John Riley: Welcome to the Middle East Reports. Each week, we connect you to the people places in the land of Israel, and also we bring you the current events that are happening here in this region as well. And as always, there's a lot going on here in Israel. We're not going to talk so much about some of the current events happening here. We're going to talk about the Bible. We're going to talk about where we are, because we're broadcasting from the land of Israel with a dear friend of mine, Omer Eshel. He heads up the Bible, comes to life. He literally speaks and teaches around the world. He helps people understand the places that you read about in the Bible, and especially when you come to the land of Israel. He is leading tours, he is organizing tours. He does so much here, in the land of Israel and literally around the world. Omer thank you so much for joining me here on this edition of the Middle East Report from a beautiful place here in the land of Israel.
Omer Eshel: Thank you so much for having me again, Omer
John Riley: Here we are. We're in a beautiful Cafe Mulan Patisserie. It's in the Golan Heights. And I just had a wonderful cup of coffee. I had something absolutely delicious from this place. You told me about this place here in the Golan Heights. So tell us a little bit where we are, just briefly, and then about this establishment here that we're broadcasting from. You're going to hear some Hebrew in the background, because it's full.
Omer Eshel: Well, technically, we are now in the Golan Heights, but Golan is, a new name. So we are in the Galilee. If you look at the time of Jesus, this was a part of the place of the ministry of Jesus. This establishment, this Mulan Patisserie, is actually built exactly at the place where the swine were grazing before they rained down, after Legion got into them. So you can have a wonderful, amazing breakfast and imagine the swine is just running down to the sea.
John Riley: That's amazing. You can eat a good pastry, have a nice cup of coffee, and just kind of get your Bible out and read about that story. Not just that one, but I'm overlooking the Sea of Galilee. And then, of course, we know all the ministry of Jesus was all around
Omer Eshel: here just for us, for our listeners to understand. I mean, imagine you are, sitting here with a cup of coffee as we are right now. You look to the cliffs, you can see 80% of the Gospels as we speak. I just want to describe to our listeners. We see the Sea of Galilee. We are on the same on the cliffs of Gadara, we are seeing Nazareth, we're seeing Mount Tabor, we're seeing Valley of Armageddon, we're seeing Mount Gilboa, we're seeing Beitian, 90% of scriptures and you holding Bible in one hand and a cup of coffee on the other hand.
John Riley: How about that? That's another reason why you need to come to Israel. You need to come to Israel. I want you to do that. It's not impossible to come to the land of Israel. We've been telling you over and over about that. So I love being here.
All right, so we're in this area often called the Golan Heights. And can you give us just a little bit, first of all, where we are right now at one point was under Syrian occupation. In other words, the Syrians were kind of controlling things around here. Can you kind of help us understand that a little bit?
Omer Eshel: Absolutely. So the Golan Heights, again, people associate the Golan Heights today with wars and conflicts and everything. First of all, the name the Golan Heights is a modern name. It's not an ancient name. In the Bible, this place was called Bashan, the cows of Bashan. And this area was called Galilee. The reason now that people say in the UN we hear about this is a Syrian occupied land. Let's just give a little bit of a brief history. Syria got their independence in 1946 from the French Mandate, which means two years before the state of Israel. This land was never Syrian. It was under some kind of an empire. It was the British Empire, the French Empire, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, but not Syrian. They got this land because they conquered it in 1949. That's it. That's the only reason. So when people say, oh, they've been here since ever. No, they were not. And I want to also share with our listeners because this is something that, you know, it's important for us to know this. When you ask most people about the Middle east, is it Muslim area? They will tell you, yes, they associate these countries with Muslims. However, the Middle east was not Muslim. It was Christian. Egypt was Christian. Syria was Christian. Jordan was Christian. Lebanon was Christian. Every Turkey was Christian. When you think about it, Apostle, Mark went to Alexandria. The great patriarch of the Byzantine Church is from Antioch, which is in Turkey today. What happened? What happened was that, the Muslim conquered this area starting from the 7th century A.D. basically established colonies here, forced the people to convert to Muslim. And all of a sudden they rewrite history saying this was always Muslim land. It was not. It was Christian and Jewish. What? The biggest problem today is that people are using TikTok and Facebook and they don't really know their history. We need to understand that when we are seeing people all over the world chanting that Israel is a colonizing nation, who is chanting this? Who? The people who conquered this land. They are patronizing on us. It is, if you don't
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Omer Eshel: know history, you're doomed to repeat it. And the problem is that today in social media, people are using the ignorance. I'm going to use that word, the ignorance of people not opening their books and not learning their history. And they take things for granted.
John Riley: And, you know, when you look at the current situation here in Israel, let's just get this right out to everybody who's listening. Israel protects all religions. That's something that, you know, you don't hear in the news media. So when it comes to, let's say, Christians here in Israel, Israel is protecting them. Now, if you go into some of these Muslim countries, guess what? They are not protected. They're going to be thrown in jail. They're going to be, some of them, slaughtered. We've seen this here in some of these countries that surround Israel, but totally different when it comes to, Israel.
Omer Eshel: Now we are standing in the Golan Heights. If this area was not under Israel, it was under isis. Just to remind to our listeners, Christians under ISIS were crucified. And I'm not talking about 2,000 years ago, I'm talking five years ago. And this is something that they don't speak about. It's unbelievable.
John Riley: All right, we want to turn a corner here and talk about some other things. I've got so many things that I want to ask you. So here we are in. I'm not going to say the Golan Heights. I'm going to say Bashan, because that's the biblical name of where we are. So I'm going to get the Golan Heights out of my mind. But we talked about how the Muslims came here, and when they came, they began to change the names, the historical names of some of the key places here in Israel and gave them Arab names. Talk about that. Because that's, a very important point for people to understand.
