fter about a year of dating, we got engaged on Nov. 11, 2022 and soon afterwards began wedding preparations. Nethanel and I had our regular routines: work, studies and various other responsibilities.

A couple of months before, Nethanel received a draft order from the Israeli Defence Force. This surprised us, as it’s highly unusual to recruit someone at the late age of 23. We both began negotiating with the IDF, attempting to postpone his enlistment date until after our wedding and Nethanel’s graduation. At that point our families and friends stood with us in prayer.

After many failed attempts, we succeeded in contacting a close acquaintance, a former high ranking officer in the IDF, and By the grace of God, he was able to postpone Nethanel’s enlistment date for half a year. We didn’t hear anything from the army from then on, which looked very promising!

Fast forward to April 2023: Nethanel and I served together as counselors at a Messianic youth camp. We had a blessed time! Yet, on the last day of the camp, we received a phone call from the IDF. Nethanel was ordered to come to the recruiting office immediately, to begin his military service. Otherwise, they claimed, he‘ll be jailed for draft evasion. Since the camp’s location was far off the nearest office, we received an extension until the following day.

IN THE WAITING

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I had to stop and pray for a minute and hear from God what to do, so I went to the restroom (the only quiet place at a youth camp), and I asked the Lord in prayer, “What’s happening?”

He reminded me of my prayer on March 27, 2023, just 5 days after the “40 Day Fast to Yeshua”, when I asked him “Dear Father, what is on Your heart for me in this coming season?”.

I received the following verse: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast’. ” (Matthew‬ ‭9:15‬)

Immediately after this verse, I felt the Lord saying - “Come with Me, take a step deeper in, and take the next season where the Bridegroom is taken from you as a time of fasting and mourning. Fast wine, grapes, meat and dairy during this season, and I will give you a heart like My own for My return, until the wedding day when the Bridegroom will return, and you will be His bride, ready and passionately in love, holding a trimmed lamp that is burning with the oil of endurance. And on that day, I will put an end to the longing, the waiting and pain. So that the spiritual picture of marriage reflecting the Messiah of Israel and His church will become reality, fulfilled in your union”.