Joel Rosenberg
March 13, 2014
Israel and the Jewish people face many threats these days — from a nuclear Iran, from terrorist rocket fire out of Gaza, from Syrian chemical weapons, and from rising anti-Semitism and a global movement to isolate and delegitimize Israel, especially pernicious in Europe, to name just a few.
Sometimes Jews wonder, “Why are we the Chosen People? How has that worked out well for us? The Pharoah chose us. Hitler chose us. Stalin chose us. The ayatollahs chose us. Choose someone else, Lord, please!” It’s a sad but understandable sentiment.
As we see current threats — and as we remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime’s determination to annihilate all the Jews of Europe — we need to remember that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has never forgotten or forsaken the people He sovereignly chosen. We have, all too often, forgotten Him. But He has never forgotten us.
Indeed, that is why His Word commanded us to celebrate Purim, which takes place this weekend.
Purim is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the remarkable story of how the God of Israel used two faithful believers — Esther and Mordechai — and a movement of prayer and fasting to rescue the Jewish people from an evil Persian regime determine to annihilate them.
Remember: the evil Persian leader Haman literally used the language of annihilation all those years ago. As we read in Esther 3:13, “Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day….”
The Bible tells believers throughout the ages to celebrate this important holiday. This weekend, I will be teaching at a Baptist church in Tampa about the Jewish holiday of Purim, and why it is so important, and how from ancient Persia to Hitler’s Germany to modern Iran, Purim reminds us of God’s faithful love for and sovereign protection of the Jewish people from those who seek to destroy them.
Here are four ways you and your family can celebrate this year:
Learn – Jewish families around the world read the Book of Esther as a family to remember all the details of this amazing story, and Christians should, too. Study the story in its own historic context, to understand what was really happening, and the enormous faith and courage it took for Mordechai and Esther to do what they did. Then consider how the lessons in the historical account apply to Israel’s challenges today’s, and your own.
Pray– We are to praise the God of Israel that He is the Redeemer of the Jewish people, and of all people. We should thank Him that He also saved so many Persian people who turned to the Living God at the end of the story (many people miss this part). And especially in these times, we should follow Mordechai and Esther’s example by praying and fasting for the redemption of the Jewish people amidst this current showdown with an evil Persian regime that wants to annihilate them, and praying for the Persian people to be saved as well. Who knows if God has chosen us for a time such as this?
Give — In the Biblical account, the Lord encourages us to give food and other gifts to the poor. We read in Esther 9:20-22, “Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.” Consider how you can give to the Jewish people today and be a blessing to Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus.
Go — If you’d like to invest to a ministry that is providing food and other gifts to the poor and needy in the Land of Israel, please go to The Joshua Fund’s website at www.joshuafund.net.
May the Lord bless you, and all of Israel, and all of the Persian people this Purim season.
PERMALINK
British PM Cameron announces upcoming trip to Auschwitz. “I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust.”In Uncategorized on March 13, 2014 at 9:23 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and his British counterpart David Cameron attend a joint press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, March 12, 2014, following their meeting. (photo credit: AP)
British Prime Minister David Cameron, on his first state visit to Israel, spoke about his Jewish relatives and about how seriously he takes the history of the Holocaust.
He visited Yad Vashem on Wednesday, the Israeli Holocaust museum and research center.
During his address to the Knesset,Cameron also announced that he will be visiting the Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland later this year, and said, “I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust and to understand just how vital it is to fight discrimination and prejudice in our world.”
Excerpts from an interesting address:
One of the most moving experiences I have had as Prime Minister came in January this year, when I held a reception in Downing Street for 50 Survivors of the Sho’ah. I met some of the most inspiring people and heard some of the most incredible stories.
People like Harry Spiro who couldn’t understand why his mother pushed him out of her house and off to the factory, when she was actually saving his life.
Gena Turgel, who witnessed her brother being shot by the Nazis and lost another brother and two sisters before she was eventually liberated from Bergen-Belsen and went on to marry the British soldier who freed her.
And Ben Helfgott who endured 3 years in a ghetto, 2 labour camps and 3 concentration camps to make it to England where he was reunited with one of his sisters, the only other member of his family to survive. Ben went on to represent Britain as a weightlifter in 2 Olympics set up a society for Holocaust survivors and was honoured in Poland for his reconciliation work between Poles and Jews. And I am delighted that Ben has come with me here today.
