Israel’s Six Day War

I opened this episode with a simple word that means peace in Hebrew, Shalom. Followers of Jesus yearn for the arrival of our Prince of Peace. Even now, when we put our trust in Him and receive the Holy Spirit as our Counselor and Comforter, we are granted peace which passes all understanding. But over the 75 years since Israel was reborn as a modern nation state, it has seldom known real shalom. Through overt aggression and dramatic wars and incessant terrorist attacks, through propaganda and continual diplomatic maneuvering, and through irrational and hypocritical efforts like the Boycott, Divest and Sanction Movement, Israel has been the victim of nonstop attacks on its very existence.

Since 1948 two wars have presented kinetic existential threats to Israel, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. To this day, these two wars stand as testimonies to what the world sees as Israel’s tenacity and determination to survive. But we know that they bear far greater testimony to the promise of God that once He had regathered the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, He will guard and protect them.

During my travels throughout Israel on pilgrimage trips, I’ve met many Israelis who can testify to God’s miraculous provision and protection. I’ve encountered many who have amazing testimonies of their own time serving in the IDF. But perhaps none is more powerful than Arye Bar David. Arye, whose name means lion, is from a Messianic family that was among the first to settle in Israel. He helped establish a Messianic moshav, a cooperative Israeli town that still draws followers of Yeshua today. In fact, it is where I take pilgrims for our final celebratory meal together.

I want you to imagine that you are charged with defending your homeland from aggressors who have sworn to wipe you off the map. Think about being surrounded on all sides by hate inspired armies who want to eradicate your people like vermin. Consider how you would inspire your fellow soldiers to fight like lions, even though you are vastly outnumbered. That was Arye Bar David situation in 1967 and in 1973. But he knew something and Someone most of his fellow soldiers were oblivious about or hostile toward.

Hear now the testimony of Arye the lion, as he tells how the Messiah intervened mightily.

Part 1

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 consider 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. Even though we were the first, there was no other one. Only around seven, eight years later, will come another family of Victor Smadja, maybe, you know Smadja father?

Yeah. So why 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. We all played instruments, all of us. I was the only one that continued later, professionally, I played the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra. I was conductor. I was a double bass player teaching in academy and so, so, so. But we all, all the seven we played. My mother was good singer. 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 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 close 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, in, in them. What is the meaning of this word?

So the first war that I took part in was Six-Day War. Okay. 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. Usually people say it was, oh, come on, forget it, forget it. I know for what I’m doing that it was excellent shape, right? What is 75? Nothing. 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, try 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.

Tim Moore: Arye spoke of other young men who glamorized war and were eager to fight. But how some of his buddies quickly learned the harsh reality of battle.

Arye Bar David: 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?

Tim Moore: One of the quotes I had to memorize as a young cadet put it this way: War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. Arye’s experience in the Yom Kippur War bore that out. His own commander, Rami, lacking any faith, became fatalistic and gave himself over to resignation and despair, a choice that would lead to greater tragedy later.

Arye Bar David: 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 soldier 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 airplane. We had to put potatoes, fill him with potatoes to get another 15 kilos, 20 kilo. So in his high voice. “Okay. Are you start?” Something like this.

Now for that I don’t know, half an hour more I, I started 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, like, 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 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.

Tim Moore: Let that thought permeate your heart. It’s not just soldiers who need a clean conscience before the Lord.

Arye Bar David: 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, 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 went to the left side. They pushed him down because he raised up, “at least he give us hope. What do you give us?”

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.

Tim Moore: Eyes to see ears to hear. Listen as Arye describes yet another miracle.

Arye Bar David: And immediately we continue. We continue. 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 him, I told him “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 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 soldier witnessed that, they cried to me, “How do you know? How do you know?” In the moment you understand what happened. And they said it, 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.

Tim Moore: Upon rejoining friendly forces, Arye’s commander was shocked to see him.

Arye Bar David: 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 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 we will be able to grow this way.

Closing

Tim Moore: Although time constraints will not allow us to provide Arye’s complete testimony as part of this, Christ in Prophecy broadcast his full testimony is available at ChristinProphecy.com.

The God of Israel never slumbers and never sleeps. He promised to regather the Jewish people to their ancient Promised Land, not because of their righteousness, but because of His faithfulness. He promised to protect and preserve them again, not because they deserved it, but for His own glory, and because He never breaks a promise.

God’s grace and faithfulness to the Jewish people should encourage every follower of Jesus Christ. He has not called any of us because of our righteousness, but because of His amazing grace. And He is not going to fulfill every promise to us because we deserve it, but because He is faithful.

You may never find yourself on a physical battlefield surrounded by sworn enemies, but in this life you are ensnarled in a desperate spiritual battle with an enemy far more tenacious and malicious than mere mortals.

Lean into the Lord as he revealed to Jahaziel, Son of Zechariah, “Do not be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.” The battle is His. The victory is His. Godspeed.

Christ in prophecy is made possible to the faithful and generous support of viewers like you. Please consider making a donation to Lamb & Lion Ministries so that we can continue broadcasting the message of Jesus’s soon return. Thank you and God bless you.

End of Program