Such a coalition of right-wing and religious parties would ultimately push Israel further to the right. And while it would strengthen Israel’s relationship with the current administration, it would weaken bipartisan support for Israel in Washington.

With a coalition consisting of many of the ultra-Orthodox parties, it’s expected they’ll have great influence over religious policies. This will set the stage for continued tension with the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, the Jewish state and the largest Jewish community outside of it.

The question in many minds is: What will Prime Minister Netanyahu have to promise to those he’s approaching to build Israel’s new government?
 

In his acceptance speech after learning of his reelection, Netanyahu declared, "I want all parts of Israeli society, Jews and non-Jews, to be part of the great success story called Israel. I believe there is a great opening for the future here, a great opening for hope.”
 

While the future isn’t clear, we know that God is always in control.We believe all things work together according to His purpose and in His time.
 

But what should be clear is for all of us to pray:

1. For God to give strength, courage and guidance to Prime Minister Netanyahu as he picks the coalition for the new government in Israel.
2. For God to move in the hearts of any who would oppose His will in and around Israel – and the entire world. To change hearts. To open eyes.
3. For God to bring an everlasting peace to Israel.

But in addition to your prayers, I’d also like to invite you to give. Even as I write, our ministries on the ground in Israel are actively working towards peace.

Whether it’s through providing survival resources to the “least of these,” supporting Holocaust victims or partnering with Messianic congregations – all our efforts are done in the name and through the power of Yeshua (Jesus).

And more than just providing immediate help, these outreaches and ministries are the greatest means we have to build relationships with the Jewish people that give us the opportunity to share the Good News. So if you feel led, please give your most generous gift now.

It was supposed to be a secret. Three hundred and fifty invitations had been sent for the momentous occasion held at a Tel Aviv museum. But word spread, and crowds gathered outside, singing in the streets. They sang words written some 70 years before, words that had become a part of their very lives and were the passion of their hearts. They sang of a specific hope.

An invitation to Israel's declaration of independence event on May 14, 1948. Dated May 13, 1948, the simple invitation asks attendees to keep the event secret and dress in dark-colored formal attire. This invitation is addressed to Tzvi Rachum of Mexico. 

It was May 14, 1948. Inside the museum, David Ben-Gurion stood before members of the Jewish People’s Council and read The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. 

Founding principles

The document officially commencing the new and sovereign Israel outlines the founding principles upon which the state was formed. It declares that the State of Israel will:

• be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles

• foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants

• be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel

• ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex

• guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture 

• safeguard the Holy Places of all religions

• be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations

An appeal for peace

Israel’s Declaration of Independence asks peace from its Arab inhabitants:

“We appeal - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months – to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

Committed to being a good neighbor

Despite hostilities against her, the new Jewish State was determined to work with neighboring nations for the good of the region.

“We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”

A call to the Diaspora

Israel opened its doors to Jewish people from all over the world and sought their help in building up and strengthening the fledgling state.

“We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel [the Land of Israel] in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.”

A Jewish state

“Accordingly we, members of the People's Council, representatives of the Jewish Community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.”

It’s official

Ever since moving to the Land in 1906, David Ben-Gurion had worked toward this day. After he read the Declaration to the group assembled there in Tel Aviv that night, he and 36 others signed the document. And Israel was reborn.

“Placing our trust in the Almighty, we affix our signatures to this proclamation at this session of the Provisional Council of State, on the soil of the Homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the 5th day of Iyar, 5708 (14th May, 1948).”

The entire ceremony lasted a mere 32 minutes. The hope of 2,000 years had come true. And people danced in the streets as they sang Hatikvah, the song destined to become Israel’s national anthem.

This year, Israel celebrates its 71^st anniversary. The 5^th of Iyar of the Hebrew calendar begins on the evening of May 8 on the 2019 Gregorian calendar and ends at sundown on May 9. Israel Independence Day is known as Yom HaAtzmaut (YOHM Ha-AHTZ-mah-OOT) in Hebrew. It is a national holiday in Israel and a day filled with family gatherings, recreation, public events and celebrations. 

Happy Anniversary, Israel!

What would it have been like to be in Egypt thousands of years ago on the night of Passover? Every Jewish person alive at that time had been born into slavery, as were their parents and grandparents. Generation upon generation knew only the bitterness of forced labor and mistreatment. 

But then, out of the desert comes an 80-year-old Jewish man, who was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and had left 40 years ago. He has come back to deliver a message to Pharaoh from the God of Israel Himself. “Let My people go!” And in Goshen, where the Jewish people lived, hope stirred at last.

