Some Thoughts on Miracles by Aaron Hecht

We have just come through Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This year, as sometimes happens, it coincided with Holy Week in the Orthodox Christian calendar, which starts with Palm Sunday and then goes through Good Friday and ends with Resurrection Sunday (known in some circles as "Easter.")

These two holidays are not in competition with each other, just like the Old Testament is not in competition with the New Testament. They are two parts of the same story, written by the same Author and serving the same purpose, which is to bring reconciliation and peace between God and the Human Race, which He created.

Beyond that, these occasions all have something in common, and it's not just that they are all about setting people free from bondage and the blood of a lamb covering us and all the rest. On a more basic level, they all have in common that on the first Passover in Egypt, and then later on as we move through the Exodus story and then again on the first Palm Sunday and the first Good Friday and above all on that first Resurrection Sunday, these were all occasions when God was very visibly moving in human history my performing miracles.

Now, before we move on, we need to ask ourselves what a "miracle" is.

A "miracle" is, simply put, an incident in which something happens in the natural world that should not be naturally possible.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt were all examples of this, as were the events that followed it with God appearing as a pillar of cloud over the people of Israel by day as they walked through the desert and as a pillar of fire by night to give them heat and warmth. Then of course, there's the parting of the Red Sea and the Children of Israel walking through it on dry land and then the Pharoah and his army following them and being killed when God stopped holding back the waters so they came down and destroyed them.

As tfe story continues, God does more miracles, including bringing the Israelites Manna and quail to eat, providing water from rocks, and much later, splitting the Jordan River so the people can pass through, just as He split the Red Sea.

Still later, God did more miracles, including my personal favorite from Joshua chapter 10 where He made the Sun stand still over Gibeon in the Valley of Aijalon so that Joshua and his soldiers could finish the battle. With all due respect to parting the Red Sea, this miracle would have involved changing a lot more things going on in this physical universe, including the motion of the entire galaxy, and maybe more than just our galaxy. All throughout the Book of Judges there are more stories about God giving Israel the victory in battle after battle, often against much more powerful and well-organized armies.

As we continue reading through the Bible, God continues to move in human history and there continue to be miracles but they are seldom as highly visible and dramatic as what we read about in the Books of Exodus and Joshua. Think about the victory of David over Goliath and Ballem's donkey speaking to him audibly.

But these miracles, while still being examples of events occurring in the natural world that would seem to be naturally impossible, do not seem to be as big of a deal as the parting of the Red Sea. Keep this in mind, it's important for what comes later.

Skipping ahead to the New Testament, Jesus' being born of a virgin was a pretty dramatic miracle, but only a small handful of people knew about it, probably just Mary and Joseph and of course Jesus Himself. When He grew up and began His earthly ministry, it was accompanied by many miracles, starting with turning ordinary water into wine and then moving to healing people of various diseases simply by touching them, casting demons out of people and even bringing people back from the dead.

Once again, these were miracles that only a few people would have personally witnessed and even to those few people, they might not have compared to the stories they knew about from their ancestors who saw the Red Sea parting.

Nevertheless, in John 10:37-38, Jesus says "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Also of relevance is Luke 7:18-23; Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

In both of these passages, Jesus is saying that if the people hearing His teachings weren't impressed by their supernaturally brilliant logic and undeniable truth, they should at least be impressed by the fact that He was doing things that would be impossible for Him to do if He wasn't acting in the power of God.

My favorite scene in Cecille B. DeMille's classic movie "The Ten Commandments" is when Pharoah Ramses II (played by Yul Brenner) returns from seeing his army destroyed by the Red Sea and his wife asks him for proof that he defeated Moses, but all he can say in reply is "his God, IS God."

Of course, this was a Hollywood scene, not a Biblical scene. The Bible tells us that Pharaoh died with his soldiers in the Red Sea. But nonetheless, I think it's powerful because it's a demonstration of the fact that seeing great miracles SHOULD be enough to convince someone that they're dealing with a very real God. It's not a "fairy tale" or a delusion or anything else like that. 

As a sidenote to this, the story of the golden calf is such a heartbreaker. These people who had seen the Red Sea parting with their own eyes, witnessing the power of God first hand in such a dramatic way, nonetheless believed that a statue made with human hands, our of gold they themselves had given Aaron for the purpose, was as he said to them in Exodus 32:4 "“This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

Scholars and ordinary people have been asking the question of how these people could have been so foolish for hundreds of years, but maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge.

