Relating to Tabitha

 

Some time in November I came across an article from the Biblical Archaeology Society about Tabitha. Up to that point it had never occurred to me that Tabitha and Dorcas were one in the same.

I knew Dorcas as the woman who made clothes for the poor widows who were Jewish believers living in Israel. I assumed they lived in Jerusalem close the the apostles, but it turns out Dorcas and the widows she made clothing for lived in what is now the Old City of Jaffa, next to Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coastline. That surprised me. I thought all the believers huddled together in Jerusalem close to apostles teaching, but obviously this was not the case. Some must have returned to their homes.

It is kind of obvious that would be the case, now that I think about it because there were thousands in Jerusalem for Feast of Shavuot when the Holy Spirit descended on those in the Upper Room and they spilled out onto the street speaking in all manner of different tongues. Those were real languages, spoken by the Jews who had come from not just different towns in Israel, but from places that they lived in other nations. They came because of Shavuot, which means Tabernacles. We know that feast as Pentecost because of what happened there that day, is one of the 3 Feasts of the LORD where Jews are commanded to return to Jerusalem to appear before the LORD. Of course Tabernacles is about the indwelling Spirit of God, what went from symbolism to fulfillment in Acts 3, the pouring out of God's Spirit on the disciples in the Upper Room, who then went into the street where the Spirit continued to pour out on others causing them to come to faith in Yeshua, Jesus.

Back to Tabitha. She probably got the name Dorcas from the Greek Jewish widows living in the coastal city of Jaffa. Tabitha is the Aramaic for her Hebrew name, Tsebiyâh. So it was likely Jews from Greece living in Jaffa that called her Dorcas. All three mean Gazelle, usually understood for beauty of the gazelle, but I thought it was funny that the Greek version Dorcas is also described as a "wild she-goat."

Maybe that last is part of what I identified with Tabitha for. No, seriously I identified with Tabitha having died, and being brought back to life by the apostle Peter. It was around November that I began to feel like everything I had been about up to that point was dying and I really didn't know where that left me. My identification is linked to the Israeli Messianic ministries, but all the frustrations with seeing my subscriber lists continuing to dwindle away just was like seeing a closing of what I have been doing for the past 25 years. Even though I have no intention of stopping advocating for the body of Messiah in Israel, I related to being like Tabitha — who had been doing good toward the believer "widows" — then just dying off.

When I say I have been doing good towards the believer widows in Israel, I don't mean they are without God, but they sure have been without spiritual kin to help them in their situation. In the last 25 years it has gotten better, but it sure has not ended their need for those who will appeal to the church and state their case to international Christians for the assistance they need.

In that I do consider that I have done good for the Israeli body of the Lord. There have been times when I knew they could look at me knowing that I knew what God was calling for the Church to do to assist them, and to keep that hope alive that if I knew, then more would come to know. When you are in the trenches of spiritual warfare, any glimmer of hope will boost the heart. I realize I have been small potatoes, but I know what God says about the body in Israel and the one new man. That's not small potatoes.

I have left the article about Tabitha up on one of my browsers for the past months since I first came across it. It's here as a reminder to me that Tabitha didn't stay dead.

It's a good thing to remember because right now I have been feeling pretty stripped down to nothing. Oh, I am feeling good about not being on a weekly treadmill of putting my Israel Prayer lists out every week. I have rested and written more in this first week of going only twice a month with the lists. That is good. But changing my means of the distribution of the email lists, I haven't got a clue how that is all going to work out. I just know I could not stay where I was letting subscribers be picked off without trying to do something better. Maybe that is going to be the same no matter what. If the EU has convinced Big Tech to censor according to their preferences, then I imagine that is just how it is going to be. Tech censorship will increase, not decrease.

Like Tabitha, I sort of feel dead right now, waiting for whatever God has for me to be able to arise and stand up again for the sake of the body in Israel. This part of my life has not "passed away." How could it? It isn't done yet.

Of all the women in the Bible that I have related to in my past, I never even considered that I would relate to Tabitha/Dorcas. I'm not looking at a physical death, but everything I have been about for 25 years spiritually is hanging by a thread right now. I don't know what God is going to do, but I do believe God is going to do something for me here.