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You could win a FREE copy of Confessing the Hebrew Scriptures: El Elyon - God Most High
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As a Jewish Voice Prayer Partner, you know that one of the three prongs on our mission statement is to grow the Messianic Jewish community. Strong, healthy leadership is vital for the growth of the Messianic Jewish Movement! Today, we’re focusing our prayers on Messianic Jewish leaders in Israel, the United States and globally.
Please pray for a gathering of Messianic Jewish leaders from around the world that Jewish Voice will host in just a few days. Here are some of the ways you can pray for these leaders to be strong in the Lord and make a significant kingdom impact during challenging times:
Let’s pray:
Lord, we thank You for the hundreds of Messianic Jewish leaders around the world heading up congregations and other ministries. Thank You for the more mature ones and their years of faithful, pioneering service, many of whose most significant years of kingdom impact are still ahead. Thank You for the younger ones gladly taking on the costly mantle of leadership in serving Your purposes in their own generation. May each generation honor You and honor one another. May the gathering next week be a time of encouragement, affirmation, renewed vision, and deeply sweet fellowship with You and each other. Thank You for how You are using the Messianic Jewish leaders of today to have a global impact tomorrow and fulfill Your prophetic promises for Israel and the nations. In Yeshua’s name, Amen.
After a year of escalating violence between warring factions in Northern Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency this week. The conflict may affect the capital city of Addis Ababa in the coming days or weeks.
We at Jewish Voice are deeply concerned for the citizens of Ethiopia in light of this dramatic escalation. On our hearts especially are the many dear congregations and brothers and sisters in the Lord that we know and love there, as well as our NGO staff and in particular, precious family members of some of our USA team.
Please join us as we pray for Ethiopia:
Let’s pray:
Lord, in a time of strife and chaos, have mercy and bring Your peace and purposes to bear. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done in Ethiopia. Use this crisis to draw them to stretch out their hands to You, receiving Your salvation and help in time of need. Amen.
““Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Psalm 122:6 (NIV)
Shalom, my friend.
With so much tension and turmoil stirring against the Jewish people – with Hamas, Iran and those who are eager to see Israel destroyed — we must engage in battle through our prayers by asking God to intervene and accomplish His purposes.
And this isn’t just about the global enemies who are surrounding Israel – it’s also about our own lives. We must be a people of prayer. That in every circumstance we face, we’re quick to hand over our cares and concerns to God.
Nothing moves the heart of God like the prayers of His people.
That’s why, as you pray over the challenges – and as you join with us to pray over God’s people – you can know that He is eager to hear your heart and respond in His time.
According to The Times of Israel, Iran’s subsidized fuel distribution system was partially restored late last week following an unprecedented cyberattack by unknown perpetrators last Tuesday.
Shortly after the disruption, which crippled Iran’s fuel distribution network and left frustrated motorists stranded, The Times of Israel reported that Iranian authorities said the system would be fully up and running this week.
Iranian authorities said the results of an investigation into the alleged attack would be ready within 10 days, and that it may have originated from outside Iran.
Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi, told reporters that his country must be “seriously prepared” against cyberattacks. President Raisi also said that the attack was designed to get “people angry by creating disorder and disruption.”
The Times of Israel reports that Iran has blamed Israel for provoking unrest during protests in the past. As early as July of this year, Iran claimed to have arrested a Mossad cell that planned to provoke violence during demonstrations over water shortages in the country.
While Iran didn’t call out Israel specifically, we’ll be watching in the weeks ahead for the release of the Islamic Republic’s investigation.
According to Ynet News, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett privately delivered comments predicting that his government would not last long enough for Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to become prime minister.
As reported, Bennet told news outlets late last week, “I estimate that the rotation will not happen. There is a considerable chance that the government will dissolve between the budget and the time of the change of power, for various reasons.”
When asked about the report, Bennett’s office confirmed that the prime minister made the remarks but insists that the premier will honor the previously-agreed-upon power-sharing deal, nonetheless.
“The partnership with Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is based on mutual trust and fairness,” the Prime Minister’s Office responded to news outlets.
Lapid has been serving as Israel’s alternate prime minister since Bennett’s coalition government unseated former longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu in June.
He is supposed to take over Bennett’s role as prime minister in August 2023 as part of a power-sharing deal the two politicians struck to form their government.
The Jerusalem Post reported late last week that the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) issued their findings on the conflict with Hamas that broke out in May.
The findings indicated the IDF complied with the law of armed conflict and “consistently implemented precautions to mitigate civilian risk.”
In addition, The Jerusalem Post also reported that despite accusations from human rights groups that Israel violated international law, some Israeli precautions actually exceeded “those implemented in recent U.S. combat operations that we participated in, despite confronting an adversary that often sought to exacerbate that risk deliberately.”
