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Thursday, April 25, 2024

God chose Israel

"Antisemitism"

Message summary: "God chose Israel, so that through Israel He might bring Jesus Christ to the whole world".

Listen to our message on your audio player.

"And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:2,3).

Today I will be speaking to a men's group then heading over to the Old Windmill Farm where Brooksyne and I will assist Jesse and Anna on what they expect to be a very busy day. Several times each year hundreds of Jews will converge upon the farm during their festivals, in this case during Passover. The orthodox Jews, especially from Brooklyn, New York and Lakewood, New Jersey, love coming to the farm.*

Anna told me I could help out by driving the team that pulls the hay wagon but I still need some more training on parking!

The last time the Jews had a major convergence on the farm was during Succot in early October. In fact I was at the farm October 4th just three days before the hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Since that time there has been a heightened expression of antisemitism as we are seeing now in many of our country's centers of indoctrination (AKA colleges and universities starting with those deemed most "elite").

We hope the Jewish guests find a source of peace and feel the genuine welcome that the Lapps provide visitors at the farm but in a much greater sense we pray they find the true source of peace in Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

The ancient, yet ongoing peril of antisemitism (hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people) is all through the Bible, notably Pharaoh's attempts at extinction and Haman's. And all though history, most notably the holocaust, a people with a relatively tiny percentage of the world's population have always faced a vastly disproportionate amount of hate and scorn.

J. Dwight Pentecost was a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and wrote a popular book on eschatology (the study of end times) titled, "Things to Come". I recall hearing a quote of his, probably while in Bible College, in which he asserted that one of the most remarkable evidences of the Scripture's authority is the survival of the Jews as a distinct people. I am sure it's worded more profoundly than that but I can't seem to find it in writing. Perhaps a good internet sleuth could help me!

The spiritual root of antisemitism is scorn of the promise to Abraham, "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:2,3).

Of course
antisemitism has also occurred through the church age by some who call themselves Christians and some probably still do, asserting the Jews killed Jesus. This is rooted in a very faulty view of redemption and the purpose for the death of Christ who came to earth to die for our sins. "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross"  (Acts 2:23). “He (God) made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In our mission service this last Sunday a missionary used the slide that is at the top of our message today. "God chose Israel, so that through Israel He might bring Jesus Christ to the whole world". 

An article on antisemtism on the teaching website gotquestions.org asserts and I agree,

"The truth is that the world hates the Jews because the world hates God. The Jews were God’s firstborn, His chosen people (Deuteronomy 14:2). Through the Jewish patriarchs, the prophets, and the temple, God used the Jews to bring forth His Word, the Law, and morality to a world of sin. He sent forth His son, Jesus the Christ, in a Jewish body to redeem the world of sin. Satan, the prince of the earth (John 14:30; Ephesians 2:2), has poisoned the minds of men with his hatred of the Jews".


Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Praying man Daily prayer: Father, today we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the entire country of Israel. We pray for peace in the Middle East and in our world. We pray that many will this day receive the Prince of Peace, Jesus, as their Messiah.  For when the roll is called up yonder we will see those from every tribe and nation, all peoples and languages, standing together as one united in the name of Christ shouting out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

Revelation 7

* Note: I spoke to Jesse late yesterday afternoon and he said normally they get lots of calls prior to these Jewish festival days but this year they have had hardly any. With all the antisemitism I can understand why they would fear getting out. I'll report tomorrow how the turnout was.



Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

Note: This message cannot cover all the nuances of course. Have Jews mistreated other people in history and modern times? Of course, what people group has not in some way. In responding to the terrorist attack is the war being engaged in flawlessly? Likely not. An enemy as dastardly as they face who use tunnels and place civilians at or near military sites will inevitably lead to deadly consequences and collateral damage much more than conventional war. The charge that they are committing genocide is ludicrous. If they wanted to do that they could do so very quickly. Actually in light of what they are enduring their resttaint is pretty remarkable.

"A Lesson From Succot"  Message with photos about my visit to the Old Windmill Farm last October 4.


What is antisemitism and what is the true spiritual origin of anti-Semitism? - Podcast Episode 181  (from gotquestions.org) What is antisemitism? Why has there been so much anti-Semitism throughout world history? What is the true spiritual cause of antisemitism?






WETA show on the Old Windmill Farm
WETA, the PBS station in the greater Washington DC area, just presented a "Get Out Of Town" travel show about Lancaster County, including a segment about the Old Windmill Farm. Brooksyne and Ester was invited to the farm that day to be part of the guests. To watch click on the photo above or here. The Old Windmill Farm segment starts at 11:50 and last about 4 minutes. It features a mother and daughter but you may see a few glimpses of Brooksyne. (It's as famous as she has ever been!) Also note they included a  portion of a prayer prayed by Jesse before they dug into the homemade butter and bread.

Truck at Berks County Greenhouse
The very old: On Tuesday we passed this old truck parked in front of an Amish greenhouse.

Tesla truck
The very new: At Tractor Supply I saw the first Tesla truck I have seen in our area.

Amish doing field work
Finally, a regular view we enjoy in our area, an Amish farmer preparing his field for planting. There were a lot of birds flying overhead!



Finally today: I am teaching our Crossroads adult ABF (Sunday School) class this Sunday and will use some of the material from today's message. I find a consideration of the relative size of Israel in both population and land mass interesting in light of its newsworthiness and influence. Since I am speaking to a local group I also reduce the world to the size of our county to help visualize just how small.

The Middle East region represents an area of over 5.0 million square miles. Vast deserts are common in the region. Yet Israel has just 8,630 square miles or a minuscule 0.1726%  of the land area of the Middle East.

The total land area on earth is 57,268,900 square miles So Israel has just 0.015069260977599% of the land area in the world.

To visualize locally: Lancaster County has 944 sq mi land area. .015% of that is 0.1416 sq mile or 89.6 acres, a small to medium sized farm (according to my friend Ken Pierce).

According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the Israeli Jewish population stood at 7,181,000 people in 2023, comprising 73% percent of the total population of Israel (if the Arab populations in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are included).

The Middle East is comprised of 17 countries with a population of 371 million. So Israeli Jews comprise just 1.9355795148248% of the population in the entire Middle East.

The world's population is at 8.1 billion. Thus Israeli Jews make up just 0.088654320987654% of people in the world.

To visualize locally: Lancaster County has a population of 550,000. .088% of 550,000 is just 484, the size of a small village.

Note: In case you're wondering I didn't figure these percentages out in my head! I used these: calculator and this one




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