Having given much aid and comfort to Amiram over the past few weeks, today, Thursday, Oct. 31st, 2002, the Lord opened an opportunity to share Messiah Yeshua with him. Amiram is a divorced Israeli Jew about 50 years old. For two hours in our apartment, we discussed the places where Messiah ben Yosafe (Messiah the Son of Joseph), is found in the Tanach (Jewish Bible; Old Testament).

Amiram has a place to stay in Eilat because we helped him with a thousand shekels (about $215) last Friday. He's got a room in an apartment for a month. Today he came and told us that his car was repossessed by the bank. He hadn't been able to pay for a number of months. It wasn't too much of a concern for him. It seems that he lost his job with the city a few years ago due to a false accusation. The person since told the truth but before that happened, the city fired him. With some prayer, he should have both his old job back and his back pay in three to four months.

Amiram is religious, meaning that he prays in the synagogue every day, actually, three times a day; morning, afternoon and evening. After speaking of God and how He provides, even when it doesn't seem like it, I sensed the time was right to bring up Messiah. I asked him to tell me what he knew about Messiah. He didn't know anything. I took out some paper and began to draw two 'streams'. I told him that in the Tanach, God has placed many puzzle pieces about Messiah and when we put them together, we can see a picture of our Messiah.

I asked him what the name of the Messiah would be and he told me, 'Mashiach ben David' and began singing a little song about Messiah from the Lubavitch camp. They're a branch within Orthodox Judaism, actually Hasidic Judaism, that is very evangelistic in bringing wayward Jews back to Judaism. Mashiach ben David is Messiah the Son of David. I said do you know of any other names? He didn't.

I said that in the Tanach there are confusing things about Messiah. One stream of Scripture tells us that he will live forever. And another tells us that he will die. He knew that. I said, 'Good.' I told him that the Rabbis couldn't figure all this out and so they came up with two Messiahs; one who would die and one who would live forever.

I figured that a book of Matthew in Hebrew would be the best thing for Amiram to read and so I offered him one. He looked at it and said, 'Brit Hadasha?' ('New Covenant?') I said that it was not all the New Covenant but a little of it, written by a Jewish man by the name of Matai (Matthew). He was reluctant to take it and put it down on the table where we were talking.

I asked him why the Messiah would have to die. He didn't know. I got out the Jewish Publication's Tanach and opened to Isaiah 53. I asked him to read, starting from Isaiah 52:13 (which is actually the beginning of the prophecy about the Suffering Servant of Yahveh). As he read in Hebrew, I'd comment. When he read the first verse I said that the Rabbis say that the Servant Messiah will be greater than Abraham and Moses and the angels as the Servant 'will be exalted and raised up and lifted up.' This the Rabbis have said means that Messiah will be very, very great.

We went on to read about him taking our sins upon himself by his death and that God would raise him up to live again. I told him that just as Joseph was hated by his brothers, so too was our Messiah. And while Man made Joseph very low, putting him in jail, God raised Joseph up to second in command of all Egypt, under Pharaoh. This is what happened with Messiah. Man killed him but God raised him up, never to die again.

He read but he couldn't get over the idea of the New Covenant. Most Jews have been so indoctrinated against it, that the mere mention of it frightens them. The Rabbis have put the fear of themselves into this (vs. the fear of God), as they tell their congregant that anyone READING the New Covenant will be excommunicated, and go to Hell. Not much has changed since the days of our Lord:

John 9:22: 'His parents said this because they were afraid of the Judean leadership. For they had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Messiah, he was to be put out of the synagogue.'

John 12:42: 'Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue'.

So I felt impressed to take Amiram to Jeremiah 31:31 where God Himself speaks of giving Israel a New Covenant. Amiram had never read that before and he couldn't believe it. He asked me again if the Bible I gave him was the New Covenant and I assured him that it was an authentic Jewish Tanach. (Amiram can't read English and the Jewish Publication's words are all in English (e.g. their name, the city where it's published, the short preface, etc.).

I said that with belief in Messiah Yeshua comes the Holy Spirit. God promised it to us in Ezekiel 36:22ff and it's through Messiah that we come to really know our God. And then the Lord reminded me of Daniel 9:24-27. We went there and Amiram read that Messiah was prophesied to come before the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem (in 70 A.D.). And that he would make an end to sin by his death. I related it to Aaron the High Priest who, once a year, would sacrifice a goat and all Israel would be forgiven of our sins. This is what the Day of Atonement pictured. Those who believe in Messiah Yeshua have their sins forgiven and are given the Holy Spirit to know God.

To further drive home the point that Messiah would be rejected, which we read from Isaiah 53, the Lord led me to open to Psalm 118:20ff and read that the Stone which the Builders rejected, would become the Cornerstone. He didn't know who the Builders were and so I told him that the Rabbis themselves say that it is them. (The understanding of builders is spiritual, the Rabbis being the builders of Israel in terms of teaching Israel the Way of Yahveh.) And the Stone is Messiah. Again, Messiah is rejected by us. It was written a thousand years before Yeshua came.

Amiram asked me if I would tell his rabbi what I told him. I said that I would love to. If the rabbi wants me to come to his home or to his office, I would be more than willing to go. So Amiram will find out.

There were many things we discussed that, along with Amiram coming to find out that I believed in Messiah Yeshua, took Amiram a little 'back'. He asked why I don't wear the traditional kipa or head covering and I asked him where that was written in the Tanach. It isn't. And then we got into the Talmud which he thinks is from Heaven and I know is from Man. So there are many things that Amiram has to process in order for him to have some sense of what is going on. Only Yahveh can bring him to Messiah Yeshua. Let's pray that He does. I told Amiram that once he saw Messiah Yeshua, he would know that what I am telling him is God's Truth.