Omer Eshel: We are here, for example, on the cliffs of Gadara. Cliffs of Gadara. You can find them on Luke 8. You can find them on Mark 5. This is the place of the miracle of the swines. Gadara is a Hebrew name under the city Geder or Gedera, which is like today's auspices of Jordan. The Muslim name is Nakib. So how would you know that this is the place of the ministry of Jesus? There's no way to know this. I'll, give you another place. Everybody knows about the place where Jesus said, upon this rock, I will be my community. And even the gates of hell cannot have Achomet. That was in Caesarea Philippi. In every map today, you will not find Caesarea Philippi.
John Riley: You will.
Omer Eshel: You will find Banyas. Banyas is a mispronunciation of the Greek word panyas because there's no P in the Arabic Alphabet. So basically, they renamed the names to erase it from history.
John Riley: When the Muslims came here to this land, trying to completely erase Christianity, because in the Muslim mind, they basically want this all a caliphate or a, Muslim area. I'm not even using the right terms, but basically, in their mind, they want it all under Muslim control. I mean, that's in the DNA or the philosophy of the Muslims. Am I going down the right road on that one?
Omer Eshel: I got to give you another example which has to do with Israel. We all know about the seven churches of Revelation. We know about the city of Smyrna. Smyrna, one of the most important cities, in early Christianity, it's called today Izmir, which is a Muslim Turkish name. Now, Smyrna was called SMYRNA until the 1920s, Adam. But today, in every map, it's called Izmir. That is what we called in historical geography. We call it, politicization of names. You change the name to erase the history. And this is what they are doing left, right, and center. I'm going to give you another example. In Spain today, south of Spain is called Andalusia. Andalusia was a Muslim caliphate. The capital of Andalusia was Cordoba. Today, of course, it's Christian land. But if you ask today Muslims who are living in south of Spain, they will tell you their capital is not Madrid, it's Cordova. If you don't know history, you are doomed to repeat it.
John Riley: You are trying to change that. Omer Omer Eshel is who we're talking to here on the Middle East Report. And his organization is called the Bible Comes to Life. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that.
But I want to stay on this topic here. You, are trying to change what, what has happened here in this area in Israel, when the Muslims have changed these names. You're trying to get that change back to the biblical names. What are you doing?
Omer Eshel: Well, actually, we're having a new project together with the local municipality of The Golan, that is called rebuild, named after, Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And the main idea after this place was suffered so much from Hezbollah attack. And by the way, just to let for listeners to understand Hezbollah target biblical sites. Now, why would you fire missiles at biblical sites if nobody lives there? You want to erase history? They tried to blow up the city of Dan. They tried to blow up Caesarea, Philippi. So what we are doing now, after we rebuild everything, we are renaming the ancient names. We don't change the name. We're giving it back to what it was. For example, Cliffs of Gadara. By the grace of God, in a year from now, on the maps, it's going to say Cliffs of Gadara, Banias,
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Omer Eshel: Caesarea of Philippi, Nimrod Castle is the road to Damascus. In Acts 9, we are changing back the name for Christians all over the world with the open scriptures, they can be able to look at the Bible and look at a modern map that was printed yesterday and say, okay, I know where it is.
John Riley: You've got a big job ahead. Because, there's probably going to be some people that are going to resist this a little bit. I mean, here in the land of Israel and maybe even politically, I don't know. But you've got a hard job to try to turn these names back into the, you know, biblical locations. I guess it's just one site at a time.
Omer Eshel: Well, we are focusing right now on four main sites on the big four that Jesus actually practiced in them in the Golan. So it's Gamla City on a hill, Caesarea of Philippi, which is Banias today, Road to Damascus, and Cliffs of Gadara. Also Mount Hermon. By the way, Mount Hermon is Mount of Transfiguration. So we are going to put on the maps Mount of Transfiguration. And I got to share this with you because you asked, we are going to have opposition. Of course I'm going to have opposition. God has enemies since day of Creation. If someone is going to oppose our, acts of renaming back the biblical names, that means we're doing a good job.
John Riley: Yeah, you're doing the job because you just don't sit around and do nothing. Omer Eshel, the head of the Bible, comes to life. you go out there and you're shaking things. you're somebody who doesn't stand still, who goes out there because you love the Bible, you love the word of God, and you're trying to change some things here. Getting it Back to the biblical names. And I think that's fantastic. And the Bible Comes to Life. We refer to that name several times. Tell everybody what you do with the Bible Comes to Life. And that beautiful organization that you guys
Omer Eshel: do, the Bible Comes to Life, is a travel ministry. We are registered as a ministry. And so we're doing study tours to Israel. Not just to Israel, but mostly to Israel. And the focus is studying the Bible by using archaeological sites, because we want to be at the places where the stories actually happen. If it's a traditional site, we don't care about that. We are going to visit the actual places. And the main idea is to show the authenticity of the Bible. Now, we all know the Bible is correct because that's the word of God. But how cool it is that you actually see with your own eyes what we do. Also, we teach all over the world. In Africa, in Europe, in the United States, we teach about biblical discoveries that proves the Bible.
John Riley: So if somebody's listening right now, Omer and they want to bring you in, to speak at their church or, you know, their organization, you know, you love the Lord so much, how would they do that? And, you know, what would it take for them to get you to, to come to their community, to their church and their organization, for you to present, you know, the word of God? Because, again, you do this all around the world. You come in and you help people understand, you know, the context of the Bible and everything that you do.
Omer Eshel: Well, the best way to reach us, I think, is going to be by email, which is infobctl. That's the acronym of the Bible come to life. Tbctl.com so, that's infobctl.com or, or you can reach us on Facebook. The Bible comes to life. You can reach us on YouTube. The Bible comes to life. You can check us online, tbctl.com there's
John Riley: many ways, a lot of ways to connect with Omer Eshel. And the Bible Comes to Life.
