Jerusalem part 2: Sabbaths and Festivals

This is going to be a bit of a longer post. Lots has happened in Jerusalem, so I will break it up into 3 main parts.

1. Yom Kippur

2. Sukkot

3. Prophecy

YOM KIPPUR

The days leading up to Yom Kippur (day of atonement) and Sukkot (feast of tabernacles) have been very active in Jerusalem. 

As i live near the Kotel (the western wall), there have been several evenings where I was unable to take a straight route back to my hostel. Why? Because soldiers have been directing the mass amounts of pedestrian traffic around the outskirts of the old city, in order to let people walking out of the old city ease of passage.

There was one night in particular when I was thronged by a massive group of people singing and praying as they made their way to the wall. What’s crazy is the video below took place around 11 pm. It seems that here in the desert people will wake up early, sleep in the afternoon, and then be up all night. Some nights people were at the Kotel until 4 am. Some nights people were there until sunrise and just didn’t sleep. Some nights people were bringing their beds with them!

Some of you reading this may be unaware of the religious festivals and where they come from, so here is a short passage regarding Yom Kippur:

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.  And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

-Leviticus 23: 26-32; ESV

You can see in the passage that the day is to be observed from ‘evening to evening’, something unique about how the days are counted here. Also, Hebrew months are counted according to the moon but also work in conjunction with the sun. It’s kind of a Lunar-Solar calendar. This is why the holy days don’t fall on the same day every year according to our Gregorian calendar, which is Solar based.  

After the exodus from Egypt, God told Moses to begin counting the months in the spring, in what is called the Month of Aviv. (Aviv = spring). While it is true that Jews recognize Rosh HaShana as the new year, this is a bit dubious. There are actually 4 Jewish New Years; The religious new year; the civil new year (Rosh Hashana); the new year for trees; and the new year for tithing for cattle.

If all of that sounds really weird to you, bear in mind that in the West we have several New Years as well; The solar new year; the fiscal new year; and the school year, just to name a few. So try not to judge.

Let’s get back to Yom Kippur.

As you read above, this is a day of Fasting, praying, and repenting, as that’s the way people know how to afflict their souls. The 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur are called the ‘Days of Awe’, and are traditionally observed as a time to begin afflicting one’s soul in preparation for Yom Kippur. There are even traditions where Jews would begin to fast in the 6th month, giving them an entire 40 days of fasting altogether. All this is tied into temple worship, as Yom Kippur was the only day of the year when the High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies. (Study Leviticus 16 for more on this).

Bearing in mind the 40 day fast beginning in the 6th month, there is a theory that this may be when Christ had his 40 day fast in the wilderness. I say this because it seems to align with what he read in the synagogue after he had finished fasting/temptation. It doesn’t say he came on Yom Kippur, however, but he does come in and declare a year of release and liberty, which are signs of a Jubilee year, and Jubilee years are to be declared on Yom Kippur.

Behold:

“You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.”

-Leviticus 25:8-10, ESV

Now with that in mind, here is the passage concerning Christ after his 40 days of fasting:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor,

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

-Luke 4:16-19, ESV

Feel free to challenge that. Or not. Maybe just keep reading, because I’ve got a few stories I’ve been itching to share.

There’s a rabbi in Jerusalem who has been inviting people into his home for a Shabbat dinner every Friday night for the last couple of decades. 

Free. 

Every Friday. 

It gets packed. When we arrived they placed us tight like sardines into his apartment with about 60 to 80 other people!

Men sit with men, women sit with women, and the Rabbi’s son and daughter, as well as their sons and daughters, serve all of us patiently and kindly. One young man wanted a seat close to the Rabbi, was denied because the place was full, and became very rude. He disappeared outside, and after the meal started we could all hear him outside yelling obscenities. Gracious, eh?

