Found By The Living God (Asher Mandel)

Found By The Living God (asher Mandel)


�He hath made everything beautiful in its time: also he hath set eternity in their heart��
(Ecclesiastes 3:11 / ASV)

I was born into a middle-class Jewish home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
I began my Jewish education at age 6, and continued on through Bar Mitzvah and confirmation (age 14). I pursued studies in the Hebrew language in high school and one final year at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. At the age of 19, I concluded that my ancient Jewish heritage of intimate relationship with a thrilling, supernatural God had somehow devolved into a lifeless system of symbolic ritual and historical recitation. If such a religion was not relevant to me, as a Jew, how could it ever serve the needs of the rest of the world, whose suffering cries I had just begun to hear? By the time I enrolled as a freshman at the University of Cincinnati, I was still chanting my prayers in the temple but my heart had begun to listen for a new song to sing�

Once on campus, I was caught up in the surging ideological tides of the hour. My liberal arts coursework became a faded backdrop against which I played out the real drama of my involvement with �the issues of my times�. I marched and I protested. I volunteered and I philosophized. I even laid fruit and flowers at the altar of a Hindu god to receive the �mantra� I needed to achieve peace and enlightenment. Then, one spring day, my personal �search for truth� was forever redefined, because the Truth came searching for me!

The flyer announced the intriguing topic of �Radical Judaism�. The speaker was a former Marxist and Socialist, highly educated and world-traveled. I decided that my studies could wait for a few hours and I sat down near the front to hear what Mr. Art Katz had to say. Nearly one hundred other students, many of them Jewish, were also in attendance that morning at Tangeman Student Union. For the next ninety minutes, we sat there enthralled�

In two years of college, my classmates and I had heard many stirring messages of �revolution� and �redemption�. By these we�d been urged to respond to the crises of war and poverty, which my generation felt compelled to engage.
But this man�s message was so different�

He spoke with a zealot�s fervor, but he declared that the resolution to this world�s woes was neither political nor economic, but rather spiritual!
He urged us to understand that it was the human heart and not the mind
which was the true battleground for the lives and welfare of men!

More radical still, he proposed that the �peace, love and joy� we were pursuing was not to be found in any concept of philosophy or even in any revelation of mystical enlightenment, but rather in a saving, healing relationship with a person -- Jesus Christ of the bible! On that day I learned 2 amazing things. First, that the Christians believed Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah my people had been waiting to see for 2,700 years, and second, that Jesus Himself claimed to be that same Messiah-King!

� The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. �
(John 4:25,26 / KJV)

� Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not�
� Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.�
(John 9:10-12; 35-37 / KJV)

This, then, was the �radical Judaism� Mr. Katz challenged us to consider:
that we submit ourselves to the loving authority of the one who had claimed, 2,000 years ago, to be the one true Messiah of our Jewish people. Above his cross the sign read �King of the Jews� � if that claim could be proven to be true, would we, as Jews, be willing to kneel to Him as the king of our lives?!

Could such an incredible perspective possibly be worthy of consideration?
Did I dare to wonder if, perhaps, our people had taken the wrong fork in the road by rejecting their own Savior? The thought was unthinkable, but the evidence during 2,000 years� history of Diaspora and death haunted me with doubts! If we truly were the �chosen people�, as I had been taught, why, then, did it seem that our God had deserted us? Could the horrible truth possibly be that it was actually we who had deserted Him?
The invitation to pursue these claims captivated and compelled me!

The message was concluded with an opportunity for comment or question.
No one spoke. For a full 10-15 seconds, we were held in a special, silent hush that we did not truly understand. Then, with a sudden fury, many of those around me �picked up stones to stone him� (John 10:31)�

�You�re not a Jew!�� �Religion is the opiate of the Masses!��
�The people in poverty need real answers!��


��And after the fire, a still, small voice.� - I Kings 19:12b

My mind stood in agreement with my classmates, but I felt strangely aware of �another voice� deep inside me who yearned to hear more of these strange new thoughts! I found myself standing to my feet to speak�

�The problems of poverty are real, but I think there is a verse in the Torah that might agree with this man�s view� Doesn�t it say somewhere in the book of Proverbs that �the issues of life proceed from out of the heart�?�

All eyes were on me for a moment, believers and non-believers alike, all wondering who I was and where I stood. Then, with a rush, the angry current of criticism shoved me aside and we were again engulfed in swirling emotions.


� And what will ye do in the day of visitation�� - Isaiah 10:3

Following the close of the program, I quickly made my way forward with a stammering apology to the speaker for the abuse from my peers. Mr. Katz took my extended hand in greeting but brushed aside my words with a very direct question:

�The Holy Spirit was all over you today! Tell me, what do you think of the things I�ve presented here?�

My own response was sudden and sincere�

�I just don�t know -- I have so many questions -- I could talk to you all day!�

As the crowd and the local media closed in around us, this man searched my eyes for a quick moment and then he declared,

�My plane leaves in an hour, but I�m going to call your bluff.
I will reschedule my flight and give you the day you�ve asked for!�

All that afternoon we debated�
I spoke about the relevancy of the radical politics of the day� He urged me to consider 3,000 year old Hebrew prophecies fulfilled in the life of Christ�
I demanded that he think� He exhorted me to believe� I said seeing is believing� He said only God can give sight to the blind!

After hours of such wrestling, we concluded a bloody truce. The family serving as our host that day took the opportunity to present me with the gift of a Christian book I�d never seen before. Since I still lived in the �real world�, and finals were looming, I discreetly left the book behind as we departed to take Mr. Katz to the airport. Thirty minutes later, it was time to say goodbye. My tenderhearted antagonist appealed to me one more time on behalf of
the one he had come to represent�

�You say you still believe in the Jewish God -- would you be willing to
ask your God to show you if Jesus truly is who he said he was?�

I could think of no reply. In that moment it occurred to me that only the sin of pride would prevent me from praying such a prayer with this man.
So we prayed. He led and I followed, and together we asked
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to reveal to me the truth about
Jesus� claims to be the Jewish Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

It was a short prayer, but I had meant it, and when we had finished, Mr. Katz and the Christians with him were full of exuberant rejoicing!
I was confused and provoked !

�You don�t understand�, I objected, �I have not prayed to become a Christian, but only to be shown the truth!�

Still, the celebration continued! This precious family of gentile Christians knew what I could not then believe; that true Christians serve a Living God,
the same supernatural God whom my ancient people once knew intimately so many centuries ago. They knew that He had heard and they knew that He would show himself faithful to answer the sincere prayer of a sincere seeker!

�For from of old no one has heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who earnestly waits for Him.� (Isaiah 64:4 / Amplified Version)

I was returned to campus in the early evening with an invitation to attend a �prayer breakfast� later that week. I remember literally saying, �Don�t call me � I�ll call you�. I ran up the steps to my dorm shaking my head at the foolishness of having wasted the whole day when exams were upon me.
Waiting for me in that day�s mail was a package from home. On occasion, my father and my little Hungarian grandmother would send me a kosher salami and home-baked goods and I happily noted their names on the return address. Without even waiting to take it upstairs, I tore open the box. My stunned expression caused the desk clerk to ask me if I was all right! I cannot, today, clearly remember anything else contained in that box, except for the first object to greet my eyes -- a copy of the very same book I had left behind just 2 hours before!

Suddenly, I remembered the prayer I had prayed at the airport, and I was gripped by a strong feeling of fear and excitement! I would later find that my father had sent this book to me, thinking that it might scare me away from drugs -- not knowing that it contained such a vibrant testimony of the power of Jesus Christ! I had never heard of �Run, Baby, Run!� nor of its author,
Nicky Cruz, but I started to read it in the elevator on the way up to my room, because I perceived the presence of someone I�d never met who was calling my name. My �day of visitation� was not over. In fact, it had only just begun�

I needed time to think and to pursue the truth of Jesus� claims to be the Jewish Messiah. One month later, at term�s end, I made the decision to leave school. The following September I embarked on a bicycle hike to the east, to find a place to live, work and study as best I could, undistracted by the expectations of family or university.

I had ridden my Raleigh over 300 miles into upstate New York when, somewhere south of Syracuse, I passed a farm. I felt curiously drawn to it by a feeling of �unexplainable anticipation�. I dismissed it as strange and rode on until I remembered where I�d experienced this feeling before -- when I opened that box in my dormitory the previous spring! I circled my bike back around and returned. I entered the house without so much as a greeting, and spoke to the first person I met:

�What is this place?� I asked.
�This is the �Love Inn� I was told.
�We are a Christian community existing for the purpose of sharing the gospel with people seeking to know the truth about Jesus Christ�.

The �seeker�s prayer� I had prayed with Arthur Katz echoed again in my soul!
�I knew I had been led there for a purpose. After several days at the Love Inn, one of the counselors there finally sat me down�

�So, man, what�s your thing? Sex? Drugs? Politics? What are you into?�

The words escaped before I could frame a more careful response�

�Myself. I�m into myself!�

He looked stunned. I felt embarrassed. We prayed together and I asked again for God�s help to know the truth -- about Jesus, and now about myself!
I only spent a week there, but it was the first time I had ever watched bible-believing Christians living out their faith in front of my eyes. When I left, they neither encouraged me to stay nor pleaded with me to commit to their beliefs, but their ways and words had served as loving signposts on my journey.

� Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you.�
John 16:13a,14

I settled for most of that year in nearby Ithaca, New York, and there I began to read and compare scriptures in both the Old and the New Testament books for the first time�

I scoffed at the idea of God made flesh in the �virgin birth�; then I discovered the next two scriptures below, and marveled at God�s clarity both in providing and predicting Jesus� miraculous birth�

�Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.�
Isaiah 7:14

� But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,
out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.�
Micah 5:2

I ridiculed the notion of a �New Covenant� which could ever replace the one God had used Moses to set in place for my Jewish people. Then I found Jeremiah�s promise of a New Covenant that would indeed replace the old.

�Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people��Jeremiah 31:31-33

At no time in any temple or religious school lesson had anyone ever presented these passages to me or to my peers for discussion or question.
I began to understand why Jesus confronted the rabbis who rejected him�

�Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me� Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?�John 5:39; 45-47

I wondered how Jesus could say that Moses spoke of him when Moses lived 1,400 years before Yeshua (Jesus) was born! Then I found the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy where Moses wrote these words�

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him � The LORD said to me � I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything
I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name,
I myself will call him to account. Deuteronomy 18:15;18-20

As I learned more, I wondered at the portrait of the suffering, dying Messiah, which the New Testament presented to me. How different from the conquering utopian king described by the rabbis I had learned from. Then God led me to find the 53rd chapter of Isaiah -- that of the �Suffering Servant�.

[Since a proper understanding of this chapter is so central to an informed decision on the identity of the Jewish Messiah, I would ask the reader to thoughtfully consider the page of background information presented in the endnote at the close of this paper.


Below is the text of Isaiah 53:3-12. I have taken the liberty to substitute the name of Yeshua, (Jesus� Hebrew name, meaning �God Saves�) for each third-person singular pronoun. Read it slowly and honestly. Compare it with Psalm 22 and with the gospel account of Luke 23:33-41. If you are like me, your heart and mind will harmonize together in mournful lament�

3. Yeshua is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Yeshua; Yeshua was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4. Surely Yeshua hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5. But Yeshua was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with Yeshua�s stripes we are healed.
6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Yeshua the iniquity of us all.
7.He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet Yeshua opened not his mouth: he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so Yeshua openeth not his mouth.
8.Yeshua was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?
9.for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was
Yeshua stricken.
9. And he (God) made Yeshua�s grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Yeshua; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make Yeshua�s soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in Yeshua�s hand.
11. He (God)* shall see of the travail of Yeshua�s soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for Yeshua shall bear their iniquities.
12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and Yeshua shall divide the spoil with the strong; because Yeshua hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and Yeshua bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.� * Parenthetical additions in v. 9 & 11 are added for clarification

I believe that the day is coming soon when my people will understand these verses as they were intended. On that day, Zechariah�s prophecy will come to pass�

�And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced;
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem ��
(Zechariah 12:10,11a / ASV)

Uncanny experiences and unusual acquaintanceships also continued in my life. In the fall of the following year, I returned to my schooling, closer to home at Cleveland State University. One day, walking down the hall of the main classroom building, I noticed a small group of students silently studying in a classroom. All at once, I felt that familiar �sense of his presence�.
By this time, the experience had become like recognizing the sweet familiar fragrance worn by a frequent visitor who always seems to bring good news. I was being directed into that room�




Once again, as at the Love Inn, I entered unannounced and spoke to these strangers without a greeting, feeling belligerent and afraid at the same time.

