Our Story
The journey begin...
Several years ago, my wife and I attended a Passover Seder in which we discovered a deeper understanding of God plan for salvation unfolded as we saw the traditional Jewish celebration of this biblical feast. Not only has God instituted this Feast to remind Israel of their deliverance from slavery, but it foreshadowed the final redemption of Israel and the whole world. That night, for the first time we learned that Yeshua (Jesus) himself used the Passover Seder and specifically the third cup (cup of salvation) to initiate the Berit Hadashah (New Covenant) that was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31.
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”[1]
With this new understanding of the Jewish context of the Bible, our hunger to know the Jewish roots of our faith began to grow. What started out as hunger, become a passion when we took a biblical Hebrew class. For many years we have read the scriptures and studied the bible, but it was not until we learned about the Hebrew language did we see the depth of God’s heart and plan for salvation preparing His people to receive “The Anointed One” the Messiah.
Learning Hebrew was like having a new set of eyes and ears, our hearts burned like the men on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 as Jesus was explaining the Scriptures beginning with Moses, all the Prophets. Later in verse 44, Jesus explains to the Disciples that He fulfilled all that was written of Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Since the Jewish Scriptures are organized into three sections, the Torah, Prophets and the Writings, Jesus was literally saying that the entire Jewish Scriptures speak of Him.
We have come to deeply appreciate God’s great demonstration of love and gift of salvation through our Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) that God planned from the foundation of the world beginning in Genesis 3:15.
Our store name came from the understanding that by the death and resurrection of Jesus, we Gentiles (non-Jews) have been given special privilege to be joined into the promises of Abraham as a wild branch grafted into the family of God as explained in Romans 11:17
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,
As we studied Jesus in the Tanakh (Old Testament), our love for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people grew. We really have a heart for them to know their Messiah, and experience the same personal relationship with God we have as was promised to Israel in Isaiah 49:6-7
6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One
Our visit to Israel just confirmed God’s love for the nation of Israel, and stirrings of the hearts of the Jewish people as they recognize His blessings upon them. We are longing for the day the Jews cry out to Yeshua and say “Baruch haba b’shem Adonai” (Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD), Psalms 188:26 & Luke 13:35.
As we celebrate the Hebrew language, and selected specific verses in the hopes that our quality products will be a reminder of God’s faithfulness of his promises to both us and to the Jewish Nation, and inspire positive dialog about the Gospel’s Jewish Roots and the complete work of Christ our Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace).
Blessings,
Mike & Kim Marquez
[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Je 31:31–34). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.