Jonathan Bernis - For Such a Time as This
Jonathan Bernis: Shalom, and welcome to Jewish Voice. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Jonathan Bernis, and I'm joined by two dear friends of mine. They're both Messianic Jewish leaders. They believe in Jesus and they're Jewish. Scott Volk, a long time friend, and rabbi Jack Zimmerman who you probably know as our in house staff evangelist, and we're talking today about an exciting Jewish holiday, but it's more than just a Jewish holiday. It's a celebration of the year that's filled with joy and it's a reminder of God's faithfulness not just to the Jewish people, but much wider. It's about God's faithfulness in general, and it's called Purim, Purim. I think some of the people watching have never heard about Purim. Jack, why don't you give us an introduction.
Jack Zimmerman: Well, sure...
Jonathan Bernis: We love this holiday.
Jack Zimmerman: Oh, we love it. I mean, we eat, they've already put a wonderful plate loaded, loaded with pastries in front of us. And of course, we'll talk about that in a minute. The word Purim actually comes from the word "Lots". Lots are being cast in a story that is centered and found in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament, and it's an incredible story. On the one hand, it doesn't directly mention God by name, but it's all about God's providence over his people, isn't that wonderful?
Jonathan Bernis: God's in it the whole way, but it's never mentioned, you know? He sees, that's part of the way that God weaves in his life, our life, you know? He weaves through... &***. Yes.
Jonathan Bernis: And yeah. Sorry.
Jack Zimmerman: But there's this wonderful story about a Persian pagan king who calls for his wife, the queen, to come every time he holds a party. One day, she doesn't show up, and he says, "Okay, I've gotta hold a beauty contest and look for another queen". So, this starts off, well, yeah, she's done. But this starts off with great momentum, and here's the kicker, right at the beginning. He holds a beauty contest to find the best pagan woman in the kingdom to be his queen. And who does he choose? A nice, Jewish girl. You can't make this stuff up. And so, he says, "I'm gonna take you as my queen". Her cousin, whose name is Mordecai, wants to make sure that she's taken care of by her king. The king has a viceRoy named Haman. I'm telling the whole story, bear with me. Maybe we'll give you a cookie at the end. He has a viceRoy named Haman who goes out and who wants everybody to bow down to him. Esther's cousin, Mordecai, is the one Jew who won't bow down. So, what does he do? He says, "Because that one Jew didn't bow down, I wanna call for the death of all of the Jewish people". This is our history. And then, I want you guys, one of you guys to go on to part two because it gets better from there.
Jonathan Bernis: What's so interesting is that this is one of, maybe the first example, and by the way, you can read this whole story, it's a beautiful story, in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament. Just go to the table of contents and you'll find the Book of Esther. If you can't find a Bible, go to any bookstore. Go to a grocery store and you'll get one. But the Book of Esther tells a story, and we read it every year. But it might be the first example of antisemitism, right Scott, in the scriptures, and it's a plague that we have to deal with.
Scott Volk: It's a plague that we have to deal with. And interestingly, just to pick up where rabbi Jack left off, Haman gets all ticked off because Mordecai will not bow down to him, and Haman decrees to the king that, "There is a different group of people, they don't do the same things we do, their laws are different". And then, it says, "If it's pleasing to the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed". Here you've got a man who's calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people which, sadly, is not a typical anymore.
Jack Zimmerman: Yeah, get in line.
Scott Volk: Get in line. But the beautiful thing to me is that even though as you pointed out, Jack, God is not mentioned, he's behind the scenes, and he wakes up the king, Xerxes or Ahasuerus, however you say his name. He wakes up in the middle of the night because he can't sleep. It's like holy amnesia. And he's reading through the Chronicles, his history, and the name, "Mordecai" shows up, and he remembers, "Wait a second, this Mordecai was instrumental in saving my life". So, he goes to Haman and he says, "What should be done for the man who would save my life"? And Haman is act, or "Who would speak well of the king". So, Haman actually thinks he's talking about him. So, Haman starts telling the king, "This is what you gotta do. Parade him across the streets, give him a party". And in the midst of God's name not being mentioned, he's setting the pieces up to where the very one who called for the destruction of the Jewish people would ultimately himself be destroyed by the very means that he wanted to destroy Mordecai. Amazing.
Jonathan Bernis: By the way, this is an incredible story, it's a Hollywood story. It's been made into a Hollywood story many times. And that's why we often celebrate during Purim with plays to tell the story. Someone is Esther, someone is dressed as Mordecai, somebody is Haman. We boo Haman and we use something called a grogger, any noise maker to drown out his name. Esther, yay. And what we're doing is we're recounting God's faithfulness, right? That behind the scenes, because he's not mentioned in the book, he's orchestrating everyone to preserve the Jewish people. And I think of Jeremiah 31, "As long as the sun shines by day and the moon and star shine by night, they decree that I am preserving the people of Israel as the nation be formed". This is a story of spiritual warfare. This is a story of demonic strongholds that are seeking to destroy the Jewish people, right? And our history as they tried to kill us. Over and over again, we won, let's eat. And we eat Hamantaschen, right?
