BY PASTOR JACK WARD
Genesis 12:1-3: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 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.”
When Mark Twain toured the land of Israel, then called “Palestine,” in 1867, desolation was widespread, and he noted it quite graphically in his book, “The Innocents Abroad.” Mark Twain called Israel then “barren symmetry.”
From every corner of the earth the Jew has been going home. There is something undeniable here for understanding the truth of what is going on. In reality God is causing these things. He has a reason for causing them and that reason is the land must be made ready for the final chapter—the restoration of the people to their land and to their Messiah.
The Arab nations, with their hundreds of millions of people and multiplied fortunes in oil, surround them, yet they are decades behind in technology, food production, etc. Israel is leading not only the region, but in some areas they are even leading the world.
Some examples of what God is doing in Israel, which is about the size of New Jersey, are: Fourth longest life expectancy in the world at 82 years (longer than the U.S., the U.K. and Germany); more Nobel Prizes per capita than the U.S., France and Germany; the only country on earth to enter the 21st century with a net gain of trees (amazing in that it is 60% desert); scientific research institutions are ranked third in the world; produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin; leads the world in patents for medical equipment; highest standard of living in the Middle East and third highest in Asia, and the list could go on.
Not bad for a country that was born in a scorpion-infested, malaria-plagued, sparsely inhabited land, 75% of which was immediately expropriated by a spiteful world and given to people with a visceral hatred for them.
It is a fact that though the Jews are going back to their own land, they are going back in unbelief regarding Jesus being their Messiah. Beginning at the mid-point of the tribulation and continuing until the second Coming, God is going to allow the last great Gentile world ruler and his anti-Semitic world to lead another holocaust. Sixty-six percent of Jewish people in Israel will die in the process. But at the same time God will also pour out His wrath on this Jesus-rejecting, Jew-hating world for its gleeful attempt to annihilate Israel.
Blessing or curse? What will it be for America? Right now support for Israel is at the lowest point ever.
Replacement theology in most churches today teaches that Israel has been replaced by the church and is no longer a part of God’s final plan. But how do you explain the way they have come back? Explain the promise of a land forever in Genesis 15:18 and Chapter 18. How do you explain Ezekiel Chapters 36-39, Zechariah Chapters 12 and 14? Read Jeremiah Chapter 31 where Israel is God’s forever people, and Romans Chapter 11 where God is never done with Israel. Read about the 144,000 Jews in Revelation Chapters 7 and 8. Genesis 12:3: “I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curseth thee.”
You have been warned!
Listen to Pastor Jack’s sermons every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on 98.9 WSIP FM. Check out the Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church’s Facebook page and website: tomahawkmbc.com.