Shortly after Selassie’s daughter appeared in the palace, the Orthodox Patriarch joined her. He also issued a grave warning to the Emperor. A paradoxical tension had long


existed between the Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Jews. Although the Orthodox Church loves Israel, persecution and discrimination against the Jewish population here are never far from exploding into a very tense situation. But the Orthodox Patriarch warned Haile Selassie of severe consequences if he was determined to break off diplomatic relationships with Israel.


Within one year [of Selassie


severing ties with Israel], God relieved the Emperor of his throne, his kingdom, and the empire of Ethiopia. Then came Communism and the perfect understanding of Deuteronomy 28, where God clearly admonished His Chosen


People, Israel that if they


didn’t serve Him with all of their heart, they would serve their enemies. And that applies to our nations as well. Ethiopia is actually a Greek word meaning “the people or the land of the sunburned faces.” The biblical term Cush is more difficult. Cush can mean “dark or even black.” In the Bible Ethiopia and Cush are mentioned many, many times, but there is a general term for Ethiopia and also a specific usage of Ethiopia. In some of the references to Ethiopia, it is the land south of Egypt—with a black people included. But when you read about the rivers and mountains of Ethiopia,


the particular term is a


specific reference to the country. In a contemporary version of Isaiah 14:1, we find: “The Lord’s people will come home.” And that is what we are witnessing today. As partners with Jewish Voice Ministries, you are what I would describe as partners in God’s prophetic program. That is wonderful, isn’t it? The Lord will have mercy on Israel and the Chosen People will be His once again. He will bring them back to their own Land—not a land in Africa or Asia, but to the Land He promised them from the time of Abraham. Ethiopia weaves through the Bible from Genesis to the New Testament


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book of Acts, covering more than 3,000 years of Jewish history. The Jews came here, according to the chronicles of the Ethiopian church, soon after the time of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. They record in


their own


writings that representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel came to Ethiopia. Some time later, with the Babylonian dispersion and the dispersion when Jeremiah and other Jews went to Egypt, they built an exact model of the Jerusalem


Temple and animal sacrifices there. performed Two hundred


years later in 400 B.C, the Persians came and slaughtered the Jews, but some managed to escape, and they went up the Blue Nile to Ethiopia. Their origins are known in part, yet they still remain somewhat mysterious.


Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.


—Psalm 68:31


For hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years, the Ethiopian Jews of this “land of the south” employ a tradition of standing up one at a time, facing north, and praying a specific prayer during their Shabbat service at their prayer houses. Why north? In relation to Jerusalem, they find themselves directly south on the line of longitude. Incidentally, they don’t use the Greek word synagogue, as it only came into wide use when the Jews were in Babylon. Their meeting houses are called prayer houses or worship houses.


The Ethiopian Jews pray: The hungry go to food. The thirsty go to water, but I shall go to Jerusalem.


What a simple, but profound


prayer. We all know that we cannot live without food and water. But the Jew will not live without Jerusalem.


The


heart of God is in Jerusalem, the city of the Great King!


I consider this prayer


one of the most enduring prayers in history. Throughout the centuries of persecution and being slaughtered by their enemies, they still prayed. Finally in the 20th century, be- tween November 1984 and January


1985, after Communism had brought this once-thriving country to ruin, many Jews escaped the great terror to Sudan. Operation Moses, the first of several heroic airlifts staged by Israel, dramatically rescued 8,000 to 9,000 Ethiopians. They were transported from the deserts of Sudan to Jerusalem! Another great miracle took place


on Friday, May 24, 1991 during the fes- tival of Shavuot—the Christian Festival of Pentecost. Dubbed Operation Solo- mon, Israel sent 34 Hercules C-130 jumbo jets with the seats removed to rescue more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews and take them home to the Prom- ised Land of Israel. Israel in the Amhar- ic language means “miracle.” The birth, preservation, dispersion and restora- tion of Israel—all are miracles from the Lord.


Afterward, I met one of the organizers in Ethiopia, who often compared Operation Solomon to Moses leading the Children of Israel across the Red Sea. “In the days of Moses we went through the Red Sea,” the captain said. “Here, we went over the Red Sea.” Why? It was the only flight plan available, since the planes were prohibited from flying over Saudi Arabia or Sudan. It was God’s plan, nevertheless. With tears in his eyes, the captain related yet another miracle. When the plane he had piloted arrived in Israel, they counted 1,097 passengers aboard. Yet the initial count had been 1,087. Why? Ten babies had been born in flight! I came to know Lord Yeshua HaMashiach at the age of 15. When I was 16 years old, God revealed to me His plan for Israel, and nearly every day, I have prayed this prayer: “Lord, lead me either to your Chosen People somewhere throughout this day, or lead your Chosen People to me.” And that’s how Jonathan Bernis and I met. When we get involved with God’s Chosen People, we are involved with the prophetic, with the dramatic, with the miraculous!


When experts write about the Ethi- opians—especially Europeans, British, and Americans, they call them Falasha, a derogatory term in Ethiopia, mean- ing “an unwanted stranger.”


CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 JULY/AUGUST 2010 Jewish Voice Today | 11


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