Exploits Magazine December 2018

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Blessings from Jerusalem

As chairman of the trustees of Revelation TV, Peter Darg, along with the leadership team of Howard and Leslie Conder and Gordon and Lorna Pettie, recently dedicated the new International Media Centre in Spain. e menorah at right was presented to the new centre by Exploits Ministry.

UK Christians Donate Two Ambulances In Israel in Memory of 1948 Convoy Christians must demonstrate appreciation to our Jewish benefactors, who are the roots and trunk of God’s olive tree in which we have been engraed. ere could hardly be a more worthy charity in Israel that reaches out to all the peoples of the Land than Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency services. Our UK Trustee Barbara Dingle and I had

the privilege and honour to dedicate two new ambulances on behalf of the UK Christian Friends of MDA in a ceremony held at Hadassah Hospital, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, that symbolically replaced two ambulances destroyed in the 1948 Hadassah convoy massacre.

Rev. Mark Madeley, president of MDA’s UK Christian friends, said that the gi of these two “miracles on wheels” was a redemptive act from Britain to Israel. e massacre took place on April 13, 1948, when a convoy bringing medical and military supplies and personnel to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus was ambushed by Arab forces. Missing from the convoy on that day was Dr. Yehuda Mazur, father of our Israeli tour agents, Yair and Amos Mazur.

We rejoice!

At Israel’s 2018 Christian Media Summit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Christians to be champions of truth. He said, “Tell the truth about our history, tell the truth about our present, tell the truth about who wants peace and who doesn't want peace.”

“Every day is a miracle” at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel, told us: "It never gets old." Friedman quoted the Gospel of John, saying that as ambassadors of the truth, we have the task to set people free.

Deputy Minister Michael Oren told us that “the real existential threat to Israel is (Palestinian leader)

Abu Mazen trying to delegitimize Israel and get us accused of war crimes at the Hague, denying us the right to defend ourselves and to exist as a Jewish State."

Former Israeli UN Ambassador Dr. Dore Gold warned about fake history narratives awash in the press: "UNESCO refuses to admit there was ever a Jewish connection to Jerusalem. e world has been exposed to fake history through UNESCO.” We thank the partners of our Jerusalem Channel, which combats the false narratives. And we rejoice that the Israeli government sponsors a Christian Summit! It continues to be a new day!

Register Now for our 3-7 January 2019 Watchmen and Women on the Walls New Year Intercessory Prayer Convocation!

Details at our website www.JerusalemChannel.tv eme: It’s Our Watch; It’s Our Time To be Spiritual Guardians of Jerusalem!

The Succa of the Lord

By Christine Darg

Photo by Peter Darg

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is le of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

(Zechariah 14: 16) We are praising God for another convocation of revelation, this time in our succa (tabernacle) overlooking the Mt. of Olives and the Temple Mount. Our speakers included the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast co-founder, Albert Veksler, who took the theme of tremendous breakthroughs that happen when Jews and Christians work together! Bob O’Dell, impersonating the apostle Paul, introduced

the oldest midrash (commentary) of the Bible discovered by Dr. John David Pitcher, Jr. We celebrated with Bible Bloc founder Avi Lipkin whose new party will bring Jews and Christians together into a coalition as the first JewishChristian party in Israel! An historic breakthrough!

One of the many reasons to visit Israel during the Feast of Tabernacles is to witness the Bible re-enacted right before our eyes as modern, regathered Israelis relive their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. e Levitical Feast commands that they remember their dependance upon the Almighty in the wilderness by dwelling

Feast of Tabernacles Worship at Western Wall Photo by Romel Pineda

for a week in fragile booths. Tabernacles is known as the festival of joy, and many scholars believe tidings of great joy were heard in this region when Jesus was born in a stable (booth) in Bethlehem during this festival. î ˘e Succot holiday helps the Jewish people to remember that God is merciful toward them, that he covers them and protects them and is willing to pay any price for them by sending the Saviour to them.

I encourage you to come with us to Israel next year, should the Lord tarry, to witness this great spectacle for yourself: the people of Israel living, eating and sleeping in booths for one week! But we will arrange an air-conditioned hotel room for you!

Photo by Helen Lineen

Prophecy in the News:

Joseph’s Tomb

By Christine Darg

Jewish tradition sometimes refers to two Messiahs. Some regard this concept as a rabbinic invention but others note that there are definitely two portraits of Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures and that Jesus of Nazareth fulfils both types—the suffering messiah and the triumphant king messiah.

