Israeli Wars and Miracles

Part 1

With that in mind, we want to share the testimony of Arye Bar David once again. Arye, whose name means “Lion” is a Messianic Jew who fought with the IDF in 1967 and 1973. His bold confidence in the Lord God Almighty was validated in the midst of another desperate battle.

Arye’s experience as an Israeli Jewish follower of Yeshua who experienced miracles offers assurance that even today, “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

Arye Bar David: So like you’ve heard my name, Arye Bar David means lion or Lion of Judah. My full name is Arye Yehuda, Lion of Judah, son of David, Bar David. So this is the way that my parents decided to call me one of seven children, six brothers and one sister, Sara. And my story, I mean war stories started when I was around 19 years old. I was raised up in a believing home. We are considered to be the first family of Jewish believers in this country. And I never said we are the first, I said we are among the first.

Why do I say this? Because we used to have four times a week Bible studies, four times a week. And every evening we gathered all the family in our home. And four times a week, my father would share with us the Lord.

And we had only two verses in our home, which was our assembly. One on the right side, and it said, “A thousand may fall at your one side, ten thousand on the other side, it will not, in Hebrew eleka lo yiggas, it will not come to you.” It will not even get closer to you, right, if you try to translate it to English. A very strong word. It will not touch you. It will not even come to you. And the other one was from the words of Samuel, saying to Saul, that it is better to have obedience to God than sacrificing, sacrifices.

Now, when you are growing with such words, which means even before you know to read or to write, whenever you look at your father sharing and you see the words to the right and to the left, there were about this size. It enters, and enters, and enters, so deep that I grew with a full faith that God is doing it this way. And what I want to share with you is one of at least I would say like 20 situations that I was involved in them. What is the meaning of this word?

So the first war that I took part in was Six-Day War. I was born exactly 75 years ago. I mean, next week it will be 75, exactly. For me, this was very important to be 75 because I knew that Abraham was 75 when he came to the land. So I wanted always to feel how Abram felt. But what was more impacting me, what happened with Abraham when he heard that his son-in-law, Lot, right, was got, you know, by the five kings. I mean, there was a war between four kings of the north, five kings of the south, and they took him captive. And then we read that Abraham took 310 of his people, and he was pursuing the enemies, these big army of the north, all the way north of Damascus. You have been to Tel Dan already? You have been. I mean, huge, huge, huge army attack. And for me, it was very, very strong, this event, because Abraham always looked to me like a peaceful man, trying always to find the balance right, not quarrel, not with Lot, not with anyone. But the Bible say that he took 310 people, divided them into three sections and made a night attack on this enemy. And he was a full army commander, Abraham, an excellent one. And bringing back everything you know, even Lot and all what he gained from them.

So for me, it was always very clear that being a believer in God is not contradicting being an army commander.

When it was time to go to the Army, I volunteered to be a paratrooper because in those days till today, you know, this is the main you know, the main force that really is in fighting in battles. Right. And I always believe that where it’s dark, then we should be as light. And it should be, we have to be in the most dangerous place. Okay. If we will not be there, who will be there? And so glad to see that most of my family, I mean, later on, they’re all paratroopers and commanders, and so on, but all of them, are in special units. It’s a kind of tradition, everyone goes to very special units. Right. But not contradicting your faith, opposite.

So as I entered into the Army after a very short time, you know, we were, you know, parachutes, you know, jumping all this training. And when I was five months in the Army, the war started and this was ‘67 War. So I parachuted all these six days, which makes you very quick to be much older, in one week, you become like one year older because of what you [Hebrew]. And many time I share with young people or soldiers before they go through the army experiences from the first battle. Okay, because this was my first battle. What is the meaning to go to war? What is war? What are the smells of war? It’s not romantic at all. At all, not. But from that assignment, you know, he got a bullet and the sergeant tried to see what happened and he got a bullet. And I say, what was the welcome to a war?

