I WILL BLESS THOSE THAT BLESS YOU
I Will Bless Those Who Bless You - A Bible Study by Jack Kelley - www.gracethrufaith.com
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:2-3)
" 'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. (Leviticus 25:23-24)
Right from the beginning, the Lord made good on His promise to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him. When the kings of 5 nations kidnapped Lot and his family, Abraham went after them, aided by Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, three leaders of the Amorites. When the dust had settled, Lot was freed, the 5 kings were defeated, and the Amorites received a handsome spoil from the King of Sodom (Gen.14). Those who had blessed Abraham were blessed and those who had cursed him were cursed.
When Pharoah tried to prevent the Israelites from leaving Egypt, pursuing them all the way down the Arabian Peninsula, he and his armies were drowned beneath the Red Sea.
When the Amalekites attacked Israel in the desert and were defeated, the Lord declared war on them "from generation to generation." Seen any Amalekites lately?
When Joshua made a pact with the Gibeonites to help the Israelites during the conquest of the land, the Lord honored it, and the Gibeonites were spared. Later when Saul set out to eliminate them from the land the Lord was angered and sent David to apologize and restore them.
The Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Philistines all gave Israel trouble from time to time after they settled in the land. Sometimes God used them as agents of His judgment against disobedient Israel, and other times it was of their own volition. But eventually their animosity toward Israel brought about their destruction. When the Lord sent Babylon to execute His judgment against Israel, He had Nebuchadnezzar destroy those nations completely.
But even the mighty Babylon earned the Lord's displeasure for the way they treated His people. Informing Jeremiah that as soon as Israel's 70-year exile had been completed, He would judge their captors (Jer. 25:12), He then told Babylon,
"I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, I will continue forever— the eternal queen!' But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
"Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.' Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.'
Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you." (Isaiah 47:6-11)
At the end of the 70 years, the Lord sent the Medes and Persians against them and the great City of Babylon was conquered. Cyrus the Persian set the Israelites free, returned the loot stolen from the Temple and helped them rebuild Jerusalem. In return the Kingdom of Persia enjoyed several generations of peace and prosperity.
When Alexander the Great came through the Middle East but spared Jerusalem, he was blessed with an unbroken string of victories the likes of which the world had never seen, reaching into Africa and all the way across India.
That Was Then. What About Now?
In modern times Israel's first benefactor was Great Britain. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 made the creation of the modern nation possible and in return the Lord gave the British lands that spanned the globe. "The sun never sets on the British Empire," was their legitimate boast. But in the 1930's when they suddenly changed their tune and began a period of open hostility toward Israel things changed. Today most of that Empire is gone and Britain is no longer the dominant world power.
And now it seems like the US is learning a similar lesson. In the 14 years since the Madrid Conference began, a series of "natural" disasters have struck the US, each on the heels of something we did or helped do that runs contrary to God's declaration concerning the real ownership of the Land of Israel. I've listed them below.
1. October 30, 1991: The Perfect Storm—As President George H. W. Bush is opening the Madrid (Spain) Conference to consider "land for peace" in Israel's Middle East role, the "perfect storm" develops in the North Atlantic, creating the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The storm travels 1000 miles from "east to west" instead of the normal "west to east" pattern and crashes into the New England Coast. Thirty-five foot waves crash into the Kennebunkport home of President Bush.
2. August 23, 1992: Hurricane Andrew—When the Madrid Conference moves to Washington DC and the peace talks resume, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster ever to hit America, comes ashore and produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000 homeless in Florida.
3. January 16, 1994: Northridge Earthquake—President Bill Clinton meets with Syria's President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Within 24 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California, This quake, centered in Northridge, becomes the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.
4. January 21, 1998: Lewinsky Scandal—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received. Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him. Shortly afterwards on that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of Clinton's time.
5. September 28, 1998: Hurricane George—As Secretary of State Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel would give up 13 percent of Yesha (Judah and Samaria), Hurricane George slams into the United States Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175 mph. The hurricane hits the coast and stalled. On September 28, Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize this land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, as Hurricane George pounds the Gulf Coast, causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time that Arafat departs the country, the storm begins to dissipate.
6. October 15-22, 1998: Texas Flooded—On October 15, 1998, Arafat and Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland. The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23. On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with rain. The rain and flooding in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside. The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.
7. November 30, 1998: Market Capitalization Evaporates—Arafat comes to Washington again to meet with President Clinton to raise money for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. A total of 42 other nations were represented in Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3 billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the European nations $1.7 billion. On the same day, the Dow Jones average drops 216 points, and on December 1, the European Market had its third worst day in history. Hundreds of billions of market capitalization were wiped out in the U.S. and Europe.
8. December 12, 1998: Clinton is Impeached—As Clinton lands in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel to discuss the "land for peace" process, the House of Representatives votes four articles of impeachment against him.
9. May 3, 1999: The Powerful Super Tornado—On the day that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded. The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him in his "aspirations for his own land." He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to "determine their own future on their own land" and that they deserve to "live free, today, tomorrow and forever."
10. Week of October 11, 1999: Hurricane, Earthquake and Dow Collapse—As Jewish settlers in 15 West Bank (Israel) settlements are evicted from the covenant land in Israel, the Dow-Jones financial averages lose 5.7 percent in the worst week since October 1989. On October 15 the Dow lost 266 points, and a hurricane slams into North Carolina. On the next morning, October 16, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks the southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in 20th Century. The earthquake was centered in the California desert and did little damage but was felt in three states. (From www.truthorfiction.com)
And now we have Hurricane Katrina coming right on the heels of the Gaza evacuation that was supported and even urged upon Israel by the US. Projected to be the most expensive natural disaster in our history, it's the latest in a string of events that most experts agree are too consistent to be mere coincidence, but disagree as to their relevance.
Coincidence Is Not A Kosher Word
Well if it's more than coincidence, then what is it? I believe there are both general and specific issues involved here. First the general. As a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian principles, the US has been blessed beyond measure. One of those blessings is that our way of life has been supernaturally protected by the God in whose name we were founded.
But starting about a generation ago, some Americans began a concerted effort to exclude this benevolent God from our life. While the vast majority disagreed with this effort, we stood by and let it happen. The statutes written into our constitution to guarantee free religious expression were re-interpreted as freedom from religion. School prayer was outlawed, and then all public prayer was challenged. Now some are contending that by merely asking people of faith to pray for the hurricane survivors, President Bush is violating the law. The right of personal choice was expanded to include some forms of murder, and now 40 million children are dead. Homosexuality was first tolerated and then protected, now it's being taught in our schools. The list goes on and on.
God created man with free agency, the right of choice. This includes even the right to accept or reject Him. But with every right comes responsibility, with every choice comes consequences. As we choose to exclude Him, the consequence is a progressive loss of protection. We shouldn't expect Him to go on sheltering us when we're so determined to get Him out of our lives. After all, He's trying to persuade us to return to Him. Blessing us hasn't worked. Perhaps the withdrawal of blessings will.
Now For The Specific.
The lessons of history are unmistakably clear. Those who have blessed Abraham have been blessed, while those who have cursed him have been cursed. When our country makes such an obvious change in course toward Israel as our government has recently made, what right have we to expect anything but disaster? The Law of Cause and Effect is clearly established in the 10 incidents I've listed. Even those who vehemently deny the existence of God have seen the trend.
People of Faith united to determine the outcome of the last election. But on the issue of Israel we're hopelessly divided. Many of us have been so blinded by the heresy called Replacement Theology (it teaches that the Church has replaced Israel in God's plan) that we're like Belshazzar, the spoiled Prince of Babylon. We're trembling in fear but can't read the handwriting on the wall.
We need to forget everything else where Israel's concerned and remember this one thing. God has claimed that land for Himself. No power on Earth is great enough to give even one inch of it to anyone else at any time for any reason without suffering the consequences. We now have eleven clear examples of that truth. How many will it take before we learn?
__________________________________________________________________
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:2-3)
" 'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. (Leviticus 25:23-24)
Right from the beginning, the Lord made good on His promise to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him. When the kings of 5 nations kidnapped Lot and his family, Abraham went after them, aided by Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, three leaders of the Amorites. When the dust had settled, Lot was freed, the 5 kings were defeated, and the Amorites received a handsome spoil from the King of Sodom (Gen.14). Those who had blessed Abraham were blessed and those who had cursed him were cursed.