Anyway, I got seated by a couple of French Jews and some South African Christians from my hostel. We were across the way from a couple of old Jews with impressive beards who spent the pre-meal time singing and banging their hands against the table. Eventually the bread started being passed around. Lots of bread. Tasty bread. Too much bread? 

The rabbi got up to speak, first in English, then in Hebrew. He spoke from the Torah and mentioned that there would be a time for other people to speak. He asked only that anyone who wishes to speak refrain from politics, or religious concepts that are outside of their religious tradition. He was very gracious about it. This guy loves Torah, loves people, and had a lot of wisdom in how he dealt with the bustling bunch of strangers he had in his home, Jews and Gentiles alike. He emphasized the fact that as Jews they need to start opening up and reaching out, which I think plays a big part in his ministry of opening his home to foreigners every Shabbat.

We ate the bread, sang songs and blessings, then salads came out. Then soup, then chicken with rice and veg, and finally some desserts. I exclaimed (in broken Hebrew) to the guys beside me about my amazement at the amount of food. They just kinda shrugged joyfully and said “It’s shabbat!”

The rabbi’s grandchildren came around between courses with garbage bags to collect all the food waste and plastic plates. They were awesome kids. The room was full of noise and messes from food dropping on the floor and spreading across the tables, but the kids never showed a hint of being bothered. They just continued to serve us all graciously, expecting nothing in return.

The rabbi did mention that before this particular evening a family friend had passed away, and his bereaved family were the ones who donated the costs for the evening’s meal. It amazes me that he’s been able to cover these costs every week for the last 20+ years...but I guess he isn’t alone in his funding. This is a great testament to the obedience of ‘caring for the foreigner in your midst’.

Some people did get up to speak, to varying degrees of wisdom, but regardless of how well or poorly they spoke the Rabbi showed his ability to accept their speaches graciously and without judgement. After one particular man got up and spoke in a very Christian way, there were some of the older Jews sighing and showing their displeasure. Rabbi Machlis got up and spoke about the story of Jonah. He mentioned that even though Nineveh was a gentile nation, God still had a heart for them even when the prophet Jonah constantly refused to warn them of their impending judgement. Rabbi Machlis tactfully managed to shut the groaners up without humiliating them. 

This was one of the best Shabbats I’ve experienced. It was hot, loud, messy, and sometimes a little awkward. What’s not to like!? Needless to say we all felt very blessed and incredibly greatful. That was my first experience here with religious Jews. 

Days later I made my way down to the Kotel, a place that I’ve visited many times over the last few weeks. The space around the Kotel is broken up into 3 basic sections: Then men’s section, the women’s section, and the area outside of the fenced-in prayer areas which is a sort of outer court or gathering area. 

On the right side of the men’s section there is a large cave-like area filled with prayer books, chairs, stands, and other objects to assist worship. 

One hot afternoon I walked in there to avoid the blistering sun while doing some prayers. I picked up a siddur (prayer book) and set myself up with a stand and began. I opened my eyes after some time and realized that I was surrounded by soldiers, fully armed, also engaging in their prayers. I didn’t think much of it until I finished and started walking out when it occurred to me that ‘I’ve just been praying in a cave surrounded by men with guns... I’m definitely in the Middle East.’

I went back there on Yom Kippur, and the amount of guys in there praying and singing was intense. Too loud to concentrate. The wall and the area surrounding it was packed like crazy the night of Yom Kippur. Full of adults and kids and girls who were DRESSED UP AS IF THEY WERE GOING TO THE CLUB!! Can you imagine? The night when everyone is pouring their hearts out and trying to shed of the desires of the flesh to be as righteous as they can be, and here are these young girls going down there as if to get picked up by guys at the bar?! 

Pretty funny.

I guess maybe they were hoping to give some of the old men a few more reasons to repent? Maybe help them see their lusts and weaknesses?! 

Hahah, oy vey.

Allegedly Israeli’s also think it’s funny. I’ve heard that comedians and sitcoms pick on these girls every too. 

Maybe they’ll get their repenting in next year...