*****

Imagining the Passover in Egypt

Everyone has been so excited! We’ve been bumping into each other all day as we’ve hurried to get our things together, packed into carts, ready to go. Is this really happening? Are we truly leaving Egypt and escaping our slavery to Pharaoh? 

Our people have been here for 400 years. I have always been a slave. It’s all I’ve known. There are over a million of us now. No wonder Pharaoh doesn’t want to let us go – what will he do without the forced labor of our Hebrew hands? 

Moses is a Hebrew like the rest of us, but he actually grew up in Pharaoh’s house and was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. It is Moses who has told us to be ready to go because God is going to deliver us and set us free. 

To tell you the truth, I wondered if the God of our fathers had forgotten us. But now? Things have been happening lately that no one can explain. Now I know – our God has not forgotten us!

Moses has been raising his staff and bringing down plagues on all of Egypt, demanding that Pharaoh set us free. I remember being told that he had said God was going to use him to liberate us. That was before he left us 40 years ago, long before I was born. Now he’s back and working all these wonders.

“Let My people go!” he said to Pharaoh. He was delivering a message from God Himself. And each time Pharaoh said no, some new catastrophe happened in Egypt – swarms of flies, locusts, boils, fierce hail, all the livestock dying. And the frogs! We heard they were just everywhere. The Egyptians could hardly take a step. The frogs were in their houses, their beds, even in their ovens and kneading bowls. 

Oh, and the Nile! The Nile River turned to blood. All the water became blood, even what was stored in vessels. There was no water to drink, and all the fish died. That was right at the beginning, and you’d think that would have been enough.

At times, Pharaoh told Moses to just take us all and get out of here, but he always changed his mind. Doesn’t he realize he’s up against God Almighty? Especially since all the plagues only happened in Egypt? Here in Goshen, where all of us Hebrews live, there was nothing. We’ve been spared. You’d think Pharaoh would get a clue. Such a hard heart is in that man! 

The word is, tonight’s going to be the most horrible plague of all. God is going to strike every household in Egypt, and the firstborn of every family is going to die. This plague is so powerful that we’ve been told specific things we have to do in order to be protected from it.

We were to take an unblemished lamb, worthy of sacrifice because of its perfection and purity. We were to keep it in the house, living with us, for four days. We’ve grown rather fond of it, so cute and innocent. It won’t be pleasant to do what we must at twilight tonight.

We must sacrifice the lamb and brush some of its blood onto the doorframes of our homes. When the angel of death comes over the land, he’ll see the blood covering our households and pass over us, saving us from death. Every household not covered by the blood will be visited by death.

It’s evening now.

The blood is on our doorposts, and we’re eager and anxious at the same time. Every few minutes, one of us abruptly turns, wide-eyed, toward the roof or street. “What was that? Did you hear something?” A fearsome death is going to come over Egypt tonight like never before, and the dreadfulness of it will pass right over us. 

We have no idea what that will look like, or how it will happen. We’re acutely attuned to every sound and nuance of the world outside our door tonight. At the same time, our beaten-down souls hear the whisper that freedom is near, and hope dances inside us.

There’s no time tonight even for our bread to rise. We’re to eat roasted lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Moses told us that God specifically instructed us to eat this meal in a hurry. That must mean our freedom could come at any moment! “With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand,” God said. “You are to eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”

So, we’re ready. We sit down for our hurried but sacred meal. The lamb we partake of tonight died to give us his blood and save us from death. In spite of the rush, the weight of this sacrifice presses on my heart. The bitter taste of our slavery is almost over, and we expectantly watch for our liberation.

*****

“Why is this night different from every other night?” The question is asked at Passover tables today.

Remembering is important to God. Through His ordained feasts and all through Scripture, God calls us to remember. Over and over, He told Israel to remember that they had been slaves and He brought them out of Egypt.

Passover is a reminder of what God did for Israel in the land where they were slaves. Even then, Passover pointed forward to Yeshua (Jesus), who would become our perfect Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), sacrificed to cover our sin.

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” John the Immerser cried out when he saw Jesus (John 1:29). Three and a half years later, Yeshua ate the Last Supper commemorating God’s great act of deliverance the night before the Exodus from Egypt ‒ and marking the great act of eternal salvation He would accomplish for us when He shed His own blood for all mankind the next day.

This post is revised from the original that first appeared on the Jewish Voice Ministries International blog in April 2016 under the title “Imaging the Passover in Egypt.”