Shabbat Shalom from rainy Marseille

Shabbat Shalom from rainy Marseille. Life can be surreal at times. The last and only time I was in this city of 300,000 Muslims and 100,000 Jews was when we arrived at noon on October 7, 2023. As I’ve recounted before, on the way from Geneva on the train, Elana and I were following the tragic news. Even when we arrived, we had no idea of the devastation or the war that we would be in a year and a half later.

Pastors Bjorn and Brita Lutke took care of us while we were stuck in Marseille.

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Are You Guys Okay?

About an hour ago, a friend texted me and asked me if we were ok. There is so much going on in our lives that I did not know the context. Apparently, just like on October 7, rockets rained down on Ashkelon this afternoon. I want to tell you that it was just two, but how absurd is that? What if you were living in Florida, Texas, or California and I told you that a terrorist organization just shot rockets with deadly intent … but then added, “Don’t worry, it was just two.” Half of each of those states would be putting their homes up for sale. But this is a regular reality for us in Israel.

It turns out that during the cease-fire, Hamas has been re-arming. We had not experienced any rocket fire from Hamas in quite a while. Both the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome and neutralized. My mother-in-law’s house does not have a safe room, and Elana told me shortly after the attack that she and her sister were cleaning their mother’s apartment when the sirens went off. My mother-in-law’s apartment building has been hit on more than one occasion with a Hamas rocket. So has my brother-in-law’s apartment building down the road.

But I’m so used to this that it barely phases me. That also concerns me. In early October, I videotaped much of the 180 ballistic missiles sent from Iran and intercepted by Israel. It was like watching a scene out of Star Wars. But if you told me 20 years ago that I’d be standing on my balcony watching missiles flying overhead, I would’ve thought you were crazy.

Civil War?

All we can do is pray. The country of Israel is deeply divided. A former Supreme Court justice, the most iconic jurist in Israeli history, said recently, “This rift is getting worse and in the end, I fear, it will be like a train that goes off the tracks and plunges into a chasm, causing a civil war.” In other remarks, he shared, “Today there are demonstrations, then a car drives through them and runs over someone (referring to an incident the other day), but tomorrow there will be shootings, and the day after that there will be bloodshed.”

Personally, I don’t fear widespread civil war as in 1865 in the US. But there could be pockets of violence between the right and the left. I don’t often prophecy regarding significant things, but on September 8, 2023, a month before the October 7 attack, during a time of corporate prayer at a pro-Israel conference, I felt the Lord clearly say that the divisions in Israel had put the country under judgment. I was so disturbed that I went to the organizers of the conference to alert them. Of course, I must’ve seemed crazy—who announces at a pro-Israel conference that the country is under judgment? The rabbis have always said that this type of division is the hatred that caused God to allow for the destruction of the second Temple.

Please Pray

Will you pray for Israel? Pray for the healing of the deep wounds, pray for our government to walk in supernatural wisdom. Of course, we know that the deep healing that is needed will come when Yeshua opens the eyes of the Jewish people, just as Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. Please pray for this most of all.

Tomorrow, I will speak twice at a conference, and then on Sunday morning before flying home.