As the sun set and the Yom Kippur drew to a close, many went home to break their fasts and rest. Then for a couple days the world seemed to relax and return to business as usual. 

Briefly.

SUKKOT

Finally, the reason I came to Israel! 

Party time!!!!

Check out these sukkahs

The sukkah above is outside of the Kehillath that I’ve been attending. It’s where I’ve been doing most of my typing. The next picture is of the “roof” of it.

The roofs of sukkahs are supposed to be made so that part or all of it allows you to see the sky. Many of the sukkahs around here have palm leaves on top, but more of them had bamboo, as do the ones below.

People built so many sukkahs. Every bar and restaurant had one, tops of buildings had them, people set up tents in the park and on top of our hostel, and the apartments in the religious quarter were littered with sukkahs. Behold!

The next photo is in front of the Hurva synagogue in the Jewish quarter. There is a massive communal sukkah with a large golden menorah in the front of it (which I went into to eat, but was unable to find a free chair.) In front of it there’s a little sukkah. I walked into this one and was able to speak enough Hebrew to ask if i could sit and eat, and was welcomed to sit with some Chabadnik lookin’ guys.

The men I was sitting with (one about 60, the other about 30) asked me if I was going to bless my food before I ate. I know the blessing over bread, but as I was eating some pastry they taught me a different blessing. In English it translates to “blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates varieties of nourishment.”

“Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha olam, borei minei mezonote.”

ברוך אתה יי אלוהינו מלך העולם בורא מיני מזונות

After this one of them began to explain to me their mystical reasoning for all the massive amounts of blessings that they have. This is gonna sound weird, and I don’t mean to be disparaging, but I needed to share this so that y’all can get a glimpse of what the Kabbalists teach each other.

He told me that in the beginning, Adam was apart from his wife for 130 years. In that time his ‘seed’ was spread over all the earth (use your imagination), and is still around us needing to be returned to heaven. When they see a ‘spark’, they bless it to lock it up, and return it to heaven, effectively helping to heal the world. Even if they don’t see spark, the blessing on all foods helps to insure that no sparks/seeds are left hanging around. But enough about that. On to the my next night of orthodoxy!

Once sukkot has begun I could hear singing every night from my window when I lay down to sleep. On the 3rd night I packed my kippa with me (the little hat that Jews wear) and walked on down to the synagogue in the Jewish quarter, boldly walking right into the mix of orthodox men all dressed in black and white flocking in and out of the entrance. 

I asked them if i was allowed in, and as I had a kippa to wear it was all good. It was about 10 p.m. as I walked in and the band was just setting up. There was a violinist, trumpeter, singer, and keyboardist - who also provided a fast klesmer backing beat that he very well could have stolen from a 90’s dance mix.

This is the inside of the synagogue:

The benches were all removed when I went in, and the band was setting up on the altar at the back of the room. A young Jew with Down syndrome was doing security for the band and keeping other kids off of the stairs and stage, which kept him very busy because kids love to climb. The little square in the middle, let’s call it a prayer gazebo, was covered in the little guys crawling all over it.

On the left side of the altar/stage was where the dancing began. Orthodox men (only men, no women allowed in the men’s section) hold hands, kick up their feet, and dance in circles. Sometimes there are circles within the circles. I grew up in the punk scene, and we used to dance in circles. This isn’t the same, but it wasn’t far off! It was loud, fast, full of young dudes with zits and a bunch of middle aged dudes with beards... everyone dressed in black and white... add a Mohawk or two and some electric guitars and you just might think you’re at a punk show!

This was an all ages event. There were old guys dancing, fathers, teenagers, and little kids all grabbing hands and kicking their legs out bumping into each other and singing along.

As I stood around looking completely out of place I did get a few smiles from some of the more jovial dancers. “Good sign” I thought. “I’ll get in to this dancing soon enough.”

