Tag Archives: hope

October 15, 2025 · 10:00 AM

Finding Hope in an Ancient Song: Psalm 22

Shalom in His grace! We all recognize that we are living in tough times. Wars in Israel and Ukraine, rising domestic violence, political and cultural polarization, and economic uncertainty cast a shadow on our lives as we try to do what is best for our family, ourselves, our communities . . . and our country! We are trying to stay positive and healthy at the same time, which makes hanging on to hope more important today than in days gone by. If we are to be fully honest with ourselves, each one of us is looking for solutions to the everyday stress that plagues our path during seasons of unrest. 

We need to find hope in a dark and difficult world.

So, let us take a few moments and explore how we might find a source for hope that can fuel the inspiration and encouragement we need to keep our lives and those of our families healthy and moving ahead, and to be both happy and productive.

The World is Turning Against Israel and the Jewish People

For those of us who are Jewish, we often feel like the entire world is turning against Israel and the Jewish people! We cannot avoid following what feels like a never-ending war between Israel and its neighbors. We recently memorialized the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas upon the Jewish people. That day remains seared in our collective memory—a day when thousands of terrorists stormed across Israel’s border to murder, rape, and kidnap innocent men and women, young and old.

What makes this tragedy even more devastating, if you know the geography of Israel, is that many of the victims had dedicated their lives to building bridges with their Palestinian neighbors, which is why they chose to live on the Gaza border. Many of those killed believed in the possibility of peace and the dream of a unified society where Israelis and Palestinians could coexist. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad met their hopeful, outstretched hands with hatred and violence.

The war that followed has so far claimed the lives of more than 1,000 young Israeli soldiers and countless innocent Palestinian civilians—victims of Hamas and other jihadist groups who have shown no mercy even to their own people. The conflict has spread, and Israel continues to face attacks from Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, while antisemitism surges around the globe. Just when we thought it was safe to be Jewish in the modern world, the oldest hatred has reared its ugly head once again. We live in tumultuous times! It is natural to ask where we should turn for hope and comfort.

A Psalm of Abandonment and Hope

For Jewish people, it is easy to feel abandoned once again by the God who promised us that He would never leave us or break His covenants and promises with our people. After the Holocaust, countless Jewish people asked, “Where was God when six million of our people were being slaughtered?” Today, we find ourselves asking similar questions, such as, “Where was God on October 7?” or “Where is God now amid such intolerable suffering?”

How can we come to grips with our disappointment and find ongoing hope in His promises?? 

These are not new questions. They are as old as humanity itself and find a most soulful expression in the songs of the psalmist king. In Psalm 22, King David cried out with startling vulnerability: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but I have no rest” (Psalm 22:1–2).

Here we find a king—anointed by God Himself—feeling utterly abandoned. David did not pretend everything was fine. He did not offer vague statements about God’s mysterious ways. Instead, he gave voice to the question that haunts every human heart in times of crisis: “Where are you, God?”

I love the humanity of the biblical authors, especially as seen in the life of King David. He was worn out and weak, but, unlike many of us, he admitted it! He did not hide behind his throne or shade his real-life struggles with pious language. He simply told the truth about his experience.

David’s raw humanity and honesty are a foundation for healing and hope. He understood his own need for comfort and even transformation. He penned: “Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed” (Psalm 22:3–5).

David placed his personal suffering within the larger story of his people, which is one of deliverance—of promises and hope fulfilled, even in his darkest hours.

From Despair to Declaration

The psalmist continues his journey from asking despairing questions to discovering a quiet confidence of hope and trust in God. By the end of the psalm, David made an extraordinary declaration: “Posterity will serve Him; it will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it” (Psalm 22:30–31).

What refashioned David’s cry of abandonment into a song of hope? It was not the absence of suffering, as the psalmist never denies the reality of his personal pain. Instead, David’s songs gave voice to a transcendent hope that rose above his difficult circumstances. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob called David “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14)—not because David was perfect, but because he knew where to turn when attempts to find perfection failed him. David understood something profound about the human condition and the darkness of our hearts—our greatest strength often emerges from brokenness and defeat rather than from victories.

Hope for Today

Whether you find yourself wrestling with trauma, war, regret, or loss, Psalm 22 meets you exactly where you are. It speaks to the parent worried for their child’s safety, the soldier carrying both visible and invisible wounds, the young person questioning their future, and the older person weakened by age and reflecting on a lifetime of many joys and too many regrets.

