“It’s a wonder to see you worship in the Lord,” Lawrence Hirsh of Celebrate Messiah an evangelical Jewish ministry. “And we’re just so grateful that we can do that in Hebrew, in English, and in Arabic. Isn’t it awesome? I’m sure this is the first all of you, right? It’s the first for all of us to be able to do this together in Australia.”
The event was a concert, but really a worship experience, of Jewish and Arab-Israeli musicians playing Christian songs at the Church in the Market Place in Bondi Junction. Solu, a messianic Jewish worship group from Israel, has been touring down under with Nizar Francis, an Arabic musician and secular music star who crossed over to worship music after becoming a Christian. There was music, and dancing, lots and lots of dancing. The picture shows Solu at the Church in the Marketplace with Nizar playing the oud.
The message of the touring musicians was that yes, Jews and Arabs can love each other, and that the nation of Israel will be transformed by following Yeshua/Jesus when they see that love.
Nizar Francis, in Arabic translated by Shilo Ben Hod, the lead singer for Solu, says that after October 7, Satan “infiltrated the church and the body of the messah became Jews by themselves, and gentiles by themselves. ‘Who succeeded in this?'” he asked. “The enemy, he succeeded…
” It’s very difficult for people to accept that I, as an Arab, love Israel. Again, it’s not because of the love that I have in me. It’s the love that he put in me.” Speaking of his friendship with Shilo, he added: “We have so much laughter between ourselves. Why? Because we love each other. We don’t have this issue of Jewish or Arab; we live together. We can do it in Israel to show [that people] that it’s possible. It’s possible.”
Shilo Ben Hod testified that October 7 had caused him difficulty with that vision. A month before the attack, there was a special night. There were Jews and Arabs in the same place singing in Hebrew and in Arabic, asking the Lord to bring a revival on our country together.
“And one of the guys comes to me in the middle of the worship night and he says to me, I feel the Lord spoke to me while we are filming. And I know the guy, I trust the guy, I love him. And I asked him, so what did he tell you? And he said, ‘The Lord told me to tell you, Shilo, that something very, very difficult is going to happen in Israel. Something terrible that will shake all the conciliation that was happening between believing Jewish people and Arab people. It’ll make you hurt, it’ll make you angry, it’ll make you sad and you’ll have to get over it because it’s not the final thing.’
“‘And how do you get over this feeling is by looking around you in the room and remembering what you are seeing.’
“And what was happening in the room was like Nizar was saying, it was not Jews not Arabs. It was one human[ity] just the way Yeshua wanted it to be. And we were crying and in sitting together for our nation, lifting our holy hands before him in Hebrew and in Arabic. And it was an amazing moment.
“Then a few more days afterwards, 7th of October, the greatest shock we had in our life…
“And we felt so terrible. And to be honest, my heart, I felt darkness in my heart. I am a believer. I love the Lord. And for many years, but I felt so much sadness in my heart. I felt so much anger in my heart, and I even felt hate in my heart to the point that one of my best friends, who’s originally from Gaza City, he is now in Israel, but he would have to call me in the first few days and I would not be able to wait to pick up the phone. I could not hear the Arabic accent. And I sent a message, sent a message I could send, but I could not talk to him…
“And then after a few more days, that friend from September 2023, right before the war calls, and he calls me. He says, ‘Shilo, it happened. Do you remember what I told you?’
“And he reminded me. ‘We were one month before the war … And God told me something terrible is going to happen, but you have to remember what was happening in this room.’
“And when he was saying it, immediately the image of what was happening in the room came to my mind and completely shattered my heart in a good way. The anger that I had, the darkness that I had, fade away. And I started feeling the love of God, first of all, his patience with me, how patient he was with me.” And Shilo goes on to say that he can’t understand all that is happening, yet in the midst of the suffering, God is at work bringing Jews and Muslims to know Yeshua.
It was a concert, not an incisive analysis of the Gaza war or Israeli politics, but a message with the fragile hope that Jews and Arabs can make room for each other.
Image: Solu at the Church in the Marketplace with Nizar playing the oud.