Waiting on God's next step | Update 9 April 2020

A weekly reflection on current global affairs concerning Israel and
the Jewish people from a Biblical perspective. 

Dear friends, 

This week the Jewish people celebrate Pesach – commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt - in the midst of the global COVID-19 crisis. In Israel the government has introduced a total lock-down. All citizens are prohibited from leaving their towns. Instead of travelling to be with their loved ones, families will remain at home in their houses, isolated, in anxious expectation of what comes next. 
 
What an amazing similarity with the first Pesach (Passover) in Gosen. The Israelites remained as separate families in their own houses on the last evening, prepared for a hasty departure; during the last plague, the death of the firstborn, they sprinkled the blood of the lamb they had slaughtered on their door posts and the Lord passed over them, sparing them the death that came upon the Egyptians.
 
In the coming days Christians will also remember this event as they observe Good Friday and Easter. We believe the Exodus foreshadowed the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a reminder that Christianity was born in Judaism. As Rev. Cornelis Kant explains further (below), our identity as Christians is inexorably connected with that of the Jewish people, and always will be. The willing separation of the church from the synagogue that resulted in a disastrous division of Christians from Jews has caused immense damage to both. Centuries of persecution of the Jewish people in the name of Christ. A church that on the whole has become worldly and lost its calling to proclaim God’s coming Kingdom. 
 
It is time as Christians to rejoice that God is today fulfilling the prophecies of Jeremiah 23: the exodus of the Jewish people from the nations, much more magnificent than the exodus from Egypt.
 
We are living in momentous times. God is preparing us all for His next step. Around the world many have a sense that God is about to do great things in the coming days. 
 
May we as Jews and Christians become ever more united as together we look forward to the coming of the promised Messiah to redeem this broken world. 
 
May Israel and the Jewish people experience protection from all disease this Pesach. 
 
A final word. It is possible some may have read last week’s Update as suggesting or even supporting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Nothing could be further from our thoughts. The point we were trying to make was that we should be aware Satan is coordinating current affairs to oppose the purposes of God. We also did not in any way intend to downplay the seriousness of this virus or the importance of fighting to save lives. We apologise for any offence we may have caused. 
 
Shabbat shalom, 
 
Andrew Tucker
Editor-in-Chief - Israel & Christians Today