The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.

Several times Jesus got tested. The Pharisees loved to tempt him to give the wrong answers or to give them something to show that he was not a real rebbe or master rabbi, not having enough knowledge of Scriptures.

Jesus answered the Pharisees and Sadducees by going on with his ministry as it happened more, speaking again by parables. They came to him with quibbles, he replied by parables. Though the Pharisees perceived that he spoke of them, it did not stop them to attack him further. Their partly concealed anger was all the greater because, through fear of the multitude, they could not yet lay hands on Jesus, and put him to death. They had wilfully closed their eyes to the light, set it continued to shine upon them.

When we look at the Parable of the King and the marriage of His son, we should see that it is all about Jehovah God and the bridegroom, Jehovah’s son, Jesus Christ. This parable must be distinguished from the one recorded in Luke 14:16-24, which was spoken on another occasion, and with a different object. It would be worth while to compare the two parables, and to note their resemblances and their differences.

In this parable we have the Great King, or King of glory celebrate the union of his Son with our humanity. The divine Son of God, as the Son of David,is the central figure of the feast presented by the King, Who first of all invited His Own People. But we come to hear that many of them who were invited were unwilling to come. That is also what we clearly can see what happened with the People of Israel, today many living in the darkness, and lots of Jews even not believing any more in God.

As it was long ago said by a Spartan, that the Athenians knew what was right, but did not choose to practice it; so Christ now brings it as a reproach against the Jews, that they gave utterance to beautiful expressions about the kingdom of God, but, when God kindly and gently invited them, they rejected His grace with disdain. There is no room to doubt that the discourse is expressly levelled against the Jews.

Matthew says that a king made a marriage for his son: Luke only mentions a great supper. The former speaks of many servants, while the latter refers to no more than one servant; the former describes many messages, the latter mentions one only; the former says that some of the servants were abused or slain, the latter speaks only of their being treated with contempt. Lastly, the former relates that a man was cast out, who had gone in to the marriage without a wedding garment, of which Luke makes no mention.

Jehovah God bestowed on the Jews distinguished honour, by providing for them, as it were, a hospitable table; but they despised the honour which had been conferred upon them. The marriage of the King’s son is explained by many commentators to mean, that Christ is the end of the Law (Romans 10:4), and that God had no other design in his covenant, than to make His sent one, the only begotten son of God, the Governor of His people, and to unite the Church to him by the sacred bond of a spiritual marriage.

When Jesus says, that the servants were sent to call those who were invited, these words are intended to point out a double favour which the Jews had received from God; first, in being preferred to other nations; and, secondly, in having their adoption made known to them by the prophets.
The allusion is to a practice customary among men, that those who intended to make a marriage drew up a list of the persons whom they intended to have as guests, and afterwards sent invitations to them by their servants. In like manner, God elected the Jews in preference to others, as if they had been his familiar friends, and afterwards called them by the prophets to partake of the promised redemption, which was, as it were, to feast at a marriage.

We know that all received an offer of the same salvation, of which they were deprived by their ingratitude and malice; for from the commencement, God’s invitation was impiously despised by that people.

The gospel is a glorious festival in honour of that wondrous marriage. It was a grand event, and grandly did the King, propose to celebrate it by a wedding feast of grace. The marriage and the marriage festivities were all arranged by the King, He took such delight in His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, that everything that was for his honour and joy afforded infinite satisfaction to the great Father’s heart. In addition to the son’s equal glory with the Father as Creator, Preserver, and Provider, by his marriage he was to be crowned with fresh honours as Saviour, Redeemer, and Mediator.

+

Preceding

Matthew 22:1-6 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Parable of Invitation to a Marriage

Matthew 22:7-10 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Invitations after City’s Destruction

Matthew 22:11-13 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: King’s Inspection and Marriage Garments

Matthew 22:14 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Many Invited – Few Chosen

Matthew 22:15-22 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Caesar’s Things and God’s Things

Matthew 22:23-28 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Sadducees Question on the Resurrection

Matthew 22:29-33 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Resurrection Proof from Moses

Matthew 22:34-40 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Which Is the Greatest Commandment

Matthew 22:41-46 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Jesus Asks a Trump Question

Additional readings to Matthew 22:41-46

A Look of the Expositor Bible at The Marriage Feast {Matthew 22:1-14 }

A Look of the Expositor Bible at The Ordeal of questions {Matthew 22:15-46 }

Fellowship over meals

After God made a covenant with the People of Israel at Mount Sinai, Moses and the 70 leaders of Israel

“saw God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:11)

the did not literally saw God but felt His nearness. Every year Gods People also came together for a special meal, remembering how the Most High was willing to come to the help of those that worshipped Him. It was the most significant meal in the Tanakh (Old Testament) that God required the People to eat and as such Jesus (the Nazarene Jeshua, being a devout Jew) also took every year, as required by Scriptures, the occasion to have a Passover meal with those he loved.

