Daily Devotional for Tuesday May 15, 2018

Blessed for Blessing Israel as God Promised

(Genesis 12:1-7, 13:14-16, 15:18; Deuteronomy 9:4-6; Joshua 1:1-11, 21:43-45)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: YOU: Dear Lord, help me to stand strong in these difficult days. I know that in the end, YOU...and YOU alone will have the final word. Give me boldness and courage to stand for you as evil abounds. In the name of Jesus I pray. AMEN!!!

"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 12:3

President Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel within an hour of their being constituted 70 yrs ago. The Bible is very clear about the blessings which will come to those who bless Israel, and the curses which will befall those who curse Israel. Over those 7 decades, for the most part Israel has had no better friend than the United States. I have no doubt many of those blessings we have reaped as a nation were the result of our blessing Israel over these many years!

Monday, the United States under the leadership of President Trump, took one of the boldest steps of all in regard to our love and friendship of Israel as we recognized Jerusalem as THE CAPITOL CITY! That was confirmed by moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to know that God was looking down on that ceremony with a big smile on His face!!!

Please, do yourself a favor right now and get your Bible and sit down and spend the next 10 minutes reading the anchor verses for today, Genesis 12:1-7, 13:14-16, 15:18; Deuteronomy 9:4-6; Joshua 1:1-11, 21:43-45. You could spend hours reading all the passages in God's Word that confirms modern-day Israel is the land God promised to Abraham and gave to His children.

You do not have to be a Bible scholar to quickly realize in just the few key passages I have given you today that the land of Israel is indeed the exact land God Himself promised to His children 4,000 years ago, and fulfilled that promise in 1385 B.C. when Joshua took possession of that land.

Having laid the Biblical case to support that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, now you can see why giving away even one inch of that land to anyone else is going against God Himself. No person, no nation, has the right to give away what God promised and gave to the Jewish people. Those who do make themselves an enemy of God!

Over and over throughout the Bible and human history, nations have invaded Israel, taken it over, only to be defeated in the end. The land of Israel is only 20,330 sq km, slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey. Out of the billions of square miles that exist on this earth, this is the only place on the planet God literally promised and gave to His children. For anyone to go in and try to give a piece of that land away is foolish.

That is why various "peace plans" the United States have had such a large role in working on throughout the years will never bring last peace and have actually put our nation on the opposite side of God! Let me be clear. The Gaza Strip belongs to ISRAEL! The West Bank belongs to ISRAEL! Jerusalem, ALL OF IT, belongs to ISRAEL!!!

For the United States to be involved in any deals, even under the guise of "peace," that involves giving away the land God gave to the children of Israel is taking on God Himself! Not to mention these “peace” proposals involve giving the land away to the ENEMIES OF ISRAEL!!!

My friend, one of the problems many have with the Bible is that they can't understand why a God of love would command His children to go to war and "kill every man, woman, child, and living thing" as He did many times in the Old Testament. The reason was this. God in His omniscience knew that the enemies of Israel, those who came to possess their land, had no desire for peace but the complete destruction and annihilation of the Jewish people.

The complete obliteration of the Jewish people was their ONLY goal, not peace! Sadly, there are some people who have no desire for peace, only death and destruction and you either destroy them or they destroy you. That is one of the sad realities of living in this evil and fallen world.

For those who opposed the United States leaving that one-sided fools agreement with Iran, they either don't understand or are completely blind to the fact that there are people on this planet whose only goal is the complete destruction of Israel, the United States, and every person who lives in those lands. That means you and your family too! I am thankful that this current administration understands this fact and that those who advocate giving parts of Israel to the Palestinians don't have the power to impose their inBiblical views of life on the defense policies of this nation or we would all be in grave danger.

The sad reality is that there are very real people alive this very moment whose very real goal is the complete destruction of Israel and the United States. We will either kill them or they will kill us. We are blessed that our forefathers understood the evil that exits in this world or we would not be here today, enjoying the wonderful freedoms and life we do.

Israel also clearly understands the reality that there are people who desire their death and destruction. They don't have the luxury of great oceans on either side as we do and their enemies literally live all around them. That is what makes these various "peace plans" so foolish. To actually take some of the small amount of land that belongs to Israel and literally give it to their enemies is absurd and ridiculous. It will only embolden and empower those who seek the destruction of Israel!

Again, make no mistake about it. While we and others seek "peace," it takes TWO to make peace. Despite the claims by the Palestinian leadership, their goal is NOT peace but the destruction of Israel. I have always been amused at why anyone thinks it is necessary to give the little strip of land God gave to Israel away to her enemies, when Israel is surrounded by Arab nations with VAST AMOUNTS of land who could easily assimilate their Arab brothers into their countries.

Why do the Palestinians have to live on the land God gave to Israel when there is plenty of land in neighboring Arab countries they could live on? What is wrong with a "peace plan" that gave some of the land in surrounding Arab countries to the Palestinians?

I love you and care about you so much. I want to close today with a powerful promise God made to Abraham 4,000 years ago in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." This one verse of Scripture is why what is happening in Israel right now is so critical to THIS NATION! In being part of a plan to give away the land God gave to Israel to anyone, especially her enemies who seek her destruction, puts us on the wrong side of God. We should be seeking the BLESSINGS of God like we will reap for recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, not His CURSES!

Know that I am praying for you today. Even though most Jewish people have rejected Christ as their Savior, blinded to the reality that He is the Messiah they were promised in the Old Testament, they were, are, and always will be God's chosen people. The promise God gave Abraham in Genesis 12:3 is still in effect today.

Our Christian faith is traced back through the children of Israel. The last events of this world will be played out in Israel. That is why we need to pray for and support the Jewish people and God's plan for the land of Israel. Our blessings in life come from following God, not being in opposition to God!

His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller