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Weekly Devotional: Do You Consider the Poor?

“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.

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CBN Israel Supports Christian Citizens Serving in Israel’s Army

By Nicole Jansezian

With new threats from Iran and Hezbollah as Israel’s war in Gaza stretches into its sixth month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) faces a personnel challenge and has ordered leave to be temporarily paused for all combat soldiers.

While military service is mandatory for all 18-year-old men and women and most Jewish Israelis serve their time after high school, many Arab citizens—both Muslims and Christians—opt not to enlist.

Currently, only 3.5 percent of the Arab population serves in the military, according to the IDF, despite being more than one fifth of the nation’s citizens.

Christians comprise only 2 percent of the country’s population, but one group of Christian Israelis are trying to encourage the young members of their community to play a larger role in serving and defending their nation—and CBN Israel is supporting the cause.  

Arameans are Christian citizens of Israel who have been in the land since the time of Jesus and have recently fought to categorize their identity as separate from Arab citizens.

Many of them also believe that as a minority population in Israel, they must integrate into the nation—and that includes serving in the army.

Dozens of Aramean teens recently took part in a Christian-Jewish military prep course that would not only help them prepare to serve in the military but also to get to know others with whom they wouldn’t have regular interaction.

The graduation, in February, prepared another 48 teens ready to enlist in the IDF. Shadi Khalloul, who founded Kinneret in 2017, said 1,000 students applied.

The program at Kibbutz Beit Zera, near the Sea of Galilee, is called Kinneret and is sponsored through partnership with the Jewish Agency.

After seven months, new batches of teens graduate after learning each other’s languages and cultures and developing relationships and trust that did not previously exist.

Earlier this year, CBN Israel attended the most recent graduation and has joined arms with Khalloul in helping integrate the Christian community better into Israeli society through such a valuable program.

Nicole Jansezian is the media coordinator for CBN Israel. A long-time journalist, Nicole was previously the news editor of All Israel News and All Arab News and a journalist at The Associated Press. On her YouTube channel, Nicole gives a platform to the minority communities in Jerusalem and highlights stories of fascinating people in this intense city. Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., she lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Tony, and their three children.

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Israel: Fighting the Islamic Regime’s Death Cult

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

One hundred and eighty days ago, Hamas ripped away a cloak of barbaric evil revealing Iran’s final, deadly goal. The evil that befell Israel on October 7, 2023, points to the Islamic Regime’s determination to establish a modern caliphate—an Islamic-founded, tyrannical government—across the world. For decades, Iran’s leaders have called Israel the “Little Satan” and the United States the “Great Satan.” Make no mistake—these hostile labels describe an ongoing religious war between the life-giving Judeo-Christian heritage and the death cult of Shia Islam.

Mainstream media promotes its anti-Israel biases with predictions and propaganda—accepting Iran proxy Hamas’s lies rather than the established facts of Israel’s defensive war. Rarely does secular media mention that the globe is undergoing a religious war. However, a recent Atlantic Council article highlighted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sounded the alarm about his extreme views.

The article revealed that Khamenei is determined to force-fit his oppressive Islamic Shia religion onto the world, in part by using and funding his Middle East trio of hate—surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In a recent speech, Khamenei arrogantly declared, “It was my tongue, but words of god (Allah).” Although Khamenei has long been considered the Supreme Leader (his media machine calls him the “implementer of god’s orders”), this latest pronouncement sent out shock waves in Iran. On X, one writer, a critic, said about Khamenei, “At 86, he claims to be a god.”

And a satanic false god, he is. He controls the regime’s nuclear ambitions, military, media, judiciary, and foreign policy. We need not look far to see Khamenei’s power-hungry principles enforced by his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at home and abroad. His mandate toward upwards of 89 million citizens is marked by harsh, oppressive laws and brutal violence. In 2021 he called street protesters “evil, corrupt … weeds, or insects.” In other words, “mow them down.”

Khamenei’s like-minded President—former judge Ibrahim Raisi, nicknamed “The Butcher of Tehran”—is committed to carrying out violence against any freedom protests breaking out, especially after the arrest of Mehsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman. The Iranian “morality police” arrested her in September 2022. Her crime? Incorrectly wearing her compulsory hijab (head covering).She was brutally murdered while in detention.

The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement was born as a result. The regime responded by murdering more than 550 citizens—including 68 children and 48 women—and arresting thousands. The Fact-Finding Mission established by the UN’s Human Rights Council recently reported (among many other violations) a pattern of blinding eye injuries, torture, and rapes in detentions—vicious crimes against humanity by anyone’s definition. 

   

I consulted with my dear friend Marziyeh (Marzi) Amirizadeh for her first-person explanation of the Islamic regime’s religious goals. Marzi grew up in schools that targeted children by brainwashing them against the U.S. and Israel. As a young woman, Marzi met her Savior Jesus in a series of dreams. She has been a grateful American citizen since 2011.

However, in 2009 she and her close friend were arrested and imprisoned for their faith in Jesus. Their crime? For three years, under the cover of nighttime darkness, they covertly placed 20,000 Bibles into mailboxes in Iran’s capital, Tehran. Eventually found out by the regime’s police, they were put in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. Sentenced to death by hanging, they miraculously survived nine months of horror, then were released after a letter-writing campaign from thousands of Christians provoked an international outcry.

Marzi is an author (Captive in Iran and A Love Journey with God), a speaker worldwide, and an activist for religious freedom. A devoted believer, she is an expert on the dangerous Islamic Regime and warns fellow Americans that freedom must be cultivated and defended. She speaks on behalf of Iranians who long for freedom, fully supports Israel, and treasures her first trip there last year. Some estimate that over a million Muslim-background believers are part of a growing Christian revival, yet they are forced to live under the Islamic ideology that Islam will conquer the world in the end times. The regime’s theocracy teaches that conquest will come either by war or by infiltrating Western countries through their Muslim population to destroy these countries from within. 

Marzi explains, “Radical Muslims teach that Islam is the perfect religion, sent through Mohammad. Everyone must convert to Islam. They await their 12th Imam Mahdi—the Islamic messiah—to appear in Jerusalem after the annihilation of all Israel and Jews.”  

She explains further, “Reading the Quran, it is obvious that they use various parts of the Bible and reverse everything. They demand that every Muslim join their Holy War to open the path for their coming Imam Mahdi. He will then start a series of military wars all around the world to convert infidels—Christians and other religious minorities, who are ‘pagans.’ The Mahdi will give them a chance to convert to Islam. If they refuse, Muslims have the right to murder them and confiscate their property.” 

Having encountered their apocalyptic leaders’ oppressive laws both outside prison and inside those grim walls, Marzi compares the Ayatollah’s Shia Islam and Christianity: “Christianity is all about love and forgiving, but their Islam is all about hate, violence, and anti-Semitism. If you ask, they say that Islam is a religion of peace, but it is a big lie to deceive people.” Marzi believes in religious freedom, but not at the cost of tolerating hatred and violence taught in other countries.

“Muslims know how to take advantage of religious freedom to brainwash people in Western countries,” continues Marzi. She knows firsthand that “in the eyes of their Allah, we are infidels and pagans, and it makes a way for Imam Mahdi to establish an Islamic government or caliphate.” Marzi wisely referred to Matthew 7:16, where Jesus observed, “By their fruit you will recognize them.Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” His wisdom is our measuring stick.    

I close by recalling great moments in many past trips to Israel. For my groups of Christian leaders on a geopolitical and spiritual journey, we received excellent briefings from the Israel Defense Forces. Before asking one of the pastors to pray for their safety, I took the opportunity to encourage them. “I am a Christian Zionist and thankful for your service. You are opposing evil on the front lines of freedom, not only for your Jewish homeland, but for us as freedom-loving Americans.”

Friends, first know that Hamas imitated and expanded the Islamic Regime’s brutality, barbarism, and hegemonic goals. Then remember, Israel’s war is like the adage about the canary in the coal mine. If Iran and its terror proxies are coming after Israel, realize that this conflict may eventually be at our front door.

Our team at CBN Israel welcomes you to pray with us this week and find hope in Isaiah 45:16-17: “All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced; they will go off into disgrace together. But Israel will be savedby theLORD with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced,to ages everlasting.” 

Prayer Points:  

  • Pray for the world to recognize the evil behind Iran’s military and religious goals.
  • Pray for Christians worldwide to strengthen their Ephesians 6 spiritual armor. 
  • Pray for Israelis to find a way to remain united, no matter what. 
  • Pray for Christians to use wisdom in their media choices.
  • Pray for Christians to press in fully to the truths of our Bibles. 

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 an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

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Victim of Terrorism: Yulia’s Story

We see many news stories about the Israel-Hamas war, but it is sobering to hear firsthand accounts from those living it every day. Yulia and her family, who work as musicians, fled their home after October 7, as their village and livelihood came under siege from Hamas terrorists.

Yulia shares, “The first day when the tragedy began, all our concerts were cancelled. We are completely and entirely in God’s hands. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow.” She adds, “We left our home, the home we love—where our friends are, and our children’s friends.”

Describing their traumatic experience, she recounts, “We lost so many families. Our children received calls, and would find out about friends that were killed. One girl disappeared. Hamas captured her whole family.” With so many losses, where could they turn for help?

Thankfully, friends like you were there for Yulia’s family. Through CBN Israel, caring donors provided much needed financial assistance to help them buy food, clothing, and other basic essentials during their time of evacuation.

Yulia exclaims, “We are very, very grateful for your help! We feel your love for the Jewish people… We had placed our hope in our country’s strength, and now, more hope in God is arising, especially among non-believers. Their hearts are opening to hear about God…”

Your gifts to CBN Israel can bring God’s hope to others who are hurting—including Holocaust survivors, immigrants, and single mothers.

As the war continues, so do the needs. Your support can offer groceries, housing, trauma therapy, and emergency supplies to victims of terrorism, while supplying ongoing aid to those in need who are trying to survive.

Please join us in helping Israel at this crucial time!

GIVE TODAY

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Biblical Israel: Church of the Holy Sepulchre

By Marc Turnage

The traditional location of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which sits within the heart of the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The origin of the church goes back to the Emperor Constantine. His mother the Empress Helena on a visit to the Holy Land (326 A.D.) was shown this location by local Christians and identified as the place where Jesus’ crucifixion and burial took place. Upon that site, her son built the first church, which was called the Church of the Resurrection. 

Archaeological excavations within the church have uncovered the history of the site. In the 8th-7th centuries B.C., the location of the Holy Sepulchre was a large limestone quarry to the northwest of the walled city of Jerusalem. According to the excavator, the site continued to be used as a quarry until the first century B.C. when it was filled in with soil and stone flakes from the quarry. The site at this time became a garden or orchard that contained fig, carob, and olive trees. At the same time, it developed into a cemetery. Within the complex of the Holy Sepulchre, tombs dating to the first century have been discovered.

One of the challenges for modern visitors to the church is its location within the modern Old City of Jerusalem and its walls. Jesus was crucified outside of the city walls. The modern Old City walls, built in the 16th century, however, have nothing to do with the walls of Jesus’ Jerusalem. Jews did not bury within the walls of city, but rather outside. The presence of first century tombs within the Holy Sepulchre complex indicates that this location stood outside the walls of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. 

Jewish tombs in the first century consisted of two types: kokhim and arcosolia. The most common being the kokhim. A kokh (singular) was a long, narrow recess cut into a rock tomb in which a body, coffin, or ossuary (bone box) could be laid. The typical kokhim tomb was hewn into the hillside and consisted of a square chamber. The entrance to an ordinary kokhim tomb was a small square opening that required a person entering to stoop. The height of the chamber was usually less than that of a person, so they often cut a square pit into the floor of the chamber. This pit created a bench on three sides of the chamber where the bodies of the deceased could be prepared. 

After the chamber and the pit were cut, the kokhim were cut level with the top of the benches and perpendicular to the wall of the tomb in a counter clockwise direction, from right to left, in every wall except the entrance wall. One to three kokhim were usually cut per wall. The kokh had roughly vaulted ceilings and were the length of the deceased or a coffin. After the deceased was placed into the kokh, a blocking stone sealed the square entrance of the tomb. Small stones and plaster helped to further seal the blocking stone. The tomb was sealed in a manner that it blended into the surrounding hillside. 