So I want to encourage you to do that as we sit here in the beautiful Golan Heights. And by the way, the official name here is Bashan, the area of Bashan. I want to challenge those of you who are listening right now to look up that word, study that word Bashan, and you can see the vast area that that is and where it's located in Israel. Again, we're looking at the beautiful Sea of Galilee just down below us. We're up pretty high here in the hills of Bashan or the hills of the Golana. Both of them I could use, but I'm going to use the biblical term bashan, as you said. So connect with Omer and find out more about his organization and what he is doing. They are doing so many things and they have got videos for you to watch. You can Google the Bible comes to life on YouTube. He's always putting up new things on YouTube so you can find out more about the organization and what they're doing. And you can bring in Omer for your organization. I love Omer I love what he does. he gets us, the evangelicals out there, he understands us. And so you could feel confidence and bringing them into your organization. You know, I talk to a lot of people, Omer who say, well, I want to bless Israel. And there's a lot of ways to do that. But what does that mean when we say to bless Israel?
Omer Eshel: To answer this, we need to look at two main scriptures and then that will give the full answer for this. The first one will be Genesis 12:3. I will bless those who bless you, because that's a promise that God gave to Abraham. Also God said, I will curse those who curse you. That's the number one. Number two is in Acts, chapter 11, the grafted in. When Paul said about the grafted inn, Evangelicals are the same barriers of the covenant as the Jews. You call it the new covenant, but it's still
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Omer Eshel: the same covenant because it's the same God. So when Christians all over the world, not just evangelicals, Christians are grafted into the same root, the root of Jesse, to the same olive branch and accepting into the kingdom of heaven, into the bosom of God. That's what it means to bless Israel because you bless yourself. I want to point this out. We are seeing today all over the world, not just in Israel, we see turmoils of atrocities all over the world. If it's gender issues, ah, against life, horrific, way of acts, malfunctioned families, drug addiction, satanic way of life. When you are blessing Israel, you are blessing your biblical roots. You're going back home. You are becoming a born again. So when you bless Israel, you bless yourself. And throughout history we see the echoing of that quote, that promise, I bless those who bless you. And I want to just give our listeners, just a little bit of examples. When the Nazis started to persecute the Jews in the 30s, Nazi Germany or Germany was number one in the world in terms of science, in terms of technology. If it wasn't for the Holocaust, if it wasn't for The Second World War, most of the world, the academic world today, wouldn't speak German because they kicked the Jews out. The Jews went to the United States. Germany collapsed. The US rose up. Let's use another example, the British Empire. The British Empire controlled most of the world for free. 400 years. In 1936, they stabbed the Jews in the back. Basically. They, issued something called the White Books, which are very anti Zionist, very pro Muslim, picking one side and one side alone. That was in 1936. In 1939, Second World War happened. In 1945. The British Empire lost their entire empire in less than six years. Let's take another example. The Spanish Inquisition. Spanish Inquisition was great. Spain in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel controlled the Iberian Peninsula after they kicked out the Muslims. And then in 1492, they said, okay, we're finishing with the Jews, let's take the money and expel them out of Spain. They kicked the Jews out of Spain. The Jews went to get this Turkey, Netherlands, UK and United States. In less than 100 years, those four countries became extremely strong. And the Spanish Inquisition and the Spanish Empire disappeared from the face of history. Today, Spain is actually a bankrupt nation in Europe. That what it means. I will bless those who bless you. Every empire that turned its back against the Jews and against the people of God disappeared from Pharaoh through the Greeks, through the Romans, the Byzantine, the Ottoman, the British, the Nazis. Every single one.
So in conclusion, how do I bless Israel? Bless your own biblical connection and your relationship with God. And in that way, you will bless Israel.
John Riley: And, you know, I want to add one other thing. When we say, you know, you'll be blessed if you bless Israel. A lot of people have this idea, Omer that if I bless Israel, oh, I'm going to be good financially. God's going to bless me financially. God's going to give me a bigger home or God's going to give me a bigger car, or, oh, I'm going to get a lot. That's selfish. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about being obedient to God's word. And so as you're listening here to the Middle East Report, as we're wrapping things up, when we say bless Israel, this is not a selfish thing. This is simply being obedient to. When you are obedient to God, God is going to bless you. I don't know how he's going to bless you, but I want to be blessed in any way that God wants to bless Me. And so I think that's an important thing for people to understand, because I think in evangelical circles, I want to be blessed. I want stuff. Because we have this materialistic mentality. This is not what we're talking about.
Omer Eshel: You remember? M. One of my favorite, accounts in the Bible is when the rich man. The parable of the rich man, two of them. The rich man in hell with Lazarus. You remember that he was in the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man was in hell in tormenting. And Jesus said, you had it good. And now he has it. Now he has it good. And Jesus actually said that in the parable. He said the rich man asked Lazarus to send Moses and the prophets to send to warn his brothers. And then Lazarus said, they have Moses and the prophet, and if they don't listen to them, even someone who come from the dead, they will not understand, which means materialistic way of life is very good. But that's not everything. And actually, this is something that Jesus spoke a lot about, not just on that parable. You remember also with a rich man who came to him and he said, and Jesus told him in the parable, my father tells you today you'll be summoned at my place even though you are so rich. I'm going to be calling at the end when we are departing this world. And I want to just share this short story with our listeners. I was
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Omer Eshel: was once in a University of Haifa. I gave a lecture, and I came with my daughter Ella. She's 14 years old. We sat down in the cafeteria, and I had my coffee, and she looked at me. She was with a friend of hers, and she's a typical teenager. She looked at me, she said, what are you doing here? And I said to her, I'm the keys, note speaker. I need to be here. So, okay, then an hour and a half later, I came and I drank my coffee after the lecture. And she said, what are you still doing here? And then he came to me. And I think that this is what God is telling us. If you're thinking that God is blessing you, you're thinking you're on the right track, you need to stop and say, what am I doing here? If you have the right answer for this, wonderful. Keep up the good work. But few months down the road, stop and say, what am I still doing here? If you have that answer, you're on the right track. And that is what the true meaning of being blessed.
