The following story has been received from a number of sources, for example in Christine Darg’sbook, “The Jesus Visions”, chapter 4, and also from Jim Bramlett’s recent mailings. My purpose in producing it in this series will be seen as we proceed. I cannot vouch for the story, but I am prepared to present it here as fact, even if it may have gathered some embroidery along the way, because it comes from those who claim to love the Lord Jesus, and are in daily prayer for the Jews in Israel. I have pieced the story together from the various sources available to me, as follows –
Matthew Schwartz, a Messianic Jewish leader, took a group of tourists to Israel because he had a burden to pray for the Jews. Speaking at The Cornerstone World Outreach Center in Springfield, MO., (as President of “Intercessors for Israel International,”) he told an amazing experience that happened while his group was in Tel Aviv, as they were marching down the streets in parade-like fashion.
“Our worship team of Spirit-filled saints was lifting up the God of Israel in joyful singing and dancing. We were marching down Diezengorf Street in Tel Aviv and parading with our elegant banners. Hundreds of Israelis came out from their shops and stores to greet us and to thank us for coming to Israel to show our support for them. We gave each Israeli a lapel pin which said, “Israel, You’re Not Alone.” We told the Jewish people that God loved them. We had many divine appointments with the lost that the Lord drew out from their stores to meet us on the streets.
“While passing a jewellery store, an elderly man by the name of Moshe came out to talk to us. Moshe Cohen, 72, and his wife Esther are Orthodox Jews who survived the Holocaust. They married aboard a refugee ship and arrived in Israel in May 1948. They own a Sterns jewellery store in Tel Aviv and have many employees. They keep the Sabbath and the traditional Jewish holidays.
“When they heard our singing, Moshe ran out from his store to greet us. “I can’t believe the songs you are singing,” he said. “These are the same songs I hear every night in my dreams.” I was amazed hearing this, since we were singing not only Israeli favorites and classics such as HavaNagila, but spiritual hymns and worship songs such as, “Our God is an Awesome God,” and other songs we sing in our churches back home.
“He then told us this amazing story:
“My wife and I moved here to Israel years ago because we wanted to be here when Messiah came. We are waiting for His coming. I have been having a recurring dream some twenty times in the last three months, and it is disturbing me, because I keep having this same dream over and over again. I have been to the Rabbis; I have talked to many of them, and none of them can interpret my dream. Can you help me? Can you explain it to me, and tell me what it means?”
Pastor Lane, who was a part of our group answered him, “I don’t know if I can; but let me hear your dream.”
He then called me over, with five or six others to join us, to listen to the account of the old man’sdream.
“I keep dreaming that I am awakened up from sleep, in my bed, in the middle of the night. I dream that shofars and trumpets are sounding. They are so loud that they wake me up in the middle of the night, and I run to the front door and look out, and thousands of people from the nation of Israel are going up through the clouds, and they are wearing white robes, and the heavens are parting, and the Angel Gabriel is standing in the heavens, blowing a trumpet, and a mighty army in the sky dressed for battle. And their Commander is a rider on a white horse, and his eyes are a flame of fire, with thousands of armies behind him. The man on the horse is ‘The Conqueror.’Riding behind their Commander are the Jewish patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Behind them are the Godly Jewish women, Miriam, Ruth, Sarah and Queen Esther.
“Then I see King David and King Solomon and with them the prophet Elijah and his servant Elisha. They are all alive. Light is shining from them. They are riding horses. This mighty army of the Lord numbers into the tens of thousands. They are descending from heaven to the Mt. of Olives here in Jerusalem. Their Commander is wearing a Hebrew tallit, which says on it, “King of Kings.” He has fire in His eyes. I suddenly realize I am seeing our Jewish Messiah.
“Lord,” I said in my dream, “Who are you?” He replied, calling me by my first name, “Moshe, I am the One the prophets spoke about.”
“Do you have a Name?” I asked Him. He said, ‘They call me “The Champion.”‘
Then He said to me, “Moshe, I died for you. I love you. Tell your Jewish family and your friends about Me. Tell them I am coming soon. For there will be worship and praise in all Israel just as it was in the days of King David.”
