The Covenant and the Curse

Israel is alone. Too alone to really believe it. And that is why many Jews—within and outside Israel—conduct their lives like children who close their eyes and the monsters disappear. It’s called “Pretend,” but after a while it becomes reality, and anyone pointing out its unreality is rejected or not taken seriously. Jews, like non-Jews, like to be liked. But many Jews won’t admit that a tremendous number of Gentiles don’t like them—in fact, fear and hate them.

Many Israeli leaders cling to the delusion that the world is really glad that there is one place Jews can truly call home. They refuse to believe that much of the world wants them dead—now—and that their few “friends” would offer brief and pretentious tears at Israel’s funeral—even while conducting petroleum business as usual.

Why this tragic Jewish denial of facts? Because most Jews, like most Christians, pay only lip service to God and the Bible. Jews know their very existence is based on the Bible, but that is “too embarrassing” to accept. The Hebrew prophets called the human heart deceitful and desperately wicked, but that is “too negative.” God labeled the Jews a “chosen people” and a light to the nations, but that is “too separatist.” And the biblical reason for antisemitism—doing away with the Jews in order to do away with the God of the Jews (Psalm 83:3-5)—is “too sensational and simplistic.”

So constant Jewish queries, “Why do people hate us?” go unanswered, even while many pretend that peripheral responses like “lack of education,” “social inequality,” and “ignorance” constitute the core. After all, who wants to say out loud that the world hates God? But look at what the Scriptures say and you will see it’s true: “They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against youu (God)" (Psalm 83:3-5).

It is God who guarantees that Israel will survive because He wills it. And it is only the Messiah who will bring a true reign of peace. Christians and Jews may argue over the Messiah’s identity and whether His will be a “first or second visit.” But while Christians need to get truly “converted” to the one we claim to be the Messiah—Jesus Christ—repenting for centuries of silence and complicity in the sufferings of the Jewish people—Jews need to get serious about seeking the God of their fathers. Christians have sex scandals, money-changers and personality cults to contend with, but Jews have rabbis who reject the Hebrew Scriptures as authentic, and congregants for whom temple or synagogue is a fun club rather than a faith challenge.

So American Jewish parents criticize Christian attempts to witness to their children, but fail to “missionize” their own kids with a love for God, His Word, and a miracle called Israel. Yet the “everlasting covenant” (Gen. 17:7-8) God made with Abraham and confirmed again and again to Isaac and Jacob—the Jews—stands  the test of time. So does the curse God guaranteed would fall on nations and individuals who chose (and choose) to curse the Jews and Israel. (Gen.12:3) Nations—including the USA—may choose to disbelieve God and simply disappear from history. Israel has no such option. God has reserved for the Jews a destiny that must be fulfilled. (To be continued)

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras