America is at a crossroads! Will we believe and obey the Word of God concerning Israel, or will we continue to equivocate and sympathize with Israel’s enemies?
The cornerstone of this Middle East policy, the alleged Roadmap for Peace, is to divide the land of Israel to create a terrorist-ruled Islamic Palestinian state, whose stated objective is the destruction of Israel.
Here’s the problem.
God promises to pour out His judgment on any nation that tries to divide up the land of Israel. Listen to the voice of God as it speaks through His prophet Joel: “I will also gather all nations, and . . .enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land. . . .Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision,” (Joel 3:2, 14).
God’s Word is very clear. There will be grave consequences for the nation or nations that attempt to divide up the land of Israel. God’s love for Israel is expressed in the words of Zechariah: “He who touches you [Israel] touches the apple of His eye.” (Zech. 2:8).
God continues expressing His love for Israel, saying, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you,” (Gen. 12:3). This is and has been God’s foreign policy toward the Jewish people from Genesis 12 until this day. Any man or nation that persecutes the Jewish people or the State of Israel will receive the swift judgment of God.
There are biblical reasons why America and all Bible-believing Christians must stand with Israel and their claim to the land.
1. Israel is the only nation created by a sovereign act of God.
Israel belongs to God Himself. As Creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), God had the right of ownership to give the land to whomever He chose. God gave the title deed for the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants “forever” (Gen. 15:18; 17:2–8). Ishmael, father of Arabs, was excluded from the title deed to the land in Genesis 17:19–21. Therefore, modern-day Palestinians have no biblical mandate to own the land. The boundaries of the State of Israel are recorded in Scripture. (See Numbers 34:2–15; Joshua 11:16–23; 13:1–22.) The boundaries are further described in Ezekiel 47:13–28 and all of chapter 48. When God established the nations of the world, He began with Israel. Israel is the center of the universe in the mind of God. (See Deuteronomy 32:8–10; Numbers 34:10–15; Joshua 11:16–22.)
2. Christians owe a debt of eternal gratitude to the Jewish people for their contributions, which gave birth to the Christian faith.
Paul recorded in Romans 15:27, “For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their [the Jews] spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.” Jesus Christ, a prominent rabbi from Nazareth, said, “Salvation is of the Jews,” (John 4:22). Consider what the Jewish people have given to Christianity:
- The sacred Scripture
- The prophets
- The patriarchs
- Mary, Joseph and Jesus of Nazareth
- The 12 disciples
- The apostles
It is not possible to say, “I am a Christian,” and not love the Jewish people. The Bible teaches that love is not what you say, but love is what you do (1 John 3:18).
3. Jesus never denied His Jewishness.
While some Christians try to deny the connection between Jesus of Nazareth and the Jews of the world, Jesus never denied His Jewishness. He was born Jewish. He was circumcised on the eighth day in keeping with Jewish tradition. He had His bar mitzvah on His 13th birthday. He kept the Law of Moses. He wore the prayer shawl Moses commanded all Jewish men to wear. He died on the cross with an inscription over His head, “King of the Jews.”
Jesus considered the Jewish people His family. Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren [the Jewish people. . .Gentiles were never called His brethren], ye have done it unto me,” (Matt. 25:40, KJV).
4. Christians are to support Israel because it brings the blessings of God to them personally.
In Psalm 122:6, King David commands all Christians, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.” The Scriptural principle of personal prosperity is tied to blessing Israel and the city of Jerusalem.
Why did Jesus Christ go to the house of Cornelius in Capernaum and heal his servant who was ready to die? Jesus went because the Gentile centurion deserved the blessing of God because he had demonstrated his love for the Jews by building a synagogue in Israel (Luke 7:5). When you do things to bless the Jewish people and the State of Israel, God will bless you.
Why did God the Father select the house of Cornelius in Caesarea to be the first Gentile house in Israel to receive the gospel? The answer is given repeatedly in Acts 10:2, “. . . a devout man [Cornelius] and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.” Who were the people to whom Cornelius gave these alms? They were the Jewish people that lived around him.
Acts 10:4 states: “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.”
Acts 10:31 reads: “. . . your alms are remembered in the sight of God.”
The point is made three times in the same chapter. A righteous Gentile who expressed his unconditional love for the Jewish people in a practical manner was divinely selected by heaven to be the first Gentile house to receive the gospel of salvation and the first to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
These combined Scriptures verify that prosperity (Gen. 12:3; Ps. 122:6), divine healing (Luke 7:1–5) and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10) came first to Gentiles who blessed the Jewish people and the nation of Israel in a practical manner. Paul expands on this teaching in Romans 15:27.
5. God judges the Gentiles for their abuse of the Jews.
In Exodus 17, there’s the story of the Amalekites, who attacked the children of Israel as they came up out of Egypt en route to the Promised Land. Because the Amalekites, who were descendants of Esau, whom God hated, attacked the Jewish people, God promised to be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Where is the Roman Empire? Where are the Greeks? Where are the Babylonians? Where are the Turks? Where is the Ottoman Empire? Where are Adolf Hitler and his goose-stepping Nazis? They are all footnotes in the boneyard of human history, because they all made a common mistake—they attacked the Jewish people and God Almighty brought them to nothing.
God promises to punish the nations that come against Israel (Gen. 12:3). America, the Arabs, the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, China—indeed, all nations—are in the valley of decision. Every nation that presumes to interfere with God’s plan for Israel, including the United States, stands not only against Israel but also ultimately against God. God is rising to judge the nations of the world based on their treatment of the State of Israel.
To learn more about the biblical prophecies regarding Israel and Jerusalem, click here for Pastor John Hagee’s book, “Jerusalem Countdown.”
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