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

(Exodus 12:14-17 KJB:PCE)

Jesus had more than once had meals with common people, sinners and publicans as well intimate meals with his beloved ones. We may not forget it was not generally accepted to have friendship with publican, because they were detested by the Jews at that time, because they were the tax collectors and had a reputation of adding their own greedy motives to the amount they collected. Just like the fishermen, when the master teachers asked the tax-collector Matthew to follow him, he went with Jesus, who wanted those who wanted to be his disciples to follow him in his word and not to be slaves of sin. When Jesus knew his time was coming to an end the master wanted to have the yearly memorial meal with his beloved in an upper-room in Jerusalem.

This coming week, on the first night of Passover (Passover Seder: Friday, April 19), believers who participate in the traditional Jewish Passover meal (known as a Seder) will have the opportunity to celebrate and enter into fellowship with Jeshua (Jesus Christ) as he instructed his disciples to do, the night he was betrayed and arrested.

Over the centuries, this Passover meal evolved into a lengthy ritual, and we don’t know for certain which parts of the custom existed at the time of Jeshua. We do know that Messiah’s last meal with his disciples included the breaking of bread and drinking of wine, as do Jewish meals to this day, and that is the part Jeshua or Jesus wants us to remember the most.

As Jeshua’s disciples gathered together for their final meal with him, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and said,

“This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).

In Christendom we can find lots of people who first of all think Jesus is God, Who would have come to earth and Who would through a mysterious process come into the bread itself. This is called transubstantiation and is practised by Catholics, Anglicans, and Orthodox Christians, such as Greek, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, etc. as well as other denominations.

However, in the ancient Jewish practice of sacrificial offerings that God instituted, nothing ever transformed from one substance into another substance.  Rather, most of the animal offerings were killed and eaten.

When Jesus said

“This is my body”

he did not have the intention to have those around him to believe the bread would have become part of his body.

Jesus often spoke about himself in metaphors, especially in terms of bread and life.

He said,

“I am the bread of life”

and

 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”  (John 6:35, 51)

Throughout history we can see how God provide the food (literal and spiritual) for His people. The manna was bread for man. The spiritual manna now was this sent one from God, the Nazarene master teacher Jeshua, Jesus Christ.

Jesus his teaching about eating his body and drinking his blood should be taken as a figure of speech, having the spiritual manna provided and represented by those symbols.

Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
(John 6:53-58 KJB:PCE)

Symbolically consuming the Word of God is not a foreign concept in Judaism and Jesus is seen as that Word of God having come into the flesh.

When we shall come together this Friday night we shall have a gathering where we remember those last hours of our master teacher. Assembled we shall feel united with brothers and sisters all over the world, gathering in private houses or in prayer halls (Kingdom halls or churches).

When we at the meeting come to eat the bread and drink the wine at the Passover meal this coming Friday night (April 19), we shall remember how we have been delivered from an eternal spiritual death that God provided through the sacrifice of His only begotten beloved son Jesus (Jeshua) him being

“the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

With our sins paid for, his sacrifice heals any broken fellowship we had with God so we can freely commune with Him.

Coming together several times a year, we remember that moment of the Last Supper and once a year we remember it especially for two reasons, the liberation of Israel from Egypt, standing for the liberation of slavery from man, and secondly the liberation from the curse of death, by Jesus giving himself as a ransom for the sins of all.

All those meals we share in the year are just a reflection of that exceptional meal Jesus had in Jerusalem. The one night of fellowship on 14 Nisan is especially to remember those liberation acts provided by the Most High. By our gathering we show our thankfulness, but also our unity with all those who remember that Pesach Seder, all over the world. With all of them we have a united fellowship as brothers and sisters, being part of One Great Family, as children of God.