According to Jewish eschatology, both redeemers— Messiah son of Joseph and Messiah son of David-will be involved in delivering the Jewish people from exile to usher in the long-awaited messianic era—a time period that Christians call the Millenium.

However, when speaking of Messiah, Jewish people generally have in mind the son of David who will rule the messianic age. e rabbis derive their understanding of Messiah son of Joseph not only from the Book of Genesis but also from their exegesis of the little book of Obadiah in the Hebrew Bible.

Verse 18 prophesies, “e house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken.” I find all of this fascinating because the Jewish people are increasingly calling for the Messiah to come. I believe that’s one reason why the patriarch Joseph is kept in the news because he’s a type and an idiom of the Messiah himself—Joseph is a type of Jesus.

More space is devoted in Genesis to Joseph than to other patriarchs; if you search the scriptures, you’ll find that there’s not a single word of reproof against Joseph except his family’s rebuke of his Godgiven dreams. When he was cruelly sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, Joseph chose to go to prison rather than sin sexually with his master’s wife. His sterling character is worthy of careful study--his nobility, his purity of heart and life. His greatness as a

ruler and faithful brother all add up to an illustration of the coming Messiah more than any other character in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Before he died, Joseph requested that his bones be brought up from Egypt to the promised land, and according to Joshua 24: 32, Joseph was buried at Shechem, in the ground his father Jacob had purchased. Joseph’s Tomb is located near Mount Gerizim only 300 metres from Jacob’s Well, on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Nablus.

I’ve visited Jacob’s Well many times, but so far I’ve only been to Joseph’s Tomb once because it’s located in a highly contested corridor. e Jewish sages teach that Joseph’s request to be buried in the promised land was providential. In Genesis 50, Joseph tells his brothers in Egypt, “I’m about to die.

God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” So Joseph made the sons of Israel promise to carry up his bones from Egypt. Joseph could have requested to be buried in the Holy Land immediately aer his death, as his father Jacob had been. ere was a long entourage from Egypt to the promised land just to bury Jacob. Pharaoh’s officials and dignitaries accompanied Joseph’s household and his brothers. Chariots and horsemen also went up with a very large company. Joseph prophetically insisted that they should bring out his bones only when the Israelite nation made their Exodus from Egypt to the promised land. Meanwhile, according to the Bible, Joseph was embalmed and buried in a coffin in Egypt. A later midrash identified his first tomb as a royal mausoleum. Moses gathered Joseph’s bones during the Exodus, an account corroborated by the Jewish historian Josephus, who specified that Joseph’s bones were buried in Canaan, the land of Israel.

Recently I read a news story about an Israeli

Joseph’s Tomb by David Roberts

who has been risking his life night aer night to visit the Tomb of Joseph. We Christians may wonder… ..Why do religious Jews pray at a tomb? Many of the modern Jewish zealots believe they must be proactive to bring the Messiah. ese holy places are a point of contact, they believe, with God. ey quote Zechariah 1:3 as a biblical mandate, in which God says, “Turn back to me — and I will turn back to you.” Many Israelis—not all—but many believe that there are certain steps that will bring Messiah’s appearing: first there must be a physical return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, then the building of the ird Temple, and also the return of the Davidic Dynasty.

Some believe that only the Messiah himself can restore the temple. But others are doing what they can to make it happen, even if it puts them in harm’s way.

So Joseph’s tomb is constantly in the news as a reminder that the Jewish people definitely have ancient, historic and biblical roots in the Holy Land and their claim cannot be denied. Furthermore, God keeps the Hebrew patriarch Joseph in the news because, he IS a type of the Messiah. In fact, there are more than 100 parallels between the lives of Joseph, son of Jacob, and Jesus (Yeshua), son of David. Just as Joseph was hated, envied, rejected by his brethren and sold for pieces of silver, so Jesus was envied, hated, rejected and betrayed for pieces of silver. e parallels are amazing. In due time, both Joseph and Jesus were vindicated and exalted by God, but no parallel is as poignant as the tears of Joseph and the tears of Jesus.