John Riley: Omer Eshel, the head of the Bible, comes to life. As always, it is such a joy to be with you and his love for the Bible, his love for evangelicals. He gets us. He understands us. And just to be here in the land of Israel, just to look at the Sea of Galilee. It's a beautiful day here. The sun is shining. It's peaceful, it's gorgeous. And I hope we will stay dear friends for many years to come. And when I come to Israel, I'm always going to connect with you. And I want to challenge you to find out more about the Bible Comes to Life. They're available on YouTube, they've got videos. You can Google that. They're on Facebook, all the different social media platforms out there. Thank you for all that you do. Omer Eshel. The Bible comes to Life. I love you, brother, and I appreciate what you do.
Omer Eshel: Thank you so much. God bless.
John Riley: As we wrap up this edition of the Middle East Report, I want to bring you one more interview from Israel. When I was in Israel, I traveled to the northern border, and I talked to a woman whose family was affected by what happened there in Israel on October 7, 2023. And actually, it was the day after when the terrorist group Hezbollah began to rain rockets down on northern Israel, displacing thousands and thousands of families over a couple of years ago. Those families are slowly returning to the northern part of Israel. And I think you're going to find this conversation fascinating from the northern border of, of Israel. Now, there's a lot of people who don't know where Mula is in the world. Obviously, it's in Israel. Tell everybody geographically where we are.
Speaker C: Okay, so we are in the northeast, border of Israel in a small place called Metula. I can see in front of me, Lebanon, some villages and mountains. We are next to the Golan Heights. We can see the Hermon and the mountains. And also we're just a little bit above the Hula Valley, which is also in the north of Israel.
John Riley: On October 7, 2023, we know what happened when Hamas came across the border and slaughtered, innocent people here in the land of Israel the day after the Hezbollah began a war against Israel and shot thousands and thousands of rockets into Israel during this war. You're right next to the border. We can look at Lebanon from where we are. Your family lives here. So I want you to tell me a little bit about your experience being here in the war. And many people were evacuated, and you can tell us if you were evacuated and if not, why not?
Speaker C: It took me two days to convince my mom to leave Metula. Since October 7th. We were here for two days, like sitting with a knife next to our beds because we knew Hezbollah is so close and they might come every second. Then we left, went to my brother's house. And after two weeks, the evacuation notice came from the IDF and from the government. They started with evacuating only the closest places to the border, which Metula is, obviously. And after some time, they evacuated places that was further away. And after some like, three, four months, we came back. We went to a kibbutz called Kfar Blum. It's in Hula Valley, and it was the new border of Israel. It was part of eight kibbutzim around here in the Hula Valley that weren't evacuated, and they were the new border of Israel. we had missiles, Iron Dome every single day. we had kids here. My nephews stayed here. They went to kindergarten in a shelter. During this year and a half, ah, the life here was very different during this time in the north, when the war started happened, we were very, very few people here.
John Riley: Thousands of rockets rained down on the northern part of Israel. Over 70,000 families were, uprooted from their home. So in, you know, in Jewish family, here in Israel, family is everything. Community is everything. So as, as a. As a Jewish woman with a family, how did you handle that, being uprooted from your community? Because in community is everything.
Speaker C: So in the beginning, it was very hard. I remember in the first two weeks, we were all my family together in my brother's house. We, we either watched the news or Disney movies. That the only thing we were capable of, watching, Disney movies. And
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Speaker C: when, people started to get in evacuated people's hotels, you saw how communities broke down and how new communities started to happen. I was in a hotel with people from four other places. So we began to be our own little community of this hotel or that hotel. And it was very, very surreal. And now with coming back home, the community is the most important thing for us to restore.
The first thing.
John Riley: Okay, so you're speaking to people across the United States who, have some have followed, you know, what's been happening here in Israel for the last two years. It's been very, very hard on the families here. We know the wars that have happened here for the last couple of years. What do you want to tell, the people in the United States about what's happening here in Israel and about the fact that you all just want to live in peace, but unfortunately, so many around you don't want that?
Speaker C: I would say, yes, 100%, we all want to live in Peace. The Israeli people, the Israeli nation, we care about each other. We care about our neighbors. We want to live in peace. We want to live a good life inside of Israel and outside of Israel. And I want just people to know that all around the world that we're just human beings who want to have normal life and live in peace and don't be scared that a, missile would hit our heads.
John Riley: And a lot of people will say, why in the world would you come back here to Metula? Because you're back here in this beautiful community. We're just overlooking all of these mountains. But why in the world? Because obviously, the threat of Hezbollah is less than it was, a couple of years ago. But why would you come back here?
Speaker C: so, first of all, you said this beautiful view, the mountains, the weather, you can't feel it, but there's a wind here right now, and it's extremely hot, but it's still windy. And this is home. This is the community. When my grandmother did an aliya after World War II, she told my grandfather, who they met in the Arden Ground in Europe, and she told him, I want to live as close to the border as I can. I want to keep Israel safe. I want to settle the borders, and this is the most important thing. So I just have to follow her.
John Riley: You know, I don't think there's any of us who could comprehend on, what it's like to live in Israel, surrounded by enemies, and yet to have the hope that someday there will be peace that will come to that part of the world and to understand that the Jewish people are not going anywhere. I want to ask you to continue to pray for that situation there in Israel. That's the Middle East Report. I'm John Riley Get a podcast of the show wherever you get your podcast or at AFR Net.