In addition to the kokhim tomb, arcosolia tombs began to appear sporadically during the first century. The arcosolia is a bench-like aperture with an arched ceiling hewn into the length of the wall. This style of burial was more expensive since only three burial places existed within a tomb chamber instead of six or nine, as typically found within kokhim tombs. Approximately 130 arcosolia tombs have been discovered in Jerusalem and over half of them also contain kokhim. Ossuaries (bone boxes) could be placed on the arcosolia benches.

The tomb identified within the Holy Sepulchre as the tomb of Jesus was originally an arcosolium (singular) with an antechamber; however, the centuries of pilgrims and the various destructions of the church have deformed and obliterated the tomb. What visitors see today is a later structure; nevertheless, the tomb originally contained a first century arcosolium tomb. 

The Roman Emperor Hadrian built on top of the quarry-garden-cemetery a raised platform with another platform on it where he built a temple to Venus/Aphrodite in the second century. This pagan temple was removed when Constantine built his church. 

Constantine built a rotunda around Jesus’ tomb. The rock of Golgotha was exposed to the open air in a garden, and on the other side of the garden, Constantine built a basilica church. 

The question arises whether or not the Holy Sepulchre contains the location of Jesus’ tomb. What we can say is this: 1) The site was a cemetery in the first century with first century tombs. 2) From the second century until the arrival of the Empress Helena, the actual tomb had been covered for 300 years. The fact that the local Christian memory remembered this location, where a first century cemetery existed, even though it was covered by the Hadrianic temple strongly suggests the authenticity of the site. 3) When Helena was shown this site, it sat like now within the walled, urban city of Jerusalem, which would have seemed strange to ancient pilgrims as it does to modern. 

Yet, the memory of the local Christian community remembered that this location once lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem. Ten to fifteen years after Jesus’ death and burial a wall was built in Jerusalem that enclosed this area into the city. 

Pilgrims to Jerusalem often wonder if the Holy Sepulchre marks the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. The archaeology and tradition of the site support its claims. 

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

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Weekly Devotional: He Is Risen

One verse of the Bible that truly captures the emotion of the moment comes from the disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32 NKJV)

The excitement, the awe, the amazement shine through their words. They had encountered the resurrected Jesus, who opened the Scriptures to them and set their hearts ablaze. They realized their hope had not died but was resurrected with their Master.

The Gospels spend most of their narratives describing Jesus’ last week before He died. The New Testament highlights the events of His last week as the foundation of the Christian faith. Jesus walked out of the tomb.

For His followers, it offers hope in the midst of despair, light in the midst of darkness, life instead of death. It also provides a model for us of how to submit to God’s will even in the midst of our own suffering, how to forgive even those who perpetrate a horrible crime against us, and how to trust God even when the circumstances seem impossible.

The encounter with the resurrected Jesus set His followers’ hearts ablaze, and they went throughout the known world suffering hardships, ridicule, loss, and even death because they could never forget the reality of the resurrection. That reality consumed them, and they were forever committed to following Jesus. Why? Because He walked out of the tomb.

The empty tomb provided the hope of Jesus’ followers. It gave them an unwavering sense of calling to “go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV). It offered them the promise of life eternal. It was the foundation of all they did and who they were.

May you realize afresh that He is risen! May you see that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you and me today. Let’s put our unwavering hope and trust in the God who wants to bring healing, restoration, and transformation to our lives.

PRAYER

Father, You are our hope. Even in our darkest circumstances, You bring light and life into our lives, and therefore we trust You. Thank you for the hope we have in the resurrection. Amen.

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CBN Israel Helps Immigrants Not Just Come to Israel, But Stay and Thrive

By Nicole Jansezian

Even when the number of immigrants to Israel is on an upswing, many times retaining new citizens is a larger challenge than bringing them to the Holy Land in the first place.

That’s why ulpans, otherwise known as absorption centers, are critical to assimilating new immigrants into Israel. This is especially true during times of war.

“Part of the solution to recover from the atrocities of October 7 is Aliyah (immigration to Israel)—having more young adults with energy, with passion, with education to come and help build a better future in the land,” said Danielle Mor, director of Christian Friends of The Jewish Agency.

One such absorption center is in the coastal city of Haifa in northern Israel. Young Russians and Ukrainians mill in and out of classrooms where they have intensive Hebrew lessons and begin making new connections through the social programs.