I invite you, regardless of your background or beliefs, to explore these ancient songs that have sustained the Jewish people through exile and persecution and led to celebration and renewal. David’s words lead us to the hope he enjoyed through his deeply personal relationship with the God of Israel.

For millennia, everyday people have found comfort through the Psalms irrespective of their faith tradition. The Psalms welcome doubters, questioners, and the brokenhearted to encounter God Himself! The Psalms are so helpful for those who are struggling with faith or even questioning the existence of the God through whom King David found strength.   

Hope Amid Rejection

In Psalm 22, David moves from complaint to praise and from suffering to hope. The Psalm reveals the arc of faith itself, which is not a neat, tidy progression, but a genuine journey from darkness to light. When Jesus quoted this psalm from Golgotha, He reminded all within earshot that His story, too, was a journey from death to life, from crucifixion to resurrection, and from apparent defeat to ultimate victory.

Both Christians and Messianic Jews believe the Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus), quoted the first verse of Psalm 22 while hanging on the cross.He cried out,“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.”

When we find ourselves crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, we are joining a dialogue that started with David and one Yeshua reiterated—a conversation that concludes that feeling forsaken is not the same as being forsaken. The God who seemed absent was there all along. The God who appeared silent was orchestrating a symphony of circumstances leading to hope, which one only needed to recognize.

God’s presence is at the very heart of Psalm 22 as He makes His presence known to us during hard times in ways that we can miss when we are riding the tide of success and approval. The hard times teach us to trust the Lord, and so often His presence is far more powerful amid our struggles than in times of great triumph. It permits us to be honest about our pain, enables us to be persistent when we do not hear an answer, and provides the realization that our story does not end with abandonment, but rather with a full-on encounter with His love.

Psalm 22 is one of those great poetic and prophetic moments that leads Christians and Jewish people to seek a deeper and more intimate relationship with God, even when it seems as if our loving Father is not listening! The question we must ask ourselves and of the Lord Himself is, “How do we find this relationship with the God of Israel?” We need to ponder this question and that of the Messiah’s role. More specifically, we need to consider the Messianic psalms like Psalm 22 that find their fulfillment in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

As a Messianic Jew who has found Jesus to be the Messiah, this matter has been settled for me. If you do not yet have a deep personal relationship with the God who loves us, I hope you will continue to search for Him. I encourage you to keep reading, and if you do not have His shalom—a peace that transcends all human difficulties—my prayer is that you will keep reading and discover the One, the Messiah, to whom David pointed and through whom we can find peace with God! 

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April 1, 2025 · 9:00 AM

Passover: Holding On to Hope

There is just something about Passover that brings hope to the Jewish soul. Maybe it is because the entire Passover service looks forward to a greater day of redemption.

Throughout the Passover Seder (ritual meal), we are reminded of that dramatic moment when God, through Moses, commanded each Israelite family in Egypt to take an unblemished lamb, slaughter the animal, and apply its blood to the doorpost of their home. According to Exodus 12:1–13, those who obeyed the Lord and smeared the blood on their doorposts would be spared from the Lord slaying their firstborn sons.

The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)

During today’s Passover meal, we raise the shank bone of a lamb as a symbol of the slain lamb. Jewish people throughout the ages acknowledge this historic act of redemption and look forward to an even greater day and more robust culmination of this prophetic pattern.

Passover is a celebration of hope in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who will never allow His chosen people to be destroyed. The Passover points us forward and annually reminds us of the God who parted the sea and led the Jewish people through forty years of wilderness wanderings.

Today, we also reflect upon a modern miracle—that this same God, after centuries of dispersion, has been bringing the children of Israel back to the Promised Land. He will not allow His chosen people to remain separated from the Land of Israel (Genesis 15:18–21) as He is a promise-keeping God who spoke through the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” (Jeremiah 31:35–36)

The Jewish people have hope for the future because of the faithfulness of God!

“HATIKVAH”: THE ANTHEM OF HOPE

The hope of the Jewish people is reflected in the lyrics of Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah”:

As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the east.
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost.
The hope of two thousand years
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem

“Hatikvah” began its life as a nine-stanza Hebrew poem entitled “Tikvatenu” (“Our Hope”). Its author was a nineteenth-century Hebrew poet, Naftali Herz Imber (1856–1909), who was from eastern Europe. Inspired by the early Zionist movement, Imber wrote the poem in 1878 while still living in Europe.

