The light had formed now.

And standing in the center of that light was a man.

He was dressed in a simple white robe that seemed to glow with its own radiance.

His face was kind but powerful, gentle but absolutely authoritative.

And the moment I saw him, before he spoke a single word, I knew exactly who he was.

Every cell of my being recognized him.

This was Yeshua.

This was Jesus.

My first reaction was not worship or peace.

It was rage.

Pure burning rage flooded through me.

I had just died.

I was standing in some place between life and death.

And the person waiting for me was the one figure I had been taught my entire life to hate and reject.

It felt like a cosmic betrayal.

I wanted to scream at him.

I wanted to turn and run, though I had no idea where I would run to.

Everything I had been taught, everything I believed, everything that made me who I was as an Orthodox Jew rose up inside me in fierce resistance.

This could not be happening.

This could not be real.

I was Avi Goldstein, descendant of rabbis, student of Torah, defender of Israel.

I had prayed to Hashem every day of my life.

I had kept the commandments, observed the Sabbath, studied the scriptures, and now at the moment of my death, I was face to face with the one name I had been taught was a false messiah, an idol, an enemy of the Jewish people.

Uh, my mind raced
through every argument I had ever learned against him.

He did not fulfill the prophecies.

He did not bring peace to the world.

He did not rebuild the temple.

He could not be God because God is one.

And the idea of God becoming a man was blasphemy.

But even as these thoughts rushed through my mind, something else was happening that I could not explain or deny.

The presence emanating from this man was overwhelming.

It was not just light and power, though both of those were there in abundance.

It was love.

Pure, unconditional, overwhelming love that seemed to pierce through every defense I had ever built.

He looked at me and I felt completely known.

Not just my actions or my words, but every thought I had ever had, every secret I had ever kept, every wound I had ever hidden, every sin I had ever committed.

He saw all of it.

The every single piece of who I was, the good and the bad and the ugly.

and he loved me anyway.

Not despite knowing me completely, but while knowing me completely.

That realization broke something inside me.

I had spent my entire life trying to earn worthiness through obedience and service.

I had tried to be righteous enough, Jewish enough, dedicated enough.

But this person looking at me was not measuring my performance.

He was simply loving me with an intensity that made everything else in the universe seem small by comparison.

He spoke and his voice was like nothing I had ever heard.

It was gentle but it carried absolute authority like the sound of many waters like thunder that somehow communicated tenderness.

And he spoke to me in Hebrew, not modern Hebrew but ancient Hebrew, the language of the prophets.

He said, “I ben Kaim.

Avi, a son of Cayam.

He called me by my full Hebrew name, including my father’s name, in the traditional way.

And hearing him say it made me fall to my knees, though I had no physical knees to fall on.

He continued, “Shalom, beloved.

Do not be afraid.

I am the alf and the tav, the first and the last.

I am the one your prophet spoke of, the one your fathers waited for.

I am Yeshua Hamashiach, and I have loved you with an everlasting love.

” I tried to speak, but no words would come.

My mind was screaming contradictions.

How could this be true? How could Jesus be the Jewish Messiah? Everything I had been taught said this was impossible, but everything I was experiencing said it was true.

The cognitive dissonance was so intense that I felt like my entire understanding of reality was shattering.

Yeshua stepped closer to me and and he held out his hands.

I saw the scars, deep, terrible scars in his wrists where nails had been driven through.

He turned his hand so I could see them clearly.

And then he said something that broke through every theological argument I had ever constructed.

He said, “These scars are for you, Avi.

For you and for all Israel.

I did not come to destroy the Torah, but to fulfill it.

I did not come to create a new religion, but to be the Messiah your scriptures promised.

Everything Moses wrote about me, everything the prophets declared, I have fulfilled and I have been waiting for you to see it.

I looked at those scars and suddenly scriptures I had read a thousand times began flooding my mind.

But now they looked completely different.

Isaiah 53, which I had been taught was about the nation of Israel suffering among the Gentiles, suddenly seemed to be describing this man standing in front of me.

He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

I had memorized those words as a child, but I had never let myself consider that they might be about a person, about a suffering Messiah who would die for sins.

Psalm 22 came to my mind.

David’s words that I had recited in synagogue.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They have pierced my hands and my feet.

I had always been taught this was David’s personal lament.

But now looking at Yeshua’s scarred hands, the words seemed like a prophecy about crucifixion written a thousand years before crucifixion was even invented.

Zechariah 12 10 which I had studied in yeshiva.

They will look on me the one they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.

The prophet said the people would look on someone they pierced and that person would somehow also be the Lord himself speaking.

I had never been able to make sense of that verse, but now it seemed crystal clear.

Daniel chapter 9, the prophecy about the Messiah being cut off, killed before the temple was destroyed.

The second temple was destroyed in 70 CE, which meant if Daniel was right, the Messiah had to come and die before that date.

Yeshua died in approximately 30 CE.

The timeline fit perfectly.

Scripture after scripture flooded my consciousness, not because I was trying to remember them, but because it felt like someone was opening my eyes to see what had been there all along.

Yeshua watched me processing all of this.

And he said gently, “The veil has been over the eyes of many of my people, but it was never meant to remain forever.

I came first as the suffering servant to bear sin.

I will come again as the reigning king to establish peace.

Both are true.

Both are me.

Your people have been waiting for Messiah and I am he.

Not the false image that Gentiles created through centuries of persecution and distortion, but the true Jewish Messiah born in Bethlehem, descendant of David, fulfillment of the covenant.

I finally found my voice and I said the only thing I could think to say.

But my people, the Holocaust, the Crusades, the Inquisition, all the suffering done in your name.

Yeshua’s expression filled with such deep sorrow that it was almost unbearable to see.

He said, “Those who persecuted my people in my name did not know me and did not represent me.

I am a Jew.

I lived as a Jew.

I died as a Jew.

I rose as a Jew.

I came to my own people first and I have never stopped loving them.

The enemy twisted my name and used it to bring pain, but that was never my heart.

My heart has always been and will always be for Israel.

Tears were streaming down my face now, though I had no physical body to produce tears.

I said, “If you are real, if you truly are Hamashiach, why did you let me spend 42 years hating you? Why did you let me live my whole life not knowing? Yeshua smiled and it was the kindest smile I had ever seen.

He said, “I never let you go, Avi.

Every time you prayed to Hashem, I heard you.

Every time you kept Shabbat, it honored me.

Every time you studied Torah, you were studying words that point to me.

You were seeking God with all your heart.

And now you have found me.

Not because you were good enough or smart enough, but because I chose you before the foundation of the world, and now is the appointed time for you to know the truth.

He reached out and touched my shoulder.

And the moment his hand made contact, something happened inside me that I can only describe as coming fully alive for the first time.

Every empty place in my soul, every question I had carried, every longing I had suppressed suddenly had an answer.

The love I felt was so complete, so total, so overwhelming that I could not stand under the weight of it.

I collapsed completely, and I wept like I had never wept in my entire life.

I do not know how long I stayed there, broken and weeping at his feet.

Time did not seem to work the same way in that place, but eventually Yeshua helped me to stand, and he said, “Come, beloved.

I have much to show you.

” He took my hand and instantly we were moving again, traveling through dimensions I cannot explain.

And then we arrived at a place that made the light I had seen before seemed dim by comparison.

We stood at the entrance to heaven itself.

I cannot adequately describe what I saw because human language does not have words for that kind of beauty and glory.

Imagine the most beautiful place you have ever seen on earth.

Multiply it by a million and you are not even close.

There were colors I had never seen before, sounds that were somehow visible, and an atmosphere of joy and worship that permeated everything.

The architecture, if you can call it that, was beyond anything human minds could design.

walls that seemed to be made of precious stones, streets that looked like transparent gold, gates of pearl, and rivers of crystalclear water flowing from a throne of indescribable brilliance.

But what captured my attention most were the people.

Thousands upon thousands of people from every nation, tribe, and language, all dressed in white robes, all worshiping with faces full of joy.

And among them, I recognized faces from the scriptures.

I saw Abraham, the father of our faith, laughing with joy.

I saw Moses, the lawgiver, bowing before the throne.

I saw David, the king, playing a harp and singing with a voice of pure worship.

I saw the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, their faces glowing with satisfaction because everything they had prophesied had come true.

And I saw something that shocked me to my core.

I saw Jewish people and Gentile people worshiping together in perfect harmony with no division, no hatred, no separation.

The wall that had stood between us on earth was completely gone here.

We were one family, united in worship of the one true God.

Yeshua watched me taking in the scene and he said, “This is the promise, Avi.

This is what awaits all who trust in me, both Jew and Gentile.

Your father Abraham saw this day and rejoiced.

Your people have always been called to be a light to the nations.

And here that calling is fulfilled.

In me there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, but all are one.

I turned to him and said, “But there are so few Jewish people here compared to the Gentiles.

Where is the rest of Israel?” The sadness that crossed his face was profound.

He said, “Many of my people have not yet recognized me.

The veil remains, but it will not remain forever.

There is coming a day when all Israel will see and believe.

Mean when the blindness will be lifted, and my people will mourn and rejoice as they finally understand.

But until that day, the invitation stands open.

Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

” He paused and then said something that made my blood run cold.

But come, I must show you the other side so you understand what is at stake.

Immediately the scene changed and we were no longer in that place of light and joy.

The transition was so abrupt and so terrible that I cried out in shock.

We stood at the edge of a place of absolute darkness.

And the moment I saw it, I wanted to run.

Everything in me screamed to get away from this place.

The darkness was not just the absence of light.

It was the presence of something actively evil.

Something that hated and destroyed and tormented.

I could hear sounds coming from that darkness.

Sounds I will never forget as long as I live.

Screaming, wailing, weeping, and nashing of teeth, just like the scriptures described.

But these were not abstract descriptions anymore.

These were real human voices in real agony.

And the sound of it was unbearable.

I covered my ears, but it did not help because the sound was not just physical.

It penetrated into my soul.

I turned to Yeshua and begged him, “Please, I cannot bear this.

Do not make me go closer.

” But he said with terrible gentleness, “You must see, Avi.

You must understand what you are going back to warn people about.