When Pharoah tried to prevent the Israelites from leaving Egypt, pursuing them all the way down the Arabian Peninsula, he and his armies were drowned beneath the Red Sea.
When the Amalekites attacked Israel in the desert and were defeated, the Lord declared war on them "from generation to generation." Seen any Amalekites lately?
When Joshua made a pact with the Gibeonites to help the Israelites during the conquest of the land, the Lord honored it, and the Gibeonites were spared. Later when Saul set out to eliminate them from the land the Lord was angered and sent David to apologize and restore them.
The Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Philistines all gave Israel trouble from time to time after they settled in the land. Sometimes God used them as agents of His judgment against disobedient Israel, and other times it was of their own volition. But eventually their animosity toward Israel brought about their destruction. When the Lord sent Babylon to execute His judgment against Israel, He had Nebuchadnezzar destroy those nations completely.
But even the mighty Babylon earned the Lord's displeasure for the way they treated His people. Informing Jeremiah that as soon as Israel's 70-year exile had been completed, He would judge their captors (Jer. 25:12), He then told Babylon,
"I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, I will continue forever— the eternal queen!' But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
"Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.' Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.'
Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you." (Isaiah 47:6-11)
At the end of the 70 years, the Lord sent the Medes and Persians against them and the great City of Babylon was conquered. Cyrus the Persian set the Israelites free, returned the loot stolen from the Temple and helped them rebuild Jerusalem. In return the Kingdom of Persia enjoyed several generations of peace and prosperity.
When Alexander the Great came through the Middle East but spared Jerusalem, he was blessed with an unbroken string of victories the likes of which the world had never seen, reaching into Africa and all the way across India.
That Was Then. What About Now?
In modern times Israel's first benefactor was Great Britain. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 made the creation of the modern nation possible and in return the Lord gave the British lands that spanned the globe. "The sun never sets on the British Empire," was their legitimate boast. But in the 1930's when they suddenly changed their tune and began a period of open hostility toward Israel things changed. Today most of that Empire is gone and Britain is no longer the dominant world power.
And now it seems like the US is learning a similar lesson. In the 14 years since the Madrid Conference began, a series of "natural" disasters have struck the US, each on the heels of something we did or helped do that runs contrary to God's declaration concerning the real ownership of the Land of Israel. I've listed them below.
1. October 30, 1991: The Perfect Storm—As President George H. W. Bush is opening the Madrid (Spain) Conference to consider "land for peace" in Israel's Middle East role, the "perfect storm" develops in the North Atlantic, creating the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The storm travels 1000 miles from "east to west" instead of the normal "west to east" pattern and crashes into the New England Coast. Thirty-five foot waves crash into the Kennebunkport home of President Bush.
2. August 23, 1992: Hurricane Andrew—When the Madrid Conference moves to Washington DC and the peace talks resume, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster ever to hit America, comes ashore and produces an estimated $30 billion in damage and leaving 180,000 homeless in Florida.
3. January 16, 1994: Northridge Earthquake—President Bill Clinton meets with Syria's President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes giving up the Golan Heights. Within 24 hours, a powerful 6.9 earthquake rocks Southern California, This quake, centered in Northridge, becomes the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the United States, behind Hurricane Andrew.
4. January 21, 1998: Lewinsky Scandal—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Clinton at the White House and is coldly received. Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright refuse to have lunch with him. Shortly afterwards on that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks into the mass media and begins to occupy a major portion of Clinton's time.
5. September 28, 1998: Hurricane George—As Secretary of State Albright works on the final details of an agreement in which Israel would give up 13 percent of Yesha (Judah and Samaria), Hurricane George slams into the United States Gulf Coast with 110 mph winds and gusts up to 175 mph. The hurricane hits the coast and stalled. On September 28, Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize this land deal. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999, as Hurricane George pounds the Gulf Coast, causing $1 billion in damage. At the exact time that Arafat departs the country, the storm begins to dissipate.
6. October 15-22, 1998: Texas Flooded—On October 15, 1998, Arafat and Netanyahu meet at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland. The talks are scheduled to last five days with the focus on Israel giving up 13 percent of Yesha. The talks are extended and conclude on October 23. On October 17, awesome rains and tornadoes hit southern Texas. The San Antonio area is deluged with rain. The rain and flooding in Texas continue until October 22 and then subside. The floods ravage 25 percent of Texas and leave over one billion dollars in damage. On October 21, Clinton declares this section of Texas a major disaster area.