Then I wake up with the words, “Moshe, I love you. I am coming soon” ringing in my ears. I have had this dream about twenty times in the last ninety days. I told my wife, ‘I see a man on a white horse.’ My wife Esther tells me, “Moshe, go to the rabbis. Tell them about your dream.” I have since met with dozens of Rabbis here in Israel. They all differ in their opinions. Some say, ‘There is no Messiah coming on a white horse. It’s only a dream, Moshe. No Army from Heaven will save us from our enemies. Go home. Forget your dream.'”
Moshe had never read the New Testament. But he knew the Old Testament; and he knew that there are two archangels. He knew one is the Angel Gabriel.
He said, “No one understands it. I told my wife, the rabbis and the people in the store, but no one can interpret it.”
Brother Lane, myself, and the others opened the New Testament and read to him from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
When the old man heard it, he exclaimed excitedly, “That is my dream!”
Standing with me that day listening to Moshe telling us his story were my singers, our dancers, and several pastors and their wives who were part of our ministry outreach team. One pastor named Brad said, “Moshe, there is a Champion coming to Israel, and you’re right. He will return riding upon a white horse. Listen to what John reveals to us in the Book of Revelation: ‘And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, On his head were many crowns.’ (Revelation 19:12).”
Pastor Brad asked Moshe, “Is this the Messiah you saw in your dream?”
Tears formed in his eyes. “Yes. It’s Him,” he said.
“God has given you this dream,” I added. “You believe in the same Messiah we believe in. You just don’t know His name. His name is Jesus. He came the first time to die for the sins of the world. He is coming back as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. You can call him by his Hebrew name,Y’shua. He is alive.”
When they explained to him that The Conqueror was Yeshua, his Messiah, he began to cry. They asked him, “Do you want to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life?” He said, “Yes.”
“I want to pray with you too,” said Esther, Moshe’s Jewish wife. “We want to pray with you as well,” said Dayla, Svetta and Alona, three of Moshe’s staff from his jewellery store.
The five of them prayed along with me, “Lord, forgive me, I’m a sinner. I repent of my sins. I accept what you did for me on the Cross. I give my life to you. I make you my Lord, my Savior, and I accept you as My Messiah.”
All five of them suddenly began to weep. Dayla, who had immigrated to Israel with her Jewish family from Russia, said “Pastor Matt, God has sent you and your singers to Israel – to show us the way to salvation.”
Lorna, my dance leader from Ohio said, “Dayla, there is more God has for you.” We then all laid hands on Moshe, Esther, Dayla, Svetta and Alona and prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and prophesied as the Spirit gave them the utterance” (Acts 2:4). It was a glorious moment, right there on Diezengoff Street in Tel Aviv!
Amongst other things, they prophesied that the Lord is coming again, soon, and about revival in the nations, the Lord doing many miracles, that the gospel would be confirmed with signs and wonders, and that this gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all nations, and then will the end come. They also spoke of the Jews returning home to Israel from all nations where they have been scattered, that anti-Semitism would increase, and yet God will save His people, Israel, and reveal Himself to many in these last days. [End]
I am interested in this event from several points of view. First of all, I know that Moshe was not the first to receive revelation that tied in with Scripture. Many others have had the same experience in recent years. God has been revealing Himself to Jews and Arabs throughout the Middle East in a remarkable way, and the trouble is that the world of the media do not pass these things on to the reading public. There is much happening to cause uplift to our spirits if only we could hear about it.
n the second place, I want to focus on the fact that in his dream, Moshe not only saw Israelis moving upwards towards the Lord, but subsequently he saw them coming back again. This will be the subject of our next number in this series.
It goes without saying that the dream was a vision, and not a reality. Some believers imagine that they will literally whisk up into the air in a white robe, but we have already unlocked several of the meanings of items in visions, for example that the white robes mean the righteous deeds of the saints. Hence there is truth within the vision quite apart from any literality, and it is important to realise this, in order to try to understand the way in which events will work out in the future.