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John Riley: Welcome to the Middle East Reports. Each week, we connect you to the people places in the land of Israel, and also we bring you the current events that are happening here in this region as well. And as always, there's a lot going on here in Israel. We're not going to talk so much about some of the current events happening here. We're going to talk about the Bible. We're going to talk about where we are, because we're broadcasting from the land of Israel with a dear friend of mine, Omer Eshel. He heads up the Bible, comes to life. He literally speaks and teaches around the world. He helps people understand the places that you read about in the Bible, and especially when you come to the land of Israel. He is leading tours, he is organizing tours. He does so much here, in the land of Israel and literally around the world. Omer thank you so much for joining me here on this edition of the Middle East Report from a beautiful place here in the land of Israel.
Omer Eshel: Thank you so much for having me again, Omer
John Riley: Here we are. We're in a beautiful Cafe Mulan Patisserie. It's in the Golan Heights. And I just had a wonderful cup of coffee. I had something absolutely delicious from this place. You told me about this place here in the Golan Heights. So tell us a little bit where we are, just briefly, and then about this establishment here that we're broadcasting from. You're going to hear some Hebrew in the background, because it's full.
Omer Eshel: Well, technically, we are now in the Golan Heights, but Golan is, a new name. So we are in the Galilee. If you look at the time of Jesus, this was a part of the place of the ministry of Jesus. This establishment, this Mulan Patisserie, is actually built exactly at the place where the swine were grazing before they rained down, after Legion got into them. So you can have a wonderful, amazing breakfast and imagine the swine is just running down to the sea.
John Riley: That's amazing. You can eat a good pastry, have a nice cup of coffee, and just kind of get your Bible out and read about that story. Not just that one, but I'm overlooking the Sea of Galilee. And then, of course, we know all the ministry of Jesus was all around
Omer Eshel: here just for us, for our listeners to understand. I mean, imagine you are, sitting here with a cup of coffee as we are right now. You look to the cliffs, you can see 80% of the Gospels as we speak. I just want to describe to our listeners. We see the Sea of Galilee. We are on the same on the cliffs of Gadara, we are seeing Nazareth, we're seeing Mount Tabor, we're seeing Valley of Armageddon, we're seeing Mount Gilboa, we're seeing Beitian, 90% of scriptures and you holding Bible in one hand and a cup of coffee on the other hand.
John Riley: How about that? That's another reason why you need to come to Israel. You need to come to Israel. I want you to do that. It's not impossible to come to the land of Israel. We've been telling you over and over about that. So I love being here.
All right, so we're in this area often called the Golan Heights. And can you give us just a little bit, first of all, where we are right now at one point was under Syrian occupation. In other words, the Syrians were kind of controlling things around here. Can you kind of help us understand that a little bit?
Omer Eshel: Absolutely. So the Golan Heights, again, people associate the Golan Heights today with wars and conflicts and everything. First of all, the name the Golan Heights is a modern name. It's not an ancient name. In the Bible, this place was called Bashan, the cows of Bashan. And this area was called Galilee. The reason now that people say in the UN we hear about this is a Syrian occupied land. Let's just give a little bit of a brief history. Syria got their independence in 1946 from the French Mandate, which means two years before the state of Israel. This land was never Syrian. It was under some kind of an empire. It was the British Empire, the French Empire, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, but not Syrian. They got this land because they conquered it in 1949. That's it. That's the only reason. So when people say, oh, they've been here since ever. No, they were not. And I want to also share with our listeners because this is something that, you know, it's important for us to know this. When you ask most people about the Middle east, is it Muslim area? They will tell you, yes, they associate these countries with Muslims. However, the Middle east was not Muslim. It was Christian. Egypt was Christian. Syria was Christian. Jordan was Christian. Lebanon was Christian. Every Turkey was Christian. When you think about it, Apostle, Mark went to Alexandria. The great patriarch of the Byzantine Church is from Antioch, which is in Turkey today. What happened? What happened was that, the Muslim conquered this area starting from the 7th century A.D. basically established colonies here, forced the people to convert to Muslim. And all of a sudden they rewrite history saying this was always Muslim land. It was not. It was Christian and Jewish. What? The biggest problem today is that people are using TikTok and Facebook and they don't really know their history. We need to understand that when we are seeing people all over the world chanting that Israel is a colonizing nation, who is chanting this? Who? The people who conquered this land. They are patronizing on us. It is, if you don't
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Omer Eshel: know history, you're doomed to repeat it. And the problem is that today in social media, people are using the ignorance. I'm going to use that word, the ignorance of people not opening their books and not learning their history. And they take things for granted.
John Riley: And, you know, when you look at the current situation here in Israel, let's just get this right out to everybody who's listening. Israel protects all religions. That's something that, you know, you don't hear in the news media. So when it comes to, let's say, Christians here in Israel, Israel is protecting them. Now, if you go into some of these Muslim countries, guess what? They are not protected. They're going to be thrown in jail. They're going to be, some of them, slaughtered. We've seen this here in some of these countries that surround Israel, but totally different when it comes to, Israel.
Omer Eshel: Now we are standing in the Golan Heights. If this area was not under Israel, it was under isis. Just to remind to our listeners, Christians under ISIS were crucified. And I'm not talking about 2,000 years ago, I'm talking five years ago. And this is something that they don't speak about. It's unbelievable.
John Riley: All right, we want to turn a corner here and talk about some other things. I've got so many things that I want to ask you. So here we are in. I'm not going to say the Golan Heights. I'm going to say Bashan, because that's the biblical name of where we are. So I'm going to get the Golan Heights out of my mind. But we talked about how the Muslims came here, and when they came, they began to change the names, the historical names of some of the key places here in Israel and gave them Arab names. Talk about that. Because that's, a very important point for people to understand.
Omer Eshel: We are here, for example, on the cliffs of Gadara. Cliffs of Gadara. You can find them on Luke 8. You can find them on Mark 5. This is the place of the miracle of the swines. Gadara is a Hebrew name under the city Geder or Gedera, which is like today's auspices of Jordan. The Muslim name is Nakib. So how would you know that this is the place of the ministry of Jesus? There's no way to know this. I'll, give you another place. Everybody knows about the place where Jesus said, upon this rock, I will be my community. And even the gates of hell cannot have Achomet. That was in Caesarea Philippi. In every map today, you will not find Caesarea Philippi.