So I will share with you just one event that happened in Yom Kippur War. So, again, as an experienced soldiers, I was a commander of around 20 soldiers. We arrived we were crossing the Suez Canal. At the beginning, we had to jump as parachuters in Egypt and to do what we knew to do, we knew to attack bases that were shooting missiles against airplane. We knew how to navigate, this was my one of my profession, army profession, I had many, is to navigate at night 30 kilometers, arrived to a certain point that there is a, you know, missiles point and to bomb it, destroy it and run and disappear. Right. And that was what we prepared to do because you know, it started very hard, the Yom Kippur War, very hard. And they wanted to use the paratroopers for a real thing, professional thing.

And suddenly someone came from the other unit and he cried in the darkness, “Is Arye here?” And I said, “Yes, I’m here.” “Can you come to our unit?” I said, “I am now with my soldiers. What is the issue?” “Some of the soldiers came now for the war right from United States, and so and they met Jews for Jesus. Now we know that if you are one of them, so can you come and tell us more about what is this?” It was ‘73. It was very popular then Jews for Jesus, I’m sure all of you have heard about it. So I told him, “Look, if my soldiers will permit me, I will do it, but if not, sorry.” And the soldier, “No, you don’t take him. He’s with us. If you want, you come.” He went to his unit and he told them exactly what my soldiers said. So he told them, they got up and started walking total dark in the forest of pine trees. And they join me.

Now another group that so suddenly they felt righted, a big group of soldiers get up. So they got up and followed them. And a third unit, the fourth unit, a fifth unit, even the head of all this battalion, Katja a very, very good friend of mine, later on all told me what had passed. He told me, “Arye, I had no idea where we are going.” And I found myself surrounded by hundreds, hundreds of paratroopers from my battalion. There was a total silence. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, you don’t prepare yourself in 2-3 minutes for such a thing. And suddenly one that first came to ask if I’m there. He raised his voice, he was a champion of Israel in bikes, you see. So he was very, very thin. He couldn’t jump from the airplane. We had to put potatoes, fill him with potatoes to get another 15 kilos, 20 kilo. So in his high voice. “Okay. Arye start!” Something like this.

Now for that I don’t know, half an hour more I, I start sharing. And unbelievable how God is working all the verses that, you know, I’ve heard all my life as a child from prophecy, Amos prophet Ezekiel, came like this into my memory. And I shared with them, but of course, mainly I did something that usually you don’t do it. You don’t talk about the blood of Jesus, about the cross in Israel, in our society, you’re not allowed to mention the word cross, for them its immediately Inquisition and things like this, you know. And I found myself again and again making this mistake about the blood of Yeshua, about forgiving of sins. About what is the meaning to come before God with clean conscious. By the way, later I found, you know, this verse that Paul shared in 1 Timothy. He tells Timothy, they all can die right with a clear, clean, straight conscious before God. How important for a soldier when he’s in a mission that almost 90% he will be killed, to be with clean conscious. You can’t believe what unclean conscience can make to the most brave soldier, you can’t believe.

And suddenly, maybe half an hour I was talking when I thought that I almost, I had no words anymore. There was a kind of siren that we had to jump with the parachutes to run to the airplanes. Just before the sound was one of the group of the soldiers he raised up, he was already rabbi, he finished six years of study. He said, “Arye is using this, that we are all, you know, afraid of the war, right. Of what is waiting for us.” In order to make it kind of a missionary, you know he tried to do. No it was totally dark. You couldn’t see anything, but you could hear two soldiers, one that was on the right side of him, another on the left side, they pushed him down because he raised up, “At least he gives us hope. What do you give us?”

Part 2

Tim Moore: Do you have the Blessed Hope? Arye went on to describe Jesus as “living water” come down from Heaven to offer life to all.

