Amid all the bad news emanating from the Middle East, the church there is growing and there has been a fivefold increase in Jewish followers of Jesus since 1998.
Speaking to Christians in Doncaster on the importance of our Jewish roots, Rev Aaron Eime spoke of how, 27 years ago, he and his wife Michelle arrived in Israel as part of a round-the-world adventure which began back in their home country of Australia.
They had not intended to stay (certainly not for the next 26 years) until, seeking respite after a bad dose of food poisoning from a Dead Sea picnic, they found themselves in Jerusalem’s Old City witnessing Arabs and Jews praying and working together.
They were already Christians themselves but had no idea such harmony existed in a region which has seen conflict since the beginning of time.
They had found their way to the Christ Church compound, headquarters for nearly 200 years of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ).
Suitably impressed by what they saw, they were asked to stay and help. But Aaron was not sure. “Being a missionary was not on my radar,” he explained. “I just wanted to get back to running a pub in London, which I had been doing before setting off across Europe in a rusty old camper van.”
But after praying about it, they stayed put and brought up their three children in Israel. Aaron became a deacon at the church, learnt Hebrew and studied with rabbis, some of whom he had the privilege of leading into a relationship with Jesus, their Messiah.
Then last year they moved to England after Aaron was appointed CMJ UK General Director. Now he is sharing the good news that interest in Jesus among Israelis is unprecedented, especially since the outbreak of the Gaza war. As he says, “There are no atheists in foxholes, and everyone is starting to talk about God.”
One of the roles of believers in Israel is to look after Muslims and Jews who make commitments to Jesus often at the high cost of being shunned by their families. In one case they took in a 19-year-old Arab lady who had been beaten to within an inch of her life for her faith. She is now married and safely living in Canada.
Elaborating on how understanding our Hebraic roots can lead to a deeper appreciation of our faith, Aaron explained the significance of two New Testament incidents centred on fig trees. In one case the disciple Nathanael recognises Jesus as Messiah because the Lord had seen him “under the fig tree” (John 1:48).
“Trees in the Bible are metaphors,” he said. “And this incident indicates that he was sitting ‘under the Torah’, i.e. the Scriptures. Sitting under the fig tree means to study the Bible and put it into practice, which is what our Lord recognised in Nathanael.”
In the other example, Jesus cursed the fig tree because it bore no fruit and then proceeded to clear the temple courts of those buying and selling there (Mark 11:12-26).
“He was saying, I’m coming into the Temple (where the Torah was studied) looking for fruit and I don’t find it. So the Temple is coming down.” (It was destroyed within a generation, fulfilling Yeshua’s own prophecy recorded in Matthew 24:2).
Aaron also helpfully explained another mystery. When Abraham assured Isaac that God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice, why then was it a ram caught in a thicket that was used? The answer came when John the Baptist exclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” (John 1:36)
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.
