byzantine monastery was built over Migdal Eder in the fourth century.

For millennia, shepherds were familiar with the Tower of the Flock. The tower and the Bethlehem fields were their workplace. The Sadducees, in charge of Temple sacrifices, chose the Bethlehem shepherds, who were experts in animal husbandry. Sadducees viewed them as Levitical Shepherd Priests—because the lambs they helped birth and tended among the hay-filled stone mangers were lambs destined for Temple sacrifices.

Migdal Eder was a two-level stone structure, allowing the Chief Shepherd to look out over the flock for predators. At birthing time, shepherds led the ewes from the fields to the tower. The ancient veterinarians reached into the ewe’s womb to pull out the newborns, then snugly wrapped the lambs in strips of swaddling cloths. If the lambs harmed or scarred their limbs, Sadducees rejected them at Passover as Temple sacrifices. Exodus 12:5 instructs, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.”

After the Levitical shepherds herded the lambs into Jerusalem, the Sadducees examined them at the Lamb’s Gate on Palm Sunday (called the Day of Lambs in ancient times). Perfection was the rule in the Temple hierarchy.

When the angel and heavenly host appeared to shepherds in the Bethlehem fields, although stunned the shepherds immediately understood the lyrical directions in the angelic birth announcement. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a Baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Shepherds knew that Bethlehem Ephrath meant the fields and “town of David.”

As a shepherd boy, David was surely familiar with Migdal Eder, too. We do not know how far the shepherds ran to see the promised Messiah, but no GPS was needed. The Tower of the Flock was their ancient veterinary office.

These glistening threads of ancient Jewish history connect Jesus’ birthplace with the Tower of the Flock where the Temple lambs were born. It is a richer context for Messiah’s destiny as the Sacrificial Lamb. Imagine the glorious songs the Levitical shepherds heard in the night skies, then running toward Migdal Eder to see baby Jesus all in one night! Is it possible that 33 years later, they marveled again while herding that year’s scampering lambs for Messiah’s final Passover as He rode among them?

May this ancient insight into Messiah’s birth shine far brighter in 2024, dispelling darkness now and always! The Lord is our Perfect Lamb and Shepherd!

Our CBN Israel Team welcomes you to join us in celebration focusing on Luke 2:14, Gloria in Excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the Highest!

Prayer Points:

• Pray gratefully for any personal blessings received since last Christmas.
• Pray for various Christian denominations in Israel for their safety in war.
• Prayers and praises for Israel’s commitment to freedom of religion.
• Prayers and praises for Christian freedoms in Israel, the safest place for them in the Middle East.
• Pray for increased unity among believers in the Christian, Arab, and Messianic Jewish communities.