Thursday, July 31, 2003

In Gen 12:1-3 we read:

1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (KJV)

The blessing which God pronounced upon Abraham and his descendants was passed down to Isaac but not Ishmael, and it was passed down to Jacob but not Esau. It was passed down only to those who had faith in the God of Abraham.

Only those who had faith in God left Egypt with Moses for the promised land. God had prepared Moses and the nation of Israel to enter the promised land and receive the Old Covenant Kingdom, but only Moses, Caleb and Joshua had the faith to believe that God would give them victory over their enemies in the land.

Because most of the nation of Israel refused to enter the land, God announced that they would be punished with forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The people became terrified at that prospect and some of the Jews decided that they would enter the land after all. Moses warned them not to try it because the power of God would not be with them. They entered the land and were slaughtered by the Canaanites. Only after forty years in the wilderness did the nation of Israel enter the promised land and receive the kingdom of the Old Covenant.

After the Lord Jesus was crucified and the Holy Spirit was given, the New Covenant Kingdom was offered to Israel. This was to be the ultimate fulfillment of God’s blessing to Abraham. Again, the nation of Israel refused to enter the promised land because of their unbelief. As a result, God temporarily set aside His promises to Abraham. In our present age, Israel has no special purpose among the nations. However, God has not forsaken His promise to Abraham. God will someday bring the nation of Israel back to the promised land, and they will enter the land through faith and will receive the kingdom of the New Covenant.

Today, there are some Jews who want to take the promised land by force, thinking that it is God’s plan for them to do so. They need to be warned that God is not with them in this effort. They will fail miserably. In fact their efforts will result in the ultimate reign of the antichrist who will slaughter those who try to take the land in their own might.

Daniel prophesied in Dan 11:13-14:

13 For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches.
14 And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. (KJV)

It is not wrong for Israel to have a nation today, but it would be wrong for the nation of Israel to try to take the promise of God by force. When Jesus Christ returns to establish the New Covenant Kingdom, He will defeat the antichrist and give the promised land to a small group of Jewish believers who have faithfully waited upon the Lord. These faithful Jews will be protected in the wilderness during the holocaust of the antichrist just as their forefathers were protected in the wilderness just before the Old Covenant Kingdom.

Today, it is most important that believers teach the nation of Israel about the truth of Jesus Christ and warn the nation of Israel of the dangers of trying to take the promised land by force. It is still true that God will bless those who bless Israel, but believers need to do some serious thinking about the best way to bless Israel.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Other church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

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