At a recent conference by AIPAC, a congressional lobbying group for the support of Israel, a discussion arose over the apparent erosion of American support for Israel. Speeches have been made by our President and members of Congress to the contrary, but there have been actions taken by those same leaders that could cause a group such as AIPAC to perceive things in such a manner.
I see it myself, and I’m not a member of AIPAC. It is a sign of the times we are living in, and whether the softening of support for Israel is real or perceived, it will happen. Some will say it is because we need closer ties with Saudi Arabia – they have oil and Israel does not. Others will believe that if we stay out of the turmoil in the Middle East, we will make ourselves less of a target for Islamic terrorist attacks. Oddly, fifty years ago or so it would have been chalked up to anti-Semitism, but I do not believe that there can be a case made for that today with our modern ‘diversified’ society. I could be wrong.
This is not a political column and I’m not heading in that direction if you are wondering by this point. There are more than enough political columns out there, with rhetoric from every angle of the spectrum. Not just on the subject of the Middle East, but spirited discourse from/for any and every section of the globe.
Our ties will eventually be broken with Israel because the Bible tells us so. The Bible has a very clean track-record in the area of forecasting world events, for those who pay attention to what is recorded there. “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” That verse is recorded in Zechariah Chapter 12, and it would do us all good to read and mediate on what is written there – that time Zechariah wrote about is getting close to becoming a reality in our very own current day and age.
I was thinking about this the other day, and it gave me pause, wondering if there was anything else “I” could do. If it is set in stone that it is going to happen just that way, by all that I believe in, should I simply sit back and wait for it to happen? I decided that I could pray for the nation of Israel. Yeah, that would do it for me. I’d feel better about it, at least for a little while anyway. But a certain ‘still, small voice’ told my heart that there was something else that I could do.
God promised Abram in Genesis 12 that He would make of Abram a great nation. He did just that; changing Abram’s name to Abraham and blessing his descendents to the point that they are still the nation of Israel today. But God also made another promise in the third verse of that chapter and it is one that still applies to us today. “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.” We (Gentiles) were blessed through Abraham by Jesus Christ (a Jew) redeeming us by paying the ultimate penalty for our sin on the cross. All the families of earth were blessed by this, and it is simply a matter of acceptance on our part to get that blessing into our own hearts and lives.
But God also promised us that if we choose to ‘bless’ Abraham’s seed, we would be blessed. If we choose to ‘curse’ Abraham’s seed, the polar opposite is true. Today I choose to bless the nation of Israel. A quick search on Google, and within seconds I had several hits on charities in Israel. Reading what I could (because you have to be careful today) I chose ‘American Friends of Magen David Adom’ which is, in essence, the Israeli version of our American ‘Red Cross’. I used my debit card and sent them a small donation, joined their mailing list, and browsed the web-site for examples of the work they perform. I was impressed – they spend millions each year helping the victims of terrorist acts that occur on an almost daily basis within their borders. I am going to play this one by ear, with a starting goal of making a monthly contribution. It will be small, due the current state of my household economics, but it will be constant. I have faith that God will use it for His people.
In so doing, I may have thrown down the gauntlet on God’s Word and the promise found within this verse. Yet still, it will be very hard in my eyes for God to bless me more than He has already done so.
To make your own contribution: http://www.afmda.org/
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