Jack Zimmerman: Right.
Jonathan Bernis: Look at these, hold these up. These triangles that actually symbolize either the ear of Haman or the hat that he wore. We don't know which one, but it's tradition. But, we're celebrating. We're celebrating because God is faithful.
Scott Volk: I love that we celebrate. I love that we read the Book of Esther on Purim. And there's one famous, famous verse that many, many people know and it says, "For such a time as this". Maybe you can speak into that. But there is a God given time where God is looking for the Esthers, even of our generation to stand up and do what Esther did. Esther risked her neck and goes into the king who's got these two guys next to him with axes ready to lock off the neck of anybody who comes in uncalled for. "Wait a second, the king didn't call for me, they could lock my neck off". But Esther was really the instrument of God at the urging of Mordecai to go in. So, maybe you could just pick it up from there.
Jack Zimmerman: And Esther asked people to pray for her because the queen, not only the queen, but no one else could come to the king if they were not summoned to do so. And so, she tells all the people in the kingdom, she said, "Pray for me. I'm going to the king. He hasn't yet called me, but if I die, I die". And the people fast and prayed for three days. And obviously the king is very, very sympathetic to her. And talking about for such a time as this, that time component is so important because, what do we have? We have Mordecai, who brings about the destruction of Haman. Mordecai, a son of Kish, bringing down the destruction of Haman, the son of an Agagite, take us back to the book of 1 Samuel where we have king Saul, a son of Kish, who God command to kill all of the Amorites, left only one, the king Agag. He didn't do his job like God instructed him to. So, many years later for such a time as that, now we finally have the resolution.
Scott Volk: Yeah.
Jonathan Bernis: I think this story is cycle of biblical history actually. Look for example, so Haman becomes an antisemite, intend on destroying the Jewish people, which we know is spiritual, right? It's a spiritual. destroy the Jewish people is at the top of the lists of satan's agenda. You have the same thing reoccurring with Pharaoh, right? Israel is getting too big. The Israelites are getting too big. Let's kill all the first born males to keep a deliverer from coming. We see the same thing repeated with Herod, right? Herod gets wind that the Messiah, it's about to, it's time for the Messiah to come, it challenges his leadership, his throne. And so, he gathers together the sages of Israel, where's this Messiah gonna be born? Bethlehem. And so, what does he do? He sends his soldiers to kill all the male children, the Jews.
Jack Zimmerman: Yeah.
Jonathan Bernis: It's antisemitism repeated over and over and over again.
Jack Zimmerman: And you know, Scott and Jonathan, you know what are now the common threat is in here. Where does this take place? It takes place in a city called susa or Shushan. Taking place in Shushan. So, this is the place where persecution is gonna come and God is going to, obviously, deliver the people. Shushan is also mentioned in Daniel 8, where Daniel has a vision at a place called Shushan of impending attack against Israel, but God would deliver the people through the festival of Hanukkah, and in Nehemiah 1. Nehemiah is in Shushan, his brother, Hanani, comes to him, Nehemiah says, "How are things going in Jerusalem"? He says, "They burned down the gates, everything is on fire". Persecution against the Jewish people. Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem, God once again delivers his people.
Scott Volk: Haman, Herod, Hitler, Hamas, Houthis. I mean, all these H...
Jack Zimmerman: Hezbollah.
Scott Volk: Hezbollah, Hezbollah. Another H. But...
Jonathan Bernis: That will preach well, my gosh, God the five H's.
Scott Volk: But in every situation, God is behind the scenes. Even now as Israel is going, maybe through some of their most historic hatred ever, God is behind the scenes, and he's setting things up. The enemy would want us to be discouraged saying Israel is done. Certainly, even though the sun and the moon are still in the sky, God's not gonna come through this time, but in the same way that he came through in the Book of Esther, in the same way that he came through in the book of Exodus, in the same way that he came through and Herod ended up dying and Yeshua rose from the dead, so also will he come through because the end of the story for Israel is always resurrection.
Jack Zimmerman: Amen. Well said.