In my own short lifetime, I've seen many events that fit the definition of a "miracle," including seeing personal friends of mine healed from diseases, injuries and other medical conditions that  the doctors had said there was no hope for them being healed from. That's a kind of small-scale miracle like most of the miracles Jesus performed in the Gospels. But I've seen other things that were bigger and more dramatic.

A year ago this month, the Iranians launched a large barrage of drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles at Israel. When the sirens went off, my family and I ran down into the bomb shelters, but even as we were running, I knew the attack wouldn't be successful. Some of my neighbors who live upstairs in the building ran down into the shelter with me and my family. They were scared, but they saw me not scared and asked me why. I replied that I had no doubt that God would do a miracle and prevent this attack from doing any serious damage. One of them told me later that he had gone from being an atheist to an agnostic that evening and I encouraged him to keep going.

A few months later, in October, the Iranians tried again with a much larger barrage of ballistic missiles. Once again, they didn't do any serious damage.

Now the Iranians are threatening to try once more and, according to them, this time they REALLY mean it! This time, they're serious and they're going to launch a serious attack that will do serious damage.

If the Iranian leadership were to ask me if I'm scared of this threat, I would remind them of Proverbs 16:9 "A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps" and the Yiddish saying which is derived from this, which simply says "Man plans and God laughs."

But all laughing aside, when Jesus said we should believe the miracles He does even if we don't believe what He says I commend to everyone the history of the modern State of Israel. As we approach Israeli Independence Day in a few weeks, many people take Israel for granted. But the truth is, this country is a miracle of God. 

The story of how this country came into existence on May 15th, 1948, is long and complicated and involves hundreds of people doing all kinds of different things in dozens of countries all over the world over many years leading up to that event. If a mathematician were asked to calculate the odds against all of these things happening, the mathematician would be forced to admit that there's no natural way it could have happened.

When Israel advocates try to make the case for the modern State of Israel being worthy of Christian support, we often do so by showing the prophecies in the Bible that point to it. This is good to do and I've seen more than a few people convinced by this. But I've also encountered people, including people who emphatically declare themselves to be "Bible-believing Christians" who are not convinced by the hopelessly unambiguous words of prophetic Scripture. To these people, I think we can and should point out the miracles that accompanied (and still accompany) the formation and the continuation of this country. There might still be some "stiff-necked" and/or hard-hearted people who won't get it, but there are some who might.

The New Christian Antisemitism

There's a growing fringe segment of Christianity that hates Jews.

I've long known this, but I saw it first-hand again yesterday. Owen Strachan, a Christian leader who runs the James Dobson Culture Center, wrote a short note on antisemitism within the fringes of Christianity. He wrote,

Your friendly afternoon reminder that:

--There is no global Jewish cabal running the world

--Jews are naturally lost just like Gentiles

--There are Jews doing real evil in our world (just like Gentiles)

--Jesus was (and is) a Jew in ethnic terms

--Antisemitism is evil

— Owen Strachan (@ostrachan) March 17, 2025

I replied, thanking him for speaking out. I said,

Thanks for posting this. 

Too many believers are falling into the delusion of antisemitism: a hatred of Jesus' own family, a hatred of the race of the apostles and all 12 disciples, a hatred of the heritage of nearly all the writers of the New Testament.

Read again Romans 11.

I am reminding fellow Christians that the New Testament says that even if unbelieving Jews oppose the Gospel, they are still loved by God (Romans 11:28-29). And, that they will one day return to their own Messiah (Romans 11:25-26).

But the 200+ replies to all this reveal the poisoned state of many Christian hearts towards Jews. Let me show you a few.

As if to prove Owen's point on Christian antisemitism. Notice how the phrase 'Christ is King' is being misused: not a declaration of Jesus as Messiah, but as a political and racial taunt.

Yet another great example of how "Christ is King" phrase is being misused as racist political chant.

Only Jews hate Jesus, says great internet philosopher Dog Tongue.

"We're not hating Jesus' family, we're just hating the Jews! What's that? The New Testament begins with Jesus' Jewish genealogy? I don't care, I hate the Jews more than I care about the Bible!"