The program focuses on helping young adults who came to Israel alone leaving behind family and friends.

“We don’t just teach our students but offer psychological support at least twice a month during their program,” said Nastia, the director of the program who was once a new immigrant herself. “Toward the end of their stay with us we also plug them into a social support program.”

The students live in a dorm setting and the intensive language lessons are designed to propel them to a level of Hebrew that is sufficient to get them either into the job market or into higher education.

“We have here a staff that works 24/7 to mentor them to support them and every need they have,” Nastia said. “Whether its emotional or practical, we want to help guide them in their next steps in Israel so they can make a solid network of friends. They come alone; they leave as a community.”

Danielle noted that every immigrant has a challenging time not to mention coming from one war—such as in the Ukraine—to another in Israel.

“Now, when they’re coming from a situation of war, integration is that much more difficult,” she said. “We’re dealing here with about 250 lone young adults that have come to Israel to start a new life.”

CBN Israel has been supporting the Jewish Agency in this effort.

“CBN was doing this work before the war started, and now they are helping these immigrants who need a chance and who need an opportunity to get a good start in their new country and to go into a life of meaning and purpose,” Danielle said. “This is so important for the future, not just of the individuals that CBN touches through the Jewish Agency, but overall, for Israel.”

Nastia said the recent immigrants had to navigate a terrible war and then face the uncertainty of starting over in a new country and in a new culture.

“When the war broke out here, immigrants heading to Israel didn’t know how to react but now we see they still want to come. We also expect more immigrants after the war ends. There will be a new wave of immigration,” she said. “If it wasn’t for CBN’s support we wouldn’t have been able to continue helping and hosting our immigrants so thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Nicole Jansezian is the media coordinator for CBN Israel. A long-time journalist, Nicole was previously the news editor of All Israel News and All Arab News and a journalist at The Associated Press. On her YouTube channel, Nicole gives a platform to the minority communities in Jerusalem and highlights stories of fascinating people in this intense city. Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., she lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Tony, and their three children.

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Resurrection Day: Recalling the Jewish Roots of Our Christian Faith

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

Celebrating the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ’s resurrection is more important than ever! In the face of all the evil, brokenness, and despair we see throughout our world, we need to be reminded that good triumphs over evil, that truth conquers all lies, and that life overcomes death. Our world is at a critical crossroads, and we need to see the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at work in our world today.

The murderous onslaught against Israel on October 7, 2023, reminds us that truth is turned upside down with a shocking barrage of lies against Israel, Jesus’ earthly homeland. The just war that Israel is battling on the ground is accompanied by a larger spiritual battle in which Satan is continuing his centuries-old plot to wipe out the Jewish people. Why? Because God has always intended the Jewish people to be at the center of His redemptive plans and purposes.

For those of us who are non-Jewish believers, we believe that God graciously grafted us into the unbreakable eternal promises He bequeathed to the Jews. He sustains us as branches on the deeply rooted olive tree. However, among too many Christians and in our churches, Christianity has become all about us, the Gentiles. The non-Jews.

We too often forget our grafted-in Jewish roots. Without God’s establishment of the Jewish people, culture, and identity through Abraham—and His inspired words through Jewish scribes and prophets—Christianity would not exist. God the Father’s rescue plan was embedded in the Old Testament and completed in the New Testament. On Resurrection Day, our Savior, crucified as an earthly Jew outside Jerusalem and gloriously resurrected, returned to heaven in His ascension 40 days later as our High Priest.   

Ignoring God’s imperishable gifts through the Jews and overlooking their homeland Israel is a cause for concern. Too many Christians seem unwilling, ignorant, or too easily accepting of terrorists’ lies and fabricated statistics about the Israeli Defense Forces’ battle against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. A refresher in the truths of the Bible is timely on Resurrection Day 2024. We rejoice in the historic and sacred Scriptures in the Bible’s 66 books declaring that Israel, the ancestral homeland, and the land God calls His own, is eternal. 

Israel is our spiritual homeland, and Christians are called to do no less than pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the ancient and modern capital. We stand beside Israel not only to receive the blessing in Genesis 12:3—“I will bless those who bless you”—but also because we firmly believe that when we support Israel and the Jewish people, we are taking part in the redemptive story that God is still telling through His chosen people.