Imber settled in Israel in 1882 when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. He worked as personal secretary and Hebrew tutor to Sir Laurence Oliphant (1829–1888), a British author, politician, world traveler, and Christian Zionist. Oliphant even launched various efforts to encourage Jewish resettlement in the historical Land of Israel.

Imber dedicated “Tikvatenu” to Oliphant. The poem became a song and was embraced by many early Jewish pioneers to Israel before the start of the modern Zionist movement in 1897.1

The anthem reminds us that hope has always been central to the Jewish story.

WHAT IS HOPE?

Hope, or tikvah in Hebrew, is more than a mere wish; it is a confident expectation tied to the promises of God, similar to its description in the New Testament (Hebrews 6:18–19). Tikvah carries rich meanings, including expectation, longing, and trust. Hope is more than a feeling; it is a lifeline. It is derived from a root word meaning “to bind together,” much like a rope that connects us to something secure.2

The same word appears in Joshua 2:18, where the scarlet rope (tikvah) hanging from Rahab’s window symbolized the hope of deliverance. Just as that rope represented salvation for Rahab and her family, hope connects us to God’s promises and secures our future.

Imagine that rope—God holds one end, and we hold the other. Life may pull us into pits of despair or storms of uncertainty, but this rope keeps us tethered to God’s faithfulness. We need to hold on to hope and remain fastened to God’s fidelity and His promises to the Jewish people.

OUR GLORIOUS HOPE

The prophet Isaiah describes this hope for a peace-filled world in chapter two of his prophetic book: 

And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:4b–5)

Our hopes for peace and a world without war and pain is anchored to this glorious promise—a future where peace and justice reign under God’s rule through the greater Son of David, Jesus the Messiah (1 John 3:2–3).

HOPE FOR TOMORROW IN ISRAEL TODAY

This cherished hope was yet again tested for the Jewish people on October 7, 2023, and continues to today.

It is heartbreaking to see Israeli families suffering from a lack of hope. Even if peace is somehow made with Hamas, Hezbollah, and other jihadist groups—and even if the threat from Iran is tempered—it is still a great challenge for families to enjoy any sense of normalcy after going through what Israel has endured for the past eighteen months.

Yet, we do see some sparkles of light through the ministry of Your Mission to the Jewish People in Israel today.

A couple of months ago, I met three new Israeli believers who came to faith within the last nine months, and we have an ongoing discipleship ministry to each of them. I met them at our Friday night monthly Sabbath outreach dinner at our current rented center in Tel Aviv!

We also launched a Facebook campaign called Psalms of Hope that has led to more than 4,000 Israelis downloading our modern Hebrew version of the Psalms. It has been exciting to see God working in this way.

More than 150,000 new immigrants entered Israel these last few years. Many of them speak either Russian or Ukrainian as their first language, and we continue to have the opportunity to present the good news to nearly 1,000 of these precious and hurting new Israelis. We provide practical and spiritual help, assist them in buying needed appliances, and other essentials for their new homes. We accompany them to state and medical institutions as many of our staff speak both Russian and Hebrew. In general, we play a crucial role in their integration into Israeli society. We organize Sabbath meals and Jewish holiday celebrations, family retreats, kids’ classes, practical seminars, Bible studies, and more.

We blessed more than 2,000 soldiers around Israel by providing personal hygiene products, flashlights, chargers, and other items. We organized barbecues with concerts on military bases for hundreds of soldiers. These are excellent opportunities to share our faith and demonstrate our commitment to supporting all members of Israeli society, including our brave soldiers. We work closely with the believing soldiers as well.

We also continue to assist evacuated families and Holocaust survivors from the north and south of Israel—especially in towns near the borders with Gaza and southern Lebanon—by providing practical and spiritual help and by organizing concerts and events.  

God’s work in Israel today gives us hope for tomorrow.

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

Hope is our lifeline, securing us to the promises of God. Like the scarlet rope in Rahab’s window, it signifies deliverance and a future filled with peace and joy. As we cling to this hope, we find comfort, direction, and the strength to live godly lives. Let us hold firmly to the rope of hope, knowing that God is faithful to fulfill every promise.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

  1. Erin Parfet, “Hatikvah,” Shalom Learning Center, May 31, 2024, https://shalomlc.org/dance-and-song/hatikvah. ↩︎
  2. William Lee Holladay and Ludwig Köhler, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Based upon the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 394. ↩︎

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December 16, 2024 · 9:00 AM

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and an early prayer for His blessings to fill your home in 2025! 

