By Esther (The other one)
My great Jewish sister in the Lord, Esther Korson (who writes another blog for this website; Reflections on Israeli life) has asked me if I’d like to contribute some words each week to the site. The invitation came just moments after I asked God to ‘open the doors’ for me to put my writing to His use. It seemed like a clear answer to prayer, so I figured I’d see how it pans out; better to take a leap of faith than listen to the voice that asks ‘is that really what God wants for you?’ That is after all, the voice of doubt which Eve believed in the garden and led to some disobedient apple-eating.
Seven years ago I fled the UK and ‘set up home’ in Israel, in search of a life with less clouds and different people; in truth I didn’t really know what I was searching for. I began working as a waitress in Tel Aviv. The restaurant was owned by two sisters, who were not Jewish, but American and who believed in Jesus. During the next three years, our friendship led me to read the Bible for myself and to become aware of the God-shaped hole in my heart. After five years in Israel, battling between my secular Jewish upbringing and my new and growing faith, I asked Jesus to fix me up, forgive me and heal the mess in my life. I wasn’t sure at the time if He could; I just knew that I couldn’t. Guess what? He did!
He led me to a local congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua (Jesus) in Tel Aviv, where I knew I could finally embrace becoming a Messianic Jew. A few months later I met my husband at the congregation; a Gentile Texan with a Scottish surname. (I was not expecting that!) Two years after begging God to save me from myself and my bad choices, I am now blessed by His love, a family of believers and a family of my own. Our first baby is due anytime now!
After living in Israel for seven years in an Ikea apartment (I would speculate that 90% of apartments belonging to twenty-somethings in Israel have more than 2 Ikea items in common) I found myself seven months’ pregnant and moving into a family-sized apartment with my husband.
We decided it was time to replace the Swedish sofa-bed with an actual sofa and found a charming three-seater and two-seater set in Herzl street in Tel Aviv; an area infamous for a variety of reasonably-priced furniture stores. Although we did not arrive with a particular colour or style in mind (we preferred to leave room for the Spirit to lead), we both knew when we found ‘the one’ at a price far cheaper, a colour far more exciting (blue) and with a salesman far less aggressive than we had come across at the other stores. So far, so good.
Two weeks later however, the actual delivery proved somewhat less peaceful. As soon as the delivery man walked in and saw the entrance to the apartment he understood that the sofa would not fit! I learned we had an unfortunately-placed wall that faces the front door and creates a problem for furniture delivery. When I called the owner of the store (the nice salesman was by this point ‘unreachable’) to discuss his policy as regards undeliverable items, he immediately responded with; ‘I sell sofas, not apartments. Whether the sofa is in your apartment or in the stairwell, it is not my problem and you must pay.’
Living in Israel is undoubtedly an exercise in faith at moments like these. “To be a realist in Israel you have to believe in miracles” is a favourite poster of mine, which hangs on the wall of the building where our Messianic congregation meets each week. As much as I love Israel, ‘the apple of God’s eye’ and its people, there is a ‘dog-eat-dog’ attitude that prevails across the business and consumer markets that threatens to scare off many new immigrants from America, Canada, the UK and Europe. With all its technological development over the past 60 years, Israel is often thought of as a ‘First-world’ country, however the culture among those vendors who do not deal in Hi-Tech is most definitely Middle-Eastern.
Before I came to faith in Yeshua (Jesus) a situation like this would have had me on the phone to my husband, most probably incoherent and panicking about the money we were about to lose on a sofa that would be left out on the street-side. Praise God that “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deut 31:8)
My new relationship with God meant I was able to cling to this promise and know that my ‘best bet’ in this situation was to ask for His help and trust God to be God, who tells us to cast our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7) and let Him work out the details. Soon I was able to see the hidden blessings within the situation. While the business owner was less than pleasant, the mover himself had a real heart for his work and was doing everything he could to complete the job. First, he attempted to disassemble the sofas, but this proved unsuccessful. Then he did manage to bring the two-seater into the apartment. The three-seater however required a crane, a roof ladder, some rope and most importantly, our large front-room sliding glass window, which spans almost the entire wall. Without that, our new sofa would have been left on the curb-side. As I watched the sofa take a journey onto the roof of the building, where it was then pushed off the front of the building and hoisted into the apartment, I praised God for that determined mover and that large window!
Now I’ll be honest to admit that my feelings towards the owner of the business were less appreciative by this point. He had been more than ready to leave the furniture on the sidewalk and demand full payment for it. He had claimed it was purely my fault. When I tried to reason that I am not an expert in moving and suggested he might ask his customers for details on their apartment entrances before the actual sale of the item(s), he then accused me of being an insolent ‘smarty pants’. His tone throughout our interaction was condescending, aggressive and rude. In my personal opinion he was negligent, unpleasant and unfit to sell furniture. However, after I waved off the delivery truck and was pondering all this, I felt a higher wisdom stream in through the cracks of my discontent, asking me But why do you think he is like that? It’s difficult to ignore questions that the Spirit poses; He can be quite a nag!
The first of God’s commandments is to love Him, but the second is to love other people as we would want to be loved ourselves (Lev 19:18). Where can this have a place in society, if a people have not feared God and His statutes in their daily lives and instead chosen to act in their own interests for so long that it has become a way of life to cheat and be cheated? This man may have become so hardened to act in a way that is considerate, right and fair because of the way he himself had been treated during his years in this climate. For business owners and consumers in Israel, the marketplace sure is tricky! The only way I can live here is when God’s hand is upon the ventures He has given us a clear peace about going forward with beforehand!
As I realised how fortunate I was to know the King of the Universe is fighting my battles, I felt more and more sorry for the Israeli people who simply don’t and try to fight them all themselves. When I accepted God’s Son was my very own Passover Lamb, I received God’s grace and love freely. I was forgiven and could then approach God without sin or blemish. I certainly didn’t deserve it at the time – that’s the whole miracle of His grace! I knew therefore that freely I needed to have the same grace for this man. I picked up my phone, dialled his number for the third or fourth time that afternoon and thanked him for the beautiful sofa that was now sitting in my living room and for a very hard-working delivery service. He was, for the first time that day, speechless.
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