But for a while I watched as a man almost all in black came out and began to direct the dancers along the left side of the room. He had them in lines, causing some to stand still and some to move past each other, then he gradually got everyone who was around the ‘prayer gazebo’ to get out of the way. 

I could see what he was planning, and i was very excited. He was getting ready to make these guys dance in a massive circle around the entire synagogue.

And sure enough, that’s what happened. 

What’s more, is as it happened one of the lines of dancers put their hands out and pulled me in to dance in circles with them! I made it a couple times around, then backed off for a bit. It was only a minute or two before these two teens grabbed me and made hand motions telling me to push everyone with them. Pushing? Crashing into people? Running around in a circle and kicking our legs in the air?

YES!

We were crashing into old guys and dads, grabbing hands of little kids while laughing and singing the whole way around. When we passed the stage there was a gap between us and the dancers ahead of us, so a number of guys linked arms and charged through the open space, crashing into the Jews up ahead. In punk lingo we call this the ‘wall of death’.

We made it around the synagogue once more and then the lights went out and everyone stopped.

Then came the jugglers.

Juggling fire.

In the middle of a synagogue.

As they juggled, a heavy-set chabadnik sang a line and then the whole synagogue sang back in response. This happened a few times, then they all sang along and the fire jugglers stopped juggling and began dancing around with fire as the rest of the group picked back up and danced circles around them! 

Madness!

When things began to wind down I went to go and find these two teens who I had been dancing and talking with. In broken Hebrew and broken English we said thanks and goodbye, and as I was turning to leave and go home a little Hasidic kid heard me talking English and asked me in a mix of Hebrew and English what the pins on my shirt were. I told him they were rock n’ roll pins, but he didn’t understand. Instead he asked me what I was. “Ma ata? Ma ata? Notzri? Muslimi? Yehudi?”

Basically saying “what are you? Christian, Muslim, Jewish?”

I said Notzri, and he immediately turned toxic. He began cursing Yesu and swearing at me, telling me to leave, and then started to walk away. I feigned hurt feelings, and asked him why, but he came back and just continued cursing. There was another kid with him, looking more Chabadnik than Hasidic (Chabadniks don’t grow out the hair of their temples), and he just looked confused. So I shook my head, wished them both good night, and made my way out.

It was a bit of a ‘fly in the ointment’ so to speak, but not enough to outdo the welcome I receieved from everyone else. 

That was my second night of immersion with Orthodox Jews. We’ll get to the third and final episode shortly. Just a bit more about the happenings around Jerusalem first. 

During the first day there were people down at the Kotel observing the traditions and commandments of gathering the four species together. As it’s written: 

And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

-Leviticus 23:40, ESV

These days this consists of the leaves and branches of date palms, willows, myrtle, and lemons! Have a look at these guys down at the Kotel praying, singing and shaking their lulavs and etrogs together (the lulav is the bunch of leaves and the etrog is the citron/lemon).

The big fancy cylinder on the right there is actually a container for a Torah scroll. The day after sukkot is it’s own festival, called simchat Torah (rejoicing in the Torah) where these Torah scrolls are pulled out and everyone carries them around, doing what? You guessed it - dancing, praying, and singing!

We learned something interesting about the symbolism of shaking the leaves together with the citron. The lulav symbolizes the tree, and the etrog symbolizes the fruit. When shaking them the practice is to “smash” them together. Why do they do this? It’s a reminder that the fruit does not come by itself, but that it comes from the trees. Without the patience and time taken for a tree to come to it’s full, there is no fruit produced. We reap the fruit, but not without the root or the tree. To sum it up, life ain’t just a basket of fruit!

The fruits of this festival did bring people from lots of different nations. There was a campsite that a number of messianics had set up in Independance park, where they were observing the commandment to live in temporary dwellings and sleep under the stars. They were also eating their meals in and around a communal sukkah which they welcomed us into one night to share food and drink. Another day had a parade of nations who support Israel marching through town, handing out little flags while they sang and danced. (Keep that in mind for when we get to the prophecy section of this post.)