I am more convinced than ever that the gospel is our only hope! Jesus rose from the dead, burying our sins at Calvary, and because He conquered death, we will overcome the world through Him. The apostle Paul reminded the believers in Corinth—and us—of this great truth, when he wrote, 

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:54–56)

I am warmly comforted, knowing that because Jesus was fully human, yet without sin, He endured the personal pain we feel when this world disappoints or hurts us deeply. He understands us and is our only hope. 

One of the reasons I love the Christmas season is because of all the focus on the person of Jesus the Messiah. These days are supposed to cause us to reflect on His birth, yet for me, Christmas rekindles my hope that Jesus will return so on and establish His throne, removing the curse of sin forever (Romans 8:22)!

In fact, I cannot think about the first coming of Jesus without yearning for His return!

Our hope is in the One who overcame the world, and because He did, we will as well. As followers of Jesus, we have something this world cannot give—a certain and sure hope for today and tomorrow! He is the God of hope, as Paul described our loving Father, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Hope is refined by suffering. As believers we are not exempt from the troubles of this life. Jesus Himself teaches this by example. One of the most moving moments in the life of our Savior is when He wept after hearing about the death of His friend Lazarus:

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” (John 11:33–36, emphasis added)

We are in a season of monumental suffering for so many around the globe. Wars, hurricanes, floods, famine, and other disasters have exacerbated personal difficulties like health challenges, financial woes, and grief. When I pray for you, myself, my children, our country, Israel, and Jewish people, I ask the Lord to strengthen us through this gift of hope!

We see sparkles of hope every time God answers a prayer for healing, for deliverance from some type of bondage. Yet, it is clear that suffering in this life is one step along the pathway to hope as we follow the Savior and we walk in His footsteps. He never lost hope, and neither should we. 

Permit me to tell you a story about one of the early lessons the Lord taught me about hope.

I became friends with a pastor, who later became the president of a Bible institute. After several years, I heard this pastor was very ill with cancer and in a great deal of pain because the cancer had spread to his bones. I went to visit this wonderful man who was living with his daughter. When I saw him lying on his bed, he was obviously in some discomfort.

I very much wanted to pray with my pastor friend, thinking, of course, that I was ministering to him. I could tell he was at peace but in pain, and he asked me to pray with him. When he began praying, the presence of God was palpable in the room, and I felt as if I had come face-to-face with God himself. The prayer did not last long, but I think this experience forever changed my life, as I had never sensed such peace and hope before as a believer.

As we were saying goodbye, I perceived that his entire countenance spoke of the hope in his soul. His parting words to me, as you might expect, were something like, “I am ready to go be with the Lord, and that is all I want. I cannot wait!” I will never forget my dear friend, his faith, or his parting words. I left  the room filled with hope and a holy confidence imparted to me by someone in great pain who was dying yet fully aware the Lord was with him and that he would be with the Lord forever.

I held back my tears because I did not want to upset him. As I was about to walk out the door, his daughter came running after me saying, “Hold on one second. My dad wants to give you something.” She came back with a hand-scrawled $1,000 check for our ministry. My friend relayed to me—through her—his burning belief in the importance of reaching Jewish people for Jesus Christ. As Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation” (Romans 10:1).

I was stunned and grateful.

I will never forget his face, the sparkle of his eyes, the hope he exuded, and his generosity. I am so grateful that the Lord enabled me to get to know this dear man. Decades later, I still remember this experience. It is one of the ways the Lord infused hope within me during my early years of ministry.

Today, I am confident Jesus overcame death and lives forever and that, one day, I will join my pastor friend and live forever with the Lord. This is the Christmas message. It is not simply that the Lord has come, but that He died, rose, ascended to the Father, and will return so we will live with Him forever. This is our hope. He is our hope!

A Quick Word about Hope in the Midst of War

I am also encouraged by the faith and courage of our workers in Israel, who continue to serve the Lord in wartime. For instance, I recently spoke to one of our dear staff members in Israel about how he was doing during this avalanche of missiles falling throughout Israel. He said to me that it was terrible. He reflected on his coming to Israel to help build the Holy Land and stand with His own Jewish people.

