Israel

         I would like to expound just a little bit on a comment from yesterday's post, a post which was originally written in August of 2011. That comment on Glenn Beck about Israel was this, that he often displays "a near worship of Israel." This can often also be said about Evangelicals in general.
         Israel is an ally to the United States. Is our relationship one of complete trust? No, but this is because Israel has always been and probably always will be the number one political target in the world. They are convinced that they cannot totally depend on anyone and the Obama administration has proved them out on this. They are hated because they are Jews. If they make mistakes the mistakes are exaggerated, embellished upon and often turned into lies. When they make compromises with their enemy, which has been often, it is ignored as if it is too little and too late.
         Former Israeli Major General and former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died yesterday after living the last eight years in a coma. Sharon was a brilliant military strategist and a strong leader of Israel's government. I pondered his physical condition many times over the past eight years. He had been expected to be returned to the office of Prime Minister again before he suffered a stroke.
         I watched a long and in-depth interview with Sharon tonight on C-SPAN and he responded to a question on his religiousness with "I am not religious.  I am a Jew." He wasn't saying that Jews are not religious but that his Jewishness was the primary descriptive of his being. This is, in essence, Israel today.
         I do believe, from Scripture, that God will move mightily and in many ways concerning Israel in the 'last' of the last days. God will bring this about....not us. We may not even be around. As a government we have to do what is right and 'right' means to hate evil and love good. Israel, as well as America, may not qualify as 'good' and the Palestinian leadership may not qualify as "evil'  but there is indeed evil over there. If we do not oppose it.....we encourage it.....and it will eventually come after us. Keeping one's promises is part of doing what is right. Our promise was to stand with Israel. Speaking truth is part of what is right and we have not done that with Israel over the past five years.
         I am and have always been a supporter of the nation of Israel. I admire its tenacity and strength. I also fear for them and I fear for their culture that they also might be in danger of falling from within, from a lack of discernment, from the lack of decisiveness, from a dalliance with hedonism. God is in control of their future as well as ours.
         Israel has more than one divide...ultra-Orthodox and secular, but overall it is not basing its existence or its protection on the hand of the God of the Torah. God has not established nor protected them thus far because of their faithfulness but because of His plan for the nations as well as His plan for them. If we support Israel because of something that does not exist, their faithfulness to God, then we are setting ourselves up for more error, egregious error. If we support Israel because it is the right thing to do then we are doing what is right in the eyes of God.