World Affairs

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     There has been much consideration and discussion about God’s decision to choose Israel over the other nations of the earth. Many, without fully understanding the full significance of God’s decision to choose one nation for His purposes, have developed a full-fledged resentment toward Israel, deciding that it was unfair that God would select Israel instead of their particular nation, or some other nation. The usual sentiment is based on the belief that God’s purpose for selecting Israel was solely to heap His love upon them and give them an unfair advantage over the other nations.

     God declared His selection of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-11:

     6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.

     7 The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

     9 Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. NKJV

     In this passage God expressed His love for Israel and reminded them of the Covenant that He had established with them, which He promised to their ancestors for those who would love Him and keep His commandments. Most who read these passages focus on God’s promised blessings toward Israel and the Jews.

     But what many do not consider or recognize is that God chose Israel because He wanted to use them as an example to the rest of the world of His love and commitment toward those who will keep His commandments. He also wanted to use Israel to demonstrate to the world what He required of them in order for them to please Him and secure the blessings that He promised to Israel. This is often missed or ignored by those who are resentful towards Israel because of God’s blessings toward them.

     What is also missing or ignored is the extent to which Israel and the Jews have had to suffer because of the fact that God chose them over the other nations and peoples. Purely as a result of God’s favor toward Israel, the Jews have endured centuries of endless persecutions and threats of annihilation by other nations throughout the world, particularly those in the continents of Europe and Africa. 

     Also, many of those in America have joined these in their hatred of the Jews, not realizing, or perhaps not caring, that this is in direct opposition to God’s Will and makes them subject to God’s promise to repay them for their mistreatment of the Jews. God’s Word makes this clear in Genesis 12:2-3, as He declared to Abraham regarding Israel:

     2 I will make you a great nation ;I will bless you and make your name great And you shall be a blessing.

     3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." NKJV

     Another Scriptural promise that most of America seems to have ignored is the promise that God made to Israel regarding their persistent unfaithfulness to His commands. In Ezekiel 14:12-20 God describes the extent to which He will go to punish Israel and any other nation for their persistent unfaithfulness:

     12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying:

     13 "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

     14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord GOD.

     15 "If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even though these three men were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate.

     17 "Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, 'Sword, go through the land,' and I cut off man and beast from it, 18 even though these three men were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered.

     19 "Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, 20 even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness." NKJV

     It should be abundantly clear to those with any degree of insight that America is in a state of persistent unfaithfulness toward God. Only those who are in complete denial of God’s existence or purposes, or those in complete rebellion against God’s authority, would not be able to understand the reasons for the condition of our country and its downward spiral toward destruction or extinction.

     Those who are in denial of God’s judgment might attribute America’s demise to other causes, either economical, political, environmental, or whatever helps to enable them in their escape from the truth. But those who believe the Scriptures should have no trouble understanding the extent to which God will go to fulfill the prophecies contained in His Word.

     In the prophecies in the Book of Ezekiel God has laid out the terms of His judgment toward any nation that is persistently unfaithful toward Him. America has shown this level of unfaithfulness by systematically eliminating the use of God’s Word as a standard or reference point in our culture. For example, Scriptures relating to murder, as in abortion, and homosexuality, not only are being ignored, but any movements by Christians to resist these activities are now resulting in a severe backlash, which often includes threats of violence or incarceration. This movement, which began as a gradual degradation, has increased exponentially in recent times to the extent there is hardly any means of stopping it or turning it around until God intervenes.

     God’s means of dealing with America’s degradation is to declare it as “Defiled” and to deal with it according to His promises of treatment of such, as declared in the above passage.

www.zeal4truth.org

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