�Who are you guys, and what are you doing here?� I demanded to know. Somehow the answer I received did not greatly surprise me.
�We are members of a student group called Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and we are having a bible study. Would you like to join us?�
Perhaps my reply may have surprised them�
�No, not really� but I think I�m supposed to!�

I sat down that day in October of 1972 to study the teachings of Jesus, my long-lost Messiah, and this next October will mark 36 years since then.

Over the past three decades many more questions have arisen and many have been answered, but there is one guiding phenomena which has recurred throughout all. That constant has been the willingness and the ability of the Holy Spirit to answer prayers sincerely prayed concerning the identity of the One He has sent. This is why the believers who witnessed my �seeker�s prayer� in 1971 rejoiced so, because they knew that their God lives and that He is faithful!

Jesus spoke these words to the skeptical Jewish people of his day�

�If any man desires to do His will (God�s), he will know (have the needed illumination to recognize) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking�on my own authority.�John 7:17 / Amplified Bible)

I believe that the biggest reason that we stumble in the darkness is because we don�t want to walk in the light God gives us. The Lord will show us His way when we decide to follow the trail of truth even if it takes us into places we�ve never been before! This is what God has proven to be true in my life � that if I am sincerely willing to obey the truth, then He becomes willing to reveal the truth!

Along the way, I�ve also learned to recognize and respect �the voice of my spirit�. My spirit is an entity joined to my mind, but separate and distinct from my mind. In this way, the two exist together much like Siamese twins.
Each one has its own voice, and each voice must be heard. If the mind is dead (or muzzled), the spirit�s voice alone can lead to cultish fantasies. But if the spirit�s voice is unrecognized (or willfully ignored!), the mind alone produces the empty Cicada-like shell we call �religion.�

From May of 1971 till October of 1972, I used my mind to navigate my search for truth and found the Messianic claims of Jesus to be verifiable in the Jewish scriptures themselves. Our God approves such a search, as it says in His word�

�Come now let us reason together, saith the Lord� If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.�Isaiah 1:18,19a

But strangely, after all I�d been shown, I still found myself incapable of committing my life to the One I�d been persuaded was calling me!
After 18 months of apprehending life-changing truth primarily with my mind,
I found I needed to acknowledge the �other voice�, the one I�d been made aware of that first day I�d heard the evangelist�s words.

In October of 1972, I decided to confine my mind to the navigator�s seat where he belonged, and to invite my heart (the voice of my spirit) to take the pilot�s seat and decide on the flight plan. My spirit used the charts supplied by the �navigator�, but it was my spirit alone who had the courage to select the coordinates of my final destination -- a cross!
The Jewish prayer creed, the �Shema� expresses this synergy well�

�And you shall love the Lord your God with all your mind and heart��
Deuteronomy 6:4,5

In October of 1972, I decided to trust what I had learned with my mind and what I had felt with my heart. I still had many questions but the Lord had already answered so many others. That gave me the confidence to believe that He would continue to �reason together� with me if I would begin to walk in the light of the words I knew He had spoken to me thus far�

Remembering all that I had seen and heard and experienced, I put my faith in Yeshua�s sacrifice on the cross 2,000 years ago to cleanse my sins and establish me in eternal righteousness (�right standing�) with God.
To this day, I can remember clearly how that felt to me�

For 21 years I had looked at life through the lens of tradition, trying constantly to adjust the focus-ring so I might see life more clearly. No matter how I tried, the best things in life remained small and far away to my view.

After placing my faith in the sacrifice of Yeshua �the lamb of God� as the New Testament calls Him, it seemed just as though someone had turned the telescope around the right way! Now I was looking at life through
the lens of truth!
Suddenly, the most beautiful things life had to offer � love, joy and peace � were so large and clear they filled my eyes!
And strangely, I had never felt more �Jewish� in my life!
Well, it is one thing to come to truth and faith, but it is another thing to remain there! How has the Lord maintained me in the faith of �biblical Judaism� which He revealed to me thirty years ago? He continues to do it in the very same way He began, by His own personal communication to me through scriptures and signs, all pointing to His Messiah and chosen King, Yeshua.