He admitted that he had never experienced such disappointment and concern for the safety of His wife and children. But he reminded me of the unshakable hope he had in the promises of God. He declared that nothing on this earth could keep the Lord from fulfilling His promises to Jewish people. He had no doubts about God’s faithfulness and ability to keep His promises.

I was moved by the clarity and power of his expectations and willingness to struggle each day with the current conflicts in light of the hope of tomorrow. We know that, according to God’s word, all wars will end one day and the Lord will reign. We do not know when, but until that great day, we will proclaim the hope we have with friends, family, and all who need to know the salvation our Savior purchased through His perfect sacrifice.

Our hope for the future is gloriously described by the prophet Isaiah, who paints a picture of the future God has prepared for those who love Him,

And He [the Messiah] will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. (Isaiah 2:4, emphasis added) 

During this wonderful season of hope, please remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the release of the hostages.

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October 15, 2021 · 8:30 AM

Hope in Suffering

Everyone from the angelic-voiced Mahalia Jackson to the great Louis Armstrong sang the traditional African-American spiritual entitled, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” The lyrics are worth noting:

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Nobody knows my sorrow
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Glory Hallelujah

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Nobody knows but Jesus
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen
Glory Hallelujah

This great song poignantly expresses the loneliness and heart-rending nature of suffering. Have you ever tried to tell your story of personal pain to another individual, especially someone who is not very close to you? Have ever you felt like your story sounds hollow and trite as soon as you begin to recount it to someone else, even though the experience was deeply agonizing for you? If you have, then you know the feeling of emptiness when you realize the other person simply cannot appreciate your pain.

In moments like these, when the gap in understanding is so deep and wide, we might just decide to give up explaining and suffer in silence to avoid trying to give good reasons for why we are hurting. Nobody likes having their suffering minimized by someone else’s inability to empathize and feel their pain. We should never be put in the position where we need to justify why life hurts.

The moving lyrics of this old spiritual and its haunting melody breathes authenticity into its testimony of pain. We know it grew out of the bitterness of slavery and a desire to rise above that hateful circumstance and turn our hearts to God who alone understands life’s trials. It is sad but realistic as it seems the only time our hearts reach out to heaven is when life’s solutions are elusive or shrouded in darkness, and we have come to the end of our proverbial rope.

Everyone suffers, but the history of the Jewish people is best understood only through the lens of national suffering. The saying, “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!”—always mentioned with a wry smile—is tender, touching, and true. So much of Jewish life tells the story of survival, celebration, and remembrance. “Never Again”—declared in remembrance of the Holocaust—is a mantra that befits the Jewish experience and helps us seize the future with defiance and hope.

Our Jewish people have been enslaved, persecuted, oppressed, and virtually destroyed during the Holocaust. The prayers, poems, and songs of our people encourage us to turn toward God who is above and beyond all and gives meaning to the pain and suffering that would otherwise be meaningless.

The Shehechiyanu prayer expresses our corporate gratitude and acceptance of the destiny God allows. Along with heartfelt mourning, our tradition reminds us to be thankful that we are still alive! This sentiment is captured in one of our most familiar prayers when we recite,

Baruch Atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech Ha’olam, shehechiyanu, v’kiy’manu, v’higianu lazman hazeh.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to arrive in this moment.

This traditional Jewish response to good times and bad, to suffering and celebration, is prayed at almost every Jewish holiday. Recognizing God’s hand of protection upon the Jewish people as we have lived to enter another year’s holiday season, it speaks of the faithfulness of God. He is the rock in the midst of our suffering.

The Mourner’s Kaddish, another well-known prayer, is prayed at perhaps our greatest times of suffering as we come face to face with the death of a loved one.

There is nothing like death to make us appreciate life.

The Mourner’s Kaddish is a magnificent, eloquent, and hopeful prayer that is mistakenly understood as a prayer for the dead. The opposite is true. It is a prayer of praise to God for life itself. The Kaddish is life-affirming, and it is at the heart of the Jewish response to suffering and death. The Kaddish lifts our hearts as the words we say glorify God and extol the virtues of His divine perfections. The prayer gives voice to our suffering by reaffirming our acceptance of His plan for us personally and as a people. This acknowledgment enables us to be thankful to God in the face of great loss and the worst of human pain.

