1st time in Israel?

By Bob O'Dell

As I sat at the gate in Newark waiting for my Tel Aviv flight to board, I saw a nicely dressed man in his late 20s seated near me wearing a clerical collar and thumbing through a brand new Israel guidebook.

"First time in Israel?" I asked.

"Yes," he said smiling, pleased that I had taken interest. "And is it your first time, too?"

"Oh, no," I laughed. "In fact, I just recently went back and counted all my passport stamps to Israel, and this happens to be my 40th visit! But I am happy for you, because there is nothing quite like visiting Israel for the first time. You will love it!"

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Upon hearing that, this Catholic seminarian, who was traveling with nearly a dozen others like him to visit the Holy Land in their final stages of priesthood training, turned to me straight-on with a concerned face and asked:

"Is it safe?"

I have heard this exact question hundreds of times since I first visited Israel in 1990. And while I was not expecting to hear it from him, at least not so soon in the conversation, I decided that since he was a man of the cloth, he would not object to my responding with a question.

"Let me first ask you a question of my own," I said. "Is God calling you to go?"

He didn't answer. I wasn't prepared for that silence, so I tried to ease him out of his discomfort.

"OK, let me ask it another way. Is it God's will that you go? Because the way I look at it is like this: There is no safer place you can ever be than right in the middle of the will of God. So if God wants you to go, then relax, enjoy the trip and don't worry, because you are safely in His will."

"But with all the reports of violence," he added, "How does it feel to be there?"

"Nothing like what it seems from the outside," I answered.

Have you yet to visit Israel? Experience the Jewish state with messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn and WND chief Joseph Farah – this November!

This brings me to the second vignette of my 40th visit to Israel. We now fast-forward to Friday evening, and I felt very honored, as a Christian, to have been invited to share a Shabbat meal with some Orthodox Jewish friends. A Shabbat meal is a wonderful experience to behold, and even more to partake in. But it is not an experience easily obtained. I visited Israel for many, many years before I got my first invitation to a real Orthodox Shabbat meal complete with prayers, blessings (all in Hebrew, of course, as I try to follow along with an English translation) and a multi-course meal.

It is a Jewish custom to invite guests for Shabbat meals, often Jews who do not have families in Israel, such as Yeshiva students who come over from America to study Hebrew and the Bible. One such young man happened to be there. He was about 19 and had come to Jerusalem from Miami last September to study. Of course he did not know he would be here during the peak of the Palestinian violence against Jews in Jerusalem, the city where his particular Yeshiva was located. I asked him during dinner:

"Is this your first time to Israel?"

"Yes," he replied.

"What about Israel has surprised you the most during your stay?" I asked.

"This is an easy question to answer," he said. "Without a doubt the biggest surprise to me is how different it felt to be here, as compared to how I thought it would feel. I was traveling from place to place in Jerusalem, and I would hear that there is an attack here, an attack there. But it's like these things are not even happening. It is amazing how good it feels to be here in Israel. I don't know if you can believe this, but I feel safer here than I do back in Miami."

I began thinking to myself, "What this young man is feeling, in my opinion, is more than safety – he is feeling the call of God on his life to be here. The reason he feels safer here than in Miami is that for him, Israel is home."

Now, I'm sure not all Jews – and certainly not all Christians – feel called to the country when they travel here. But something does happen when people come. I have seen it so many times.

This brings me to the third story of my trip. This time my Jewish business partner and I were speaking to a small group of women who were on a tour from Dallas. The chairs were in a circle, and it felt small and comfortable. It was conducive to speaking freely.

When it was my turn I asked, "For how many of you is this your first time to Israel?"

All but one raised their hands. I said, "I'd like to tell you something about your visit here. Are you ready to hear this?" I had everyone's complete attention now.

"You do realize that you are going to be blessed, right?"

They looked back at me trying to figure out my intent.

"You have just come to Israel right?"

They nodded yes.

"Have you prayed for the nation of Israel while you were here?"

Yes.

"Have you even prayed for the peace of Jerusalem?"

Yes.

"Have you spent some of your money here?"

Yes.

I continued:

Then prepare to be blessed. Because God gave a promise to Abraham in Genesis about blessing:

"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee." – Genesis 12:3 KJV

You are a blessing to Israel when you come here on a tour, especially when there is unrest or the fear of unrest. This promise of God is absolute! It is guaranteed. It is as sure as the chairs you are sitting on! Even more sure.

Yes, I know that when you go back, you will have the blessing of being able to read the Bible in 3D because you will be able to picture the places in Israel as you read about them, but that is NOT the main blessing I am talking about!

Some of you may receive a blessing right away, and if that is the case, then praise God for that! But, for others of you (and at this point I looked especially at some of the teenagers), you may not notice anything different right away. And if you don't notice anything, then you should praise God even more, and I'll tell you why. Because the longer you wait for the blessing of God, the better it is when it arrives. That is a principle of the Kingdom. The goodness of God is always worth the wait.

What was my personal experience with the kind of blessing that I was promising to them?

I first visited to Israel in 1990 on a high-tech business trip. In 2000 I joined with an Israeli Jew to start a semiconductor company. God blessed that company, and in 2010 I began to look for the next chapter in life. I eventually realized that I could take myself out of Israel, but I could not take Israel out of me. After nine months of study and prayer, I finally prayed the prayer God had wanted me to pray: Lord, would you please connect me with Orthodox Jews in Israel who might want to start companies?

I can tell you personally that there can be many levels of blessing when it comes to visiting Israel. There is no way I could have imagined during my first visit how my life would not only be blessed, but ultimately changed. Now the desire to be a blessing to Israel has become a journey all its own.

Don't shortchange God. Don't put limits on how God might want to use you to be a blessing to Israel and/or the Jewish people.

And do pray about whether God might want you to visit a place unlike all others, so that you, too, might hear a few simple words that are commonly spoken by shopkeepers, hotel clerks, customs agents, taxi drivers and many, many others:

"First time in Israel?"

It's time to visit Israel – finally. Walk where Yeshua walked with messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn and WND chief Joseph Farah – this November!

Bob O'Dell is a high-tech entrepreneur and author. Most recently he co-founded Root-Source.com, a new venture that seeks to build strong relationships directly between Christians and Israeli Jews. He is co-author of "Israel FIRST! The Key to Understanding the Blood Moons, Shemitah, Promises to Israel and the Coming Jubilee."