Moran Rosenblit
read Moran’s bio
Shalom. My name is Moran Rosenblit and I am the Executive Director of the Hope for Israel ministry.
Today I would like to share with you about the power of the God of Israel to take someone and bring them from darkness to light.
1 Timothy 1:12-17 says:
(12) I thank Messiah Yeshua our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; (13) even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; (14) and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Messiah Yeshua. (15) It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Yeshua HaMessiah came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. (16) And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Yeshua the Messiah might demonstrate His perfect patience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (17) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we thank You for this day. I want to thank You for Your great love toward me and for bringing me from darkness to light. Lord, I commit this time to You. I ask You, Lord, that You would be glorified in and through every word that is spoken today. I pray, Lord, that You would touch each one of the people who is listening today. B'shem Yshua, in the name of Jesus our Messiah, we pray. Amen.
I was born in Israel before the Yom Kippur War and lived most of my life on a kibbutz in the northern part of Israel. Living in a kibbutz meant a lot of freedom and I took great advantage of that freedom. From a very young age I was a disc jockey in nightclubs. I was exposed to alcohol, women, and many other things like that.
School was not my favorite thing, but I knew it was important for me to finish twelve years because it would help me with my service in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and with life after the army.
I grew up in a secular Jewish family. The only connection that I had to the Jewish religion was my grandparents from my mother's side, who observed the Jewish traditions. So out of respect to my grandfather-and my personal desire to get gifts-I did my Bar Mitzvah when I was 13 years old like any young Jewish boy.
From my youth I rejected the religious system. I felt that the Orthodox community was trying to force other people to believe and live in the same way they did. I did not believe in God, and I didn't care about anything connected with God. I refused to submit myself to the pressure that those Orthodox Jewish people in Israel were trying to exert on us, the secular Jewish people. All I cared about was parties, basketball and having a good time.
Living in a kibbutz was like living in a big bubble. I was protected from a lot of things that were going on outside the kibbutz. My parents always taught me the value of work, the value of respect toward older people, and to love and serve others, including the Arab people in Israel.
At the factory at the kibbutz were Arab people who had worked there all their lives. Some of them were my parents' age, and they had children my age who worked in the factory. We were friends; we grew up together. I really liked them and enjoyed the feasts-the great feasts-that we had when we went to their homes.
A lot of that started to change right before I joined the Israeli army, when the reality of the life in Israel hit me like a rocket. A young man I knew died during a military exercise. That occurred before I joined the army, and that reality of life was something with which I was not yet familiar.
Then, when I was 19 years old, I joined the IDF like any young man or woman who lives in Israel. Being in the army is a mandatory thing for us in Israel. Each one of us must join the Israeli army. There is nothing special about my being in the military.
In the army one gets to serve with the same people for a long period of time, and naturally you make very good friends. At a certain point during my service, I contemplated moving from one unit to another. I remember dialogues that I had with my friends-with Yoval, Anan, Ayad, Aviv, and others-about this move that I was about to make. They urged me to not move to the new unit because my life would be endangered serving on the front lines. They wanted me to stay with them. I proceeded with the change in spite of their objections.
My life was changed forever on Sunday morning January 22, 1995. I was on my way to an exercise with my new unit when we received news that there was a suicide attack at the very location where my old unit used to meet every Sunday.
I will never forget that day. The thoughts, and concerns and fear that someone I knew might be dead filled my heart and my mind. Over the course of the day, we heard that some people we knew had died in that attack, and in the evening the names started to come.
Twenty-two soldiers and one civilian were killed. Yoval, Anan, Ayal, Aviv, and other friends were among the people who had died in that incident. I remember having to choose which funerals I would attend, because there were too many of them.
At one of the funerals, I saw one of my officers, and when I saw him I started to cry. He took me aside, shook me, and told me that we are men; we don't cry! I stopped crying at that moment and started to keep everything in my heart-all the pain, all the anger, all the depression-was in my heart.
That week we went from one family to another. We also visited the wounded ones in the hospital.