Jonathan Bernis: You know, if there was not a Purim, if there was not an Esther, and by the way, I think that Esther is a type of the church, actually. Look at the parallels. Esther hides her Jewish identity. Esther has access to the king, okay? We have access to the king. Jewish identity has been stripped for the last 2,000 years from the church, which is sad and has to change. Esther, again, has access and she gets people praying, and she reveals her Jewish identity, and what does it bring? Deliverance. It brings deliverance, it brings restoration, it brings victory. There's such a connection here, and I think it's time for the church, like Esther, to reconnect with her Jewish identity, with your Jewish identity, and be a light to the Jewish people. You're called to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy. You can fulfil that call by embracing your calling to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy by showing love, by reaching out to them with the good news, buy just showing them that there's something different about you, and that you're worshiping their God, you're serving their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
— Welcome back. Hey, we so appreciate your continued support of this ministry from all of us at Jewish Voice. Thank you so very much. We really appreciate you all. Well, we're talking about Purim. We're talking about the Book of Esther. Something that is celebrated by Jewish communities around the world. Actually, at the end of the Book of Esther, it says, "Remember to celebrate this every year," because it's a celebration of God's deliverance. He's not even written in the book, he's not even mentioned, but he's working behind the scenes in a powerful way. And listen, without Purim, there would be no Messiah. Without Hanukkah, there would be no Christmas. The preservation of the Jewish people is so important. Understand this, you love Jesus, but he's the Messiah of Israel. You've been transformed by a relationship with him, right? But he wouldn't have even been born if it wasn't for God's preservation of the Jewish people because Jesus was and is a Jew.
— Yeah, amen.
— You were talking about the important of remembering Purim and celebrating it regularly. There's something so powerful in remembering. I'm reminded of Psalms 78, the sons of Ephraim were archers equip with bows, but they turned back in the day of battle because they did not remember the deeds of the Lord. When we remember Purim, when we remember that the Jewish people were saved from a demonic plot to wipe them out, something rises inside of us. There's many people that are watching today that might not be the target of annihilation, but they going through things that they feel are hopeless whether it's a health report, whether it's finances, whether it's broken relationships. When we remember Purim and that God delivered a people in order to preserve the Messiah so that we all can be saved, we're remembering, God is calling us to remember Purim so that we can be fierce in the day of battle knowing that as much as the enemy would wanna see us destroyed, the God who saved the Jewish people is the God who's gonna come through for us today.
— Let me focus on one verse to keep this going, okay? The most important verse of the whole Book of Esther...
— Yeah.
— "You have been called to do this for such a time as this".
— Yeah.
— And I'm feeling this as I'm talking about it that you've been called for such a time as this.
— Yeah.
— There's a lot going on right now that connects to such a time as this.
— Mmm.
— We're experiencing the highest level of antisemitism. This is all as a result of October 7 and Israel's commitment to wipe out Hamas. Not to wipe out the Palestinians, to wipe out Hamas, an aggressive, evil force, right? These are terrorists, these are thugs, and Israel has committed to destroy them for the preservation of the state of Israel, and there's all these protests against Israel claiming that Israel is trying to commit genocide when it's the other way around. And I'm saying to you, I think this Lord is saying to you, the church, to you a Christian, for such a time as this, you have to stand up against antisemitism. According to the anti-defamation league, antisemitism is at the highest rate since World War II, since the Nazi. And it's spreading like a virus, right, throughout the world, and we've gotta take action.
— And I think it's so important you're talking about taking action. For you as a Christian to go up to your Jewish neighbor and to say, "I stand with you as I'm watching this. And I wanna let you know that I'm praying for you, and I want to encourage you". We need to do a lot more of that particularly for such a time as this.
— Yeah. I think sometimes when people think standing for Israel, that means waving an Israeli flag saying, "Israel can do no wrong". None of us are saying that. We're standing with Israel, not from a political perspective, we're standing with Israel from a biblical perspective. God chose Israel. He's not looking for political people to make a difference in the earth. He's looking for the Esthers who are willing to risk their necks and say, "I'm standing on the promises of God for Israel". Because if God's promises for Israel fail, God's promises for us fail. So yes, we need to be standing with Israel, but let's not get that perverted into thinking that Israel is the perfect nation. No nation without Jesus ruling it is the perfect nation. But we as believers have a mandate to be an Esther people in today's day and age. Dude, just for two quick seconds. I started my last summer off by taking a historical trip, a Jewish historical trip to Eastern Europe, and I saw all of these concentration camps. It was such a devastating trip. I remember taking the train from Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz. We took the train to Auschwitz in the morning. Mind blowing trip, waking up, seeing the very tracks on which our Jewish ancestors rode their last ride to their death. Then I ended the summer this past September visiting Israel and seeing the decimation in the Gazan envelope of this kibbutzim, these villages...
— Hmm.
— Where Hamas came in and lauded, destroyed, and pummeled the children of Israel. And I'm thinking to myself, "Wait, this looks hopeless". But it's not hopeless because God is in the background just like he was, and there's a day coming when all Israel is going to be saved, and the Hamans of this earth are gonna hang on the very gallows they've erected.
— That will happen, but he's looking for the church to take a stand.
