Nurturing God’s Seed
Table of Contents
We are living in a world where many of the lessons of the past are forgotten. Where the things that came before to pave the way for the things of today are easily overlooked. And while we are not meant to live in the past or to have soul ties with it, it is in the past where the fruit we enjoy today was once planted… where we can find our roots!
Join us below as we discover the importance of seed—both the seeds of the past and the seeds we are meant to plant today—and how we can benefit from the lessons of seed and harvest…
The Past—A Place of Planted Seed
1925 was relatively calm, even so soon after WWI and Germany’s financial collapse… and even with the coming unrest that would flame from there. It was in this year that Simcha and Fruna Perlmutter, living in Poland, would have their firstborn. A baby girl, named Tchiya Perlmutter…
“I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’”
—Psalm 91:2
But why are we speaking of a girl born approximately a century ago? What makes Tchiya’s life so significant?
Well, Tchiya was a Jew, born with the Holocaust seemingly hot on the heels of her birth… a time when the enemy was awakening to the threat of Abraham’s seed…
The Jewish people primarily are, and were, a people who follow God and His ways—who are in covenant with Him. Not a perfect people, as none are, but those to whom both great blessing and cursing have come.
It is written in Romans 2:9-10 (NIV), “…first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Good comes to the Jew first, then to the Gentile; as do times of trouble and tribulation. In both cases, it is up to us to pay heed to what is happening to God’s seed.
As Believers in Yeshua, we need to be aware of what has happened to the Jewish people—and what is happening to them today. We cannot afford to disregard our Jewish brothers and sisters… nor are we meant to.
A Life and A Legacy
So, why mention one particular Jewish girl born in Poland in 1925? Why should we care?
Apart from the reason of all life being valuable, of every life and story that holds lessons, there are two main reasons why Tchiya’s life matters to us as Believers and why we need to discover her legacy.
First, Tchiya was born a daughter of Abraham, a seed set in place so that it would take root and grow into God’s promise. Because His promise is to the Jew first, awareness is key.
Second, we must look at what took place in Tchiya’s life not many years later; what needs to be remembered and fulfilled, and what we need to do now to remind ourselves of God’s promises—to have our eyes opened and remember the Jewish roots of our Christian faith.
Tchiya…
In 1925 Tchiya Perlmutter was born to intellectual parents—her father, Simcha, was a professor, and both he and her mother, Fruna, acted as civic leaders. Together, with her younger sister, Shulamit, they lived in Horochow, Poland.
Fourteen years after Tchiya’s birth, Germany invaded Horochow, and their Soviet Union allies occupied the area. Yet, her family—like many—remained despite the occupation and anti-Semitism. But it was not until 1941, three years after the Nazi occupation, when a ghetto was built in Horochow that many began to see the danger…
A few months after the Perlmutter family was put into the ghetto, Fruna started to hear rumors that the ghetto was about to be destroyed. She understood that it would not mean freedom for them, but almost certainly a worse fate. So, like any good mother when her children are threatened, Fruna tried to protect them—to help them escape.
Now a young woman with immense spirit, seventeen-year-old Tchiya was to hide with a nearby Polish family after escaping her usual work detail… but things did not go as planned. Tchiya was betrayed to the Germans.
Yet, unlike so many others who were captured, Tchiya was not taken to a camp to be gassed or die a slow death, nor was she taken to the woods to be shot. Instead, she was stripped of her clothes and led through the streets of the city she had known as home, before finally being tortured and killed.
Nurturing the Seed and the Tree
When reading a story like Tchiya’s, thoughts and questions run through our minds: How could God have allowed this to happen? Why is such a horrible story important to remember? I would rather not know.
Yet, there are so many reasons why we need to know. And ultimately, we have to remember: God did not cause the Holocaust, man did.
Through the horrors, tears, and anguish of the Holocaust, God brought beauty from the ashes… but He did not cause the ashes. He was not bringing punishment to His people. God did not just stand by; He was there, weeping with His people for the transgressions against them.
Within the events of the Holocaust, God gave His grafted-in Gentiles the ability to act—a chance to remember His people, as well as their importance to Him—and to remind them that if they are grafted into a Jewish tree, then they must nurture that tree which they are now a part of, or both will perish.
It is to the Jew first. We, as Gentiles, are just as important in God’s eyes, but the blessings of God flow through the trunk of the Jew and out to the branches of the Gentiles.
If sorrow touches the roots of the tree, will not the branches feel it soon after?
If joy and life touch the roots of the tree, will not the branches feel it in time?
It is time that we, the grafted-in, act!
The Holocaust is over, and Israel—one of the major ‘beauty from ashes’ demonstrations of God—is not only alive, but thriving! But this does not mean there is nothing left for us to do… we can still act! We can still do what God wants us to do… take care of, and live in love with, our Jewish brothers and sisters.
At Curt Landry Ministries we take many steps to help restore the land and people of Israel, inviting the fulfillment of biblical prophecy… yet one thing near and dear to our hearts is to bring God’s refuge to those still affected by the Holocaust.
To bless and love Holocaust survivors!
“Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.”
—Psalm 62:8
Every year, Jews such as Tchiya, would have heard and said the prayer, ‘Next year in Jerusalem!’
When YOU become a covenant partner or donate to support Holocaust survivors, you are not only helping Holocaust survivors, you are bringing hope to the people of Israel—to the families of Holocaust victims like Tchiya. You are being the Light of Yeshua to our brothers and sisters in God.
Let us never forget where our seed originated, and let us never forget that it is first to the Jew—so when Israel is blessed, when the Jews are blessed, then we in turn… will be blessed!