Now here's something different. A claim that Jesus (sorry, Yahusha 😱) isn't white. My psychic powers are revealing to me what he's trying to say: "Jews are white, Jesus isn't white, therefore Jesus isn't Jewish." This is likely a Black Hebrew Israelite cult follower who claim Jews aren't Israelites.

This seemingly innocuous statement is yet another antisemitic threat: The time of the Jews is almost up, and we're coming for you. Tik tock, tick tock.

Jesus' people aren't Jews. Only those who believe in Jesus are his people. Nevermind that the New Testament calls Jews "God's people whom he foreknew" (Rom 11).

"Jews aren't allies of Christians unless you convert! Also, stop murdering people, you evil Jews!"

This is the old antisemitic conspiracy theory that European Jews (Ashkenazi) have no blood relation to ancient Israelites. This theory has been widely disproven, but racists keep repeating it anyways.

If certain Christians in history hated Jews, we should too, right? No way they'd ever make mistakes!

Also, we have green skin. Don't forget that part.

Certainly not enough to read this hot garbage!

You know who "says they are Jews but are not"? Jew-hating Gentiles who believe they are the true Israel.

He did the meme. Shlomo, shut it down! The goyim know!

There is a great deal of brokenness in Christian hearts about Jewish people. 

I could dismiss these replies as random internet weirdos. But something like 95% of the 200+ replies were racist garbage like these. 

Truth is, antisemitism is being mainstreamed in both the progressive left where it is disguised as anti-Zionism, and the conservative right where it is championed an America-first banner alongside all the groypers, Nazis, and Nutzis. With antisemitism increasing on both political sides, many Christians are now falling into the demonic delusion. God help us. 

The Bible warns that all nations will turn against Jerusalem. It is falling into place now, even in the church.

I have newfound respect for those bold Christians who continue to stand up for Israel and the Jewish people. I suspect it will become more difficult to do so in the future.

Some thoughts on death and dying by Aaron Hecht

Do you remember the first funeral you ever went to?

If you're like most people, it was probably the funeral of one of your grandparents or some other elderly member of your extended family who had died of natural causes. That's the sort of gentle introduction to the topic of death that is one of the benefits of living in wealthy countries in this season of history we're currently in. It allows the child who goes to their grandparent's funeral to learn the lesson that a human body eventually wears out and stops functioning, but it's something that won't happen to the child for a VERY long time and so it's not something that child has to start worrying about right away.

This kind of makes us think we're immortal when we're young, and most of us prefer not to think much about death and dying either right away or later on. Most people don't want to think about their own death/mortality until they are at least getting into later middle age, if not later.

But sometimes, things happen that make it impossible to avoid thinking about death and dying.

Reminders of this unpleasant topic of death and dying have never been absent from my experience for very long. The first funeral I attended was when I was 7 years old and it wasn't for an elderly person but rather for a kid in my school who was just a few years older than me. He and his cousin, who lived in another state and had been visiting with his family, died in an accident involving a recreational vehicle. It made me aware, at a very young age, how fragile life can be. I never had any illusions about being immortal or indestructible. This made me more careful and might have kept me out of some bad situations but I think it's also made it difficult for me to enjoy many things.

I also never attended a funeral of any of my grandparents, because two of them died before I was born and the other two died while living in places far from where I was living at the time and I was unable to go. I always knew what they died OF, however, and the same health problems that they suffered from also affected my parents. My father died fairly young of causes very similar to what caused his father to die at a young age and my mother was in poor health for almost 15 years before she died of COVID, which was unanticipated, but her poor health made her very vulnerable to that disease.

All of this family history has made me very cognizant of the need to keep myself healthy and to avoid making the same poor lifestyle choices my parents and grandparents made which led to none of them even getting close to the average life expectancy.

Even leaving that aside, it's a rare year that goes by when I don't get the word about someone in my circle of friends, family, and acquaintances dying. In the past year and a half I've been to five funerals here in Israel and there were three others which I would have liked to go to but I was unable to make it. Most of them, including a cousin who lived in Ashdod and a man I worked with when I lived in Ariel and whose family I was very good friends with, died of natural causes in their later years. But a couple of them were people around my own age or even much younger, including two who were killed while fighting in this war.

All of this is very sad for me of course, but the fact is, none of these deaths made me think much about my own mortality because they all happened to people whose circumstances were very different from mine.