Arye Bar David: Okay. By the way, I was sharing a lot of the things in my Sinai tours in the high mountains, which is very easy for Israel to understand it. I said in two sentence, God appeared only as a cloud. Only as a cloud when it took them out of Egypt, the cloud of the tabernacle, the cloud above them. The cloud, cloud, cloud never as rain, never, but cloud. But what He promised them when they would arrive to the Promised Land, He would rain. He will give the rain. Now why? For you it doesn’t mean at all. But in Hebrew cloud is “anan” and rain it is “geshem.” What is Geshem? Become incarnate. You see the cloud is incarnated into rain. The rain you can drink it, you can hold it, you can get, you cannot do it with the cloud.

So I promised them that he will eat geshem, become rain, but in Hebrew it is double meaning, become incarnated in the land of Israel. And that’s why when I was talking about [Hebrew] was the real, real thing that you can hold Him, you can embrace Him. He created water, that’s why He compared Him all the time to a living water. To drink a living water. And for them, this was the hardest thing.

So I felt this murmuring. And as we are fighting on and continue all the time, when I turned, you know, to give them commands. Right. I saw that they were talking something against me. Suddenly I stopped the unit in the middle of the fight and I brought them to something like this was Jews around. I was telling and from there and told them to sit down now. And they were a little afraid. Right? “Look, I know what you think about me and what you say about me, I know. Now I tell you, if my faith in Yeshua, the real Son of God, if this is light, I want to be the first one to be killed in this world, in this war.” And I said in Hebrew, I do not deserve to be alive, you understand? Because he’s the most, most defiling thing. It is wrong, right to say that God has a son, I don’t know if you understand what is the meaning. So I don’t want to live anymore. But if not, you will see with your eyes. I don’t know how I dared to say it because all what happened later they saw with their eyes.

And immediately we continued, we continued, we continued fighting all these day, second day at 6:00 in the evening, we came to this ambush where the Egyptians did very good ambush. And they, you know, waiting for us around 60 meters from us. I mean it’s like ten yards, not much. So what happened there? Rami, immediately he got the bullet here and was killed. And all the first line, seven, all wounded. I was not, I didn’t get any bullet then, but I was full of blood of the other soldiers. And I tell them to where to shoot, there was not one bullet shot to cover us, so I decided to get up. I’m getting up, now all the Egyptians are shooting at me because I’m a standing target. And I turned back to them and started walking like this, no running and not, you know, like the soldiers. And I was in the middle of beehives. I don’t know if you have been in the middle of beehives. I was right there, a very good friend of mine, is raising, you know, bees. And it was, buzz, buzz, buzz. And I know that no bullet has permission to touch me. I know it. You know, some rabbis asked, “How did you know it?” I mean, you know, this is went from this age, you see these words of Psalm? You know what I mean? 110, right. And I’m shouting to them, “Now, you see with your eyes.”

And I told them, I told them “God will show me the way.” Now an army, an army to talk like this, immediately will look for somebody else to lead, right? I mean, what’s going on here? And I felt like talking with a lot of authority. If I tell you run, you run. If I tell you run back, you run back. As we started moving, and so the whole reason, I say always like six degrees, I mean, like the top of the mountain there. This is around the angle. I saw a light. Something that I never saw, anything even close to it. You know, I was sitting with rabbis quite many and describe this light. I told him “Look, I know what is a tank projector when he’s bringing a light, you know, four kilometers right. Like two miles. But this was like a thousand times more. And later on, the soldiers cried to me, “How do you know? How do you know?” I said only one word, “The light. The light.” The soldiers got so, so nervous, so nervous. So, I mean, you understand how they felt in this, right? And all started crying, “How do you know? How do you know? How you know? Because that is stupid, it’s impossible.” And they said, I don’t remember even that, I said, oh, this is the light. The light. The light. And God was leading us. Oh, the group from this area to a direction which I don’t know where, I don’t know where, but at the end, after maybe one hour walking in a sand dunes of Ismailia, I felt suddenly the light which I was so, so clear all the way, like vanish. Immediately I understood that we are very close to our unit.