Christ has made know the path of freedom by his word to those who believe him and live in the truth. When calling ourselves “Christian”, “Jeshuaist” or “children of God” we should show others our unity and our “family”, showing them we are really following the real Christ and not the false dogmatic person who is part of a so called “holy Trinity”. Jesus worshipped not himself, but his heavenly Father, the Only One true God, the God of Abraham Who is an eternal Spirit (having no beginning or no birth and no end or no death). At the Memorial Meal Jesus had with his apostles he honoured that Singular God and expects from all his followers also to praise that One Supreme Being Who gave light and salvation to the world.

So, let us come together Friday night to remember how the Most High provided for the liberation of Israel and provided also for a lamb that brought salvation for Jews and non-Jews, to be liberated from the chains of death, being thankful that those who live in Christ’s word are free.

++

Additional reading

1. Egypt, Moshe and Those who never felt they belonged there
2. At the Shabbat HaChodesh: readings about blood, liberation and purification
3. Commentary on Parashat Tazria
4. Why Fuss over a Little Leaven (Yeast)?
5. Purification and perfection
6. Shabbat HaGadol in preparation for Pesach

+++

Related articles

1. Leaving Egypt – the story of our deliverance
2. You don’t have to try to be children of God [1064a]
3. Adopted by God
4. Children In His Arms
5. Bible verses on Children of God.
6. “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” — Galatians 3:26
7. A Gift from God
8. How Do We Make a Difference as a Christian? (Part 3)
9. Prayer: Our Home is in You (Genesis 17)
10. Day 10: He Ate with Publicans and Sinners
11. Prepping For Pesach
12. 4 Ways Of Personal Preparation For Easter
13. I Need Your Help: Invite Someone Extra to Your Seder – Shabbat HaChodesh 5779
14. Pesach: Jumping for Passover (Part 1/2) ~ Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
15. Day 11: Go and Do Likewise
16. Daily Scripture, 4-10-19
17. “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.” ~Apostle Paul
18. No Sin in Christ: 1st John 3:6
19. What God Has Made Clean: Acts 11:1-8
20. Let My People Go!
21. Torah Portion – Pesach A
22. Torah Portion – Pesach B
23. Torah Portion Bo
24. God’s name on Seder Night
25. Faith and courage at Pesach time
26. The Order of the Passover Seder
27. Passover Pieces
28. For the Seder-challenged
29. The Usual Suspects of… Pesach Prep
30. Pesach 2019 in Jerusalem. Just $825!
31. We are getting ready for Passover. Are you?
32. Here’s how to connect with Or Shalom over Passover
33. Pesach – The Feast of Passover
34. My Pascha as of the lasts few weeks
35. Pascha Basket Cover
36. Passover Exodus
37. The Gospel of Luke – The Passover MealThe Gospel of Luke: Teaching at the Passover Table
38. Lords Supper #Communion
39. Palm Sunday, Passover and The Passion of Christ
40. Holiest of holy days: For Only 4th Time in a Century, Passover and Good Friday Coincide
41. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ…please wake up!
42. Keeping Passover as a Believer in Jesus
43. Easter, Passover and a lot of candy

Most important weekend of the year 2016

Assembled together on the night before he died, Jeshua and his disciples and closest friends came together in an upper room to celebrate the Passover meal.  They recalled the great story of deliverance: how the people of Israel had been freed from bondage and slavery by God’s power through the prophet Moses.  They remembered how the blood of the lamb marked the lintel and doorposts so that the Angel of Death would pass by the people as it brought devastation to the land of Egypt.  They ate the unleavened bread, mindful that the Israelites were in such a hurry to depart Egypt that their own bread had not yet risen.

That night the 14th of Nisan is one Jesus wanted to be remembered for an other occasion as well. Not only had his followers to remember the deliverance of God’s Chosen People, the Israelites, but now their rabbi had opened they way for others than Jews.

By his own example the sent one from God showed how his followers had to become servants for God and for the People of God. Like Jesus had called for people to follow him, the apostles had to come to do so too. They too had to become as humble as Christ was. As a sign of humbleness Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The work which is reserved for servants Jesus did and he also asked them to do the same for one another.  There is no ambiguity in this moment, no chance to say it is merely a symbol.  Christ shows them what to do and tells them to do it (John 13:1-15); the path that leads to freedom from sin and death is marked by our care for our brothers and sisters.  Simply put, our lives are meant to be offered for others – giving ourselves in service.