But although the JINSA findings indicated that the IDF’s conduct of the war complied with international law, it also highlighted that “a significant gap between this reality of IDF LOAC [Law of Armed Conflict] compliance, and of Hamas’s violation of it, and the public’s perception. Israel’s messaging efforts were unable to close this gap.”
If the IDF was mostly focused on degrading Hamas’s attack capabilities, the Gazan terror group was equally investing resources in a massive disinformation campaign to delegitimize Israel, alongside its firing of rockets at Israeli civilians.
The Jerusalem Post also reported that the JINSA findings called out numerous organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – organizations claiming to be experts in the relationship between law and military operations – who quickly seemed to accept Hamas’s assertions of unlawful IDF operations.
Tracking the disinformation campaign against the IDF, the JINSA said that the problem started with “the media and public’s misunderstanding of how LOAC applies to military operations – especially the false assumption that the effect of an attack, and especially the presence of civilian casualties.”
“Coupled with social media’s ability to transmit graphic images rapidly and globally without explanatory context,” JINSA said Hamas succeeded at making “audiences more receptive to Hamas’s disinformation that Gazan suffering was evidence of Israeli LOAC violations.”
The JINSA authors included about a dozen senior and retired U.S. military officers who traveled to Israel to examine the actions of both sides and included the following: Lt.-Gen. Robert Ashley, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Lt.-Gen. John M. Bednarek, former senior defense official in Iraq; Lt.-Col. Geoffrey S. Corn, the former chief international lawyer for U.S. Army Europe and others.
Please pray with me for:
Eight-year-old Esther Gever laid hold of her father’s arm in their Vienna home, facing off against the Nazi soldier trying to take him away. “No! You cannot take my father!” she asserted. “Why would you take my father?” The soldier growled back, “Because he is a Jew.” Esther persisted, “You will not take him! He didn’t do anything.” The soldier had had enough of this little girl standing in his way, slowing down his dirty business that night. He grabbed Esther by the front of her shirt and threw her hard against the wall. Esther blacked out. What was Kristallnacht? Scenes like this one – played out in various ways in Jewish homes all across Hitler’s domain.
Kristallnacht defined means “night of broken glass.” The event was a coordinated attack on the Jewish people in Germany and other areas under Nazi control. On the night of November 9–10, 1938, German citizens smashed the windows of Jewish businesses, looting and vandalizing till nothing was left to salvage.
Spurred by years of anti-Semitic propaganda and riled by a Jewish teenager’s revenge murder of a German diplomat, ordinary citizens formed mobs. They followed German soldiers to Jewish homes to arrest Jewish men, young and old, and terrorize Jewish families. They threw bricks through windows, rammed through front doors and ransacked Jewish families’ possessions. Some seemed determined to do as much damage as possible – slashing pillows and pictures, smashing furniture and stealing valuables. They roughed up whomever they chose or got in their way.
Some of the Jewish people had been vaguely alerted in advance. They’d heard rumors that something was afoot that day or received somber advice from kind-hearted neighbors or Jewish relatives in other cities already hit: “Stay home. Tell the men to hide. Do not go outside.” Jewish people who were unfortunate enough to be on the streets were often savagely beaten by people they once considered neighbors and friends – along with thugs brought in to accelerate the frenzy.
Mobs set fire to synagogues, cheering as new bursts of flame erupted. When a synagogue blaze was risky for nearby non-Jewish structures, crowds instead drug sacred books, Torah scrolls, and furnishings into the street and made a bonfire of them. Inside, they ransacked the worship houses and stole valuables.
Meanwhile, police stood by, unable, unwilling and ordered not to do anything – even when bloodthirsty mobs invaded Jewish orphanages and hospitals, rousting little ones into the cold night in their nightshirts and bare feet.
What was Kristallnacht? It was a night of broken humanity. In all, Nazi soldiers and wild mobs murdered 91 Jewish people, destroyed hundreds of synagogues, looted and ransacked thousands of Jewish homes, businesses, schools and hospitals. Aside from this, they arrested tens of thousands of Jewish men, hauling them off to concentration and labor camps. One of them was Esther’s father.
For weeks, Esther’s family inquired with Jewish neighbors trying to learn where Hitler’s soldiers had taken the men. After three weeks, they received a censored postcard from Dachau concentration camp. Between blackened-out words, they read that he loved and missed them and that he was “well” – though they didn’t trust that he was. Many of the men arrested on Kristallnacht were released after a few months. The following year, after Esther’s father returned home, the family fled to Poland. When the war’s danger followed them, they headed to Siberia, where Esther’s mother died. Esther moved to Israel in 1949 and to the U.S. in 1959.
