WORDS about the WORD

“ So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River.” -Genesis 15:18-19 (NLT) Recent events have laid heavy on my heart, mind, and soul (perhaps yours as well): The evil that has unfolded in the nation of Israel. The barbarity and willful slaughter, rape, and butchery of babies, children, women, men, the young and the old. It is sickening, appalling and demonic. How canwepossiblycomprehend this madness? This wickedness?

This hatred of those who proclaimed the knowledge and message of the One and only God, Elohim, far predated the incarnation of the Messiah (of Christ) into theworld.Fromthemoment God choseAbraham and his descendants through Isaac as His chosen people, the forces of evil have been out to destroy that people. In fact, if you look at the story ofAbram, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael, you can see even there that Satan was trying to sidetrack God’s plan by enticing Abram and Sarai to take matters into their own hands.

Ishmael who would be the child of Abram and Hagar would be the father of the Ishmaelites, who would become known today as theArabs, and Ishmael is recognized by Muslims as the forefather of Adnan, the forefather of Muhammad.

So, this battle between thedescendantsofAbraham through Isaac and Ishmael goes back to the very beginning of both peoples, thousands of years ago. One people through God’s plan, through Isaac as God’s chosen people. And one people through a human, worldly plan, through Ishmael. (A human plan that was not of God.)

The disdain of God’s chosen people is because of the fact that they are God’s chosen people... You see in reality it is a hatred of God. The Bible says, people love darkness (John 3:19). They don’t want the message of God, and they will seek to destroy those chosen by God to bring His word. They also hate the fact that the Messiah, Christ Jesus, came through the Jews to bring salvation to a fallen world, to fallen humankind (and a fallen Satan wants no one to be saved).

Down through the centuries Satan has used many different groups of people to try to wipeout, to exterminate God’s chosen people, the Jews. The Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Hittites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, (all of these are now gone, but the Jews remain). Later it would be reprehensible Christians during the Crusades, the Inquisition, and other times of persecution, who did the devil’s work. In modern times, the Nazis very nearly wiped out the Jews in Europe by the most barbarous of means. Today groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and the State of Iran, have vowed to destroy Israel and the Jews.

Let me be clear when I say that not all who are part of any people group are doing the devil’s work. God raises people up from all peoples, and the Bible states that the saved on earth will come from all peoples, “ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

-Revelation 7:9 (NIV) Yet many are doing the devil’s work. I heard an Hamas leader state that he wished he could get all the Jews in one place so that it would be easier to kill them all at once. It’s Satanic.

As Christians we too are children of Abraham, children of the promise. Paul wrote, “ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. -Galatians 3:26-29 (NIV) We as Christian are children of the promise and therefore hated by those who want God’s people destroyed. Thatiswhyyouwill hear some of these groups that want to kill Jews say, “First we kill the Saturday people (Jews), then the Sunday people (Christians)!” or “First we destroy the Little Satan (Israel) then the Great Satan (America, the West)!”

The Bible tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), as people of God let us then be in prayer and pray for the day when there will be everlasting peace through the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.