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** Crossing the Red Sea | Update 7 February
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A weekly reflection on current global affairs concerning Israel and
the Jewish people from a Biblical perspective.

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to make sense of the world events surrounding Israel, in the midst of the political and human chaos and confusion that is thrown at us in the media. So many opinions, so many points of view, so much (fake) news.

It is in the midst of this confusion that the word of God comes to our rescue.

Praying about these matters, I read this week’s reflection of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. As so often happens, his examination of the scriptures opened up a new way of looking at things that could quite possibly be very pertinent to the current state of affairs.

This week’s parashat, or weekly portion from the Torah, is Exodus 13:17 – 17:16. -18. It begins with this passage:

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the land of the Philistines, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt prepared for battle. (Ex. 13:17-18)


Rabbi Sacks asks the question: if God wanted to protect the Israelites from war, why did He lead them, via the Red Sea (“on the face of it, the worst of all possible routes”), via a route that could only lead to a conflict with the Amelekites, who were much more fearful than the Egyptians?


“In the opening, God is protective and miracle-working. At the close, God is more concealed. He does not fight the battle against the Amalekites; He gives the Israelites the strength to do so themselves. In the opening, the Israelites, faced by the Egyptians, panic and say that they should never have left Egypt. By the close, faced by the Amalekites, they fight and win.


Why the sudden change between the opening of the parashat, and its close? The answer, suggests Rabbi Sacks, could be that the Israelites needed to learn to reach a “point of no return”.


“That is what crossing the Red Sea was for the Israelites, and why it was essential that they experienced it at an early stage in their journey. It marked the point of no return; the line of no retreat; the critical point at which they could only move forward.

I believe that some of the greatest positive changes in our lives come when, having undertaken a challenge, we cross our own Red Sea and know that there is no way back. There is only a way forward. Then God gives us the strength to fight our battles and win.”


I wonder whether this is a lesson that Israel and the Jewish people are having to learn at the moment – that, having been brought back into the land from the north, the south, the east and the west, there is no return from the point they have now reached. The only way is forward – in faith and confidence that God will bring them to the other side.
Read Rabbi Jonathan Sacks latest parashat reflection
Click here.. ([link removed])

Would Yitzhak Rabin approve of Trump’s peace plan?
By Allon Lee, senior policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

Criticism of US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been directed at three points. It grants the Palestinians only a nominal capital on the edge of Jerusalem; it lets Israel annex the Jordan Valley; and the Palestinian state it creates will lack geographic contiguity. But critiques of the plan have included numerous distortions of the history of the convoluted Oslo peace process that began in 1993.
Read more.. ([link removed])


The real reason Arabs in Israel do not want to live in Palestine
Khaled Abu Toameh reports in Gatestone Institute: Arab citizens of Israel, who number nearly two million ([link removed]) , are up in arms about US President Donald Trump's plan for Middle East peace, which proposes including some of their communities in a future Palestinian state. Since the unveiling of the plan, thousands of Arabs have been demonstrating to express their rejection of the idea of placing them under the sovereignty of a Palestinian state.
Read more.. ([link removed])

Hungary, Austria block harsh EU action against Israel
US President Donald Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity ([link removed]) ” plan would allow Israel to retain 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements, the Jordan Valley and some additional land. Hungary, Austria and several other EU member states blocked a move by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell ([link removed]) to condemn the plan as infringing international law.
Read more.. ([link removed])


Palestinians push UN Security Council to condemn Trump plan, Israel
Lahav Harkov and Khaled Abu Toaemeh in JPost: The Palestinian Authority began promoting a UN Security Council resolution to condemn US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and Israel on Wednesday 5th February.

The move came a day before Trump’s special adviser Jared Kushner was expected to present the plan to the Security Council and less than a week before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to address it next week.
Read more.. ([link removed])


Arabs and the Holocaust

By Dr. Edy Cohen: Leaders from around the world recently visited Israel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Concurrently with that visit, another important historical visit took place: for the first time, a delegation of leading Arabs visited the Nazi extermination camp.
Read more.. ([link removed])

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“Focus on the future” -
Video teachings by Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer

Rev. Willem Glashouwer helps us understand God’s prophetic word, and how prophecy is being fulfilled in our generation.

Volume 3 episode 2: Why has not God revealed to us in Scripture a precise order of prophetic events and how should we deal with the fact that He hasn't revealed it like that? Rev Willem Glashouwer explains about prophecies in the Bible in this week's episode of 'Focus on the Future'.

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“The Bouquet” -
Video teachings by Johannes Gerloff

Watch this series of teachings by Israeli-based Bible teacher and journalist Johannes Gerloff:

Episode 11: If I have Jesus, what do I need the Jewish people and the land of Israel for?, many Christians ask. Isn’t the “old” gone and we should focus on the “new”?

Shabbat Shalom,

Andrew Tucker
Editor-in-Chief
Israel & Christians Today


** SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:
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** Exodus 13:17-22
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^17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ^18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.^[a ([link removed]) ^] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

^19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”^[b ([link removed]) ^]

^20 After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ^21 By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ^22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

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Newspaper Israel & Christians Today
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The goal of Israel & Christians Today is to help Christians to take God’s Word seriously, and study current events in the world in the context of the Bible.

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