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Please remember, God has not left it to chance, to humankind, to Christian or world rulers, as to where nations should dwell. This particularly applies to the nation of Israel. In the Abrahamic Covenant God said: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give unto you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7-8, emphasis added).
Moses made the point that God has set boundaries for all the nations, not just Israel: “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8).
Even Paul reminds us that it is God who determines where, when, and how nations will be established: “He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26).
When God said the Jewish homeland would be their “everlasting possession, He meant it. Even when they were dispossessed of the land for nearly 2,000 years, they never lost their title to it (Psalm 105:8-11). Consider this promise of the Lord: “‘For, behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall possess it’” (Jeremiah 30:3).
In that same Abrahamic Covenant in which God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish descendants of Abraham, He also made an amazing series of promises: “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). God has been faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant. As He promised, God did make Abraham’s name great. His name is better known around the world than any other person of antiquity.
God also promised that He would make Abraham and his offspring a blessing to the world, and He did that by sending the Messiah through them. His promise that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel has proved true time and again in history. God cursed Spain for persecuting the Jews with the Inquisition and then forcefully expelling them, and Spain has never risen to her former glory. God cursed Germany for slaughtering the Jews during World War II. Germany was defeated and remains a second-rate nation even today. On the other hand, God blessed England for protecting the Jews and helping them (sometimes haltingly) to establish a homeland in Israel. As a direct result of his support for the Jews, God blessed Winston Churchill and helped his nation overcome Hitler’s great military might. Nothing, in my judgment, can account for England’s victory over the Nazi menace but God’s promise that He will bless them that bless Israel.
In ancient times, the Egyptians enslaved the Jewish people and tried to destroy them. You can read about it in the Book of Exodus. But God cursed the Egyptians and their great empire fell. It has never risen again. The Romans persecuted the Jews horribly and drove them out of their homeland in 70 AD, and God retaliated by cursing Rome. They lost their empire and their power when God took His hand off of them. The Tsars of Russia persecuted the Jews throughout their history. God punished Russia by putting it under the yoke of Communism for 70 years. Many people do not know or understand the promise of God concerning treatment of Israel and the Jews. If they did, they would know that the best thing our leaders could do to inherit the blessing of God upon our nations is to bless Israel in every way imaginable. This would result in the blessing of God upon our nations — “the blessing of the Lord, which makes rich and will not allow sorrow to continue” (Proverbs 10:22).
Christians should be concerned about what is happening in Israel today and how their respective nations are treating Israel because God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel. Oh! What we have lost by not blessing Israel! May God forgive us.