John Riley: You will.
Omer Eshel: You will find Banyas. Banyas is a mispronunciation of the Greek word panyas because there's no P in the Arabic Alphabet. So basically, they renamed the names to erase it from history.
John Riley: When the Muslims came here to this land, trying to completely erase Christianity, because in the Muslim mind, they basically want this all a caliphate or a, Muslim area. I'm not even using the right terms, but basically, in their mind, they want it all under Muslim control. I mean, that's in the DNA or the philosophy of the Muslims. Am I going down the right road on that one?
Omer Eshel: I got to give you another example which has to do with Israel. We all know about the seven churches of Revelation. We know about the city of Smyrna. Smyrna, one of the most important cities, in early Christianity, it's called today Izmir, which is a Muslim Turkish name. Now, Smyrna was called SMYRNA until the 1920s, Adam. But today, in every map, it's called Izmir. That is what we called in historical geography. We call it, politicization of names. You change the name to erase the history. And this is what they are doing left, right, and center. I'm going to give you another example. In Spain today, south of Spain is called Andalusia. Andalusia was a Muslim caliphate. The capital of Andalusia was Cordoba. Today, of course, it's Christian land. But if you ask today Muslims who are living in south of Spain, they will tell you their capital is not Madrid, it's Cordova. If you don't know history, you are doomed to repeat it.
John Riley: You are trying to change that. Omer Omer Eshel is who we're talking to here on the Middle East Report. And his organization is called the Bible Comes to Life. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that.
But I want to stay on this topic here. You, are trying to change what, what has happened here in this area in Israel, when the Muslims have changed these names. You're trying to get that change back to the biblical names. What are you doing?
Omer Eshel: Well, actually, we're having a new project together with the local municipality of The Golan, that is called rebuild, named after, Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And the main idea after this place was suffered so much from Hezbollah attack. And by the way, just to let for listeners to understand Hezbollah target biblical sites. Now, why would you fire missiles at biblical sites if nobody lives there? You want to erase history? They tried to blow up the city of Dan. They tried to blow up Caesarea, Philippi. So what we are doing now, after we rebuild everything, we are renaming the ancient names. We don't change the name. We're giving it back to what it was. For example, Cliffs of Gadara. By the grace of God, in a year from now, on the maps, it's going to say Cliffs of Gadara, Banias,
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Omer Eshel: Caesarea of Philippi, Nimrod Castle is the road to Damascus. In Acts 9, we are changing back the name for Christians all over the world with the open scriptures, they can be able to look at the Bible and look at a modern map that was printed yesterday and say, okay, I know where it is.
John Riley: You've got a big job ahead. Because, there's probably going to be some people that are going to resist this a little bit. I mean, here in the land of Israel and maybe even politically, I don't know. But you've got a hard job to try to turn these names back into the, you know, biblical locations. I guess it's just one site at a time.
Omer Eshel: Well, we are focusing right now on four main sites on the big four that Jesus actually practiced in them in the Golan. So it's Gamla City on a hill, Caesarea of Philippi, which is Banias today, Road to Damascus, and Cliffs of Gadara. Also Mount Hermon. By the way, Mount Hermon is Mount of Transfiguration. So we are going to put on the maps Mount of Transfiguration. And I got to share this with you because you asked, we are going to have opposition. Of course I'm going to have opposition. God has enemies since day of Creation. If someone is going to oppose our, acts of renaming back the biblical names, that means we're doing a good job.
John Riley: Yeah, you're doing the job because you just don't sit around and do nothing. Omer Eshel, the head of the Bible, comes to life. you go out there and you're shaking things. you're somebody who doesn't stand still, who goes out there because you love the Bible, you love the word of God, and you're trying to change some things here. Getting it Back to the biblical names. And I think that's fantastic. And the Bible Comes to Life. We refer to that name several times. Tell everybody what you do with the Bible Comes to Life. And that beautiful organization that you guys
Omer Eshel: do, the Bible Comes to Life, is a travel ministry. We are registered as a ministry. And so we're doing study tours to Israel. Not just to Israel, but mostly to Israel. And the focus is studying the Bible by using archaeological sites, because we want to be at the places where the stories actually happen. If it's a traditional site, we don't care about that. We are going to visit the actual places. And the main idea is to show the authenticity of the Bible. Now, we all know the Bible is correct because that's the word of God. But how cool it is that you actually see with your own eyes what we do. Also, we teach all over the world. In Africa, in Europe, in the United States, we teach about biblical discoveries that proves the Bible.
John Riley: So if somebody's listening right now, Omer and they want to bring you in, to speak at their church or, you know, their organization, you know, you love the Lord so much, how would they do that? And, you know, what would it take for them to get you to, to come to their community, to their church and their organization, for you to present, you know, the word of God? Because, again, you do this all around the world. You come in and you help people understand, you know, the context of the Bible and everything that you do.
Omer Eshel: Well, the best way to reach us, I think, is going to be by email, which is infobctl. That's the acronym of the Bible come to life. Tbctl.com so, that's infobctl.com or, or you can reach us on Facebook. The Bible comes to life. You can reach us on YouTube. The Bible comes to life. You can check us online, tbctl.com there's
John Riley: many ways, a lot of ways to connect with Omer Eshel. And the Bible Comes to Life.