In the end, in life which passes so quickly and everything is vanity (like Solomon writes in today’s reading – Ecclesiastes 1) everything turns around “Giving and Receiving”.  We all have received the Grace of God by the sent one from God, who is the son of man and the son of God, who gave his life for our sins.

Like Jesus offered himself as a lamb of God to have his blood as a signpost to deliver us from the punishment of death, we too should offer our lives as we are strengthened by the Messiah and are giving life-spirit by the blood of Christ, being partakers in the Body of Christ.

Thanks to the ransom offer brought by Jesus God blesses us with the gift of life and faith so that we in turn might be a gift to those around us.

As God commanded to remember the night the firstborns of Israel where saved so also Jesus asked his followers to remember the day he gave his body and poured out his blood for the salvation of mankind.

Long before the Mosaic Law covenant was altered, Jehovah foretold through the prophet Jeremiah that He would make with the nation of Israel “a new covenant.”

32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,+ ‘my covenant that they broke,+ although I was their true master,’* declares Jehovah.”

33 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Jehovah. “I will put my law within them,+ and in their heart I will write it.+ And I will become their God, and they will become my people.”+(Jeremiah 31:32, 33)

Stained glass image of the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) with a Christian banner. photo by John Workman in St. Ignatius church in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Throughout history we have seen how God made Himself a people. For a very long time it was for the People of Israel that there was a covenant on which they could count. One of the regulations or demands was to remember how the exodus from Egypt was made possible. That putting of blood at the doorposts could also considered as a signature of choosing for God, which made it possible to be passed over for damnation or destruction. After that event there was still a need of offers to be brought to the temple or synagogue. But on the 14th of Nisan Jesus spoke about an other offer which would not have to be repeated any more and which would be sufficient for all times. though that offer would not take away the remembrance of the liberation marks.

Jesus came to institute and Evening Meal on Nisan 14, 33 C.E. Speaking of the cup of wine, he told his 11 faithful apostles:

“This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf.” (Luke 22:20)

Matthew’s account quotes Jesus as saying regarding the wine:

“This means my ‘blood of the covenant,’ which is to be poured out in behalf of many for forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:27, 28)

Jesus’ shed blood validates the new covenant. That blood also makes possible the forgiveness of sins once and for all time.

A few years later the apostle Paul would remind the new followers

14 Therefore, my beloved ones, flee from idolatry.+ 15 I speak as to men with discernment; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ?+ The loaf that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of the Christ?+ 17 Because there is one loaf, we, although many, are one body,+ for we are all partaking of that one loaf. (1 Corinthians 10: 16-17)

On that special intimate night rabbi Jeshua had taken the bread and the wine.

26 As they continued eating, Jesus took a loaf, and after saying a blessing, he broke it,+ and giving it to the disciples, he said: “Take, eat. This means my body.”+(Matthew 26:26)

19 Also, he took a loaf,+ gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “This means my body,+ which is to be given in your behalf.+ Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”+(Luke 22:19)

Notice how Jesus says

Keep doing this in remembrance of me.

The blood+ of the covenant,+ which is to be poured out in behalf of many+ for forgiveness of sins + should, like the blood of the lambs for the liberation of the Jews from the Egyptian slavery, be contributed to the heathen or pagan people who are willing to come under the blood of Christ, whitewashed from sin. But they should remember it and come together, more than once in a year, because Jesus asks it to do it often and whenever we do it to do it in remembrance of him.

23 For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night+ on which he was going to be betrayed took a loaf, 24 and after giving thanks, he broke it and said: “This means my body,+ which is in your behalf. Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”+ 25 He did the same with the cup+ also, after they had the evening meal, saying: “This cup means the new covenant+ by virtue of my blood.+ Keep doing this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”+  (1 Chorinthians 11: 23-26)

For that reason we should come together today and remember the Exodus out of Egypt, out of slavery of the worldly work, but also the exodus from the slavery of sin and death.

