Once again this past Friday, the enemies of God raised their heads, murdering two sisters and their mother in Israel’s Heartland via a shooting attack on their car in the Jordan Valley. They were murdered simply for one reason: they are Jews who live in the land of Israel.
The question for us as Christian Zionists is this: does it matter if the Jewish people live in the land of Israel – Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, or elsewhere? Or is this just another war that’s no different than the tribal wars of Africa?
I’ve been doing a study on the positive prophecies in the Bible. Too often we are attracted to and focus on the negative, especially when it comes to biblical prophecy. When reading positive prophecies, however, one thing is clear: God loves Israel and the Jewish people. The nations are often offended by His choosing, not realizing that they, too, could come and experience that same choosing by standing with His people. They also don’t realize that the nations who attack Israel, or just stand by and do nothing, will be judged by God. The Bible is very clear: God will fight for Israel and deliver her. My personal choice is to stand with God and fight with Israel.
I first came to Israel in 2005 and since then I’ve seen ups and downs in the security situation here. In 2010 I experienced it first-hand when local Arab teenage terrorists came to the vineyard we were pruning in and began to throw rocks at us. At first they didn’t know what to do with us because we weren’t the Jewish settlers they were expecting to find. Security showed up pretty quickly and dispersed the terrorists. Thank God, none of our volunteers were seriously injured.
An interesting thing took place the next day: The local communities and farmers were shocked when we showed up to work in the vineyard again. This support was different from any international Christian support they had seen before. The support from Christians they had seen in the past was the support of fair-weather friends. When things are going well we stand and support the Jewish communities, but when times are tough (even though we still wave the flag in support), we often decide it is too dangerous to physically come to the land. Our message is something like, “We will see you again when things get better, but you and your families are doing great work. Keep it up”!
The Jewish people have been in great danger in almost every generation, but in every generation there have been a few God-fearing Christian Zionists who have stood and said, “No! This war is against God and His chosen people and I will not stand by silently.”
Once again we are experiencing tour group after tour group of “fair-weather” friends of Israel canceling their trips. Don’t get me wrong. There is a war happening – shots are being fired, rocks are being thrown, and people are getting hurt. However, this is when Israel and the farmers on the front lines need you more than ever.
This is a war on God and His choosing.
Don’t be afraid to come to Israel, and don’t be a fair-weather friend of God. Stand with His choosing.
I once spoke to a Jewish lady on a plane from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv in 2012. I told her that God has a special angel that looks after Israel. She did not know that.