On another night we were enjoying some beer and wine in the New city, watching some Chabadniks play and sing in the middle of a busy street around 11:30 p.m. In between some of their songs they let a couple of 4 year olds take the microphone and say whatever it is they were saying. The night times of the festival often found old men and children, Orthodox and non-Jews, all dancing together.

Around 2 a.m. one evening we were watching a group of buskers rip it up near the Jaffa Gate, and there were whole families with their little ones wide awake and hanging out, not looking as though they had any intention of sleeping or going home. 

The celebrations continuously ramped up towards the last day, then climaxed on the 8th day - Simchat Torah. Which for us, involved a conflict with some Hasidic kids down at the Kotel.

To help understand, this is part of the staff that one of the guys in our group was carrying.

The lettering on it is what archeologists would call ‘proto-Canaanite script’, which is simply referred to as Paleo Hebrew.

Because it has the sacred name inscribed on it, this causes some tension with Jewish tradition, where writing the sacred name is almost as taboo as speaking it.

On the evening of Simchat Torah I walked down to the wall to see all the revelry and hear the singing, which is always impressive with huge groups in chorus together. I arrived and went to the men’s section, then walked out and saw about 4 men sitting together, two of them being guys I know from the hostel. One of them is of course my friend with the staff, Malchi, and the other is an older English guy who wears his hair in a sort of matted dreadlock. 

As we sat and chatted a group of Hasidic kids noticed us. There were 3 particular kids who had nothing better to do than to run around and find themselves some entertainment while their parents were down in the prayer sections. They first noticed the man with the dreadlocks, and came over looking at it and started making fun of him, making hand gestures to tell him he should cut it off. He kept calm and waved them off, but they weren’t satisfied with that. They started asking us (in Hebrew) if we pray to Yesu, which is the slanderous name they use for Jesus. It’s actually an acronym that translates to something like ‘may his name be forgotten’.

We didn’t answer yes or no, but they started saying “Yesu crazy! Yesu crazy!” and spitting and cursing his name. A couple guys in our group tried to dissolve it by saying “shalom, shalom aleikem”, but they continued. The man with the staff, Malchi, got upset. “They’re cursing our king!” He said, then stood up and began speaking in tongues with his right hand in the air. He’s a tall guy, and for whatever reason this freaked the kids out and dispersed them for a moment.

He sat back down and we continued to chat, but I could see the kids scouring the ground hunting for stones or rocks to pelt us with. While they were hunting, a couple of South American messianics showed up and and chatted with us. One of them had a shofar on his back, and as we talked a Jewish man with his kids came and asked him if he would blow the shofar. He happily obliged, and sounded it loud and proud, drawing the attention of everyone in the whole complex. We were then surrounded by about 30 kids, all wide eyed and staring at us, now becoming aware of Malchi’s staff, and curious about these weird lookin’ shofar blowin’ Christians in their midst.

Things were less tense for a while, and Malchi got a lot of questions about his staff by some kids who were generally interested in what was on it, and he called me over to try and interpret for him. I was able to answer a few simple questions, and when they understood the sacred name was written on it things started to heat up again. The 3 main kids who had been hassling us before returned to trouble making, creating a larger mess of kids cursing and spitting. Malchi burst out speaking in tongues again, fire showing in his eyes as he directed it at the core group of trouble makers. Some teenaged kids saw this and started yelling at us, threatening to pick up their bottles and throw them, now banding together with the 3 main kids. Malchi pulled out his phone to record the conflict, and at that point a guy who works on the grounds came to tell him he couldn’t film there. Malchi explained what was going on, so the guy went to talk with the kids.

The kids and the teenagers chased him away.

Then the bottles started flying at us.