He looked at me, “I didn’t believe that one of you will get out of where you have been alive.” And all of us arrived. Now, praise the Lord, I say again, again for my father and mother. They grew us with full, full opening about what we believe. The first thing that I will talk about wherever I will be is about the Lord. Nothing is more important than this. So we were growing like now the new generation of believers are growing in Israel and we hear it. We see it all around us. We grew with such an openness, and praise the Lord that they grow us this way, that we will be able to grow this way.

Part 3

Tim Moore: Like Gideon, Arye demonstrates that God works mightily through individual men, even professional orchestra musicians who serve to defend their homeland. Arye’s miraculous experience, and the amazing account of the Light that pointed the way for him to lead his unit through enemy lines, was shared on Israeli national TV.

You know war clarifies reality—for nations and for individuals. Politicians, university presidents, college students, and each of us, is demonstrating our true allegiance. Do you stand with Israel?

Even more important than that critical question: Do you stand with Jewish Christ, the Messiah who was derided as the King of the Jews, but Who came for the Jew first and also the Gentile.

We know He is preparing a place for those who trust in Him, and that He is coming soon. But all who place their trust in Him are forever cleansed and given a new heart.

Erez Bar David is Arye’s nephew, who often serves as the guide on our Lamb & Lion Pilgrimage trips to Israel and is my good friend. Erez understands the mounting isolation of Israel in the community of nations, and the lurking threat of expanded conflict and terrorism. It is something his Moshav, a Messianic community outside Jerusalem, lives with on a daily basis.

I asked Erez how Christians in America and around the world could pray for Jews in Israel and beyond. He offered a uniquely Christian perspective on the evil that was perpetrated on October 7th and emphasized the importance of praying for our enemies. that they too will come to salvation in Yeshua.

Erez Bar David: I think the first thing that we ought to do really is to show support, and really are standing with Israel at this time. And I know that it’s a challenge because the overwhelming majority of this world is against Israel, is against the God of Israel. And you see everything that is happening over social media. You see all kinds of activists, haters that would go out on campuses, even in the West, tearing down pictures of those kidnaped kids, all kinds of demonstrations against Jews and Israelis. And I think one of the most basic things that we can do is really to express our support, not just sympathy, but really support. And the fact that we are very clear on our position and the fact that we’re standing with God’s chosen people because it’s basically the same thing as saying we’re standing with God, the God of Israel.

The other thing, of course, is to pray for all those Jewish people and others. We’re actually commanded to pray for our enemies. As hard as it may sound, especially now under these circumstances, and I’ve heard a lot of those terrible, terrible stories that happened in the southern communities, entire families and the way they were butchered, and murdered, and kidnaped, and raped, just horrible, horrible, graphic descriptions. Just basically to pray for everybody, for the Israelis and also the enemies of Israel. That somehow the Holy Spirit will touch their hearts, will change them, because it is a spiritual warfare. And I think it’s very, very easy a lot of times to forget that. Our war, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, it’s against the devil and his realm. He is actually the one that is standing behind and activating all those people just like mannequins, you know, they’re basically puppets on strings. And so, we really ought to pray for Israel, first of all, but also to pray for the other side, and we know what’s coming to them unless they repent.

Closing

Tim Moore: As I said at the beginning of this episode, the God of Israel never slumbers and never sleeps.

Arye Bar David bears witness to the fact that God still performs miracles, and that He will keep His promises to the Jewish people. Even if the entire world turns against them, as Bible prophecy tells us will happen in the End Times, He will preserve and protect them.

If you believe in Jesus Christ, trusting in Him for your salvation, He will preserve and protect you for all eternity. The alternative is more horrible than war or terror, it is the wrath of God.

Jesus gave His life for sinners like me and you. From the cross, He prayed for His enemies, because they did not know what they were doing. If we follow Him, as Erez encouraged we will pray for those who are lost and acting out of their ignorance and sin.

As we do, let’s also recommit to praying for the peace of Jerusalem, knowing that Jerusalem itself, and Israel in general, and even the wide world at large, will not know peace until the Prince of Peace reigns from Mount Zion. In that regard, a prayer for Jerusalem’s peace is really a cry of “Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” Godspeed!

End of Program