This is the consequence of rejecting me.

This is what I died to save people from.

” We moved closer, though everything in me resisted, and I began to see shapes in the darkness.

people or what had been people are trapped in isolation and torment.

Each one was alone, completely cut off from God, from love, from hope, from any possibility of redemption or escape.

The worst part was not the fire, though there was fire.

The worst part was the separation, the absolute aloneeness, the knowledge that this would never end.

I saw faces twisted in regret and despair.

And I heard voices crying out things like, “I did not believe it was real.

I thought I had more time.

I chose my pride over truth.

And now it is too late.

” Some of the voices were speaking Hebrew.

Jewish people who had rejected Yeshua, who had died without accepting him as Messiah, and now faced eternity, separated from the God they thought they were serving.

I saw a man who looked like a rabbi, still wearing the remnants of his prayer shaw.

he crying out that he had studied Torah his whole life, but missed the one it was pointing to.

I saw another who had been so certain that his good works and his Jewish heritage would save him, but now understood too late that only Yeshua’s sacrifice could atone for sin.

I fell to my knees and wept bitter tears.

I thought about my father, my mother, my brothers, my community in May Shereim.

All of them so devoted, so sincere, so convinced that they were serving God by rejecting Yeshua.

And I realized that if they died without knowing the truth, this is where they would end up.

Not because God hated them or wanted this for them, but because they had refused the only provision he made for forgiveness.

Yeshua knelt beside me in my grief and said, “This is why I came, Avi.

This is why I left heaven and took on human flesh and died on a Roman cross.

Not because I wanted to start a religion or divide families or cause persecution, but because this is the reality of sin and separation from God, and I loved the world too much to leave them without a way out.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Not because I am exclusive or cruel, but because I am the only one who paid the price for sin.

I am the final Passover lamb, the ultimate Yomkipur sacrifice.

Everything in the Torah was pointing forward to me.

I understood then with terrible clarity, all the sacrifices in the temple, all the blood of bulls and goats, all the rituals on the day of atonement, they were never meant to be permanent solutions.

They were pictures, shadows, but I’m pointing forward to the one sacrifice that would actually take away sin forever.

Yeshua was that sacrifice.

The temple was destroyed in 70 CE.

And for 2,000 years, Jews had no way to offer sacrifices for atonement.

But we did not need them anymore because the final sacrifice had already been made.

We just had not recognized it.

I wept for my people and Yeshua wept with me.

After what felt like hours, though time still did not work normally in that place, Yeshua helped me stand and said, “There is one more thing I must show you before you return.

” He took my hand again, and instantly we were looking down at the earth from a great height.

I could see Israel, tiny and surrounded by hostile nations, the land looking beautiful but fragile.

And then I began to see events unfolding before my eyes like a vision or a movie playing at high speed.

I saw the future of Israel and what I saw filled me with both hope and terror.

I saw two possible paths, two different timelines depending on choices that had not yet been made.

In the first timeline, I saw Israel continuing to reject Yeshua as a nation.

I saw deception spreading, false messiahs arising and leading people astray.

I saw wars intensifying, the nations of the world turning against Israel with unprecedented hatred.

I saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, and I saw a time of tribulation so terrible that Yeshua said, “If those days were not cut short, no flesh would survive.

” I saw Jewish people suffering again, hunted and hated.

And I saw many crying out to God, asking why he had abandoned them.

But in the midst of that terrible tribulation, I saw remnant faithful Jewish believers in Yeshua standing strong and pointing others to the truth.

And I saw the moment when the eyes of the nation were finally opened, when Israel as a whole looked on the one they had pierced and recognized him at last.

I saw national mourning and national repentance.

And I saw Yeshua returning to set his feet on the Mount of Olives, just as Zechariah prophesied.

I saw the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah.

And I saw Israel finally stepping into her full calling as a light to the nations.

But then Yeshua showed me the second timeline, the one that could happen if Israel recognized him sooner.

In this version, I saw Jewish people across the nation having dreams and visions just like I was having.

I saw rabbis studying the scriptures and suddenly seeing Yeshua in passages they had read a thousand times.

I saw soldiers and business people and students and grandmothers encountering him personally and being transformed.

I saw a great awakening spreading through Israel.

And I saw the nation turning to her Messiah before the worst of the tribulation had to come.

I saw healing and restoration, reconciliation between Jewish and Arab believers in Yeshua.

And I saw Israel becoming the missionary force to the world that God had always intended.

I saw believers from Israel going out to every nation with the message of Yeshua.

And I saw the fulfillment of the promise that all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s seed.

This timeline still had challenges and opposition.

But it avoided the worst of the judgment that would come through continued rejection.

And I saw something beautiful at the end of this timeline, too.

Yeshua reigning from Jerusalem with his people, Israel in positions of honor.

The promise to the fathers finally completely fulfilled.

Yeshua turned to me and said, “Both of these futures are possible, Avi.

Which one comes to pass depends on how my people respond to the truth.

This is why you must go back.

You must warn Israel.

You must tell them that time is short, that I am coming soon, and that they must choose now whom they will serve.

Continue reading….
« Prev Next »