All of the survivors have made such an incredible contribution to Britain.
And one of the things so many of them have done – and which never ceases to amaze me – is to go into our schools and share their testimony first hand.
It is hard to imagine the sheer strength of humanity it must take to do that.
And I am determined that long after they are gone and long after we are all gone their memory will be as strong and vibrant as it is today.
As a father, I will never forget last year visiting the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin with my young children and for the first time trying to explain to them quite what had happened.
I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust and to understand just how vital it is to fight discrimination and prejudice in our world.
It is vital that we do all we can with our international partners to preserve the site at Auschwitz, which I will be visiting later this year.
But we need to do more.
That is why I have set up the Holocaust Commission in Britain. A number of the Commissioners are here with Ben and me today and as we visit Yad Vashem together later today, our pledge to Ben will be that Britain will never forget what he and his fellow survivors have taught us.
We will preserve the memory of that generation for every generation to come.
But remembering the past goes far beyond that horrific suffering of a generation.
It is about remembering the long and rightful search of a people for a nation. And the right for the Jewish people to live a peaceful and prosperous life in Israel.
—————————-
>> Pre-order The Auschwitz Escape — releasing on March 18th — retailers providing steep discounts for pre-orders of hardcover, e-book and audio formats
May the Lord bless you, and all of Israel, and all of the Persian people this Purim season.
PERMALINK
British PM Cameron announces upcoming trip to Auschwitz. “I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust.”In Uncategorized on March 13, 2014 at 9:23 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and his British counterpart David Cameron attend a joint press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, March 12, 2014, following their meeting. (photo credit: AP)
British Prime Minister David Cameron, on his first state visit to Israel, spoke about his Jewish relatives and about how seriously he takes the history of the Holocaust.
He visited Yad Vashem on Wednesday, the Israeli Holocaust museum and research center.
During his address to the Knesset,Cameron also announced that he will be visiting the Auschwitz death camp in southern Poland later this year, and said, “I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust and to understand just how vital it is to fight discrimination and prejudice in our world.”
Excerpts from an interesting address:
One of the most moving experiences I have had as Prime Minister came in January this year, when I held a reception in Downing Street for 50 Survivors of the Sho’ah. I met some of the most inspiring people and heard some of the most incredible stories.
People like Harry Spiro who couldn’t understand why his mother pushed him out of her house and off to the factory, when she was actually saving his life.
Gena Turgel, who witnessed her brother being shot by the Nazis and lost another brother and two sisters before she was eventually liberated from Bergen-Belsen and went on to marry the British soldier who freed her.
And Ben Helfgott who endured 3 years in a ghetto, 2 labour camps and 3 concentration camps to make it to England where he was reunited with one of his sisters, the only other member of his family to survive. Ben went on to represent Britain as a weightlifter in 2 Olympics set up a society for Holocaust survivors and was honoured in Poland for his reconciliation work between Poles and Jews. And I am delighted that Ben has come with me here today.
All of the survivors have made such an incredible contribution to Britain.
And one of the things so many of them have done – and which never ceases to amaze me – is to go into our schools and share their testimony first hand.
It is hard to imagine the sheer strength of humanity it must take to do that.
And I am determined that long after they are gone and long after we are all gone their memory will be as strong and vibrant as it is today.
As a father, I will never forget last year visiting the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin with my young children and for the first time trying to explain to them quite what had happened.
I want every child in Britain to learn about the Holocaust and to understand just how vital it is to fight discrimination and prejudice in our world.
It is vital that we do all we can with our international partners to preserve the site at Auschwitz, which I will be visiting later this year.
But we need to do more.
That is why I have set up the Holocaust Commission in Britain. A number of the Commissioners are here with Ben and me today and as we visit Yad Vashem together later today, our pledge to Ben will be that Britain will never forget what he and his fellow survivors have taught us.
We will preserve the memory of that generation for every generation to come.
But remembering the past goes far beyond that horrific suffering of a generation.
It is about remembering the long and rightful search of a people for a nation. And the right for the Jewish people to live a peaceful and prosperous life in Israel.
—————————-
>> Pre-order The Auschwitz Escape — releasing on March 18th — retailers providing steep discounts for pre-orders of hardcover, e-book and audio formats
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Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your head from the Lord Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach.
Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People
Charlotte, NC USA