The ability to recite the prayer in a heartfelt and sincere way is in itself a victory over the potential emptiness of suffering that can consume us. Although the Mourner’s Kaddish is only recited once at the end of synagogue services, versions of the Kaddish are repeated throughout. At the heart of every variation of the prayer is the following statement about the character of God:

Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored, elevated, and lauded be the Name of the Holy One, Blessed is He—above and beyond any blessings and hymns, praises, and consolations which are uttered in the world; and say Amen.

When we pray these words together as a family and community, it becomes easier to accept the isolation and desolation of suffering.

I believe this Jewish approach to hope is found in the Bible—in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. The well-worn words of Job, the master of theodicy, enable us to walk into the “whirlwind” of distress with faith and hope in the character of a good and gracious God. Job, in a perfect illustration of submission to God’s will, said, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).

We might understand suffering today in deeper and more profound ways than ever before. COVID-19 has shattered many of our lives in so many ways. Some of us have unfortunately lost loved ones. We have also recently witnessed terrible floods, earthquakes, fires, and wars we thought we would never have to fight again.

Yet, we can have hope in the midst of suffering!

Bitterness, hopelessness, and anger are self-destructive options , but there is a whole range of life-affirming choices we can make as well. We might never quite understand the why of our pain, but we can still find peace in suffering when we entrust our souls to the God who made us.

The story of Jesus as told in the four Gospels is worth reading as you will see how the God of the universe chose to suffer on our behalf and repair the damage brought about by sin. In fact, He clothed Himself with humanity and endured pain and loss and injustice, just like we experience. He did even more for us. He died for our sins and rose from the grave to pave a new way into the presence of God. His suffering is the ultimate solace for our suffering! Once healed, this new and personal relationship with God through Yeshua the Messiah will become your greatest source of joy and give meaning to your suffering.

As the venerable rabbi and apostle Paul wrote so many years ago,

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3–5)

Like most of us, you are probably suffering in one way or another today. How can you avoid it? You do not have to be a weak person to suffer—we all have our limits. Loss and disappointment are a part of life, and we desperately need to find ways to cope. I and so many others affirm that knowing God intimately and personally, through Jesus the Messiah, is not only true—it will transform you!

I was searching and quietly suffering when I read the following for the very first time. Growing up in a Jewish home, we did not read the New Testament, of course! Jesus said,

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

These words were so comforting, although at first, I did not even know who said them! I hope and pray you will discover what the Messiah promised to be true for you as well.

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October 15, 2020 · 9:00 AM

Finding Hope

Shalom.

Maybe, like me, your sense of hope is running thin as we begin this eighth month of the pandemic. You are not alone. Optimism and hope may well be the most sought after, invaluable, and yet intangible life quality people are seeking today. We are all longing for hope—the belief that the future will be better and brighter than today!

We were entirely unprepared for the impact COVID-19 would have on our everyday lives. Most of us know very little about the Spanish flu of 1918 and how it ravaged American life and killed 675,000 Americans.[1] Some of what happened at that time would seem familiar today, including people wearing masks and socially distancing!

We remember more modern-day plagues like Ebola, AIDS, Legionnaires’ disease, polio, measles, mumps, and many others. Today, thank God, we have vaccines and treatments for most of these scourges.

Few of us remember World War II. However, many of us remember and maybe even served in more recent wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, in which we lost a combined total of more than 100,000 beloved American heroes.[2]

I remember the Cold War tensions, the Cuban missile crisis, and the atomic threat that drove school children to hide under their desks periodically (as if this would provide safety from a nuclear attack)!

We endured 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, and massive storms in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas that wreaked terrible devastation and death upon people we love and care about, not to mention costing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. We can now add the devastating West Coast wildfires to this list.

In some ways, COVID-19 is a crisis unlike any other as we face a deadly enemy we cannot see. Now, it seems that this dreaded disease will impact almost every area of our country, and, at the moment, we are hovering around 200,000 deaths. If we add the economic struggles and social unrest we are experiencing, who could blame someone tempted by hopelessness? How do we cope and find hope during these dark and difficult days? Ignoring what we are facing today is not going to work.

I especially appreciate those around me who are more upbeat and hopeful! May their tribe increase! I am grateful for every pair of smiling eyes peering above a mask, trying to help me look toward the brighter side and face the future in hope. I pray you have a few family and friends who bring you this kind of joy and inspiration, but even these wonderful people cannot always be by our side. So, how can we find hope in a seemingly hopeless situation? Is it possible? I believe it is!

