Part 1: Interviews with Voices from Israel
Avi Mizrachi: Dugit Ministries
Avi Mizrachi: Yes, I like to turn to Amos, Amo 1, and I’ll just read two-three verses. Amos 1:6, 7 & 8, it says, “Thus says the Lord: ‘For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they took captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour its palaces. I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,’ says the Lord God.”
Now He knows, the Philistines, they rule not just in Gaza, but also Ashkelon, and Ashdod, and Ekron. In those places they had temples for their worship of their gods. And here we see in Scripture that God is going to punish the Philistines in Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. They praise God Ashkelon and Ashdod are two cities, they are beautiful cities, but Gaza is still under the Palestinians, it is under the control of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Now there is another Scripture that I like to read as well, it is from Zechariah 9, and I’ll just read from verse 5&6, “Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall be very sorrowful; and Ekron, for He dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.” Verse 7, “I will take away the blood from his mouth, and the abominations from between his teeth. But he who remains, even he shall be for our God, and shall be like a leader in Judah, and Ekron like a Jebusite.”
But here we see very clearly that God is going to judge Gaza and He’s going to put away the king, he will perish in Gaza. Now, I really believe, we are not against the people, Israel is not in war with the Palestinian people. Israel is at war with the terrorist, cruel ISIS of Gaza, which is Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Now, you may say, why are you saying that? Well, I think some people really don’t know the statistics of what has happened in the last two-three weeks when those evil terrorists, satanic, demonic terrorists infiltrated into Israel, about 3,000 of them, into Israel by breaking, you know, we have a border and a fence, they made holes in those fences and walked in fully armed. And they went and attacked about 20 or so Jewish kibbutz and moshav settlements, collective farms, and they had one thing in mind, to slaughter, cut off innocent civilians.
And you say, what are you talking about? Well, let me explain to you, 1,400 people they killed in a few hours, 1,400 innocent people, children, babies, they would behead babies in front of their families. I mean, this is so cruel. And they killed parents in front of their children. More than 5,000 Israelis were injured. They kidnaped 230 civilians, we are talking about babies, children, the grandparents, innocent people, 30 of them are children, babies and children. They killed many parents and left 21 orphans. And when you see the atrocities that they have done, you say this is unhuman. How would a person do such a thing?
There was one kibbutz, I won’t mention the name, that they went and there was a pregnant woman and they taped her mouth, cut her open and took the baby up and killed it in front of everybody, and then killed all of the family. I mean how cruel a person can you be?
Now you ask yourself, why would they do that? It’s demonic. It’s totally demonic. And so in the beginning we did not realize, the first hours, we were not realizing what was happening. And slowly, slowly more information came in. There will families that they were hiding in their bomb shelter and the terrorists shot, shot and they couldn’t get in so they started burning the houses. And they were calling for help, the police and the army, “Where are you? Please come, they are burning us alive.” So when they realize this, that’s why, you know, the chief of staff mobilized hundreds, and hundreds of Israeli soldiers to join the reserve. My son-in-law the same days was called in, he’s a tank officer. And my other son-in-law is a fighter. They were called in and they said, “Okay, we’re going to go and free those settlements, those villages, those kibbutz, those moshavs around Gaza. And first of all, kill all the terrorist and free the people.
And then, said, “Now we’re going to go after Hamas because after October 7th, this is not the same. It really changed Israel. They are saying, “We’re going to fight, and we’re going to go like lions.” The minister of defense said, “We are fighting like the sons of lights, against the sons of darkness. And we’re going to finish the darkness, and the evil once and for all.”
Tim Moore: Avi went on to share his interaction with an Israeli Arab—a Muslim—and the testimony Avi shared about Issa our Yeshua with this man, demonstrating that only in Christ can we bless those who are incited to hate us. Hear now the heart of this Messianic Jewish pastor.
Avi Mizrachi: Yeshua is the hope of glory. Jesus, Yeshua is our hope, and there is another hope He is the Prince of Peace.
Baruch Korman: Love Israel
Tim Moore: Next, we’ll hear from another Messianic scholar serving in Israel. Baruch Korman is another partner of Lamb & Lion Ministries. Although haters of the Jewish people—from Haman to Hitler to Hamas—have been trying to thwart God’s will and eradicate the Jews since they were set apart and chosen by God, we know that God has protected and preserved them because He is true to His Word.
This moment offers an opportunity to turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob once again. Baruch offers a powerful perspective on the blessing of testifying to His goodness in such a time as this.
Baruch Korman: Well, what you say is exactly correct, and it is an opportunity because people are dumbfounded by what has happened. And therefore, it has given me the opportunity to speak with individuals and be able to share with them, you know, the Word of God promises difficulty in the last days for the nation of Israel. There’s a very well-known verse from Jeremiah 30:7 which says, in Hebrew, w’ët-tzäräh hiy l’yaáqov which means a time of trouble for Jacob, ûmiMeNäh yiûäshë, which is, but from it, or out of it will come salvation.