You see, occasionally, throughout my spiritual life, I have experienced doubts about certain issues. I have often found the need to do as John the Baptist did and �send word to Jesus� to ask if He is truly the one I�ve been waiting for, or if I should �look for another��

�Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things,
which ye do hear and see:
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.�
Matthew 11:2-6

There are some in the faith who may scold us for our doubts, and others who may warn us about �testing the Lord� by asking Him too often to confirm our faith. But look how the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) responds to John�s doubts with His wondrous love. He understands that �we are but dust� and He supplies John with the very assurances he needed, just as James 1:5 says He will�.

� But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all generously and without scolding; and it shall be given him.� (James 1:5 / ASV)

Instead of reproaching John to �believe and you�ll see� (as we sometimes admonish each other), Jesus told John�s messengers to �go back and tell John what you�ve seen and heard.� I am thrilled to tell that the Holy Spirit has always returned to me with that same message, and with fresh proof of Christ�s power and works in my life.

I�ve included a few personal examples below to prove God�s faithful help to me as I called on Him for wisdom along my journey�

A few years ago, I asked God in prayer why Jesus claims to have all power and authority John 17:1,2 and Mt. 28:18 when I had learned clearly in Temple that such power resides only in God (�the Father�)�
Within a few days, I found myself reading Mark 2: 5-12, and a footnote to verse 10 explained that the title �Son of Man� was the one Jesus used the most frequently to describe himself. When I followed the reference to Dan 7:13,14, both my heart and my mind were helped to understand and believe!

� I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a Son of Man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and the brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.�

God had answered me again!

Some years ago, I asked the Holy Spirit to �guide me into truth� (John 16:13-15) concerning Jesus� use of the term �Son of God.� The term �Messiah� is �Jewish� and �Hay-mish� (familiar), but when did God ever call the Messiah his �Son�? Within a week�s time, the Ru�ach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) unfolded a detailed answer, profound with promise from the Torah. It was the prophecy of
�David�s Greater Son� found in I Chronicles 7:11-14, where God promised David a son to sit on His throne and rule Israel forever!

When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor.
I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.� �

Read again the bold-face words above� A �Son of God� ruling on the throne of Israel �forever��!!

Solomon and his throne have been gone for 2,900 years�this prophecy could NOT have been spoken about him! � Who then did God promise to David?

The answer is more than Solomon, his natural son. I pray that you will see clearly there, as I did, that the promise of an eternal kingdom given to �David�s Greater Son� could only have its truest and final fulfillment
in a supernatural Son, His Messiah-King!

This time, the demonstration of the Lord�s responsive love to me was so dramatic that I cried tears of joy to see His tender care over my fragile faith! But why should I be so surprised when Isaiah described his faithful help and gentle kindness over 2,700 years ago�

�Call upon me in the day of trouble. And I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.�
Psalms 50:15

�A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench�� Isaiah 42:3

The exciting thing to me is that He is still so willing and able to reveal Himself to those who are willing to seek Him with an unprejudiced mind (John 7:17) and with their whole heart


�And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.�
Jeremiah 29:13

And why should I wonder at the Lord�s kindness to me today when Heb.13:4 declares that Messiah Yeshua remains the same �yesterday, today and forever!�
How wonderful it is to know that I don�t have to live on �yesterday�s manna�, in fact, I dare not! How wonderful to know that we serve a living God who reveals fresh truth if He is asked in faith�


I would like to close my story with two more passages from the Torah�

1. And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.
2. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.
3. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
4. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,
5. And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.
6. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
7. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.
8. Happy are thy men, happy are these servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.
9. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.
10. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
11. And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almond trees, and precious stones.
12. And the king made of the almond trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almond trees, nor were seen unto this day.
And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. I Kings 10:1-13

One thousand years before the Messiah�s first coming, a report spread throughout the known world� It was said that King David�s natural son had been blessed by God to possess wealth, wisdom and a kingdom beyond any ever seen! Somewhere on the continent of Africa, a queen from the land of Sheba heard of Solomon�s fame and was skeptical. In I Kings 10:1 we read that she �came to test him with hard questions��

But, significantly, even this great queen came prepared to pay him tribute �with camels that bore spices, very much gold and precious stones�, just in case the reports she�d heard of his greatness actually proved to be true! When she had heard his wisdom, and had seen for herself all the greatness of his house, she humbled herself and paid him homage, not only with her gifts, but also with an offering of praise -- the fruit of her lips.
Happy are thy men, happy are these servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee,
to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore He made thee king, to do judgment and justice.

