Jesus—The Jew's Jew by Zola Levitt

Author:Zola Levitt [Levitt, Zola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion & Spirituality
ISBN: 9781930749849
Publisher: Zola Levitt Ministries
Published: 2014-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

6 A Method in Their Matzoh

Rev. Harold Sevener was born to this kind of work. He always had a special burden for the Jews and their salvation.

I don’t mean to glorify one man by this, or to say that the Lord is powerless to help the Jews without this kind of available talent, but this particular evangelist exemplifies the personality and training of the missionary to the Jews.

I knew that he was a seminary graduate and had spent some time in the Holy Land. I was impressed with his thorough knowledge of both Testaments, and with his excellent Hebrew and Yiddish.

I was dumbstruck to find out that he was a Gentile.

Oy, did he look Jewish!

Harold attended the American Institute of Holy Land Studies in Israel after his American seminary education, and observed some really sloppy Jewish evangelism in Jerusalem. He refers to the efforts he saw as “the Gentilizing of the Jews.”

Can you imagine — worship services were held at 11 A.M. on Sundays, as if that were some sacrosanct hour to the Lord! The Jews couldn’t make it if they wanted to — Saturday is the Sabbath in Israel, Sunday a regular workday.

The well-meaning American evangelists held their services in English. Most Israeli Jews don’t speak English, and don’t have a particular liking for those who do. They’d had their troubles with the soldiers of Great Britain, just as with the soldiers of Rome.

(We must remember that Christ’s message is global, not American. We like to think of this country as very Christian, but God’s Kingdom is not of this world and doesn’t fly any earthly flag.)

The services didn’t go unattended; Christians, curious Arabs, and a few students of the English language turned up. But it surely wasn’t what you would call a Jewish get-together.

Harold decided to set up the first truly Hebrew Christians service in Israel since the time of James. He held it on the Sabbath, in the language of the Jews (and Jesus), and he took great care to emulate that special gravity the Jew accords his own worship.

The Jewish response was excellent. An entire kibbutz (Israeli cooperative farm) attended the service.

The service was held at a church, which was not especially appealing to the Jews, but was enhanced by musical recitals — such as renderings of the great works of that fine Christian J.S. Bach. The love of fine music, almost a cultural heritage of the Jews, was thus catered to.

Harold also advocated the celebration of the various Jewish holidays throughout the year, in their full significance in Christ. Passover, Dedication, Tabernacles, and the other Jewish feasts were commemorated by the Christians, just as Jesus commemorated them.

The apostle Paul’s statement, “To the Jew I became as a Jew,” was adopted by Harold. Then he was “called by the Lord” to the ABMJ and Los Angeles.

Different cities present different evangelical problems, as was true for the early churches of Corinth, Ephesus, and the others. Los Angeles, with its generous mix of peoples and issues, presented some unusual situations.

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