The Rest of the Hanukkah Story Standing With Israel - SUSAN MICHAEL/ICEJ CHARISMA NEWS

Will our nation and our churches pass the Israel Test? (iStock photo )

The Rest of the Hanukkah Story

12/2/2015 SUSAN MICHAEL/ICEJ  charisma news

The story of Hanukkah takes place during the period between the Old and New Testaments, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes became the King of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. While the Hellenization of the region, including Judea, already threatened the survival of the Jewish religion, Antiochus seemed obsessed with ensuring the demise of the Jewish faith and thereby, the future of the Jewish people. 

He not only murdered the High Priest, Onias III, but he slaughtered 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem. All sacrifices, the service of the Temple and the observance of the Sabbath and feast days were prohibited. The Temple was dedicated to Zeus, the Holy Scriptures were destroyed, and the Jews were forced to take part in heathen rites.

In his attempt to destroy every trace of the Jewish religion, the final assault was the slaughter of a pig on the sacrificial altar of the Temple, thereby desecrating it. The Maccabean family, from the priestly line of Aaron, led a revolt against this evil ruler and miraculously experienced victory after victory over the mighty Greek forces, until at last the Temple could be purified and its services restored.

As I noted in my article "What Jesus Understood About Hanukkah," the revolt against the forces of Hellenization actually saved the Jewish people from extinction because they would have assimilated into the pagan culture around them. This preservation of Judaism and the rededication of the Temple helped set the stage for the birth of Jesus into a traditional Orthodox Jewish home in Judea. It is no surprise that He went to the Temple for Hanukkah—the Feast of Dedication—in John 10.

The End of Antiochus and His Empire

But there is more to the story. The rededication of the Temple took place on the 25th day of Kislev, which was Dec. 14, 164 B.C. Within weeks, if not days, the evil Antiochus IV Epiphanes died suddenly. The Greek historian Polybius said that Antiochus was on an expedition to the eastern part of the empire to rob another temple when he died of a sudden illness and "certain manifestations of divine displeasure."

Polybius hints at the very real possibility that the king suffered judgment by God. Whether he understood it to be the God of the Jews we do not know. The noncanonical book of 2 Maccabees claims that he did. But his sudden death is just one example out of many of the demise of those who have come against the Jewish people. Upon the king's death, the Seleucid kingdom began to weaken and fell into irreparable decline.

The Israel Test

The Bible is clear that God will judge the nations over their treatment of the Jewish people. Both Old and New Testaments teach this, and the principal has been played out over and over throughout history.

The most obvious explanation is the Jewish people are very special to Him. He did not just choose them, but created them through Sarah, who was past child-bearing years, and He takes their treatment by others very seriously.

More than this, God uses Israel to test the hearts of the nations, thereby exposing either their goodness, which leads to blessing, or their evil intent, which leads to judgment. Some have likened Israel to litmus paper that when dipped into water shows whether the water is acidic or alkaline. Israel exposes what is in the heart of people.

George Gilder, a venture-capitalist businessman, proposes in his book The Israel Test that Israel presents a moral and ethical challenge to the world and therefore has become the ultimate fault line. At the root of the Israel Test is the knowledge that Israel is contributing more to the human cause through its scientific, technological and financial advances than any other country in the world, except the U.S. He predicts that over the next two decades, Israel will grow into the dominant economy in the Middle East and one of the most productive economies in the world.

This is the test that Israel presents to the world: What is your attitude toward people who excel you in the creation of wealth or in other accomplishments? Do you aspire to their excellence or do you seethe at it? Do you admire and celebrate exceptional achievement or do you impugn it and seek to tear it down?

God is using Israel to test the hearts of the nations, and their future will be determined by how they respond. Could it be that the same test is at operation within the church?

In Romans 11, the apostle Paul addresses the attitude of the Roman church toward the Jewish people. He warned the believers to make sure their attitude was humble and honoring of the Jewish people. He even cautioned them about possible judgment by God if their attitude was not right. A church that honors its Hebraic roots, as wild branches that are grafted into the olive tree, receives great strength and nourishment. To dishonor the very root that supports our faith brings spiritual decline and even death.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes failed the Israel Test and his kingdom is long gone. Others throughout history have also fallen short on the test and experienced decline and extinction. My prayer is that our nation and our churches pass the Israel Test, exhibiting good hearts, and experience the many blessings God has promised.

Susan Michael is the U.S. Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem icejusa.org.

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How to Avoid the Middle-Eastern Shuk (in dealing with Iran)

How to Avoid the Middle-Eastern Shuk

8/26/2015 SUSAN MICHAEL/ICEJ  charisma news

Why weren't Israelis like Benjamin Netanyahu brought in to help broker the Iran nuclear weapons deal? (Reuters file photo )

Two out of every three Americans, and 75 percent of Israelis, are opposed to the administration's deal with Iran because it does not block the world's No. 1 sponsor of terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons. On the contrary, it legitimizes the very nuclear program Iran denied they had, and allows for their full acceptance as a nuclear state at the end of the agreement

There is a very good possibility that in early September, Congress will be able to muster the votes to at least bring about a show down with the administration, if not actually produce a veto-proof majority vote. One thing is for sure, during the week of the vote, the halls of Congress will be filled with thousands of American citizens lobbying their members of Congress against the deal thanks to a number of groups planning lobbying days, press conferences and rallies then.

Opposing the deal is one thing. But, the question that everyone wants answered is: What is the alternative? Its opponents say the alternative is to broker a better deal. However, the fact is that the American negotiating team will not be able to broker a better deal unless they learn to negotiate like an Iranian.

The Middle-Eastern Shuk

Most Middle Easterners can negotiate Americans under the carpet, because they literally grow up negotiating everything, from the cost of fruits and vegetables in theshuk (market) to higher-priced items like appliances and home goods. Americans only negotiate when they purchase a car or a house. So, what can we learn from the Middle-Eastern shuk?

No. 1: Never pay the stated price. A shopkeeper will not quote the price that he expects you to pay but an inflated price that leaves room for negotiating. Never agree to the stated demand. Always offer less.

No. 2: Never start where you want to end. Once a price has been stated, respond with an offer that is so ridiculously low that it is embarrassing. This is where many Americans stumble, because they do not want to look like they are cheap, nor do they want to insult the poor merchant. But if you do not counter low, you will end up paying too much.

No. 3: Make them think it really hurts. Middle Easterners love to play along with their opponent by telling how much the counter offer hurts while displaying great emotion and perhaps emphatic gestures. Compare this to the average American who usually avoids any display of emotion. They are not used to such reactions, so they will quickly give in and pay the high price thinking they may have insulted or hurt the feelings of their negotiating partner.

No. 4: Don't trust your opponent. Americans are at heart a very honest people, and look down on any type of lying. So, they assume everyone else is telling the truth like they are! In the Middle East though, truth can be sacrificed to achieve the goal of leaving the negotiations with honor and respect back home. Therefore, don't believe everything your opponent says.

No. 5: Be prepared to walk away. When the stakes are high, and the deal being brokered is just not good enough, then the buyer has to be willing to walk out the door. The merchant knows then that he has lost the sale, and he will run after the buyer with a new offer. Being too eager to make a deal is perceived as weakness and will be taken advantage of. Always be willing to walk away.

Only those privy to the negotiations know how well or how poorly the American team did. But, based on their eagerness to close a deal, and the response of the Iranians, who said they got everything they wanted, it appears the American team was out-negotiated.

To broker a better deal with Iran, perhaps we should consider bringing in the Israelis to negotiate for us. They have much more experience in the Middle Eastern shuk.

Susan M. Michael is U.S. Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, icejusa.org.

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Anti-Semitism Rears Its Ugly Head in Many Forms

4/14/2015 SUSAN MICHAEL  charisma news

The relentless persecution of Jews worldwide is tragic. (Reuters file photo)

Exodus 17 tells how Amalekites, descendants of Esau's grandson, attacked the children of Israel in the desert of Sinai during their exodus from Egypt. This unprovoked attack was especially serious and the Israelites battled all day, only achieving victory at nightfall.

In response to this demonstration of cruelty, the Lord told Moses that he would blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Moses later recounted: "The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 17:16). Amalek's attack on the children of Israel was now a perpetual war between him and the God of Israel.

Amalek was not just a foe, but a genocidal one, so in Jewish tradition the Amalekites came to represent the archetypal enemy of the Jews present in generation after generation. It is interesting to note that some one thousand years later, in the book of Esther, the arch villain Haman was an Amalekite who led the plot to kill the Jews.

The Longest Hatred

This evil pursuit of the Jewish people has continued for millennia, which is why historian Robert Wistrich calls anti-Semitism "the longest hatred." Every time this genocidal hatred seems to be dying out it reinvents itself with a different look and a different name. But the goal is always the same: to rid the world of the Jewish people.

In the ancient world, classical anti-Semitism was a clash between pagan rulers, who demanded obedient homage, and their Jewish subjects, who would only worship and obey the God of Israel. The Jewish people could not bow down to earthly leaders, and were bound by the Sinaitic Law to certain behaviors and observances that set them apart and incurred the wrath of their rulers.

Religious Anti-Semitism

After the rise of Christianity, the problem did not go away. It is a travesty that anti-Semitism was then found in the heart of Christian Europe. Indeed, in the annals of those who persecuted and hated the Jewish people are professing Christians. Space does not permit a full treatment of this sad story, but centuries of state and church-backed denigration, persecution, forced conversions, and expulsions actually paved the way for the Holocaust.

Proof of this is found in the fact that Martin Luther's anti-Semitic writings were published and distributed by the Nazis in order to justify their anti-Jewish laws and eventually their extermination program. Hitler admitted as much when he told two Catholic Bishops who questioned his policy that "he was only putting into effect what Christianity had preached and practiced for 2000 years."

Racial Anti-Semitism

The form of anti-Semitism found in Nazi ideology was not based on religion, however, but on racial theories about the superiority of the Aryan race. Whereas Christianity had sought the conversion of the Jews, and state leaders had sought their expulsion, the Nazis sought the "final solution to the Jewish question," the murder of all Jews and their eradication from the human race.

The good news is that these older forms of anti-Semitism are socially unacceptable in the 21st century. Religious bigotry and racism are frowned upon and are antithetical to the prevailing ideologies of globalism and secularism.

Political Anti-Semitism

The bad news is that Israel, a Jewish nation-state, is also antithetical to both globalism and secularism. Therefore, the modern form of anti-Semitism that has found a stronghold and large-scale acceptance today is political. It is against the Jewish state and is called anti-Zionism.

There is still religious anti-Semitism, but this time it is found throughout the Muslim world and is responsible for the genocidal rhetoric emanating from Iran. Muslim anti-Semitism, however, is tolerated by anti-Zionist Western leaders who blame it on Israeli policies.

Not all criticism of Israel can be considered anti-Semitic. However, criticism of Israel becomes anti-Semitic when it delegitimizes the state and questions its right to exist, when it uses anti-Jewish rhetoric and stereotypes or compares Israelis to Nazis, when it judges Israel by a different standard than for any other nation, and when it becomes an excuse to attack local Jewish individuals and institutions.

During the 2014 war in Gaza, a defensive war on Israel's part to prevent further missile launches from Hamas, there were attacks on synagogues and Jewish citizens in France, refrains such as "Jews to the Gas" in Germany, the use of swastikas at anti-Israel demonstrations, and anti-Semitic caricatures in newspapers and social media.

While America is a safe-haven today for Jews fleeing Europe, low levels of anti-Semitism here should not be taken for granted. As American Christians, we should take every opportunity to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, attending their Holocaust remembrance events, and teaching our children to recognize anti-Semitism and take a stand against it.

This generation's battle is not so much with the Amalek of old, and its pagan, Christian or racial anti-Semitism, but with the Amalek of today—the rabid anti-Israel movement that demonizes the Jewish people and nation while excusing Muslim anti-Semitism. This one is on our watch, and it is our responsibility to stand against it.

Susan Michael is the U.S. Director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem www.icejusa.org and creator of IsraelAnswers.com. The ICEJ is bringing Holocaust education to Christians worldwide through its partnership with Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.       

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