So I want to encourage you to do that as we sit here in the beautiful Golan Heights. And by the way, the official name here is Bashan, the area of Bashan. I want to challenge those of you who are listening right now to look up that word, study that word Bashan, and you can see the vast area that that is and where it's located in Israel. Again, we're looking at the beautiful Sea of Galilee just down below us. We're up pretty high here in the hills of Bashan or the hills of the Golana. Both of them I could use, but I'm going to use the biblical term bashan, as you said. So connect with Omer and find out more about his organization and what he is doing. They are doing so many things and they have got videos for you to watch. You can Google the Bible comes to life on YouTube. He's always putting up new things on YouTube so you can find out more about the organization and what they're doing. And you can bring in Omer for your organization. I love Omer I love what he does. he gets us, the evangelicals out there, he understands us. And so you could feel confidence and bringing them into your organization. You know, I talk to a lot of people, Omer who say, well, I want to bless Israel. And there's a lot of ways to do that. But what does that mean when we say to bless Israel?
Omer Eshel: To answer this, we need to look at two main scriptures and then that will give the full answer for this. The first one will be Genesis 12:3. I will bless those who bless you, because that's a promise that God gave to Abraham. Also God said, I will curse those who curse you. That's the number one. Number two is in Acts, chapter 11, the grafted in. When Paul said about the grafted inn, Evangelicals are the same barriers of the covenant as the Jews. You call it the new covenant, but it's still
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Omer Eshel: the same covenant because it's the same God. So when Christians all over the world, not just evangelicals, Christians are grafted into the same root, the root of Jesse, to the same olive branch and accepting into the kingdom of heaven, into the bosom of God. That's what it means to bless Israel because you bless yourself. I want to point this out. We are seeing today all over the world, not just in Israel, we see turmoils of atrocities all over the world. If it's gender issues, ah, against life, horrific, way of acts, malfunctioned families, drug addiction, satanic way of life. When you are blessing Israel, you are blessing your biblical roots. You're going back home. You are becoming a born again. So when you bless Israel, you bless yourself. And throughout history we see the echoing of that quote, that promise, I bless those who bless you. And I want to just give our listeners, just a little bit of examples. When the Nazis started to persecute the Jews in the 30s, Nazi Germany or Germany was number one in the world in terms of science, in terms of technology. If it wasn't for the Holocaust, if it wasn't for The Second World War, most of the world, the academic world today, wouldn't speak German because they kicked the Jews out. The Jews went to the United States. Germany collapsed. The US rose up. Let's use another example, the British Empire. The British Empire controlled most of the world for free. 400 years. In 1936, they stabbed the Jews in the back. Basically. They, issued something called the White Books, which are very anti Zionist, very pro Muslim, picking one side and one side alone. That was in 1936. In 1939, Second World War happened. In 1945. The British Empire lost their entire empire in less than six years. Let's take another example. The Spanish Inquisition. Spanish Inquisition was great. Spain in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel controlled the Iberian Peninsula after they kicked out the Muslims. And then in 1492, they said, okay, we're finishing with the Jews, let's take the money and expel them out of Spain. They kicked the Jews out of Spain. The Jews went to get this Turkey, Netherlands, UK and United States. In less than 100 years, those four countries became extremely strong. And the Spanish Inquisition and the Spanish Empire disappeared from the face of history. Today, Spain is actually a bankrupt nation in Europe. That what it means. I will bless those who bless you. Every empire that turned its back against the Jews and against the people of God disappeared from Pharaoh through the Greeks, through the Romans, the Byzantine, the Ottoman, the British, the Nazis. Every single one.
So in conclusion, how do I bless Israel? Bless your own biblical connection and your relationship with God. And in that way, you will bless Israel.
John Riley: And, you know, I want to add one other thing. When we say, you know, you'll be blessed if you bless Israel. A lot of people have this idea, Omer that if I bless Israel, oh, I'm going to be good financially. God's going to bless me financially. God's going to give me a bigger home or God's going to give me a bigger car, or, oh, I'm going to get a lot. That's selfish. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about being obedient to God's word. And so as you're listening here to the Middle East Report, as we're wrapping things up, when we say bless Israel, this is not a selfish thing. This is simply being obedient to. When you are obedient to God, God is going to bless you. I don't know how he's going to bless you, but I want to be blessed in any way that God wants to bless Me. And so I think that's an important thing for people to understand, because I think in evangelical circles, I want to be blessed. I want stuff. Because we have this materialistic mentality. This is not what we're talking about.
Omer Eshel: You remember? M. One of my favorite, accounts in the Bible is when the rich man. The parable of the rich man, two of them. The rich man in hell with Lazarus. You remember that he was in the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man was in hell in tormenting. And Jesus said, you had it good. And now he has it. Now he has it good. And Jesus actually said that in the parable. He said the rich man asked Lazarus to send Moses and the prophets to send to warn his brothers. And then Lazarus said, they have Moses and the prophet, and if they don't listen to them, even someone who come from the dead, they will not understand, which means materialistic way of life is very good. But that's not everything. And actually, this is something that Jesus spoke a lot about, not just on that parable. You remember also with a rich man who came to him and he said, and Jesus told him in the parable, my father tells you today you'll be summoned at my place even though you are so rich. I'm going to be calling at the end when we are departing this world. And I want to just share this short story with our listeners. I was
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Omer Eshel: was once in a University of Haifa. I gave a lecture, and I came with my daughter Ella. She's 14 years old. We sat down in the cafeteria, and I had my coffee, and she looked at me. She was with a friend of hers, and she's a typical teenager. She looked at me, she said, what are you doing here? And I said to her, I'm the keys, note speaker. I need to be here. So, okay, then an hour and a half later, I came and I drank my coffee after the lecture. And she said, what are you still doing here? And then he came to me. And I think that this is what God is telling us. If you're thinking that God is blessing you, you're thinking you're on the right track, you need to stop and say, what am I doing here? If you have the right answer for this, wonderful. Keep up the good work. But few months down the road, stop and say, what am I still doing here? If you have that answer, you're on the right track. And that is what the true meaning of being blessed.
