"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ~Genesis 12:3Further, I look back throughout the Old Testament at God's great judgments on those nations and people who came against Israel - even when God was actually using those attacks to judge His people. Syria crushed Israel, and subsequently was crushed. Where are the Babylonians today?
Yet I see a trend in modern Israel that truly concerns me. As a nation, just how much are they reflecting and BEING God's people? They have rejected Jesus, just as their forefathers did. But even that doesn't appear to be reason to turn our backs on the nation that calls itself "Israel". I have inquired of seminary professors, and even practicing Jewish people as to how today's Jewish people, especially in Israel, the so-called homeland, can claim to be practicing their faith, when there is no sacrifice (must be necessary if they do not accept the atoning death of Jesus Christ)? Yet even that isn't enough to convince me to turn from Israel.
Indeed, Israel is playing the victim in the region. They are subject to massive hatred by the vast majority of their neighbors. There are many nations who have called very loudly for the extermination of Israel and "all the Jews". Israel has been, and continues to be, the recipient of terrorist attacks since the re-establishment of the nation Israel in the years following World War II. She has been directly attacked repeatedly, including a handful of wars, all of which led to Israel's military victory, despite some often overwhelming odds.
But something very close to my heart has surfaced recently, something that really causes me to question my support of the nation Israel. Something that makes it quite evident that the nation's leaders are not followers of God (YHWH). Something that flies in the face of Scripture. Something that God made very evident was completely and totally unacceptable.
Leviticus 18:21 "You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord."
In today's time, there is one regularly-done equal to the act described (prohibited) by the Lord in Leviticus 18 - and that is abortion. Abortion is the singe most selfish act invented by mankind. Aborted children are figuratively offered on the altar of the "me first cult". Israel's government has been paying for abortions for some women, restricted to cases of rape, insets, and direct threat to health. While I still do not agree with that, it much mirrors the rest of the "civilized world" (using the term loosely), Israel is preparing to open and expand their funding of abortion without those limitations or criteria.
Government Panel Recommends Free Abortions
From Jerusalem Post
Christian Post
They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. ~Jeremiah 32:35
“Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ~ Leviticus 20:2
Israel desperately needs a King Josiah of Judah, who will return the nation to God's Word.
"And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech." ~ 2 Kings 23:10
And it is this latest move by Israel's government that causes me great concern. I fail to see how the slaughter of unborn babies in any way glorifies the God they claim to belong to. But I'm sure their Islamic neighbors laugh aloud that these supposed "people of God" would return yet again like a dog returns to his vomit... (Proverbs 26:11) to their self-destructive ways.
There are Christians here in the US who have committed themselves to fighting ungodly abomination of abortion here at home, who are like myself - supporters of Israel. I cannot help but think we might ought to take a step back and re-evaluate that support.
And to take it a step farther - maybe its time we were brutally honest in our appraisal of the modern nation of "Israel", questioning if they really are representative of the "Israel" of the Bible that God so clearly promised to bless or curse those who bless or curse them...
Until next update...
3 comments:
I mean no disrespect, but it is interesting to me that their rejection of Jesus does not seem to be as troubling to you as their embrace of the culture of death through abortion. I would probably argue that what is happening now is a symptom of their rejection of Christ.
I would also be curious to know if you think we should turn our backs on our own nation as well. And what, exactly would turning our backs on Israel, in your mind, look like?
Hey Joseph, thanks for the comment.
What shall we do with the admonition that says God will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse her? Or can we safely conclude that this was a promise made only in reference to the earliest people and the Hebrew people of the time?
There are many reasons to support Israel - from the fact that, despite the world's assertions otherwise, is the most religiously tolerant nation in the region (people are free to practice Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc.). They are the closest thing to a real democracy in the region. They have acted fairly consistently as a "friend" of the US.
But my intent was to ask the question if "Israel" of today (as in - the nation) is really "Israel".
I realize I didn't really address their rejection of Christ that is, though less violent today, still a reality. It is not that I do not desire that they too "come to repentance".
But it comes back to the "Christian/Fundamentalist (and often Dispensationalist) defense of unconditional support of the current Nation of Israel based on that single line of scripture regarding blessing and cursing Israel. The question must be asked, if one is going to rest his or her whole case on that fragment - IS Israel, as she stands today, really the modern version of the biblical Israel.
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