I became very angry and bitter. From that day forward, I did not care when an Arab person died. I wanted to see Israel's enemies paid back. A new favorite saying of mine was, "A good Arab is a dead Arab".
After I completed my obligation to serve in the army, I went back to my old life in the kibbutz. I worked in the fields during the day and at night I would go work at the night clubs.
Drinking alcohol became a daily routine. It became my comfort, my way to escape the anger and pain with which I was dealing. Back then I didn't have God to go to. So I found my comfort in alcohol, in partying, in being with women-in all the things that this world had to offer. Everybody thought that everything was fine with me, but no one saw that this was my way to cover what was going on-what was really going on-inside my heart.
Six months after I had left the army, on a Friday night as I was preparing to go out to one of my nightclubs, I received word that Ori, an officer from my old unit, had been killed in the northern part of Lebanon. Ori had been a close friend, a man whom I loved as a brother.
Once again the reality hit me. I decided then that I wanted to leave Israel. I could not live in this reality and I wanted to have a break. I will never forget my mother's asked me, "Moran, why are you leaving?"
I told her, "Mom, I can't endure this pain anymore. I can't see any more men in uniform die. I need a break."
So I left. After a small stop in England I decided to visit someone I knew in California. After a series of events, I found myself invited to visit Hope Chapel Church at Hermosa Beach, CA.
I was truly touched by the love that I saw that the people there had for one another, but more importantly, I was touched by the love the people there had for Israel and the Jewish people.
During that time Pastor Zac, Hope Chapel's senior pastor, was teaching from the book of Hebrews. He was talking about having a personal relationship with God, about really knowing God in a personal way. He said that there is only one way to know God, and that through faith in Yeshua. He then read Yeshua's (Jesus) words from the book of Yochanan (John). "Yeshua said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one can come to the Father, but through Me.' "
He said that this is the main, missing piece for the Jewish people in order for us to know God in a personal way. Although I didn't really care about God, I became very angry. I was thinking that these people are hypocrites: on the one hand, they say they love my people, the Jewish people, the people of Israel, but on the other hand, the pastor is speaking against my people.
Yoval, one of my friends who had died, was a religious Jewish man who loved God and observed all of the Jewish traditions, and this pastor was telling me that he didn't know God in a personal way?
I went to the pastor and asked him why he spoke about my people that way.
He replied by asking me if I had ever read the Bible.
I answered, "Sometimes, when I was young."
Then he asked me if I had ever read the New Covenant.
"What is the New Covenant?" I inquired.
He challenged me to go home seek for the truth and read the Word of God for myself, and then to go back and talk with him.
The Word of God says in Jeremiah 29:
(11) 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (12) Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (13) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (14) 'And I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'
So I went home after hearing this word of God full of anger and with many questions on my mind. But I remembered what the pastor had challenged me to do. He challenged me to seek for the truth for myself. I was to seek for the truth from God's word-not from tradtion, not from what other men said-but from God's word.
During that time many interesting things were starting to happen in my life. I was reading many books, which was something that was very foreign to me. A day before I had the conversation with Pastor Zac, I had just finished reading one book. When I came home from the service, I began looking for a new book to read.
As I was looking at the bookshelf, I found a small book called "Why Me", written by Jacob Damkani. He was an Israeli guy. I didn't know what the book was going to talk about, but I decided to read it.
As I read the book, I saw comparisons between the Tanach, the Bible, and the New Covenant. In the book there was an ongoing dialogue between Jacob and a Gentile man named Jeff about the Bible and I was really touched by it. I was amazed by the fact that suddenly everything started to make sense to me. Suddenly the word of God, the Bible, became very interesting to me. I read about prophecies and the fulfillment of prophecies. I could not believe what I saw in front of my own eyes. I started to shake; I started to shiver from excitement. My whole body was moving, was touched. I know today that was the touch of the Holy Spirit.
I also was really touched by a story from that book that I would like to read today:
Arizona-120 degrees in the shade. I took a dirt road into the mountains in order to visit a group of Messianic believers that called itself "Hallelujah." I reached them after a long drive on a desert road in the blazing hot wilderness.