— He really is.
— This is your moment, I believe. This is your, "Such a time" moment. Let me ask you, and you can write to us, you can email us. I'm really curious to know what's your, "Such a time" moment? What one thing is your "Such a time" moment? It might be something you've already done. But ask the Lord, "What's my such a time moment"? And let us know and we'll pray for you. Scott, you have a "Such a time" moment that I'm aware of. When you went to Israel and saw that need, you started to raise funds to put in monitors, right? Cameras...
— Yeah.
— So that they would have tighter security.
— Yeah. I just got a video today that I haven't even looked at yet because the cameras in one of these kibbutzim were erected. And you know how it was. It's not because I'm a rich person, it's because people around the world, Esthers around the world are saying, "I wanna stand with Israel. I wanna do something. I wanna pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I wanna do something practically to stand with the people of Israel". And I love, that's what Jewish Voice has been doing for decades. As we as an organization, as Jewish Voice continues to do this through the beautiful partners that we have around the world, the message of Esther is being spoken. And the people of Israel, do you know what they do? Non-believers in Israel when they see the love of the church, capital c. Non-Jewish people, the gentile people of the nations blessing the people of Israel, it reduces them to tears. They've never seen anything like it. That's provoking Israel to jealousy, and that's what we as the church is called to do.
— And isn't that part and parcel of Romans 11:25-27? "For the gentiles shall come into their fullness and so all Israel shall be saved and the redeemer, Yeshua, shall come forth from Zion". It starts, obviously, with the gentiles coming into their fullness. What does that mean? When the light of the Holy Spirit is burning bright in their hearts, and they have a passion to love and reach out to their Jewish people just as you talked about, then you have so many of them coming and saying, "I want to know why you are this way. Why are you doing this? Tell us more about what your beliefs are". And I believe, and I know you've said this in the past and I think it's correct. We have seen more Jewish people come into relationship with Yeshua in the past 80 years than I believe we have any other time in history since the Book of Acts.
— I was also thinking of Romans 11:11-15, that the rejection of Yeshua by the leaders of Israel 2,000 years ago led to the gospel going to the nations, to the gentiles, which is why you're enjoying your relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because of their rejection. Now, we're part of the remnant of Jews who believe in Jesus, and that's growing as Jack said. But it also goes on to say if their rejection brought you salvation, what's gonna happen when they come back? When the Jewish people come back, it will bring life from the dead. That's part of the story of Purim, life from the dead. I want you to use Purim as an opportunity to love your Jewish neighbor. That means praying for them, that means reaching out to them with blessing, and that means sharing your faith in a very careful way about the Messiah because they will listen. And faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
— We always take time to pray for the needs of those who watch this program, who partner with us. And we know the needs that you have 'cause we read your letters, and we pray for every prayer request that comes into our ministry by name. And we're believing that God answers prayer. He is a God who listens, who cares, and who answers prayer. So, just believe with us now. I know that many of you are going through a difficult time, but again, God answers prayer. And I wanna invite those that have never make a commitment to follow the Lord, who have experienced transformed life by letting Jesus, Yeshua into your heart, this is the day for you, and we encourage you to do that. Just to ask him to change your life. We're gonna pray for you now. Scott, just quickly, Jack, let's pray for the people that really, there's a lot of needs out there, we know that.
— Lord, I thank you so much, specifically, for my Jewish brothers and sisters who are watching and listening today. Lord, for those who are feeling the press of hatred from this earth, maybe from neighbors, maybe schoolmates, classmates, college campuses around the world, I pray that you would encourage my Jewish brothers and sisters that the God of Esther, the God who appears so radical, even though his name is not mentioned, would be their God today. Fill them with courage and fill them with strength knowing that the God who has called them will be the God who sustains them in Yeshua's name.
— God of Abraham, Heavenly Father, I pray that everyone who is watching, that the story Purim would be an encouragement to them for it is the story for all of us that while you never promise to exempt any of us who believe in you from persecution, you always promise to deliver us through it. And I pray, Lord God, that that would speak to the minds and hearts of those watching long after this show is done in Yeshua's name.
— Yes, Lord. And raise up an army that are watching this program to combat antisemitism, to speak out God's truth that he's not finished with Israel, that he loves the Jewish people, and that the Jewish people yet have a destiny ahead. We pray that you would move on the hearts of those who are listening to be that army in Jesus' name. We wanna invite you to go deeper and find meaningful ways to support and bless Israel and the Jewish community worldwide. You can go to jewishvoice.tv, that's our website. There, you'll discover resources that will help you grow in your faith and opportunities to get involved. As we close our program, I wanna remind you Psalm 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper who love thee". Thanks for joining us today, and until next time with Scott and Jack, I'm Jonathan Bernis saying shalom and God bless you.