Finding Unwavering Hope During a Pandemic

Hope comes from connecting with someone or something that is above and beyond the shifting circumstances of our day. We need to fix our hope on what is unchanging and eternal if we are going to find security and peace today. I believe we can find the hope we long for so desperately in a personal relationship with the God who made and loves us.

A God Who Keeps His Promises?

I find this hope in the story of the Bible. The Bible teaches us that God created a perfect world, but then something went wrong. Though He placed our first parents in an exquisite garden, they veered off the path He wanted them to follow. We followed suit, and every generation since then has suffered the results of these bad decisions. But, according to the Bible, God will reclaim and recreate the world He made.

God has not abandoned us and will one day heal our broken world.

In Judaism, this idea is called “tikkun olam,” the healing of the world, and it is vital to the Jewish view of life, as men and women may partner with God in the healing of the world. Jewish tradition understands that something is fundamentally wrong!

The Hope of Israel Fulfilled

How do we know what is written in the Bible is true?

So often we need something we can see to help us believe. I did! Let me tell you what convinced me. Briefly, here are three reasons.

He has kept His promises to Israel and the Jewish people. Despite the devastation of the Holocaust, the Jewish people—after multiple millennia and against incredible odds—have returned to the land of promise. This was predicted by the Jewish prophets, like the well-known Ezekiel who wrote thousands of years ago, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).

If God can orchestrate Israel’s regathering and return to the land, He can be trusted to fulfill His other promises in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and New Covenant Scriptures. This is undeniable. If the Bible was correct in predicting the unlikely restoration of Israel, then what else in the Bible is true?

The Hope of Messiah Fulfilled

I also believe God demonstrated His trustworthiness by sending the Messiah. His name is Yeshua, or Jesus in English, and there are hundreds of prophecies detailing His identity and mission penned by Israel’s prophets over multiple centuries. If what the Bible promised about His first coming has come to pass, then what is predicted about His second coming should be true as well.  

The prophets of old prophesied His place of birth (Bethlehem) (Micah 5:2), His death for our sins (Isaiah 53:1–12; Psalm 22), His resurrection from the grave (Psalm 16), and so much more! He will return as judge and king to: restore our planet; remove sin, death, and disease; and, according to the Bible, He will wipe every tear from our eyes. Isaiah promised, “He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 25:8, also Revelation 21:4).

This is a foundation for hope that will never disappoint.

Personal Experience

Finally, without being unrealistic about the level of tragedy we have experienced, I am convinced that God is trustworthy. When I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah, He filled my heart with hope. I cannot easily explain it or prove it logically. When you have a personal relationship with God and believe the promises in the Bible, hope invades your soul and enables you to face the future with confidence.

You will be able to read about the experience of others in this newsletter who had similar experiences to mine.

So, how should we respond to the hope God offers to humanity? We could just give up or become cynical about life in general. We could also choose to put our hope in our fellow human beings working hard to find a vaccine and a cure for COVID-19. Or, we could trust in the God who created us! Maybe a combination of the last two?

I can tell you that, even if we find a cure, we will still experience ongoing tragedies and challenges in this life and that only our relationship with our loving and immovable Creator will shelter us against the storms of life.

One More Thought

It is a mystery as to why God allows His beloved creation to endure difficult times: the loss of loved ones, jobs, educational opportunities, the separation from friends and family, and more that you and I have faced recently. It might be tempting at times to question if God is even good, whether or not you are a person of faith.

Right now, it might be a difficult season for some to keep the faith! It is understandable—times are tough! Maybe you would like to know and trust God but have a hard time believing what the Bible says about His unchanging character.

I wish I could give you an easy answer. I believe God is good by nature. He is Lord of all creation and mysteriously uses life’s most profound disappointments to shape us and make us strong.

I encourage you to hope in God! Even though the road may be dark, He is the Guide we need who lights our path and leads us through the valley of the shadow of death to green pastures.

You might have an unshakable faith in God, secured by the Messiah Jesus, or perhaps you are seeking hope that has been elusive so far. I wish you blessings on the journey, whatever your starting point might be, and thanks again for taking your precious time to read.

I hope you will enjoy the rest of the newsletter!

Sincerely,

Mitch

[1] Nina Strochlic, “U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Now Surpass Fatalities in the Vietnam War,” National Geographic, April 28, 2020, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/04/coronavirus-death-toll-vietnam-war-cvd/#close.