When Joseph finally reveals himself to his brethren aer 20 years of separation, Genesis 45: 2 records, “Joseph wept so loudly that the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.” Jesus’s tears over Jerusalem and the fate of his people remind us of Joseph’s tears

over his estranged Israelite family. Luke 19: 42 records that as Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

Someday soon, like Joseph, Jesus will reveal himself to his brethren, the Jewish people, and there will be much weeping but also reconciliation. Joseph forgave his brothers for betraying him because he was able to see the big picture. Joseph perceived God’s wonderful providence in using his exaltation to power in Egypt to save his family during a time of famine. Jesus also forgave his tormentors because he was able to see the big picture of being the saviour of Israel and the world. Before they were reconciled, first Joseph had the extraordinary patience to test his brothers.

Bible commentaries observe the severity of the love of Joseph. God’s love to us is still nobler, but severity oen accompanies it. Even though he was the governor of Egypt, Joseph was free to say to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they came close, he revealed, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!” Gracious words! Joseph didn’t say I am your brother whom you sold as a slave, but he said you sold me into my destiny: “But don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save your lives that God sent me ahead of you. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Jesus also calls us to come close to him – to receive him as our Brother and Saviour. He comforts us and tells us to stop being angry for our sins and mistakes, but like Joseph’s repentant brothers, we should rejoice that Jesus offers us pardon and deliverance! Just as God sent Jacob’s favored son Joseph to Egypt to save his family, so God sent his only begotten Son to save this world!

Joseph’s brothers were looking for food, but God knew they also needed reconciliation. Joseph invited them, “Come near.” Jesus invites us to come to Him. When we acknowledge our sin, the Lord embraces us as Joseph embraced his brethren and extends forgiveness to us. Joseph was his brothers’ judge, but he revealed himself to them privately, covering their sin. Jesus invites you to come to Him now, and He covers our sin by His Blood.

Hanukkah and End -Time Prophecy

By Christine Darg I appreciate Israeli holidays because they are Biblical—they are either the Levitical Feasts of the Lord such as Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, or celebrations of great victories in Jewish Biblical history, such as the holidays of Purim and Hanukkah.

Purim commemorates the great deliverance of the Jewish people in the Book of Esther. During Purim, children and sometimes even adults wear costumes because Queen Esther was hidden and disguised in the king’s palace. Purim is wholesome unlike Halloween, which turns children into witches and goblins.

Hanukkah, on the other hand, is a winter festival that sometimes coincides with Christmas.

All believers should understand the prophetic significance of Hanukkah. e Jewish Talmud recorded that aer the Temple was purified from a horrid desecration, the wicks of the menorah miraculously kept burning for eight days, and so the miracle of the oil is the reason—or the excuse-- for why Hanukkah cuisine specializes in yummy foods fried in oil, (such as the jelly-filled doughnut featured on the cover photo!)

Hanukkah menorahs have eight branches and a ninth branch as the servant candle-- to light the wicks each night--in remembrance of the miracle of the multiplied oil for eight days and nights.

During Hanukkah, religious Jews beseech God to restore the temple Altar once again.

e Hanukkah miracle is chronicled in the Book of the Maccabees. It’s a memorial to a revolt led

by Judah Maccabee during the inter-testament period, around the year 165 BC, and it celebrates victory over the blasphemer who desecrated the second Jewish temple. e villain was Syrian King Antiochus, who brazenly gave himself the title “Epiphanes,” meaning “God made manifest.” But in a word play on his self-appointed title, his contemporaries called him “Epimanes,” meaning “e Insane One.” He was a maniac, a delusional blasphemer who persecuted the Jews and thought he could wipe out Judaism. Antiochus invaded Jerusalem, plundered the temple treasures and defiled the Holy of Holies by erecting an altar to Zeus and offering a pig on the altar.

Antiochus was a forerunner, a prototype of the Anti-Christ. In 2 essalonians 2, St. Paul prophesied that the Anti-Christ, the man of sin, the man of lawlessness, will sit in the future temple of God and proclaim himself to be God. at prophetic verse guarantees a third temple.

Furthermore, quoting the prophet Daniel, Jesus himself warned the Jews in Matthew 24 to flee Jerusalem when they witness a kindred abomination that makes desolate in the holy place.

Let the reader pay attention! Meanwhile, we can rejoice that Hanukkah’s victory is a preview of the Lord’s triumph over the Anti-Christ!

The mandate of EXPLOITS MINISTRY ®

Acts 1:8 ‘And you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’

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