"I WILL BLESS THOSE WHO BLESS ISRAEL" BUT, BEWARE!
Many christians say it is our duty and a blessing from Yhwh to Bless Israel. They say that Scripture states: “I Will Bless Those Who Bless Israel,” but...
What does this mean? How does this apply? And is this entirely true?
Before you proceed to "bless" blindly, make certain you really are giving Israel the blessing. Beware!!!
Brethren, I want to make one thing perfectly clear before I begin. There is no one who is more supportive than we are of Jews, especially including those of Yawhshua who may be living living in the land of Israel. Just look at the dozens of articles we have on this and our other websites. We have multiple articles on this subject and go into it in great detail. But we have to go by what Scripture says. Yhwh's two end-time witnesses will somehow stand in Jerusalem soon and testify as to Yhwh’s faithfulness and judgements during the Tribulation.
The Scriptures are very clear that Israel, His chosen people (all twelve tribes of them), would be scattered among the nations and gathered again one day back to their land. This is mentioned in Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Tanak and mentioned countless times throughout. Praise Almighty Abba Yhwh! This is a prophecy with multiple fulfillments, and of which ONLY a partial one just happened in our life time when one tribe (the jews) returned to the land in 1948.
Since Judah became a secular nation named and registered with the United Nations as "Israel" in 1948, it was nearly overwhelmed by much more powerful enemies six times since then and is still facing millions committed to their destruction. Again, Yhwh's Ruah Ha Kodesh, through various faithful servants, has given us in the Kehilah countless messages on these prophecies as they are unfolding before our very own eyes.
Now this is where it gets interesting. Most evangelicals, especially dispensationalists, are supportive of the nation of Israel. John Hagee, a pastor of a large church in San Antonio, Texas, heads a large organization named “Christians United for Israel.” Now it just so happens that the United States has historically been about the only friend that the jews of Israel could really count on all the time. All the other countries who were once their friends eventually took a neutral stand or turned against them (Britain, France, etc.). Only the United States of America has consistently and practically stood firm with Judah (i.e. billions and billions in military aid, making the nation-state of Israel the third most powerful military in the world—--through the IDF).
(UPDATE: Since this was written, the USA under Barak Obama's leadership has put a stop to "practically and consistently" standing firm with Judah.)
On the one hand most believers would have to say this is good. They are "blessing Israel"--or at least it seems somebody is. So what could possibly be wrong with that? We shall soon see. Over twenty-five years ago, one of my closest friends at that time started an organization that was building bridges between Christians and Jews. They had wonderful joint events, marches, dinners, meetings in Washington, DC. It was really the beginnings of what is going on today--now everybody is doing it, baptists, evangelicals, the catholics and even messianics. Anyway, the state of Israel was getting caught in one of their tight spaces and my friend really wanted to show support, so he took out a full page ad in the newspaper.
I warned him back then to be careful getting too entangled with politics. He responded: "You manage to talk a lot about world events without expressing any real support (monetary or otherwise) for the nation of Israel! Don't you know that this is the main thing that Yhwh is concerned with right now?"
I had a strong hunch about what was behind his question, but I decided to draw him out before answering. "Well," I replied, "I have no doubt that Our Father is deeply grieved by the terrible things that are happening right now in the Middle East. But there is much tragedy in other parts of the world as well, and among His called-out ones. Why do you think that is this the main thing on Yhwh's list of priorities?"
He wasted no time getting to his basic theological point: "Yhwh has said that He will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse them. If you don't want to be cursed, then you had better support Israel against her enemies!"
Now what is wrong with that, you might ask...?
The "only thing wrong" with it is that such thing is not found written in Torah.
The scriptural reference that my friend had in mind when he spoke there is the opening verse of Genesis 12, where Yhwh is promising Abraham that his descendents will be special beneficiaries of divine favor:
"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families (or tribes/nations) of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12: 3).
This verse is a favorite among those evangelical Christians (and messianic judaic-evangelicals) who are inclined to "see" contemporary developments in the Middle East as the constant unfolding of a "Bible prophecy" scenario. They are deceptively convinced that Yhwh's ancient promise that Abraham's Israelite descendants, as the Chosen People, will all physically return to the Promised Land before Yahwshua returns and prosper there forever, and that this promise began to be fulfilled with the establishment of the modern nation-state of Israel, and that the rest is yet to come. (As if Yahwshua when He comes, would be coming to gather his sheep "from the four corners of the land of Israel" or "from the state of Israel," and not "from the four corners of the world" nor "from all the nations"!) To them, to stay neutral or NOT SUPPORT ANY BRIDGE-BUILDING GROUPS is as bad as to take side with Judah's enemies, and is to go against Yhwh's announced plan for the Middle East, and to be subject to curse! Whew! That's a good way for these people to start calling others anti-semitic and anti-jew or anti-Israel!
