God and His People

I sit as a witness with the rest of the world, as war and antisemitism are the headline of every news outlet. You cannot pick up your phone, turn on a computer, or pick up a newspaper without seeing Israel on the front page, or a Jewish person being attacked. God’s chosen people are at the center of the news and the world but there is little mention of God. We need to remember that these are God’s chosen people, but most importantly, we need to include God in the conversation of His people. I do want to always rely on scripture as the truth, and we know what Paul said is true when he said that not all the people of Israel are God’s people. “I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God. Nor are all of Abraham’s descendants the children of God. Romans 9:6-7 (Good News Bible Translation) I may be a follower of Jesus, but I worship the God of Israel and I know His word to be true. If they are His people, then they are my people. Just as Naomi urged Ruth to go back to her people, her loyalty was with Naomi wherever she may go. “Don’t ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Ruth 1:16 (Good News Bible Translation) My heart is with God’s chosen people, and I petition for them daily in my prayers. They are not forgotten by all the people of God, whether messianic, Christian, or those that deny Jesus. I know that many of God’s chosen people do not want to accept Jesus as their Messiah, and I also know many of God’s chosen people that do. I will honor His people, no matter their belief because I fear God more than I fear man. “Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear.” Isaiah 8:13 (Good News Bible Translation) Love and mercy are at work when we can respect that fact and still worship the same Holy God of Israel without wrestling each other’s convictions to the floor, because often you will find yourself fighting God when you single out His people for your own agenda. I would rather choose the side of the Lord than fight against His people, if only others came to this realization as well. If you are not for God’s people, you are against them, and whoa to you for fighting God. “For you (Israel) are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 7:6 (Good News Bible Translation) If you know the Bible, then you already know the persecution the Jews have endured throughout history. It’s disgusting that even now, they are persecuted and treated with such hatred. Surely those that do so are ignorant and lack fear and reverence for God, or don’t know Him at all. You do well to treasure what God treasures and to see value in what God calls His. Israel and those of Jewish faith are His, and it is God alone that can bless them and curse them, he doesn’t need your help. He is God, and you are not.

As many people across the nations turn their backs on Israel, they turn their backs on the God of Israel, and they quickly forget their math in the matter of this war. It has only been 9 months since Hamas brutally attacked the people of Israel and everyone is calling Israel out for their extended retaliation timeline. My husband is a 100 percent disabled combat veteran that served 3 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan after we were attacked on US soil by terrorists. That resulted in a 20-year war in the middle east. Israel has every right to fight back after they were attacked and to fight for the land the Lord gave them. This is not opinion, it’s biblical. You cannot strike the apple of God’s eye then be surprised when you feel the weight of it. It’s going to be heavy, and it’s going to accomplish that which God has planned for those that make war with Israel. This is going to last a while, and all the surrounding nations are going to turn against Israel just as it was written. Read your Bible, it’s all there. This is not a surprise to witness, it’s prophetic.

There is nothing taking place in this war, that God does not do, use, or let happen. He can drive it forward and reign it in according to His will and purpose. “The Lord frustrates the purposes of the nations; he keeps them from carrying out their plans. But his plans endure forever, his purposes last eternally. Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; happy are the people he has chosen for his own!” Psalm 33:13-15 (Good News Bible Translation) How quickly we dismiss the written word, cry out, point fingers and lay blame instead of coming to the knowledge of God’s will in all things. It is God alone that creates vessels for glory and destruction, He sets up and takes down kings, yet we refuse to acknowledge His hand in everything and forget that He alone is God, and we are His to move from here to there, to bless and to curse, to raise up and to bring down. At what point will we fall to our knees with holy hands to the heavens and surrender all that we are to Him and be willing vessels to an All-Powerful God? “Your Creator will be like a husband to you-the Lord Almighty is his name. The holy God of Israel will save you-he is the ruler of all the world.” Isaiah 54:5

 I have such respect and admiration for Corrie Ten Boom and her family for helping the Jews, while knowing that they could be persecuted and punished for it. I would gladly help God’s people at any cost, knowing that my life is not mine but His to take according to His will and purpose, and there is no greater love than this as to lay down one’s life for another. During the reign of Hitler in 1943-1944, the Ten Boom family hid multiple Jews in their home. They were later betrayed and discovered and taken to the local police station to answer for their crimes. When an officer stated that Corrie’s 84-year-old father could be released because they didn’t want to “baby-sit the old or infirm” Casper Ten Boom responded with such strength and conviction. Corrie watched as her frail father pulled himself up to his full height. Her father looked squarely into the officer’s eyes and replied, “If you let me go, tomorrow morning I will open my doors again to anyone who is in need of my help. And I feel great pity for you; when you arrest a Jew, you touch the apple of God’s eye.” (Keepers of the Angels’ Den) Casper Ten Boom died in a concentration camp with many of Corrie’s family members, but Corrie survived her stay in the concentration camps and went on to be a servant for the Lord traveling and spreading the news of Jesus. Our lives are not our own, we are the Lord’s, and whether you choose to acknowledge that now or later will determine the peace you have in your life today, because there will be a day when your knees will bend and your head will bow, and some of us will rejoice in this willingly falling to the ground, while others will not realize how they became folded in two as they taste dirt. “Turn to me now and be saved, people all over the world! I am the only God there is. My promise is true, and it will not be changed. I solemnly promise by all that I am: Everyone will come and kneel before me and vow to be loyal to me.” Isaiah 45:22-23