A very dear friend of mine flew down to our area to bring much-needed help to her drug-addicted son. Trapped in a cycle of addictions, imprisonment and rehab, with the cycle repeating over and over again like the "Lather, rinse, repeat" instructions on the shampoo bottle, she came filled with hope that she could reach his heart and help him end the destructive cycle.  The two of them spent their first night together in our home and it was a Friday night.  So, when they awoke the next morning, I fixed breakfast and then followed the leading of the Holy Spirit as I brought out my two Sabbath candles and a cup of grape juice and a tray of bread. 

I looked straight at her son, bleary-eyed and broken, and asked him, "Does this mean anything to you, this bread and this cup?"  He did not hesitate. "Yeah, it means that I am in Covenant with my God."  It took my breath away.  "What a profound and perfect answer!" I commended him.  "How wonderful to know that -- because our God 's Covenant is His Promise and He never breaks a promise," I added. 
He solemnly nodded in agreement. We all sang the blessings in Hebrew and English and then shared the bread and the cup together, and a strong Presence of the Lord filled the room. The Spirit instructed me that I should take one of this young man's arms and John should take the other, and then we read the story of Aaron and Hur holding up the arms of Moses so that Israel could keep winning the battle over their enemies, even when Moses' arms had become to weak to hold them up.  "You are in a great battle," we told him, "and so as you go back out there into the world, you need to remember that both of us are holding your arms up in prayer."  Both he and his mother shed tears and we knew it was a moment when our Lord had come and revealed Himself very personally in the breaking of the Bread and the drinking of the Cup. 

On the next weekend, John and I were alone on Shabbat morning, finishing our coffee, and I felt the Spirit told me to get my bible and read from this week's Torah portion in Exodus. It had been a rough week.  So many signs of rapid decline in John's ability to communicate and find words and remember things had cropped up since the brain injury he just suffered, that I had spent a lot of time researching until I finally found the NAME of this condition and it explained so much that I have experienced with him for the last nine years, but did not understand. It is called Broca's Aphasia and it described to a "T" his struggle with finding words, with reading or writing words, and with numbers. The Language part of the brain has lesions that are increasingly impeding his ability to communicate.  I was really in a tender, vulnerable place that morning, and had a sense that when we began to read from God's Word in Exodus, He would speak to me. 

 Exodus 16:11-15: While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.  The LORD said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them,  'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'  That evening quail came and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, 'It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.'  

As I read these verses, my eyes began to leak, and by the time I reached the end of the portion, I could no longer see for the tears.  These words penetrated my heart: "IN THE MORNING YOU WILL BE FILLED WITH BREAD. THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD."  He appeared to them in the glory-cloud and then revealed Himself to them in the Bread!  I was just so filled with awe, seeing the Messiah reveal Himself to the people of Israel (the people of the Covenant) the same way He had revealed himself to the young homeless man at my table.

That was two powerful witnesses, but there was to be a third connection I had not made. When I shared this story with another good friend, she suddenly exclaimed, "Kelly, it's like the men on the road to Emmaus!  They did not know him until he broke bread with them!" Luke 24:30-32: When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'

This act of sharing the Bread and the Cup is more powerful than most understand. It is not just a ritual and it is not just a blessing. It is a revelation of the Living Yeshua/Jesus, who makes His Presence known to us in a very real way, and makes our hearts burn with a deeper longing to know Him and His Word.  It is a bread that heals us, that fills us, and that brings us into Everlasting Covenant with our God.  It is the BREAD OF LIFE.

John 6:32-33:  Yeshua said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from Heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the Bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world."

Although it was tempting to want to rejoice over a proposed plan that would bring peace to the Middle East - a long-awaited rest for the people of Israel - I'm pretty sure the Word of God makes it clear that no one is to divide HIS Land and give any part of it away to the nations.  Through the prophet Joel He clearly tells us:
I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land. (Joel 3:2) 

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Almighty God gave this Land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob an to their descendants forever!  It's not  something that is sketchy or unclear.  Please read Genesis 12:6, Genesis 15:18, Lev. 26:42, Genesis 28:3-4, and Genesis 24:7.  God has made His eternal covenants with His chosen people and God does not break His promises!