But then, a few weeks ago, I saw a post on Facebook by a guy I went to high school with announcing the death of one of our classmates, a guy I hadn't seen in almost 30 years. He was the same age as me and I can remember the very first time I met him, on the first day of 7th grade. Later, in the 9th grade, we were on the JV football team together and I can also remember him being in a few classes with me.

I found his obituary on the website of the local paper in our hometown, and reading it made me think about my mortality a lot, but not just because he was my age (which is not that old) but because his obituary was so incredibly pathetic. The first third of it was about all the complications in his birth and how he'd had to be in an incubator for the first few weeks of his life. Then it talked about his participation in Little League baseball and a few other sports. He went to college in another state but came home after one year and never went back to college. His obit actually listed a few part-time jobs he'd held for a while and also talked about his hobbies. He never got married, never had a real job for very long and, tellingly, the obit said nothing about how he died. I later found out from another guy we were in school with together that he'd died of a drug overdose which might have been intentional.

It was in the course of talking with him and a few other old friends that I found out about several other people we'd been in school with who met a similar end. I'd heard about two of them but I had no idea how many more there had been.

It all got me thinking about not only my own mortality but mortality in general. 

Then a few days after all this happened, my eldest son had a birthday and a bunch of his buddies came to our apartment to help him celebrate, as they do every year. As I sat in my living room watching them eating pizza and cake and laughing and joking around together, the thought came into my mind that one or more of them might very well meet a similar end to what my old companion had just met. That was a very unhappy thought and I tried to put it out of my mind, but it wouldn't go away.

One guy I grew up with who died in his early 40s because of self-inflicted health problems (i.e. his obituary actually mentioned that he "struggled with substance abuse") was no surprise to me whatsoever. I met him in kindergarten and he was on a bad trajectory even back then. Others who died young were also in bad shape even in childhood. Some came from broken homes, but others had parents who seemed pretty normative and their siblings turned out okay, so it's not all so easily explained.

If anyone is still reading this, I have drawn a few conclusions and takeaways from all these thoughts I've been having lately about death and dying.

First, it's never too early to start planning and preparing for the death of yourself and the people around you. If you've got people who depend on you financially, get life insurance. It's never too early to get a policy, even if you're in your early 20s when you get married. Go to a lawyer and make a will, and don't avoid talking about it candidly with your spouse, siblings, friends and others who will be affected by your death. I knew a lady whose husband died unexpectedly in his early 40s and as terrible as it was to lose him, it was even worse because they had made no plans at all and he had no life insurance or any other kind of support so she had to borrow money for the funeral and then she lost their apartment and there were all kinds of other problems. Don't let that happen to your family.

Second, it's also never too early to start taking care of your health. Get sufficient sleep, eat healthy, and not too much. Don't smoke or drink excessive amounts of alcohol (men over 40 shouldn't drink at all) and get regular exercise. If you do these things, you'll be doing yourself and your loved ones an enormous favor. It's not just about not dying, it's about the quality of life you'll enjoy for several years before you die. My mother was in poor health for many years before she finally died, and she didn't enjoy it. You probably know someone who had, or is still having, a similar experience. Don't let that happen to you.

Third, I have no idea why some people have such a hard time in life and end up dying young, but I know from first-hand experience that for some people, the problems start in early childhood. So if you see a child in trouble, do whatever you can to help them. 

Pray for the children in your family and in your community, especially the children who are friends with your own children, and try as much as you can to include them in life-enhancing activities that you create with your own children. Try to teach children that you have influence with the importance of making good choices and avoiding things that can harm them and/or are more trouble than they're worth.

Fourth, take a moment to think about what your obituary would say if you died today. If you're not happy about what it would probably say, take some time to think about what you have to do to make sure your obituary says something better.

Last but certainly not least, make it a priority to spend time in prayer on a regular basis to cover all this. Pray that God would reveal to you any unfinished business you might have here in this life so you can take care of it in case this mortal life were to end unexpectedly. Do you have someone you need to forgive or someone whose forgiveness you need to seek? Is there anything else God has for you to do that you haven't done yet? Don't wait even one more day to ask Him to reveal it to you so you can sort these things out, because no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

These are the thoughts I have for you this week brothers and sisters. I hope it blessed someone to read this.