Interview with Rabbi Tuly at Kingdom Connection Part 1
We’re launching a new outreach called Comfort My People, and we’ve begun to challenge our partners, friends, and viewers who love Israel - the friends of Israel - to comfort God’s people. I feel like the Lord spoke to my heart this year with a verse that is what we feel the Lord is leading us to do:
“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).
When? When is it that we should do this? God says when she’s in warfare. When Israel is being attacked. In other words, when they’re burning down villages, and cities, and towns, and families are losing their homes. He said we are to cry out and comfort her in warfare. We’re to comfort God’s people by proclaiming their iniquity is pardoned, and they have received the Lord’s hand double—Israel, the Jewish people, have received from the Lord’s hand double for all of her sins. We, the gentiles and foreigners, are the voice crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.”
And Isaiah 40 is the same chapter that goes on to say restoration will come!
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
I believe God is going to bring complete restoration to those areas that have been so devastated in Israel. We have recently partnered with Rabbi Tuly Weisz from Jerusalem to rebuild, replant, and restore one such community near that Gaza strip that was completely devastated by arson. Mevo Modi’im is a small Jewish community of about 60 families, some 300 people, who literally escaped with only their lives and the clothes on their back. Many without insurance or savings to start over, are now at the mercy of faithful people like you and me to stand together and help them rebuild their homes, replant their farms and crops, and restore their hope for future generations.
I asked Rabbi Tuly in our most recent conversation if more attacks had happened since we were in Israel, and his response is disturbing:
Every day. Every day there are attacks on Israel, on the people and the land of Israel. And it doesn’t make it to the mainstream media.
I have on my phone an app called Red Alert that goes off every time there’s a rocket attack or a rocket that’s launched at Israel. I get a notification on my phone. And actually, what’s amazing is that I get so many emails from Christians who are downloading that app, and so they’re stopping their day if they get a notification. They pray for a moment; pray for the peace of Jerusalem. What’s going on in Israel is very, very scary.
Their enemy is very clever. They use incendiary kites and balloons to cross borders and attack villages, markets, and farmland. They use a substance that just drips and leaks from these kites or balloons, and at a certain temperature, it ignites. Fields will just explode, and the heat causes these fires to spread extremely rapidly.
Fire is just unstoppable in such conditions and entire communities can be consumed in minutes. The miraculous thing is, in the area where we were and where we’re helping to restore, no one lost their lives. But now they must start over.
I believe God is going to bring restoration to those areas that have been so devastated. And I believe He is calling us, this ministry, and our friends and partners, to comfort God’s people. Comfort Israel. And that’s why I believe it was a Kingdom Connection that Rabbi Tuly and I were introduced. He is on the ground daily in Israel ministering to those in need.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. –Psalm 133
How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. For Christians and Jews to join hands and minister Comfort to God’s people. There is a commanded blessing when we unite, Christian and Jews together, to honor God by loving people and comforting people.
And I think that’s maybe why it says comfort twice. It’s a double comfort. God could easily provide the comfort any way He wants. But by having Christians and Jews come together, and having Christians go out of their way to comfort the people of Israel, really, it is a double comfort.
Jesus said in Matthew 25, you fed me when I was hungry. You clothed me when I was naked. You visited me when I was in need. And the people were astonished and said, what are you talking about? We never bought you any clothes. We never fed you a meal. We never visited you when you were in need. And He said, when you did it to others, these my brothers - that’s the wording that He used. When you did it to my brothers, you did it unto me.
When we clothe, when we house, when we provide for the children, we’re giving unto God. When people don’t feel close to God, perhaps it’s because they have no intimacy with people. They’ve disconnected themselves from others. Maybe what Jesus was teaching us is: have you hugged anybody today? Have you comforted anybody today? Have you spoke kind? Have you taken time to value somebody today? Because Jesus said when we do those things for one another … if I hug you, I just hugged Jesus. How can we not become intimate with Him if we’re showing His goodness to other people? That’s what Christ taught us. And He said, as you do it unto those who have gone through tragedies in their life ‑ like these families in Israel ‑ and lost everything, you do it unto me.
Pray about what you can do to help. I want you today to say, I can be a difference maker. I can give to this project, and I can help restore this beautiful area and village right there in the nation of Israel. I can have seed in the ground. And as you do it, I believe God will bless you, and He will even prosper you more to do more for His kingdom and His name.
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