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The Blessing and Curse
The
Promise of a Homeland
To understand the prophecies of Israel and how
they relate to our generation, we need to first go back in time 4000 years, to
a world still in the infant stages of civilization.
Instead of nations dividing the globe like
pieces of a puzzle as they do today, we find an abundance of semi-independent,
walled cities called “city-states”.
Our fantastic odyssey begins in one of these
city-states called Ur, which thrived over two thousand years before the time of
Christ.
Ur was situated in the heart of the fertile
valley running along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, part of a region often referred
to as the cradle of civilization. Today, this region corresponds to central
Iraq.
In the city of Ur, a small
group of people dwelt whose ancestors could be traced back thousands of years,
first to Shem, a son of Noah, and ultimately to Seth, the third son of Adam and
Eve.
Their lineage was generally
characterized by Godliness, but they were not free of trouble.
Abraham’s family was no
exception. Although his father, Terah, was said to be an idolater in the book
of Joshua, Abraham would carry the tradition of following the one true God to
heights never before experienced.
In the beginning, Abraham
knew little of the role he would play in the establishment of the people of
God.
We are told that one day the
Lord just came to him as he was living in Ur and commanded him to gather
together all his belongings and go off to a new land that the Lord would give
him.
“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 show thee…” Genesis 12:1
The Lord led Abraham north
from Ur along a major trading route, stopping briefly at a city in northern
Mesopotamia called Haran, and then traveling southwest around the desert to a region
known in his day as “The Land of the West”.
It was in this rather
insignificant and small land that the Lord initiated a plan that would
eventually cause the place the world now calls Palestine to become the central
political and spiritual hub of the nations.
“And the Lord said unto Abram… Lift up
now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and
southward, and eastward, and westward,
“For all the land which thou seest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.
“And I will make thy seed as the dust of
the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered.” Genesis 13:14-16
The beginning of the
prophecies related to the descendants of Abraham, which were made literally
thousands of years ago, still stand today as the primary force behind the
destiny of Jews everywhere.
In the Lord’s own words, the
promise relating to Jewish possession of the land of Palestine would stand “forever.”
However, there is a problem
in that statement, because the Jews never fully realized their promised
destiny.
Abraham has been dead no less
than 4000 years and the Jews have struggled without a homeland for most of that
time. What went wrong?
The answer to this question
is understood only if we look at another promise that God made hundreds of
years after Abraham’s time.
Rescue
From Egypt
When Abraham’s descendants
had multiplied to the extent that they could be considered a nation, they
unfortunately found themselves living lives of slavery in the land of
Egypt.
They had gone to Egypt
several generations earlier because of a severe famine which affected the whole
Middle East region.
The Lord saved the lives of
all His people at that time by using Jacob’s son, Joseph, who was an esteemed
ruler in Egypt, second only in authority to Pharaoh himself.
With Joseph’s influence, the
Israelites and the Egyptians both prospered.
It wasn’t long after Joseph’s
death, however, that the Egyptians began to fear the Jews. Their number
had actually swelled to such an extent that they became an imagined threat to
Egyptian autonomy.
The Egyptians began to
persecute the Jewish people and eventually put them into forced labor camps so
their numbers would not translate into political power.
Egypt was then at the
pinnacle of its empire. Their sphere of influence stretched from the Nile
River valley all the way up to the Euphrates River.
Many of the nearby countries
were forced to pay tribute to Pharaoh or face the wrath of his armies.
It was during this period of
Egyptian supremacy, at the very time when everything seemed so bleak for the
Israelites that God chose to perform one of the greatest miracles of the Old
Testament.
To make His plan work, the
Lord decided to use the most unlikely of characters: a man by the name of Moses
and his brother, Aaron, both of whom had escaped and fled from Egypt after
Moses had killed an Egyptian in defense of one of his own countrymen.
The Lord’s plan was to use
Moses and Aaron as leaders of the people, while His own miracles and judgments
would quickly result in the Egyptians willingly freeing His chosen
people.
A prophetic understanding of
Israel would not be complete without mentioning the tremendous miracle of the
Exodus.
Again and again the prophets
of the Old Testament reminded their readers that the Exodus represented
definite proof that God would always stand for Israel.
The
Covenant
Immediately after Israel came
out of Egypt, the Lord began to prepare them for a new life in the Promised
Land by giving them His laws.
God’s rules were designed to
teach His people how to love Him as well as how to get along with and love all
people.