During Holy Week, revisiting the four Gospels, the book of Acts, and beyond helps us understand the importance of our Jewish foundation, which sadly crumbled a few centuries later into a Gentile-only faith. Let us recall that Pentecost (Shavuot) is the day the Holy Spirit came upon 3,000 gathered who became Jewish believers. The Gospel swept from Jew to Jew afterwards. For some 10 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, only Jews, with a few exceptions, wore the mantle of our faith and carried the Good News to other lands. Later, God spoke to the brilliant scholar Saul on the Damascus Road. Newly named Paul, he prized his Jewish heritage while preaching and writing the Good News directly to Gentiles in his travels.

Some Bible translations describe Jesus’ own three-year ministry referring to churches, rather than synagogues. He trained His Jewish disciples outdoors, in homes, and on the Temple Mount in the courtyards of the Second Temple. He and His disciples only read from Old Testament scrolls. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. The New Testament was yet to be written.

During each Holy week, we still hear misguided pastors and churches teach that “the Jews rejected and killed Jesus!” They fail to understand the events recorded in the Gospels, which indicate Jesus’ popularity and favor with the Jewish people. They fail to understand that it was not the Jewish people at large who killed Jesus; rather, it was an elite group of Chief Priests and their scribes who collaborated with Rome to eliminate Jesus, because they wanted to maintain their power, corruption, and wealth. This is why they had to arrest Jesus in secret under the cloak of darkness, because they feared the people and what would happen if they arrested Him out in the open (Luke 22:2-6).

There were many to blame for killing Jesus: Chief Priests, their scribes, Judas, Pilate, and the Roman soldiers who carried out the execution. However, we dare not overlook the words of Jesus in John 10:17-18: “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

We must emblazon His words, “No one takes it [My life] from Me” into our minds. Jesus willingly underwent suffering and death on the cross to redeem us. Jesus paid our debt of sin as only He could, the Perfect Lamb. God’s redemptive plan offers us new life, new hope, and our eternal homeland! No one could have stopped God’s plan!

The human heart sank into the weakness of human nature by blaming the entire Jewish race for the worst murder in history. In a sense, Christians themselves have forgotten God’s redemptive plan to save us from ourselves by sending His only begotten Son to die as our perfect substitute. The treasure of the Jewish origins of Christianity was camouflaged by placing blame only on the Jews—instead of looking at ourselves or the crucifixion’s accomplices.

Previously, anti-Semitism marched through the centuries with boots, bombs, tanks, and terror in multiple contexts. While German propaganda ruled during World War II, since October 7, 2023, the barbaric Hamas/Hezbollah/Houthi/Iran war turned on a global switch. Aided by toxic world media’s instant, biased news, anti-Semitism’s resurgence moved to deeper depths, darkening human minds worldwide to believe lies and distortions. It has penetrated organizations, universities, institutions, governments, and yes, even churches. Now, here we are five months into unmitigated Jew hatred that is surging throughout the world.

Nevertheless, God’s sovereignty towers far above evil—and wins! In word and deed, we must press in to remain active on behalf of Israel and celebrate our Savior’s world-changing resurrection. May we worship Jesus, our Jewish rabbi under His Prayer Shawl (Tallit).

Under Your Tallit, I dwell safe and secure. Under Your Tallit, my hiding place is sure. Though life is full of struggle, Your joy is fuller still. Under Your Tallit, I’m in Your sovereign will. Jesus (Yeshua) my High Priest, You tore the veil in two. I stepped inside, You welcomed me to share this place with You, both Gentile and Jew. Yeshua, You are the One Who reigns in majesty. Into Your royal priesthood You have adopted me so that I can be…under Your Tallit! (© 1999 Arlene Bridges Samuels)

Our CBN Israel team wishes you an inspiring Resurrection Sunday overflowing with hope! Join us in praises and prayers!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Prayer Points

  • Pray for strengthened faith and maturity for Christians worldwide.
  • Pray for God’s mercy upon persecuted Christians facing torture and death.
  • Pray for hope in a chaotic world—trusting God, the Alpha and Omega.
  • Pray for Easter safety in Israel for Jewish, Arab, and Gentile believers.
  • Pray for wisdom, unity, and victory for Israel’s government and military.