What a precious parable this is for the modern man to consider; both for �Greeks, who seek wisdom� and for �Jews, who require a sign�, (I Cor.1:22). The report of King David�s �supernatural son�, the Lord Yeshua, has now gone throughout the known world again! On every continent, unbelieving human hearts find themselves skeptical of the claims of Christians and even of Christ himself, (Is. 53:1). Yet, even now, as in Solomon�s time, the heart of God is forever the same!

Listen as He invites you to investigate the claims you�ve heard�

�Come, let us reason together, saith the Lord�� (Is. 1:18)

Listen to his reminder through Daniel�
�But there is a God in heaven who revealeth secrets� (Dan. 2:28a)

Be enticed by this promise through Jeremiah�
�Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and wonderful things
which you thought not to see� (Jer.33:3)

Come with your skepticism and prove His wisdom �with your hard questions�. But remember to also come prepared to bring him an offering of praise as our Messiah-King just in case the reports of his greatness actually prove to be true!

If you come willing to obey the truth that you are asking to be shown, He has promised in John 7:17 to reveal to you all the greatness of His house!

Then you will know for yourself that the truth is a person, just as the old evangelist told me 37 years ago. Then you will be enabled to say to the Lord Yeshua Himself:

� Blessed be Jehovah thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because Jehovah loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do justice and righteousness.� (I Kings 10:9)

But, if you will not -- if you send tradition to the door to dismiss truth -- then �the queen of the South will rise up in the judgment� and condemn you!

The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Matthew 12:42


So come, then, as she did, even from the �ends of the earth�, and you will find the Holy Spirit still willing and able to �reveal the arm of the Lord� Is.53: 1 and even �to give you all your desire� as Solomon did for the one who came to seek him.

Look and listen with your heart, as well as your mind, for our long-lost Messiah cries to us all still�


�� behold, a greater than Solomon is here!�

May God confirm His Truth to you with His Shalom�
I am His scribe and your friend,

Asher

ENDNOTE:

The modern understanding of Isaiah 53 is said to have originated in the teachings of the great Jewish leader, �Rashi�, (11th c.). He taught that the person of the �suffering servant� foretold here by Isaiah is merely a symbolic portrait of the Jewish people themselves! In view of the horrific sufferings of my people since Rashi�s day, (the Spanish Inquisitions, the European pogroms, the Holocaust of WWII, et al), this interpretation has gained widespread acceptance. It is the teaching you will hear the rabbis echo even today�
But I would ask both rabbis and readers how this could be?
Please look again at Isaiah�s words�

If every �he� and �him� (3rd person pronoun) in this passage is a collective pronoun for Israel, then how do you explain the �we�, �us� and �our� spoken of in verses 2,3,4,5 and 6? It is far more sensible to me and to many others to understand these collective pronouns as referring to the nation of Israel, and to recognize that the singular �he� and �him� refers to the first coming of our messiah as our �kapporah� -- the suffering, dying atonement for our sin!

Most critical of all is the fact that all traditional Jewish sources acknowledged this passage to be messianic in nature before Rashi and many have continued to do so since!! Dating from the Babylonian Talmud (2nd c. B.C.E.) and the Mishnah Rabbah (4th c. C.E.), through to the great teacher, Maimonides (12th c.), all the way up to the 1937 edition of our Machzor (Jewish prayer book, pg. 237), Isaiah 53 is agreed upon by our own sages and teachers as speaking about the Jewish messiah!
For full documentation of this critical fact, please refer to my first two sources listed below. Source #3 will answer the question of how the Torah could refer to our messiah as both a �conquering king� and a �suffering servant� at the same time! Source #4 was consulted to clarify terms and dates.
Sources:

1.) Jews For Jesus� http://jfjonline.org/pub/issues/02-5/Isaiah53.htm
2.) Jews For Jesus ���http://www.jfjonline.org/apol/qa/Isaiah53.htm
3.) CJF��.http://www.messianicperspectives.com/pages/twomesia.htm