The lifestyle resulting from
these laws would hopefully make Israel unique among all the nations of the
world and an example to follow.
It was during that early time
of instruction, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness of Sinai that
God entered into a special agreement with His people.
The simple covenant that they
made in that day would become the foundation for understanding everything that
has since happened to Israel.
The basis for this agreement
is found in the initial interaction between the Lord and His people when they
first reached Mount Sinai. The Lord began to speak to them and say,
“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice
indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people; for all the earth is mine:
“And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation.” Exodus 19:5-6a
The Bible records that as
soon as Israel heard these words they answered immediately and said…
“All that
the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Exodus 19:8
Israel didn’t have to follow
the Lord. They could have remained in Egypt and took their chances without
God’s intervention.
The people knew, however,
that what God offered was much more than just freedom from slavery.
They had just witnessed the
miracles against Pharaoh and Egypt to get the Egyptians to release the
Jews.
They also saw the parting of
the Red Sea to let them escape the pursuing Egyptian army.
God now said through Moses
that if Israel would simply obey His words then everything that was promised to
Abraham in the beginning would finally be fulfilled for the entire
nation.
Moses explained this concept
in the book of Deuteronomy…
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all
his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set
thee on high above all nations of the earth;
“And all these blessings shall come on
thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy
God.
“Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and
blessed shalt thou be in the field.
“Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body,
and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy
cows, and the flocks of thy sheep.
“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy
kneading-trough.
“Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest
in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out”. Deuteronomy 28: 1-6
At this point, the Lord had
already saved the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. He now wanted to
mold them into a nation that the entire world could point to as an example of
his goodness.
The nations would know for
sure that there is a God because of all the wonderful things He would do for His
people.
Moses explained that all
Israel had to do was to continue in the way He had instructed them, and
everything they did would turn out well.
To an outside observer an
Israelite who obeyed the Lord in this way would appear to have an extraordinary
streak of good luck.
Everything in life would be
guaranteed to turn out right for the nation and its people.
In fact, so secure would
Israel be with God’s protection that they were even told not to maintain a
defensive force after they settled in the Promised Land.
No enemy would ever be
allowed to get powerful enough to threaten their borders, because God himself
would defend them.
What a different world the
Middle East would be today if Israel had followed Moses’ advise.
It doesn’t take an advanced
degree in history to know that actual Jewish experience has been in marked
contrast to what Moses described here.
So what went wrong? Did the
Lord back out on His agreement? No.
It was actually the other way
around. The Lord had sworn never to break his promises. He pledged
that His covenant with Abraham would last forever.
This agreement also
guaranteed that the Jewish people would exist forever, and that the Lord would
fulfill these blessings exactly as stated.
The problem with trying to
understand what really happened to Israel is made difficult, because we have
considered only one side of the issue.
There actually was two parts
to what Moses said that day, and the second half was just the opposite of the
first part.
Read what Moses went on to
say in that very same chapter of Deuteronomy:
“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt
not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these
curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
“Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and
cursed shalt thou be in the field.
“Cursed shall be thy basket and thy
kneading-trough.
“Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body,
and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cows, and the flocks of thy
sheep.
“Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest
in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.” Deuteronomy 28:15-19
Israel was given a choice of
futures that day. They could in essence predestine themselves for
greatness merely by following the Lord’s instructions.
On the other hand, they could
assure a future full of confusion and trouble simply by deciding to turn away
from God. It was totally in their hands — be good or be evil. This
dichotomy was the prophecy of the blessing and the curse set before them that
day.
These same words which were
written down by Moses so long ago have been determining the lives of the Jewish
people for thousands of years.
An Israelite living in
disobedience would begin to experience bad luck sent directly from God. If
this did not succeed in awakening him to the dangers of falling away, this
streak of bad luck could quickly get more serious.
In every area in which a
believing Jew was promised blessing, a rebellious one would get only curses
from the Lord.
When Israel was in the
wilderness of Sinai this principle cost them a forty-year delay in entering the
Promised Land. Obedience on Israel’s part could have brought them to the
borders of Palestine within two weeks.
Rebellion, however, caused
the Lord to revise His plans one full generation until all the disobedient ones
were dead and gone.
Only two individuals, Caleb
and Joshua, out of the whole company of Jews who came out of Egypt were
eventually allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Clearly, the principle of the
blessing and the curse played an early role in the lives of every Jew, and the
result came almost immediately after Moses warned them.
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