7. November 30, 1998: Market Capitalization Evaporates—Arafat comes to Washington again to meet with President Clinton to raise money for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. A total of 42 other nations were represented in Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3 billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the European nations $1.7 billion. On the same day, the Dow Jones average drops 216 points, and on December 1, the European Market had its third worst day in history. Hundreds of billions of market capitalization were wiped out in the U.S. and Europe.
8. December 12, 1998: Clinton is Impeached—As Clinton lands in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel to discuss the "land for peace" process, the House of Representatives votes four articles of impeachment against him.
9. May 3, 1999: The Powerful Super Tornado—On the day that Yasser Arafat is scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital, the most powerful tornado storm system ever to hit the United States sweeps across Oklahoma and Kansas. The winds are clocked at 316 mph the fastest wind speed ever recorded. The declaration is postponed to December 1999 at the request of President Clinton, whose letter to Arafat encourages him in his "aspirations for his own land." He also writes that the Palestinians have a right to "determine their own future on their own land" and that they deserve to "live free, today, tomorrow and forever."
10. Week of October 11, 1999: Hurricane, Earthquake and Dow Collapse—As Jewish settlers in 15 West Bank (Israel) settlements are evicted from the covenant land in Israel, the Dow-Jones financial averages lose 5.7 percent in the worst week since October 1989. On October 15 the Dow lost 266 points, and a hurricane slams into North Carolina. On the next morning, October 16, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocks the southwest in the fifth most powerful earthquake in 20th Century. The earthquake was centered in the California desert and did little damage but was felt in three states. (From www.truthorfiction.com)
And now we have Hurricane Katrina coming right on the heels of the Gaza evacuation that was supported and even urged upon Israel by the US. Projected to be the most expensive natural disaster in our history, it's the latest in a string of events that most experts agree are too consistent to be mere coincidence, but disagree as to their relevance.
Coincidence Is Not A Kosher Word
Well if it's more than coincidence, then what is it? I believe there are both general and specific issues involved here. First the general. As a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian principles, the US has been blessed beyond measure. One of those blessings is that our way of life has been supernaturally protected by the God in whose name we were founded.
But starting about a generation ago, some Americans began a concerted effort to exclude this benevolent God from our life. While the vast majority disagreed with this effort, we stood by and let it happen. The statutes written into our constitution to guarantee free religious expression were re-interpreted as freedom from religion. School prayer was outlawed, and then all public prayer was challenged. Now some are contending that by merely asking people of faith to pray for the hurricane survivors, President Bush is violating the law. The right of personal choice was expanded to include some forms of murder, and now 40 million children are dead. Homosexuality was first tolerated and then protected, now it's being taught in our schools. The list goes on and on.
God created man with free agency, the right of choice. This includes even the right to accept or reject Him. But with every right comes responsibility, with every choice comes consequences. As we choose to exclude Him, the consequence is a progressive loss of protection. We shouldn't expect Him to go on sheltering us when we're so determined to get Him out of our lives. After all, He's trying to persuade us to return to Him. Blessing us hasn't worked. Perhaps the withdrawal of blessings will.
Now For The Specific.
The lessons of history are unmistakably clear. Those who have blessed Abraham have been blessed, while those who have cursed him have been cursed. When our country makes such an obvious change in course toward Israel as our government has recently made, what right have we to expect anything but disaster? The Law of Cause and Effect is clearly established in the 10 incidents I've listed. Even those who vehemently deny the existence of God have seen the trend.
People of Faith united to determine the outcome of the last election. But on the issue of Israel we're hopelessly divided. Many of us have been so blinded by the heresy called Replacement Theology (it teaches that the Church has replaced Israel in God's plan) that we're like Belshazzar, the spoiled Prince of Babylon. We're trembling in fear but can't read the handwriting on the wall.
We need to forget everything else where Israel's concerned and remember this one thing. God has claimed that land for Himself. No power on Earth is great enough to give even one inch of it to anyone else at any time for any reason without suffering the consequences. We now have eleven clear examples of that truth. How many will it take before we learn?
__________________________________________________________________
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