By Joseph Shulam
The millennial bug has arrived in Israel. Although the state of Israel is one of the most computerized in the world, the concern in Israel is not for Y2K, but for the effects that the new millennium will have on the Israeli economy. It is expected that over 4,000,000 tourist will visit Israel in the year 2000. Hotels are feverishly being built, new roads, and new tourist attractions are being opened. The Pontiff is planing a visit to the Holy City of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the Sea of Galilee. He is going to be welcomed to Israel because with him will come many thousands of Catholic tourists that will bring a welcome sound of jingling coins that will be spent in the Israeli marketplaces. The Y2K bug in computers that many in the world are so concerned about is a minor note in the symphony of Israeli chaos. On the contrary, it seems that what most Jews in Israel are concerned about is the dollar signs that the new millennium will bring to our economy. I think it is wonderful, refreshing and very encouraging that Israelis and Jews are not caught up in the frenzy of religious millennium fever, and are not full of eschatological fears. The hope of Israel is not based on the eminence of our eschatological expectations, but on a messianic advent. We are the only nation in human history that remembers more than one millennium. Just think of this point! All the other nations that have an ancient past like Israel have changed their culture and their religion many times over in the last two Millennia. Syria and Persia, Egypt and Greece have ancient pasts, but only recorded in stone. The identity and faith of these nations has changed and there is very little left of the ancient identity and characteristics of these great past peoples. But, with the Jewish people it is very different. We have the same identity and basic faith in the God of Abram as did our forefathers for three millennia. Little has changed in our national identity and historical memory as a people – and little has changed in our basic beliefs. While some could see this fact as a negative point, I think that we should look at it from a little different light when we are approaching the third Millennium of the Common Era. For many of the great nations of the world this will be the first time that they have experienced crossing the millennial timeline. The United States, England, France, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa, did not exist as nations even half a millennium ago. Israel has been around for a long time – and Israel has left its footprints on the sands of time in every aspect of human existence. Above all Israel has been a source of inspiration and salvation through Yeshua the Messiah for all those around the world that seek God’s truth and Salvation. Now that we are approaching the third millennium – I believe that we are standing before another great change and challenge in Jewish history. Our world has changed most dramatically in the last 100 years. Jews have contributed to this change perhaps more than any other people. Jews developed the movie industry. The first great moviemakers and moguls of Hollywood were mostly Jews. Names like Goldwyn, and Mayer, and Selznick, will be remembered as the pioneers of the movie and entertainment industries. Science has also been the arena of great contributions that Jewish people have made in the last 100 years. The names of those Jews who have won Nobel Prizes are too many to mention, but names like Oppenheimer, and Einstein, and Teller, are up in the pantheon of great scientists together with Antoine Lavoisier, Rudolf Diesel,and Nicholas Copernicus. My point is very simple – in the last millennium and even in the last century Jews have contributed significantly to civilization even though in the same century there was the most serious attempt in human history to exterminate and annihilate the Jewish nation. There is not reason to think that in the next millennium Jews will have a lesser role to play in the betterment of the human race.
I realize that this approach to the millennium is a little different than most of the articles on this subject. The new millennium is entering with great hope for Israel as a country and for the Jewish people as a nation. We are entering this new millennium with a Jewish State in the land of our forefathers, with the Hebrew language revived and living, with a much stronger Messianic Jewish community both in Israel and around the world. Why should we be fearful or anxious about what the new millennium will bring? We already have the road map of history in God’s Word! We know that if we are ready today to meet the Lord of all, the God of Israel, the Savior of mankind, we have nothing to fear either now or in the future. We know that Israel is the nation that as a nation has the promise of salvation. In our own days we are witnessing the phenomena of Christian Zionism that is also based on latent? or not so latent?eschatological motives. I say these things because of a very deep concern related to eschatology and the Jewish people. Christian eschatology has a history of disappointments, wrong calculations, and false prophecies. It is wrong for us as Yeshua’s followers to put our trust and expectations on what has been a pattern of prophetic misunderstanding that Christian theologians and cult leaders have propagated over the centuries. The tension that bad eschatology has created in people concerning the coming millennium is a dangerous thing that can boomerang and turn to devour those who partake of it. Evangelical Christianity’s love affair with Israel is a very young phenomenon that became popular only after the 1967 six days war. Young love affairs tend to disappear just as fast as they come up on the stage of history. Close to the introduction of the last millennium came the birth of the Crusades that flamed the fires of anti-Semitism across Europe and into the Holy Land. Those who are familiar with the history of the Crusades know that at first Jews were delighted with prospect of liberation for the land of Israel. It did not take long for those peasants who led the first Crusade to turn against the Jews and become “Pogromchiks” of no small scale. As Jews who believe in Yeshua as the Messiah and consider many true Christians as our brothers and partners in faith and fate – we must look at the coming millennium as a great challenge and opportunity. We must seek the Lord and ask for guidance how to reclaim our rightful place in the community of Israel and do this without alienating our Christian brothers and sisters, but at the same time making our relationship with Israel the prime objective. Israel has seen the same rate of phenomenal growth in the congregations as the Messianic Movement in the West. There is one major difference, the growth in Israel has not come from the ranks of the non-Jewish denominations, it has come mostly from the ranks of Jews who have found the Messiah in the Land of our forefathers. If the Messianic believers in Israel continue to grow in the same rate as they have in the last fifty years in Israel – by the next century in the new millennium we should have one thousand congregations and over 100,000 Jews who follow Yeshua the Messiah in Israel. This is, in my opinion, the greatest challenge of the new millennium for all of us. It is the challenge of Aliyah and absorption for Messianic Jews in the land of Israel. It is the challenge of creating a healthy economic base for employment and healthy communities of Jews who believe in Yeshua as their Lord and Rabbi. It is the challenge of building a nation shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Jewish brothers who have still to accept and follow the true Messiah of our nation, Yeshua!
I think that as Messianic Jews we should look into the agenda of the Jewish community. We should allow our relationship with the Christian denomination and non-denominations to be based on a mutual acceptance of God’s plan for the end of times and Israel’s salvation and not on the paternalistic attitude of control that exists today. It is sad that we have so many Jewish brothers who are just too glad to capitulate their Jewishness for a cup of red lentil soup called “financial support.” The new millennium may prove to be a very short millennium for believers if the Lord returns soon. What we need to know and do now is not worry about the things that the world worries about, the world will take care of the computers and the mechanical things for us. What the world cannot do for us is to take care of the spiritual challenges and tasks that God has appointed for us to do, namely, to get ready for the return of our King on the throne of David. Soon the 1st of January 2000 will come and pass. The millennium will be ushered with many tons of Champagne that will be poured into the gullets of the jubilant. Nothing eschatological will probably happen! The date will change and new technology in Time Square will announce that change with glee. For us in Israel, the Orthodox Jews will still threaten the hotels in Jerusalem that they will take away their kosher license if they have New Year parties. The morning-after we will wake-up like every other morning and still have to do the tasks that await us in the service of the Lord God of Israel. For this my dear brothers we have to be ready and prepared to continue and be faithful doing the will of God and ringing the Good News on the hills of Jerusalem. May we see the coming of the Lord soon, even now Lord Yeshua, Amen!