As we stood up to avoid projectiles, other kids were surrounding us and stealing our chairs, telling us to go and cursing Yesu. Before any of us could figure out how exactly we should react, an older guy with a kippa came and helped us out. He yelled at the kids, they yelled at him, and he told us to come and sit nearer to him where we wouldn’t be out in the open and prone for more attacks. 

The kids and teens were not happy.

They yelled and screamed at him.

Then a Chinese lady who was near to us and talking with a couple of the guys in our group tried to intervene. She walked to the kids with open arms saying “we love Israel!” To which all the kids screamed at the top of their lungs! (I actually found that one pretty funny.)

Our Jewish aid, calm and not the least bit perturbed, could see that this wasn’t going to de-escalate anytime soon, so he called over some soldiers. They came, they yelled, and that put the whole thing to a stop.

We thanked this guy a lot, but he just brushed it off. He said to me “you see these kids? See how they curl their hair? Fanatics! See their women? See how they cover their hair? Fanatics! Me, I’m a Chabadnik. We’re no fanatics. See our girls? Look over there - no covered hair, they’re gorgeous! Not fanatics.”

About a minute after he told me this, all of the ‘fanatic’ Hasidics began making a mad dash towards the east side of the complex. All the teens, kids, mothers with strollers, little girls, and men rushed like crazy people away to the left side exit, effectively clearing the whole area. Our new Chabadnik friend explained it to me:

“Their rabbi is an old man. He prays all day long. He’s been here praying for days, and now he goes home to sleep. They worship him! They’re all running to touch him, to see him, to follow him. See? Fanatics!”

About 10 minutes later a new group of young Chabadnik lookin’ guys showed up to sing and dance, and rejoice in the Torah. We stayed a short time longer.

Then I went home to rest and to digest the things I learned about what it means to deal with the Ultra-religious here in the Holy Land.

PROPHECY

I see that you’re still here, still reading, and have managed to remain interested enough to see what kind of things I might have to say about prophecy.Great! As a measure of gratitude I’ll try and keep this as short as possible without glossing over anything important..which means it won’t be as short as I’d like to promise.

I’ve got 3 things that I want to share. The first one is encouraging, the second one I’m not sure I fully understand, and the third...well...you need to repent - and pray that I’m either wrong in my understanding, or that there will be power given to us for the ability to prepare for what’s coming.

#1

This year we celebrated the 70th year of Israel being a nation. Regardless of your personal opinions regarding the behaviour of the state, we see that the children of Israel have been brought back into a land that they were driven out of nearly 2000 years ago. When the temple was destroyed by the Romans the Jewish world went into mourning, and remained in exile among nations that generally disregarded them. 

There is a story from the Babylonian Talmud in a tractate called Berakhot 31a, where a group of rabbi’s are getting ready to celebrate something or other, and one of the rabbis smashes a glass and the celebration turns quite serious.  He tells them it is forbidden for one to fill his mouth with laughter in this world. They all exclaim “Why? Surely we would die! What mitzvah can shield us?”

His explanation comes from the psalms:

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
And we are glad

-Psalm 126:2-3, NKJV

You can see that his reasoning is that when the nations come to the Jews and say “surely your God has done great things for you”, then they can begin again to have joy and to exclaim that surely “God has done great things for us!”.

During this festival there is a parade of nations who come up every year to stand with Israel, and proclaim that they see the return of the people as a move of God. Some of the Jews who live here see this as a fulfilment of this prophecy. So the rabbis who accept this are ecstatic, because they see that it’s time for them to admit that “Surely the Lord has done great things for us!”

I want to finish that prophecy with an observation about the festival, concerning the number 7 and it’s relation to scripture. 

The festival lasts 7 days. 

During the festival, in temple times, they would sacrifice 13 bulls on the first day, 12 on the second, 11, 10, 9, 8, and 7 on the last day. This makes a total of 70 bulls. According to the story of the Tower of Babel the languages and nations were divided into 70. 

It is now the 70th year that Israel is a nation.