Along with a night of unchecked – indeed encouraged – rioting and hatred toward Jewish people, Kristallnacht was also the proof Hitler needed to proceed with his plans in confidence. The Night of Broken Glass showed him that the masses would not rise up against his plans to eliminate the Jewish people from among them. For the most part, Kristallnacht proved that Hitler had successfully stirred the non-Jewish population to wild hatred of the Jewish people or frightened them enough to stand by and let it unfold. And so he proceeded with his “Final Solution,” executing 6 million Jewish people before he was stopped.
What was Kristallnacht? It was a warning for us today, showing us how human nature can be turned, manipulated, and run wild with prejudice. Anti-Semitism is very much alive today, more than 70 years after the horrors of the Holocaust. This Kristallnacht, and every day, let’s pray for God to bring it to an end and for His peace to reign on Earth. Pray with us for Holocaust survivors everywhere to come to know the eternal peace and love of Messiah Jesus.
Sources:
Holocaust Survivors Remember Kristallnacht, Encyclopedia Britannica YouTube channel showing 1994-2008 USC Shoah Foundation Institute video
The Lucky Ones, Esther Gever. New Friends Publishing book page
““Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Psalm 122:6 (NIV)
Shalom, my friend.
While the Scriptures tell us to pray for the “peace of Jerusalem” in any and every season — my heart is moved for us to be more vigilant in prayer than ever before.
While all indications appear that war with Iran seems to be inevitable and even imminent, we know that God has the power to change hearts, lives and circumstances.
I’m sure you’ve experienced God’s supernatural presence in your own life. And I hope you’ll hold up your experience as a point of confidence and faith as, together, we ask God to bring His peace to Jerusalem, to Israel and to the Jewish people.
Israeli Finance Minister, Avigdor Liberman, told reporters late last week that a confrontation between Israel and Iran is inevitable. His comment comes, according to Ynet News, in response to questions regarding the overall efforts being made to bring Tehran back to the 2015 nuclear deal.
While there have been hints out of Iran that negotiations of some form will continue, Tehran continues their nuclear program development — refusing to abide by the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“A confrontation with Iran is only a matter of time, and not a lot of time,” Liberman continued. “No diplomatic move or agreement will stop the Iranian nuclear program. This is a problem of the international community but first of all ours because they have stated that their policy is the destruction of Israel, and they do mean it.”
The Finance Minister, as reported by Ynet News, also added that the Israeli government recently approved a $1.5 billion budget to prepare for a strike against Iran.
The Jerusalem Post reported last week that both Israel and Iran are reportedly holding large-scale aerial exercises. This report comes as tension between both countries continues to accelerate.
The Jerusalem Post indicated that Israel and seven nations – Germany, Italy, Britain, France, India, Greece and the US – are participating in Blue Flag 2021, the largest and most advanced aerial exercise ever held in the Jewish State.
This year’s drills will focus on the integration of fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, including the F-35 Adir in complex operational scenarios, the Israeli military said.
Israeli Air Force commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin told reporters that the threats posed to Israel continue to increase and that the drill is a “steppingstone” toward cooperation with other countries in the region.
“We are living in a very complicated region, and the threats to the State of Israel from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran are only increasing,” Maj.-Gen. Norkin said. “Holding an international exercise in this current reality, while continuing our public and covert operational activities on all fronts, is of utmost strategic importance and has an extensive impact over the Israeli Air Force, the IDF and the State of Israel.”
Meanwhile, according to The Jerusalem Post, Iran’s Air Force kicked off Modafe’an Aseman-e Velayat 1400 (Guardians of ‘Velayat Sky’ 1400) last week, which is aimed at testing the capabilities of the Islamic Republic’s Air Force.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post, the drill will see the use of indigenous and upgraded systems and weapons, including heavy and semi-heavy smart bombs, all kinds of laser, television, thermal, radar missiles, rockets and bombs.
Iranian F-4, F-5 and F-7 fighter aircraft as well as Sukhoi Su-27s, F-14s, Mirage F1s, and MiG-29s, are taking part in the drill.
In light of growing uncertainty regarding a return by Iran to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), amid long-stalled negotiations with the United States, The Times of Israel reported earlier this week that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in recent months has ramped up its efforts to prepare a credible military threat against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
At the beginning of this year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced he had instructed the military to begin drawing up fresh attack plans, and last week the government reportedly allocated billions of shekels toward making those plans viable.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that “Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning . . . We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Earlier this week, The Times of Israel indicated that they had learned that some aspects of the strike plan, which is still in the “draft” stage, could be ready within a short period of time, while others would take more than a year to be fully actionable.
Preparing for such a strike has become a top priority for the Israeli Air Force and making the necessary preparations has required changes to its training schedule.
In addition to having to find ways to strike Iranian facilities that are buried deep underground, requiring specialized munitions and tactics, the Israeli Air Force will have to deal with increasingly sophisticated Iranian air defenses in order to conduct such a strike. The air force will also have to prepare for an expected retaliation against Israel by Iran and its allies throughout the region.