That place holds very special memories for me. Shortly after my arrival, one of the wooden structures, which served as the children's dormitory, suddenly caught fire. One of the men instinctively jumped into the fmales and, several seconds later, emerged with three of the children, bringing them to safety. Three other children (two of them brothers) remained inside. The fire rapidly consumed the entire building as if it were made of kindling.
I cannot describe the horror of this calamity in words. Men and women cried out for help, but there was no way to rescue the three little ones left inside. The tragedy lasted only several minutes. We were all petrified with shock and terror, unable to move or react.
I was very angry at myself for not daring to help in such a crucial moment, for not jumping into the fire and trying to rescue the children while it was still possible. Within a few seconds, however, the blazing fire did not allow anyone to come near. When the flames subsided, nothing was left except a smoldering heap of coals. I was really ashamed. In the past I could perform daring acts without even blinking, but here, when I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save little children from sure death, I did nothing about it in trying to save myself. I found out I was not much of a hero after all.
Friends from all over the area came to share the grief of the bereaved families and to offer them their condolences. I will never forget the funeral service as long as I live. Over the open grave, the mother of the dead brothers said the following:
We all know that it was God who gave us this life. I received these two precious children as a deposit from God, and now He wanted me to return this deposit to HIm. Yeshua said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14 NKJV).
I believe that god, whose love for us is stronger than death, and who willingly died for our salvation, sees death in a different way than we do. In His eyes the death of little children may not be such a terrible tragedy at all.
He, who knows in advance how this evil world might still deteriorate, has chosen in His infinite wisdom and love to save these little ones, who believed in Him with all their hearts, from those horrible tribulations that He is going to bring upon this earth, and to take them directly into His kingdom.
It hurts me. I miss my little children so much! But I am neither bitter nor am I angry with God for taking my dear ones from me. I love Him and I will continue to love Him in spite of everything, and with no connection to my grief. He knows what is best for them and for us all, and He has chosen the very best for them.
If there is anybody among you who does not know Yeshua the Messiah, who suffered the most terrible death for us on the cross, I hope that this tragedy of mine might draw you to Him.
As she concluded, the grieving mother turned and spoke to the freshly opened grave, "My dear children, wait for me patiently. The day will come when we shall meet again, and then we will never part-I promise! Yeshua told me that, and He is always right."*
As I read these words, I was truly, truly touched by God. I wanted to have the same faith as this woman. I missed my friends, those friends who died. I wanted to be able to believe that God does exist, that He is real and that He is in control.
What I felt through reading that book no one and nothing ever gave me. At the conclusion, it explains how you can give your life to God. And so I did.
Tears of joy that I could not explain filled my eyes and ran down my face. My life has never been the same.
If you are listening to me today and if you don't know God in a personal way, I want to encourage you and beg you: please be reconciled to God.
You will see your whole life changed; you will get to know the creator of the universe. I am not here to tell you that your life will be perfect. But I am here to tell you that your hope will never perish.
If you don't believe and you say in your heart, "There is no God," at least do one thing for me today: Ask Him, "God, if you are there, please show it to me." "If Yeshua, Jesus, is the only way, as Your Word says, I know, God, that You can show it to me."
If you say that, I want to tell you that Romans 1:20 says: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
When you do ask God to show you the truth, OPEN YOUR EYES and look around. There is a reason why you are listening to me today. There is a reason why I came home angry after listening to Zac's word and found that particular book. God planned it from the creation of the world.
Looking at my son I must ask: How can anyone deny God?
Our faith in God is not an easy way out, as many people say. It is the people who deny God that find it easy to do so because they know that if they said they believe in Him, it would cost them something.
I want to invite you today to invite Yeshua to come into your life.
Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Confess your sins. Commit your life.
Thank you, and may God bless you. Shalom.
*From "Why Me?" by Jacob Damkani. Whitaker House, New Kensington, 1997; pages 129-30.