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 an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel since 1990. She co-edited The Auschwitz Album Revisited and is on the board of Violins of Hope South Carolina. By invitation, Arlene attends Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summits. She also hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

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Holocaust Survivor: Phima’s Story

Phima was just three years old when World War II reached his town of Slonin, Belarus. His parents fled to Uzbekistan with him and his two sisters. One day, his father left for work—and never returned. Sadly, 11 years later, the family learned that his father and six others had been abducted and murdered by the Nazis. 

At age 19, Phima joined the Uzbekistan military, attended university after that, and became a history and economics teacher. He and his wife finally moved to Israel to join their adult children there, made Aliyah, becoming Israeli citizens in 1996, and still live there today.

However, for elderly Holocaust survivors like Phima, now 85, and his wife, the October 7 horrors brought back nightmares of the Nazi onslaught they barely survived. And now, this elderly couple struggles to survive financially as well. Where could they turn for help?

Thankfully, friends like you were there. Through CBN Israel’s partnership with the Jewish Agency, a housing program called Amigour offers affordable living for over 27,000 Holocaust survivors and other needy elderly people. Couples and single seniors can live there in comfort and dignity. Plus, donors are building a new assisted living complex to house even more older Israelis. 

Due to their dire financial situation, Phima and his wife qualify to live there. He exclaims, “Amigour is one big family, and no one ever feels lonely!” Almost half of all remaining Holocaust survivors—about 147,000 people—live in Israel, and 25 percent live below the poverty line. Donors are giving them a nice home and a sense of community in their later years. 

This is only one example of how your gifts to CBN Israel can offer care for those in need. You can also provide food, housing, and essentials for war victims, as well as bringing aid to single mothers, immigrants, and other vulnerable Israelis. 

Please join us in extending a hand to others!

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Biblical Israel: Garden of Gethsemane

By Marc Turnage

Mark and Matthew identify Gethsemane as the place Jesus went with His disciples after eating the Passover within the city of Jerusalem, prior to His arrest (Matthew 26:36; Mark 14:32). These two Gospels provide the only mention of this place within ancient sources; thus, pinpointing its location proves difficult. 

The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus going to the Mount of Olives (22:39), which sits to the east, across the Kidron Valley (see John 18:1), from the city of Jerusalem. Passover pilgrims would consume their Passover meal, which was the lamb offered in the Temple, within the walled city of Jerusalem, but they stayed outside of the city on the surrounding hillsides. 

The name Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew, gat and shemen. A gat typically refers to a “wine press,” but it can refer, as a more generic term, to any pressing installation. Shemen refers to olive oil, which the olive groves on the mountain gave it the name, Mount of Olives. Thus, Gethsemane most likely refers to an olive oil pressing installation. 

Pilgrims to Jerusalem today can visit four different sites, which Christian traditions (Roman Catholic, Russian, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox) have identified as Gethsemane. All reside on the Mount of Olives. The traditions of these sites only date back at the earliest to the fourth century A.D. The most popular is the Roman Catholic site, maintained by the Franciscans. 

This site contains a church built by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and a grove of olive trees. Some of these trees are several hundred years old, but they do not, as some claim, date back to the time of Jesus. The first century Jewish historian Josephus relates how the Roman army that laid siege to Jerusalem cut down all the trees in the vicinity to build their siege engines (War 6:1). 

While we do not know the precise location of Gethsemane, its location on the Mount of Olives offers an important geographic window into Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives sits on the eastern watershed of the Jerusalem hill country. Beyond the mountain’s ridge, the land drastically falls away toward the Jordan River Valley and the area of Jericho and the Dead Sea. This wilderness served bandits and refugees for centuries as it provided natural concealment to those hiding from authorities. 

When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He physically stood at the door of escape. He could have walked less than an hour and disappeared from Caiaphas and Pilate. This heightens the tension of His prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). In that moment, He turned His back on the door of escape to face God’s will that lay in front of Him, the cross. 

This is something that can only be truly appreciated when one stands in this geography and realizes the choices that lay in front of Jesus: how easily He could have saved Himself, yet He submitted to His Father’s will.

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

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