[2] Ibid.

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July 3, 2020 · 9:00 AM

Moving Forward in Hope

Shalom, dear friend in the Messiah. I hope and pray that life is getting a little better for you and that you are adjusting to serving the Lord in a world where COVID-19 lockdowns are easing. This infectious disease and our efforts to mitigate its rapid and terrible impact on human life came at a high cost. The shutting down of society has led to severe economic repercussions and the loss of a sense of wellbeing as a nation. This crisis has been felt across the globe. Hopefully, we are entering a new season where the virus is better understood and controlled, and scientists are closer to creating treatments and a vaccine. Like you, I am trusting the Lord and approaching the days ahead with hope, looking forward to all He will do through Your Mission to the Jewish People. Due to the pandemic, there were many missed events, services, Bible studies, weddings, funerals, and family celebrations. However, those losses pale compared to the more than 100,000 people in the United States who died from COVID-19 and the suffering their loved ones have experienced. We suffered considerably in New York City as the virus spread and killed countless moms and dads, grandparents, and others, as we are now discovering. And we are not totally out of the woods yet! But, thank God, we are on our way. The brothers and sisters who serve with Chosen People Ministries have also suffered a great deal of loss because of the coronavirus. We have missed seeing our loved ones face-to-face and worshipping in person with our spiritual community. I am especially sad for those who could not visit their elderly parents and for those who lost loved ones from the disease but were unable to have a decent burial attended by family and friends. Some of us are also tired of working from our homes. We are ready to cope with whatever changes will be demanded of us when we get back to our offices, from wearing masks to social distancing and the inability to eat lunch together in our common room! MESSIAH IN THE PASSOVER AND YOUR MISSIONARIES Due to the timing of the coronavirus lockdowns, Jewish people, including myself, were unable to celebrate the Jewish holidays in person, most notably Passover, which is always such a sweet and joy-filled, family-oriented time. Many of our staff and their families celebrated Passover Seders through Zoom because they were unable to get together physically. It was not easy to enjoy eating our matzo ball soup separated from the rest of our family! I imagine that Gentile Christians felt equally disappointed about their Easter services, which are significant evangelistic opportunities for so many local churches! During this Passover season, we were also unable to make our regular visits to a large number of churches. Throughout the United States, churches had scheduled Chosen People Ministries for more than six hundred “Messiah in the Passover” presentations during March, April, and May. All of these were canceled because of restrictions placed on churches during the pandemic. We also had scheduled evangelistic Passover Seders and banquets at our Messianic congregations, centers, and branches in the regions where we minister. Generally, during this season, we would personally meet hundreds of new friends, prayer partners, supporters, and the not-yet-believing Jewish friends of congregants who would view our presentations as an opportunity to bring their friends to church. These cancellations represent a considerable loss of opportunity to demonstrate the link between the Last Supper and Passover and how Yeshua, the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world beautifully fulfills them both! It was also a loss of funding for our dedicated and faithful missionary staff. By God’s grace, we did experiment with some virtual Passover celebrations. I enjoyed an online Passover Seder with my family and presented Messiah in the Passover to my broader spiritual family through the wonders of Zoom, Facebook Live, and YouTube. I am so grateful for the creative ways our missionaries found to preach the gospel online and reach out to Jewish people through one-on-one conversations by phone and Zoom meetings. They have also expanded their Bible teaching ministries, discipleship of new Jewish believers, and even continued their ministry to local churches using the excellent digital tools many of us have recently discovered. Yet, we cannot truly recapture what we lost because we only celebrate the festival of Passover annually. You cannot turn back the clock! I am reticent to tell you how much money was lost that would have supported our missionaries during this season. Yet, a beautiful passage of promise in the book of Joel illustrates how the Lord is able and faithful to restore what the locusts have eaten. The prophet Joel wrote:
Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame. Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame. (Joel 2:25–27)
LET’S CELEBRATE I know the Lord will take care of our staff, and this is why I am planning another online video-based celebration on Thursday, July 23, at 7:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. We will join in Messianic worship and invite Chosen People Ministries missionaries from around the globe to share what God is doing in their lives and their work for the Lord. We will also pray together and have a brief time of questions and answers. Thank you so much for your love and faithfulness. Your brother in the Messiah, Mitch

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