And therefore, when we look at the prophets from the position of Israel, we can expect, as Daniel says, in Daniel chapter 12, the worst time, and Messiah also said that for those in Judea, the worst time ever, but in the end that remnant who will look upon Messiah when He comes. And here this passage of course, isn’t speaking about the Rapture, it’s speaking about the Second Coming that they will look upon the One who is pierced and they will respond, they will mourn, they will identify Him. And therefore, this time is an opportunity to bring people into prophecy and to show them what truly the prophets have promised, what they have said, and that we should expect what the Word of God says. Unfortunately, the rabbis say that there’s different end time scenarios that will happen, and therefore one prophecy is for then time, another prophecy for another. That’s not true, all of God’s Word is going to be fulfilled.
Tim Moore: As a Messianic follower of Yeshua who has a gift for testifying to Orthodox Jews, Baruch Korman also offers insight on how we can share our faith in our Jewish Messiah with our Jewish friends. He begins where our testimony should always originate—in the Word of God. You’ll see that during our conversation, I affirmed that as a Gentile follower of Jesus, I recognize the promises of God that still apply to the Jewish people and the importance of blessing the Jews as commanded by Scripture.
Baruch Korman: A great verse is found in Isaiah 59:20, where it says, “Out of Zion, (and that means from a kingdom purpose) the Redeemer will come.” And we need to know that redemption for the Jewish people began with Passover. And we need redemption because redemption brings us into a covenant and it calls us to be His servants and it allows us, we can’t worship God without experiencing redemption. And the key element in redemption is blood. So, the verse that I like is Isaiah 59:20 & 21, which speaks about our Redeemer. And that what is He going to do when He comes? And this is a last day prophecy, He is going to turn away sin, that is the problem, sin. And when we don’t deal with sin, it produces death and faithlessness is a sin. So, we want to encourage people to believe in the promises of God. That’s what faith is, accept His Word for how it’s written in the Scripture. And watch how God brings about a change, a kingdom change in our life. That’s the message that we like to share.
Tim Moore: Amen. You know, just the promise to the Jewish people and Yeshua, when He was here, said He came for the Jew first and then the Gentile. As a Gentile follower of a Jewish Messiah I am so grateful that I’ve been grafted in to this family of God, but I recognize the provision for the Jewish people. And so, to follow on that verse from Isaiah 59:20 about the Redeemer coming from Zion, the very next verse says, “As for me, Lord, this is my covenant with them, (speaking of Israel) My spirit, which is upon you and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed,” the descendants of Isaiah and all those who follow after in the house of Israel, of Jacob, “nor from the mouth of your seed seeds, says Yahweh from now and forever.” The Lord still has a promise. He still has a plan for the Jewish people. And our hope is that even in this time of great again anxiety and just being overwrought by the evil that has been visited upon the State of Israel, upon so many families, that they will recognize that God still has a plan and a provision and will turn to Him for true hope and true salvation through Yeshua.
Baruch Korman: Amen. Well, yesterday a one of the people who were taking hostages, a young soldier who was also in that same position of watching, she was freed by Israel. It’s so sad that the international news media is almost saying that Hamas let her go. That’s a false statement. Israeli soldiers rescued her. And to see in her community, it’s called Kiryat Gat one of the ancient Philistine cities, which now all a Jewish city, that’s a fulfillment of prophecy. How that city welcomed her. Rejoiced. And over and over on the news, we saw people not shy about loving God, thanking God, praising God, but how many people came and were interviewed on the News, thanking God and saying, “He is our deliverer, He is the One who does that.” And I look forward to that same excitement when we see Messiah returning. Of course, we won’t see this will be with Him when that happens. But when Israel, when Messiah comes the second time and Israel looks upon Him. What a day of joy that will be for that remnant.
Dan Price: Missionary to Israel
Nathan Jones: Dan and Meg Price are Americans serving in Israel—also in a sister ministry capacity. Here is Dan’s eyewitness account of the horror of October 7th.
Dan Price: Well, so we live just above the Sea of Galilee. And the morning that the war started, our phones went off because we get alerts on the kinds of things that happen in Israel, and so, we need to know what’s going on. And we actually saw the rockets come in. But on that particular day, we thought that it was really just more of the same. We’ve been through in the eight years that we’ve lived there, I think we’ve been through maybe two or three of these kinds of conflicts. And so that morning we got up, it was a Shabbat morning, we got up and we started our day. And it wasn’t until about an hour after everything started as I was watching all the rockets hitting down near the Gaza envelop that I started looking and realized that this was not the same thing that had been happening before. The last war that we had was back in ‘21, and it only lasted 11 days. But for some reason, this one looked different because of the invasion that had occurred. And what I was seeing was the raw footage that was coming in from Gaza of the people who had actually perpetrated all these atrocities. And so, we knew very quickly that this was something different.
That morning we met with our congregation and it was the most somber meeting that we have seen in the eight years that that we have lived in Israel. And you could tell that just everything in that one morning something had changed and we knew that something was going to be different about this one.