14 “‘This day will serve as a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to Jehovah throughout your generations. As a lasting statute, you should celebrate it.(Exodus 12:14)

+

Please read also the related articles concerning this special weekend, 14 Nisan and following days:

1. 1 -15 Nisan
2. Yom Hey, Eve of Passover and liberation of many people
3. This day shall be unto you for a memorial and you shall keep it a feast to the Most High God
4. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
5. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
6. Getting out of the dark corners of this world
7. A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
8. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
9. The son of David and the first day of the feast of unleavened bread
10. Day of remembrance coming near
11. A new exodus and offering of a Lamb
12. Observance of a day to Remember
13. Jesus memorial
14. Holidays, holy days and traditions
15. Seven Bible Feasts of JHWH
16. White Privilege Conference (WPC) wanting to keep the press out for obvious reasons
17. First month of the year and predictions
18. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
19. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
20. A Great Gift commemorated
21. Shabbat Pesach service reading 1/2
22. Passover and Liberation Theology
23. Seven days of Passover
24. Kingdom Visions of Rainbowed angel, Lamb in Mount Zion
25. Kingdom Visions of God’s judgements and Marriage of the Lamb
26. The Song of The Lamb #2 Sevens
27. The Song of The Lamb #7 Revelation 15
28. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #3 Days to be kept holy or set apart
29. Easter holiday, fun and rejoicing
30. Like grasshoppers
31. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
32. Who Would You Rather Listen To?
33. Focus on outward appearances
34. After darkness a moment of life renewal
35. Deliverance and establishment of a theocracy

+++

Related articles

• An Easter Encouragement
• BEHOLD the Lamb of God – prayer for all pagan nations – prayer for The Jewish Nation
• Editorial: Faith
• When’s Easter?
• The Last Supper was a Passover meal
• God will provide the Lamb.
• Good Friday 3 April AD 33 – Lunar and Solar Eclipses as Christ died on the Cross
• Good Friday
• We are called to a radical obedience
• Passover Tradition

************************

We wish you a nice memorial day and a holy Pesach

Johannes de Doper wijst Christus aan als het Lam Gods. Ca. 1500-1510 – Saint John the Baptist Pointing Out Christ as the Lamb of God Philadelphia Museum of Art – Master of the Saint John Altarpiece

Pesach and a lot of brokenness in the world

Remembering the exodus, the liberation of God’s people and the liberation of all sinners we must confess the world does seem to be in an even worse state than at the time of the wanderers in the desert at the time of Moses and Aaron.

Flag of Israel with the Mediterranean sea in the background, in Rishon LeZion. עברית: דגל ישראל בראשון לציון (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From 1948 God’s people should have been more happy finding a soil to be worked at to become a greater nation. As we have seen in the Old Testament when God’s people got liberated and found an opening to receive the best of God, they themselves doubted and they themselves went other ways. In the 21st century the people of Israel may have undergone the worst test, being encircles, imprisoned in ghetto walls, then in camps, facing the most cruel abasement. You would think many would learn from it. But strangely enough now they also do not seem to worry to degrade other people. Today many Jews living in what has to become their Holy Land bring indignity over it. Without shame they now also put up great walls to keep others out. They now too bring indignation over the world.

We can see that lots in power in Israel are not religious any more, whilst others are fundamentalists, who take the words like they want to transfer it in their mind, but not according God’s Will. No wonder that the nation Israel of today is ripped apart, which could be seen throughout this last election season in Israel.  Also the different negotiations with other communities and their reactions against the Palestinians, Iranians and the European Court of Higher Judges and of Human Rights. Some clearly show no respect for people God allowed to judge and to help people guide their life.

Israeli army using Palestinians as human shields (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reaction of the State Israel shows clearly how by the disintegration of the Godly values the Jewish nation has fallen into two main groups, a civil Judaic group who has clearly no ear for God’s Word but likes to call on it. When you look at how they treat others, how they act on people with an other belief, and on human ethical values we can pose many questions.

But we should have hope. We have God’s promise of the Land of hope and glory. God’s promise shall come true. even when we see a lot of people working against it.

We can only hope that in these coming days they shall take time to meditate on their important role they should play in worlds history. That they may find their and our redemption story that joins may people in this world together.

Anita Silvert in her Jewish Gems writes:

Let our voices cry out against oppression and slavery as they did so long ago.  Our cries reached God’s ears – may they do so again.

Let our voices sing the words of praise and gratitude for our good fortune, and awareness for those who have less.

Let our voices rejoice at our blessings.  Let our hearts and our tables be filled with the faces of those we love.  Let us begin our journey to Sinai together, marching out into our own wilderness, hoping to find the way.

What other story lends itself to such meaning and layers?  It is both our history and our future.

