Like Edgar Allen Poe who recounts the results of his pondering in his poem The Raven, I have been pondering long and hard, but my pondering is not over finding the lost, rare, and radiant maiden whom the angels name "Lenore." Rather, my pondering is over the lost sheep of Israel whom the angels would like to name "found sheep." Unlike Poe, I did not find a raven perched above my chamber door with the name of "Nevermore." However, the word nevermore kept ringing through my mind, and I could sense the Ruach saying, “Nevermore are Israel’s sheep to be lost.”

The question, "What can I do to help the lost sheep discover their identity and fulfill their destiny?" kept running through my mind. I againsensed the Ruach saying, "Go back to the beginning." Following is the first briefing that was published on the Messianic Israel website:

Doing All You Can, Brother?

Written by Angus Wootten
Tuesday, 10 July 2001

Doing all you can, brother?

This phrase has haunted me for several years, since viewing in an antique shop a World War I poster promoting war bonds. The faded poster showed a soldier dressed in a tattered olive drab uniform with a bloody bandage wrapped around his head. The caption at the bottom read, "Doing all you can, brother?"

As I stared at the at the poster, the face of the soldier seemed to change to a face which I recognized as being Yeshua. The bloody bandage was replaced with a bloody crown of thorns, but the caption was unchanged. It still read, "Doing all you can, brother?"

With that picture and caption in my mind of the poster soldier who fought in the muddy trenches of France, I see what is happening to my brothers of Judah, who are today fighting the Philistines on the rocky hills of Israel.

My Jewish brothers in the Land, now numbering almost six million, are a vanguard fighting to fulfill the promises made to our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, some four thousand years ago. They also are fighting to stave off the same death sentence carried out on six million Jews in Europe in the 1940's. Back then, Jews were murdered for the crime of being Jewish and being in Europe. Today, the crime is being Jewish and being in the Middle East.

Back then, the world allowed a Holocaust to be carried out by Hitler's Germany. Today, the world seems quite ready to allow the Holocaust being initiated by radical Islam in the Middle East.

When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building, it was a crime punished by death. Ditto for terrorists blowing up American embassies, ships, planes, military buildings, etc. But when radical Muslims blow up Israeli buildings, buses, and cars, when they murder Israelis, it is seen by the world as a natural outlet to be expected from an oppressed people.

I know I speak for all who are affiliated with the MIA when I say, the world may tolerate murder of our brothers, but we will not! We will not stand idly by and allow our brothers of Judah, who are living in the Land, to shoulder alone the full burden of acquiring and defending the land promised to our forefathers as an everlasting possession. We will not be satisfied, we will not feel we have accomplished our part, until we have done everything possible to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers in "our" battle against the Philistines.

How will this come about?

"It will happen on the day that the Holy One of Israel again recovers for the second time with His hand the remnant of His people... He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; and together they will plunder the sons of the east; they will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them" (Isaiah 11:12-14).

The cover of the current Messianic Israel Herald describes how this may be accomplished. It depicts an archer with a drawn bow ready to deliver an arrow. The caption reads, "I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion... and I will make you like a warrior's sword" (Zechariah 9:13).

How and when will Judah use Ephraim's arrows? The better question is, "Where are Ephraim's arrows?"

Be assured that when Ephraim is once again like a mighty man, when he has a quiver full of arrows ready for Judah's bow, the Holy One will whistle, and He will make the necessary arrangements to get the two together (Zec 10:7-8).

Our job today, as Ephraim, is to assemble a quiver full of arrows. And the first step, as we well know, is to identify those arrows, to educate them as to their Divine purpose. How do we accomplish this task of awakening a sleeping giant who is oblivious to his heritage and purpose?

One great aid in reaching the vast majority of Israelites, who have little clue as to their identity or purposes, would be if the people of God, both Judah and Ephraim, were truthfully informed about the Bible itself, and about the situation in Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the dangers of radical Islam to both the "Saturday and Sunday people" (as Islamic fundamentalist often call Jews and Christians).

Recent Briefings outline ways in which we can work together towards accomplish this awesome goal of turning the lost sheep of Israel into found sheep and returning them to their own soil (Jer 23:1-8). We know that the people of Israel are destroyed because they have rejected knowledge (Hosea 4:6), and that knowledge of the truth brings freedom (John 8:32). You are encouraged not only to read these reports, but to pass them on to others.

One of the prime requirements in any battle is to know the truth about what the enemy is up to. We need to know his order of battle, his plans and goals. These Briefings will help give us this needed information, and the encouragement to put together the plans that will give Judah and Ephraim victory over the enemies of Israel.

The underlying theme of the Scriptures describes our Father's desire to have a people for His own possession. The unfilled prophecies in the Bible primarily deal with accomplishing this task, which will be done by gathering the scattered remnant of Israel from every nation, tribe and tongue, and by placing them on their own soil. So awesome is this task that its fulfillment will erase the memory of the Exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 23:1-8).

Is this task to great for us? The Holy One of Israel, the Lord of Hosts, speaking of this ingathering, asks, "If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be to difficult in My sight?" (Zechariah 8:6).

No. For nothing is impossible with the God of Israel. His answer to the remnant of our day is the same answer that He gave the sons of Israel in their exodus from Egypt to the promised land, "Behold, I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west...It is for my people to take heart and finish the work" (Zechariah 8:7-8).

So let us not be fainthearted. Let us not follow in the footsteps of some of our forefathers – 603,550 men over the age of twenty who came out of Egypt – of whom the Holy One said, "They tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest" (Psalm 95:9-11).

Let us instead take heart and give a good report like that of the two witness, Joshua and Caleb. Like them, we forerunners of the MIA, having the unique goal of restoring the Kingdom to all Israel, have been given the unmerited opportunity to be in the forefront and be used mightily by our Father in gathering His remnant.

Let us take full advantage of the opportunities given us. Let us wisely use out talents and resources in finishing the tasks that remain to be accomplished to fulfill our Father's Messianic vision.

Let us take heart, and accomplish the purposes for which our Father created us.