Tim Moore: Given Israel’s size, the October 7th attack was more impactful than our own 9/11. The number of Israelis outrageously slain on that quiet Sabbath morning would be equivalent to nearly 40,000 Americans murdered by terrorists on a single day. Because Israel is a small country, virtually every Israeli knows or is closely related to someone who was killed or taken hostage. I asked Dan about the sentiment among the Jewish people following the trauma that they have experienced as a nation.
Dan Price: You know, it’s interesting because we live in a Jewish neighborhood, we live in a moshav, and so it’s a kind of a protected neighborhood farming community. And the people there are extremely wounded from what they considered that their army would take care of them in every situation to protect them from these kinds of things from happening. But also, there’s not been a single person that we have met, a single Israeli that we’ve met, that has not known either from just one connection or two of someone who was either abducted or who was killed on that particular day. And so, everyone that we have talked to, and of course, all of our neighbors are Jewish, and in talking with them, they’re very angry, they’re very hurt, and they’re also very scared.
Tim Moore: Americans from the 91st Infantry Division commander in WWI to actor Jimmy Stewart’s father, have turned to Psalm 91 for assurance and strength in battle. As Israel fights the terrorists of Gaza, IDF soldiers have been recorded singing Psalms as they prepared to go into battle against Hamas. I’ve seen them boldly claiming Psalm 18:2-3: “The LORD is my Rock and my Savior, my God, my Rock in whom I take refuge, my Shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.”
As those words sink deep into their hearts, many Israelis will draw closer to the Lord than they have ever been, and will be receptive to the true Rock, Shield, and Horn of their salvation.
Nathan Jones: On the full Prophetic Perspective, Dan offered unique insight on America’s fickle support for Israel. Although he and Meg were already scheduled to come back to the States in late-October, he also offered great wisdom for Christians who want to know how to support Israel during this traumatic moment.
Dan Price: Well, as you said, we were talking about this earlier, and I do agree that the main thing that they need right now is prayer. And we need to be praying not just that their government will have wisdom in the way that they need to handle this particular war, but also that the Lord would be able to speak to the hearts of these people during this period of time. You know, one of the things that is always difficult is whenever you go to a funeral, you don’t go to a funeral to accuse someone of something, you go there to basically be with them and help them and be a shoulder for them to lean on. And one of the things that was asked of Meg and me last week after we returned here to the States was what is that you wish that you could have done? And we said, well, we wish we could have stayed because the thing that the Jewish people see as one of the biggest supports is our being able to be there and help them shoulder the burden that they carry right now. And so, I think a lot of it is really just being there, being a friend, telling them that you love them. And praying for them, and that that you’re praying for their loved ones in Israel and throughout the world, because that means more to them than anything right now.
Erez Bar David: Israeli Tour Guide
Tim Moore: Finally, Erez Bar David—my good friend who often serves as the guide on our Lamb & Lion Pilgrimage trips to Israel, will describe some of the challenges facing Jewish communities in this moment of great anxiety and threat.
Erez Bar David: Well, aside from obviously the feelings of sorrow, deep sorrow, and by the way I don’t think that we actually had time to mourn properly over the loss. I think the sense was that of a shock. I think people still are in a state of shock. And I think that the main reason for that is that for many years there was a kind of a sense of security, internal security. The idea was that while our military is prepared to defend the borders, they are entrusted in keeping our civilians safe. And that surprise attack that occurred on October 7th changed everything. And I think this is still the case. Obviously, the people who were hit the most were the people who lived in the southern part of the country. But I think on a broader scale, the thought was such that, well, if it happened there, it can happen anywhere because we have a population of millions of Arabs, Palestinian, both living in Israel proper and within the boundaries of the so-called occupied territories, the West Bank, Judea and Samaria. And so, if they did that there what prevents Hamas activists or others from carrying out similar attacks on other communities around the country?
Tim Moore: Erez Bar David sums up the uniquely Christian perspective on evil—and those deceived into Satanic hatred. Asked how we can pray for Israel and the Jewish people; he also emphasized the importance of praying for our enemies—that they too will come to salvation through Yeshua, Jesus Christ.
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. So, this is the first thing I think that we ought to do at this time, which is very practical, obviously.
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
Nathan Jones: Well we hope these Voices from Israel have given you insight and encouragement—even as you process the evil recently visited on the Jewish people. You can watch all of these full Prophetic Perspective episodes by visiting our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel or website.
Tim Moore: We’ll be back again next week with more voices from Israel. And if you’d like to offer financial or material support to followers of Jesus Christ serving in Israel right now, please know that Lamb & Lion Ministries has directed significant financial support to those serving our Lord on the front lines of this present spiritual battle in Israel. Every dollar you designate will be dedicated to that purpose.
Nathan Jones: And just as the God of Israel never slumbers and He never sleeps, we can be assured that God will guard and protect those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. Sure, in this life we may have external trouble, but greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world. So, our hearts do not need to be troubled.
Tim Moore: Our prayer is that you have grounded your life on the rock of Christ. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem—knowing that true peace will not ensue until the Prince of Peace reigns from Mount Zion. With eager anticipation of that Messianic promise being fulfilled soon and very soon, on behalf of all of us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries… Godspeed!!
End of Program