Our Most High God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, also speaks very clearly about what is going to happen in the last days, when the nations try to divide Jerusalem:
On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. (Zech 12:3)

It actually shocks me that anyone who knows the Scriptures would even propose such a plan! I have watched our President prove himself to be a great friend of Israel, a champion of God's people, who deserve to finally and rightly have Jerusalem established as their eternal Capitol city.  I cheered when President Trump made it clear to the world that the Golan Heights belongs to Israel and no other nation, and I rejoiced as he directed our military to take out the worst of the radical terrorists who sought to destroy God's Land and His people.  But why is there no clear understanding about what will bring peace to Israel, this land that has been besieged by war and constant attack since the beginning of time?  Why is it confusing for anyone who knows the Bible to understand that the "Deal of the Century" (or perhaps more clearly, the "Deal of the Ages") will only occur when our Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace), Yeshua the Messiah, returns to destroy the wicked and establish HIS kingdom?

I share with you below an excellent article I read, courtesy of Worthy News. I hope it helps to bring clarity on this volatile subject.

JERUSALEM, Israel - Jerusalem has always been the most contentious issue in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and it’s no different now with President Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century.’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. He stated, “Shortly after it (the US Middle East peace plan) was unveiled saying a Palestinian state without Jerusalem, I immediately rejected this solution. I will not have it recorded in my history, and the history of the country, that I sold Jerusalem,” Abbas told an emergency session of the Arab League.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman explained the Jerusalem part of the deal. “Let’s just understand the geography of Jerusalem – Jerusalem is an undivided city within a security barrier and under the Trump plan that undivided city within the security barrier would be 100 percent under Israeli sovereignty with the Temple Mount retaining the status quo,” Friedman told CBN News. The Temple Mount is under Israeli security control and Jordanian religious authority. “Beyond the security barrier you still have municipal Jerusalem and in that area there is territory earmarked for a Palestinian capital,” Friedman said.

“It’s not on the table. We refuse to be the capital of the Palestinian State,” Abu Hilal said. “We are part of Jerusalem. We are the suburb of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the historical city of Jerusalem. We refuse that. For me as the mayor of Abu Dis I refuse to (be) the capital of Palestine.  I’m a part of Jerusalem,” he added.

In 1996, the Palestinian Authority broke ground to build a parliament building in Abu Dis.  It was going to be their Jerusalem seat of government. But the building was never completed. “They built the parliament because they used Abu Dis as part of Jerusalem. They (had) no walls here. Now they put in the walls. And now everything is different,” Abu Hilal said.

Israel built the security barrier in Jerusalem more than 15 years ago at the height of the second Palestinian intifadah to prevent terrorists from entering the city.  From a rooftop in Abu Dis overlooking the security barrier and Jerusalem beyond, it’s easy to see how the two sides were once one. “We used to walk here (in) the west side ,we used to go into Jerusalem.  Before the wall every night we (were) in Jerusalem and watching the cinema,” Abu Hilal said. But not anymore.

Nearby al-Azaria is a mostly Muslim town in a Palestinian Authority area just over a mile from Jerusalem.  It’s known in the Bible as Bethany, the place where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Al-Aizaria Mayor 0f Issam Faroun said the Trump plan misses the point about Jerusalem. “The importance of this area, al Eizarayeh, Abu Dis, and other villages here have (their) importance because we are surrounding Jerusalem.  Without our Jerusalem, we are nothing here,” Faroun said. “You are telling me that you are going to (bring) a prosperity and development, new land in Gaza, the 50 billion (dollars). So, the first important (thing) you are taking Jerusalem. You are taking the head of the body,” Faroun said.

Abu Hilal said peace is what’s needed. “I’m telling you I hope the peace is coming back. Everybody needs the peace. The peace is good for everybody,” he said. But with the Palestinian rejection of the plan, it’s not likely a peace deal will be signed any time soon.

Dear friends, I have lived in Jerusalem, I have walked about her streets and her ramparts. It is "Ground Zero" of the ancient battle between God and Satan and while I lived there, I had moments when I felt I was physically "hearing" the clash of swords in the heavenlies, the roar of some type of angelic "Air Force."  The battle is real, and the battle culminates over Jerusalem, and the great question of who gets to rule there forever. Again, the prophet Zechariah makes it pretty clear to us:
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)