“The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” —PSALM 128:5
In Zechariah 2:8, God warns of the danger of offending Israel: For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.” Earlier in Genesis 12:1-3, God had assured Abraham that those who blessed Israel would be blessed, and that anyone who cursed Israel would be cursed. These three verses alone should be sufficient warning as to why we are called to support Israel: The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’”
We have only to examine history to ascertain that the remnants of those once-great empires are now dust and ashes. Time after time since the beginning of her existence, nations have come against Israel. Yet, like the Phoenix, she has risen from the ashes each time. Not one ruler who ordered the destruction of Jerusalem long survived. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC then was doomed to live as a beast of the field for seven terrifying years. He was restored to sanity only after he recognized the God of the Israelites. (See Daniel 4.) His kingdom of Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great captured Jerusalem. His empire fragmented after his death, and the followers of Ptolemy in Egypt and then the Seleucids of Syria ruled over Jerusalem.
The Jews, horrified by the desecration of the Temple under the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV, staged a revolt and regained independence under the Hasmonean Dynasty. That independence lasted 100 years, until Pompey established Roman rule in the city. The Roman Empire collapsed after the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem was leveled. The British, who ruled over Palestine and Jerusalem following World War I, could once boast that the sun never set on the British Empire. Indeed, one-fifth of the world’s population was then under its rule. However, after turning away Jews from both Britain and Palestine when they fled Hitler’s gas chambers, and after arming Arabs to fight against them in Palestine, the empire quickly began to disintegrate. Great Britain today is comprised of just 14 territories, mostly a number of islands. Gone are the days when that empire stretched from India to Canada and from Australia to Africa.
Little has changed; there are still many whose only agenda is to force the Jews from Israel—or annihilate them, if at all possible. Yet, Jerusalem and Israel remain standing as an unquestioned testimony to the determination and courage of the Jewish people. The two burning questions today are: Does America stand with or against Jerusalem and the nation of Israel? And, will Believers defend Israel with prayer and spiritual warfare?