Ynet News reported that, while waiting for the final approval of the Coronavirus Cabinet, Israel’s Health Ministry has agreed to open Israel’s borders for vaccinated tourists, starting next week.
This decision, however, comes with a variety of conditions for entry, depending upon the tourist’s country, vaccination type and/or recovery from COVID.
Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov said this was only the beginning of the resumption of tourism to Israel.
“I commend Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz for maintaining a balance between public health and a robust economy, and thank the professional staff that has worked hard to bring the tourism industry back,” Razvozov said.
Please pray with me for:
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have not been able to visit this land and its people as often as we would’ve liked over the past two years. But now we have a great opportunity and are asking for your fervent prayers.
We have permission to hold a Medical Outreach from November 7 through 11 in Zimbabwe. It will be on a smaller scale than the large ones we typically hold, but we know, by God’s grace, it will hugely impact the people of a rural region in southwestern Zimbabwe.
We first visited this particular area on a scouting trip and again during our Food Distribution Outreach earlier this year. We are so grateful to be able to return. Please join us in covering every aspect of this Medical Outreach in prayer:
Wednesday, October 27 – Wednesday, November 3
Preparations | John 9:4
Thursday, November 4 – Friday, November 5
Travels and Adjustments | Psalm 34:10b
Saturday, November 6 – Sunday, November 7
Set-up and Clinic Opening | Colossians 3:23
Monday, November 8 – Wednesday, November 10
Worship and Work | I Chronicles 16:11
Thursday, November 11 – Sunday, November 14
Closing and Returning | Numbers 6:24-26
We continue to pray that more doors will open for effective ministry in many places, wherever the Lord may lead us. But for now, we focus our prayerful attention on this particular location and Outreach.
Let’s pray:
Lord, for the last several years, we have sensed You highlighting this area of Zimbabwe, and we are so glad to be going there again as You have opened doors and prepared the way. God of Miracles, we ask You for the healing, deliverance, and salvation that You alone can give. May this small Medical Clinic glean enormous and eternal results. Continue to prompt us to pray as we partner with You in the work of Your Kingdom. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
God is always faithful. I can say that with faith and confidence — even after the adversities we’ve faced these last 18 months.
As you know, the pandemic created many challenges for our ministry over this past year and a half — especially in Africa. But COVID-19 doesn’t stop our God! During this time, He has opened up new opportunities to meet needs, offer encouragement and share the Good News with Jewish communities.
A recent trip to Zimbabwe is a perfect example of this. We typically hold Outreaches that provide medical care, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, our focus changed.
God opened the door for our Jewish Voice team to spend 11 days traveling throughout the country — encouraging, praying and ministering with local Messianic Jewish congregations we partner with. Many of the people within these congregations — and in the surrounding communities — are Lemba, a tribe of African Jewish people who are members of the “Lost Tribes of Israel.”
God blessed our time together as we served numerous communities with much-needed food items and spiritual encouragement! Our team shared with me that they experienced such joy as they worshipped side by side with these Messianic Jewish Believers.
Despite their country’s economic instability, political turmoil and health challenges due to the pandemic, these Believers rejoice because of their love for Jesus, their Messiah.
Jewish Voice has helped establish over 150 Messianic Jewish congregations in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, thanks to the help of partners like you. These groups of Jewish Believers meet regularly and help meet the needs of their communities — while they share their faith in Jesus.
Here is what one of our staff members shared about the recent Outreach in Zimbabwe:
“This was an incredible Outreach! Our team was able to pray for and encourage so many of our Lemba brothers and sisters, while distributing essential food items and LifeStraw family filters in this most challenging time. Please join us in prayer as we seek the Lord on how to continue to strengthen the many congregations.”
Please give today. Together, through the congregations in-country, we’re able to meet physical and spiritual needs. And while we’ve seen incredible success and lives transformed, we must do more!
When you partner with Jewish Voice, you’ll provide real encouragement and practical help to the congregations we helped establish in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and elsewhere as they minister in their communities. Your gift will help equip these congregations to meet spiritual needs — from encouraging Messianic Jewish Believers to grow in their faith to introducing people to Yeshua
(Jesus) as their Messiah.
And when you send a gift today of any amount, we want to send you our 12 Tribes of Israel Bracelet. It is my hope that it will remind you to pray for the Lemba people and the work God is doing among these congregations. I also hope it will remind you of the important difference you are making through your support.
If you’re able to give $50 or more, in addition to the 12 Tribes of Israel Bracelet, we’ll send you our exclusive JVMI Boxed Notecards. You’ll receive 18 cards, three each of six different beautiful photos taken at our Outreaches and Festivals.
As we enter this season of thanksgiving, please prayerfully consider how you can be a blessing to fellow Messianic Jewish Believers in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe through your giving. Thank you.
