The Troubled Land and Purim

This article talks about:

• History of Conflict and Troubles in Israel
• Purim and Deliverance
• Historical Patterns

-By Elhanan ben-Avraham-

We stand this day at Passover in the promised land of Israel with our children and our children’s children. We live in the new/old land among the ancient Hebrew people, restored after two thousand years of dispersion among the nations. Unique and without precedent in human history, this people has returned to its Biblical homeland to repair and restore a land that lay desolate for many generations to all who passed by. The Greeks and the Romans, the Nazis and the Soviets arose and fell in that time, but Israel has again risen upon the modern stage of the human drama, resurrecting the ancient tongue of the prophets, of Moses and Jesus: Hebrew. It has all occurred in the twinkling of an eye, as I was born three years before the rebirth of this nation in 1948, as was foretold by the prophets of Israel. Arriving here in 1979 by the directive of the Almighty, I have lived to witness more than half of the history of this re-born nation, in the face of constant opposition and threat of destruction, wars, terrorism, hatred, and the curses of our intractable enemies. And yet we have seen the promises of the Creator manifest before our eyes and in our lives, and we are witnesses to his great faithfulness, provision and protection. We have beheld the barren land become renewed from a third-world frontier to a powerful and fruitful nation despite all opposition.

Like the children of Israel who left the slavery of Egypt in the Exodus, we have come now from all the nations in fulfilling the promises of God. And like the Hebrews of that first Passover, we are pursued by the armies of hatred, the pharaohs of the world who would erase this long history from the annals of time. And like those early Hebrews, we trust in YHVH, the eternal God of Israel, whose ways defy the logic and reason of human genius. The smearing of a lamb’s blood on the doorposts would bring deliverance to a people against overwhelming odds, just as we today begin to recognize the blood of the Lamb of God who would deliver us at the Passover, the one who would lay down his life for this nation, as told by the high priest Caiaphas in the first century CE.

We have committed our lives and the lives of our offspring to the trust of YHVH, and our very lives, like Moses’, stand as an offering and an intercession before God for this yet stiff-necked people who has been gathered back from dispersion. Daily, the ancient artifacts, long buried in this land and city of Jerusalem, are brought to light, confirming the history of the Jewish people here going back three thousand years. Even the “new” walls of Jerusalem are more than two centuries older than the founding of the USA. And we are a living people in this tiny land who are witnesses of YHVH before the eyes of all nations and peoples. 

As a darkness begins to cover the nations as in the days of Noah, the Menorah, which is the symbol of this nation of Israel and the Light of the world, is re-kindled, and it shall not be extinguished by the grace of YHVH. In God we trust. 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elhanan ben-Avraham, born in 1945, is a professional artist, poet, writer, father of two, and grandfather of four, and he has been living in Israel since 1979. He has served in the IDF, taught the Bible internationally, published five illustrated books of poetry, painted two large Biblical murals in public buildings in Jerusalem, and most recently produced THE JERUSALEM ILLUSTRATED BIBLE, among many other works. He and his wife live in a quiet village in the Mountains of Judah.