Chag sameach – Happy and Sweet Passover to us all. {Pesach 5775 – our history and our future}

+++

Related articles

• The Question of Jewish Identity (counterpunch.org)
  Shlomo Sand’s gracefully written and translated short book, How I Stopped Being a Jew, deals with a question many have wondered about but have been afraid to ask: What makes someone a Jew? While it has been a puzzle from time immemorial, it is more salient today as Israel welcomes all deemed Jewish, regardless of their nationality or religious beliefs (or lack of them). On the other hand, non-Jews (25% of Israelis), even if born and resident in Israel, are not quite full citizens of the Jewish state.

  “If the United States of America decided tomorrow that it was not the state of all American citizens but rather the state of those persons around the whole world who identify as Anglo-Saxon Protestants, it would bear a striking resemblance to the Jewish State of Israel.” (p. 82)

  Sand is an Israeli, and a secular and atheist Jew, defined by his parentage as Jewish by the state of Israel. He is a professor at Tel Aviv University, specializing in French history. He is best known as the author of two controversial books, The Invention of the Jewish People (2009) and The Invention of the Land of Israel (2012).

• Blood Moon 2015: What Hagee Didn’t Bother to Mention (webpronews.com)
  Hagee’s assertion is that there are four of these “blood moons” (not a scientific term) in a row, one of which lands on Easter. He believes that these four in a row are significant because they all land on Jewish Holy Days.
• A response to Michael Douglas (mondoweiss.net)
  Michael Douglas, in his op-ed piece in last Sunday’s LA Times, “Finding Judaism, facing anti-Semitism”, tells a compelling story about his young son encountering an anti-Semite at a hotel pool in southern Europe who shouted insults at him because he was wearing a Star of David. While everyone can agree it’s important to stand up against anti-Semitism, it’s also important to reject false claims of anti-Semitism used as an ad hominem sword to protect Israel and the actions of its government from criticism.  Where real anti-Semitism is present, as in the despicable incident involving Michael’s young son, it needs to be named and shamed and hopefully soon eradicated.   Where it’s not, where it’s used as a tactic to protect Israel from valid criticism, we need to reject it and avoid the slippery slope that reduces claims of anti-Semitism to little more than political theatre.

   

• An Islamic Reformation is the world’s best chance for peace (malaysia-today.net)
  Because both Christianity and Judaism were profoundly changed by the Reformation and the European Enlightenment. The Enlightenment’s apostles included large figures from the Christian tradition — David Hume, Immanuel Kant and Rene Descartes; and from the Jewish, in Baruch Spinoza and Moses Mendelsohn. They, and a legion of others, thought “freedom and toleration were … essential to the pursuit of enquiry, both religious and secular.” Their belief became, especially in France, a cause, a militant proclamation of freedom of thought and of publication, a definition of the rights of man.
• “Jew Hatred: It’s in the Quran”: the Latest Bus Ad Campaign to Hit Philadelphia (theuglytruth.wordpress.com)
  From Ancient Egypt up to 1945, all of them were anti-judaics. All. And even those who may have written some positive things about them, they were philo-semites for reasons which would now be considered anti-semitic. Recently, the French MSM have realized that one of the greatest architects of the XXth century, Le Corbusier,was a staunch anti-judaic. Oh dear…
• Jewish Rabbi Compares President Obama to Evil Haman who Tried to Kill all the Jews (godfatherpolitics.com)

  For American Christians the story of Queen Esther and Mordecai in the Old Testament is one that reminds us that the entire history of the Jewish people has been filled with persecution and attempts at genocide. Haman was a vizier in the Persian (Iran) Empire under Xerxes I, and Haman desperately hated the Jewish people.

  The story has played itself out in similar fashion several times throughout history, and while things may look bleak for a time, the Jewish people have always persevered and survived. However, some are worried that the Jewish people may have met their match in President Barack Obama.

  The chief Rabbi of Efrat in Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Rifkin, recently connected President Obama to the great villain Haman. Speaking at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Rabbi Rifkin said,

  “The president of the United States is lashing out at Israel just like Haman lashed out at the Jews. I’m not making a political statement. I’m making a Jewish statement.”

• Ted Cruz Another Israeli Mouthpiece (12160.info)
• Come with me to Israel & Jordan. Here are the details on The Joshua Fund’s 2015 “Prayer & Vision Tour of the Holy Land.” (flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com)
• The Perplexing Question Of Why Most American Jews Are Liberals Answered (nowtheendbegins.com)
• Living on the East Side of Jordan (christianity201.wordpress.com)