It’s written in the prophets that in the age to come, men from every nation will come up to Jerusalem during the festival of Sukkot. We see a growing number of nations joining in this already.

Cool, no?

#2

There was a man I met who considers himself a prophet, and he told me something that sounded not only far-fetched, but not in line with my scriptural understanding. I was thinking on it the next morning when an instruction from the bible came into my head “Thou shalt not despise prophecy”.

“Ok...” I thought. I let it sit in the back of my mind. That morning was a sabbath so I walked down to the Kehillath and caught the end of the main message. Much of it was in Hebrew, and I arrived late so was not able to get an interpretative earpiece til afterwards. They gave communion, which they do every sabbath, and as I’ve been there a few times I decided to partake.

Afterwards I sat by a Swiss woman who saw it fit to caution me. She said “today was not a regular communion. Today they distributed the communion ‘according to the table of Melchizedek’. There is a scroll from Qumran that speaks about the times to come regarding Israel and it’s 70 years. Be strong, hold on to what you have, because these next years will bring on the one hand joy and jubilee - but on the other judgement and conflict.”

“Okay.....” I thought.

Melchizedek, by the way, means King of Righteousness. He was the only priest that Abraham paid tithe to, and his name and title is synonymous with Messiah and the coming kingdom. Why they gave communion ‘from the table of Malchizedek’ is beyond my understanding.

I remembered the phrase that entered my mind earlier that day, “Don’t despise prophecy”. Can it be that the other far-fetched prophecy was not what I was to be aware of, but rather this one?

#3

The Golan Heights is an area in the north of Israel that was captured in 1974 after the Yom Kippur war. Syria took advantage of the holy day and sent soldiers and tanks in to destroy Israel when they were not prepared.

As a result of the war Israel captured the Golan Heights, Jews and people from all over the world moved in, and now the land is fertile and fruitful. In recent years there has been an oil deposit discovered there, adding to Israel’s benefit and Syria’s bitterness.

In the last week this appeared in the news:

With the assistance of Russia, Syria and their allies are a real threat. It also stands to reason that Putin would assist Syria to take back the Golan in order that Bashar Al-Assad acquire the oil and have something with which to pay back Putin for his help. Syria has been publicly stating that they are determined to take back the ‘occupied Golan Heights’.

Here is a quote from the Iranian general regarding his confidence:

“Today an international Islamic army has been formed in Syria, and the voices of the Muslims are heard near the Golan”.

Bear in mind that the Golan Heights is where Mount Megiddo is - aka Har Megiddo/Armageddon.

While there are certainly other factors that need to come into play before we expect to see the battle of Armageddon, this particular situation resembles a war between Gog and Magog that we see in Ezekiel 38. 

As it’s written:

In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.“Thus says the Lord God: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme and say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth.

-Ezekiel 38:8-12, ESV

Sounds like the Golan, no? If you read the whole chapter it gets pretty intense. Some of the names mentioned therein are confusing, as we may not be sure who exactly it is speaking of. For example, Kush is usually translated at Ethiopia. There is debate about this, as with some of the other names. However, we see in the passage that there is a massive army coming against the mountains of Israel. This army comes from the north. Let’s continue:

“Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, my wrath will be roused in my anger. For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. Every man's sword will be against his brother. With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
-Ezekiel 38:17-23, ESV

Whatever is happening in the Golan Heights, we are to watch and prepare. It is often the case that one half of prophecy takes place and then there is a gap of time before the second half occurs. Also, we never truly know if prophecy has taken place until after the fact, and then we can look back and say “Yup. That was that.”

That being said, there are lots of other signs around this world that show sings of the end, with storms increasing, earthquakes of greater intensity, floods, famine, wars and rumours of war. So keep your head up, because the footsteps of Messiah are drawing near, but you can be sure that first there will be trouble. 

Hold on to what you’ve received.

Prove all things, and test the spirits of those who claim themselves prophets.

Let the righteous draw near.

Let the wicked repent.

Amen