John Riley: Omer Eshel, the head of the Bible, comes to life. As always, it is such a joy to be with you and his love for the Bible, his love for evangelicals. He gets us. He understands us. And just to be here in the land of Israel, just to look at the Sea of Galilee. It's a beautiful day here. The sun is shining. It's peaceful, it's gorgeous. And I hope we will stay dear friends for many years to come. And when I come to Israel, I'm always going to connect with you. And I want to challenge you to find out more about the Bible Comes to Life. They're available on YouTube, they've got videos. You can Google that. They're on Facebook, all the different social media platforms out there. Thank you for all that you do. Omer Eshel. The Bible comes to Life. I love you, brother, and I appreciate what you do.
Omer Eshel: Thank you so much. God bless.
John Riley: As we wrap up this edition of the Middle East Report, I want to bring you one more interview from Israel. When I was in Israel, I traveled to the northern border, and I talked to a woman whose family was affected by what happened there in Israel on October 7, 2023. And actually, it was the day after when the terrorist group Hezbollah began to rain rockets down on northern Israel, displacing thousands and thousands of families over a couple of years ago. Those families are slowly returning to the northern part of Israel. And I think you're going to find this conversation fascinating from the northern border of, of Israel. Now, there's a lot of people who don't know where Mula is in the world. Obviously, it's in Israel. Tell everybody geographically where we are.
Speaker C: Okay, so we are in the northeast, border of Israel in a small place called Metula. I can see in front of me, Lebanon, some villages and mountains. We are next to the Golan Heights. We can see the Hermon and the mountains. And also we're just a little bit above the Hula Valley, which is also in the north of Israel.
John Riley: On October 7, 2023, we know what happened when Hamas came across the border and slaughtered, innocent people here in the land of Israel the day after the Hezbollah began a war against Israel and shot thousands and thousands of rockets into Israel during this war. You're right next to the border. We can look at Lebanon from where we are. Your family lives here. So I want you to tell me a little bit about your experience being here in the war. And many people were evacuated, and you can tell us if you were evacuated and if not, why not?
Speaker C: It took me two days to convince my mom to leave Metula. Since October 7th. We were here for two days, like sitting with a knife next to our beds because we knew Hezbollah is so close and they might come every second. Then we left, went to my brother's house. And after two weeks, the evacuation notice came from the IDF and from the government. They started with evacuating only the closest places to the border, which Metula is, obviously. And after some time, they evacuated places that was further away. And after some like, three, four months, we came back. We went to a kibbutz called Kfar Blum. It's in Hula Valley, and it was the new border of Israel. It was part of eight kibbutzim around here in the Hula Valley that weren't evacuated, and they were the new border of Israel. we had missiles, Iron Dome every single day. we had kids here. My nephews stayed here. They went to kindergarten in a shelter. During this year and a half, ah, the life here was very different during this time in the north, when the war started happened, we were very, very few people here.
John Riley: Thousands of rockets rained down on the northern part of Israel. Over 70,000 families were, uprooted from their home. So in, you know, in Jewish family, here in Israel, family is everything. Community is everything. So as, as a. As a Jewish woman with a family, how did you handle that, being uprooted from your community? Because in community is everything.
Speaker C: So in the beginning, it was very hard. I remember in the first two weeks, we were all my family together in my brother's house. We, we either watched the news or Disney movies. That the only thing we were capable of, watching, Disney movies. And
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Speaker C: when, people started to get in evacuated people's hotels, you saw how communities broke down and how new communities started to happen. I was in a hotel with people from four other places. So we began to be our own little community of this hotel or that hotel. And it was very, very surreal. And now with coming back home, the community is the most important thing for us to restore.
The first thing.
John Riley: Okay, so you're speaking to people across the United States who, have some have followed, you know, what's been happening here in Israel for the last two years. It's been very, very hard on the families here. We know the wars that have happened here for the last couple of years. What do you want to tell, the people in the United States about what's happening here in Israel and about the fact that you all just want to live in peace, but unfortunately, so many around you don't want that?
Speaker C: I would say, yes, 100%, we all want to live in Peace. The Israeli people, the Israeli nation, we care about each other. We care about our neighbors. We want to live in peace. We want to live a good life inside of Israel and outside of Israel. And I want just people to know that all around the world that we're just human beings who want to have normal life and live in peace and don't be scared that a, missile would hit our heads.
John Riley: And a lot of people will say, why in the world would you come back here to Metula? Because you're back here in this beautiful community. We're just overlooking all of these mountains. But why in the world? Because obviously, the threat of Hezbollah is less than it was, a couple of years ago. But why would you come back here?
Speaker C: so, first of all, you said this beautiful view, the mountains, the weather, you can't feel it, but there's a wind here right now, and it's extremely hot, but it's still windy. And this is home. This is the community. When my grandmother did an aliya after World War II, she told my grandfather, who they met in the Arden Ground in Europe, and she told him, I want to live as close to the border as I can. I want to keep Israel safe. I want to settle the borders, and this is the most important thing. So I just have to follow her.
John Riley: You know, I don't think there's any of us who could comprehend on, what it's like to live in Israel, surrounded by enemies, and yet to have the hope that someday there will be peace that will come to that part of the world and to understand that the Jewish people are not going anywhere. I want to ask you to continue to pray for that situation there in Israel. That's the Middle East Report. I'm John Riley Get a podcast of the show wherever you get your podcast or at AFR Net.
00:27:39
(00:00) Middle East Report comes from the land of Israel with Omir Eshel
(00:56) Tell us a little bit about where we are broadcasting from
(02:41) The Golan Heights at one point was under Syrian occupation
(06:06) When Muslims came to Israel, they changed historical names to give them Arab names
(09:01) Bible Comes to Life is renaming ancient names after Hezbollah attack
(13:22) What does it mean to bless Israel based on two biblical scriptures
(18:03) Omer Eshel: When you are obedient to God, God will bless you
(21:50) The Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel in October of 2023 displaced thousands of families
(25:45) John Riley: Israelis want to live in peace, but unfortunately many don't
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