But Yhwh is talking there to Abraham about his future seed. He is talking about a future people that would descend from him, through his chosen son Ytzaak: a people called ISRAEL. A people descended specifically from Ytzaak's son Yacob. And we will get to this in detail in a minute. But first let's see what else---besides TWISTING YHWH'S WORDS OF PROMISE TO ABRAHAM---is wrong with that thinking:
Daniel 9:27 speaks of a covenant, (“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”).
Do you see what Daniel is talking about the END TIMES regarding those living at that end-time in the holy land? The "then he shall confirm a covenant ..." IS NOT referring about Yhwh confirming anything to anyone, and let's make this very clear. The peace in Jerusalem is guaranteed by a treaty with the Antichrist, head of a nation called Babylon –-- prophetic Babylon, if you will --– a consortium of nations that is so big and powerful, it can do this and no one’s going to mess with Israel! So the only problem is (to simplify and shorten the story), that the guy who signs this treaty --– this "peace-making" king of end-time Babylon --- is the Antichrist himself!! And he breaks the treaty mid point in this seven-year period and turns full-force against the jews. That is the "only" problem.
But this is only problem #1, as there are other considerations even more serious than this one.
So now that we have this info and insight... should we help the nation called "Israel" (in other words, the jews, or the tribe of Judah) be deceived and sign the peace treaty with their enemies? --- for that would be the only "help" we would be giving them! We would be an evil ACCOMPLICE to Ha-Satan if we "helped" the jews sign the peace treaty! We need to ponder if that is REALLY what Yhwh wants us to do and what He is referring to when He stated to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you."
Those who are blindly "helping Israel" this way are being accomplices with the Beast and are actually betraying and CURSING the blind jews for one future and final time in history! Signing the peace treaty will be their ruin. No real peace will come of that. It's just one more of Satan's means of deception to keep the jews blinded. The peace treaty will guarantee nothing but the ruin of those deceved by it. Yahwshua doesnt "need" nor want His elect secure and living in peace with the enemy in the Holy Land when He returns. Yahwshua's elect do not want to sign a peace treaty with the enemy to be guaranteed peace in the land of milk and honey. Yahwshua's elect KNOW for sure who their "king of salem" or king of peace really is. Signing the peace treaty must occur, and WILL occur because its prophecied, but it's not Yhwh's commandment nor will that the jews sign it nor that we blindly coerce them into doing it and bring a curse upon them three-and-a-half years later! So instead of the "bridge builders" blindly and fanatically looking at the "I will bless those who bless you" and of adding "sin to sin" by accusing the faithful others and terming them "anti-semitic" for not helping them aid the Beast "build bridges" with the jews, they should be looking at what they are actually doing and read and consider the last part of that verse which applies to them: "and I will curse him who curses you!"
Now le's go to Problem #2. This problem is even more serious. It concerns the identity of the "Israel" in question, the one "Israel" that most evangelicals and messianics mistakenly allege and suppose that Yhwh "firmly stated in Torah" should be blessed by others. As I have already mentioned, what Scripture firmly states is exactly "I will bless those who bless you. " When we read this verse we see that Yhwh is stating this in Torah to Abraham and to us (his descendants, His people, TO THE ONES WHO READ TORAH---not to the Ammonites or the Edomites nor the Philistines)....and His people ...guess what? His people happen to be Israel! Israel is Yhwh's chosen people.
So why is on earth is Yhwh telling Israel that "I will bless those who bless you"? He is telling them that whoever blesses them will be blessed! In other words, Yhwh is telling US that whoever blesses US will be blessed. Are we not "them"? ARE WE NOT THE DESCENDANTS OF ONE OF THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL?
Now again, there is nothing said here, much less concrete, about this being solely a commandment for Israelites to bless other Israelites or to bless "Israelis." (Its high time that we all knew that "Israelites" are the descendants of the twelve tribes of Yacob. And that "Israelis" are anyone who has Israeli citizenship---anyone born after 1948 in the nation-state of Israel, or naturalised citizen there---and this includes palestinians and syrians and moabites and ammonites and egyptians.) The Israel that Yhwh calls His People, to begin with, is not a political state---even if it happens to be located in the very land of our ancestors the children of Israel, even if it occupies the whole area surrounding the Holy City! Yhwh's Israel IS NOT a territory, IT IS NOT a political state---and much less a political SECULAR state as the modern nation state today called Israel in fact is!
So who or what is Israel, if it is not the nation today called "Israel" in the Middle East?
Brethren, and friends everywhere listen again: Israel is a PEOPLE, it is NOT a place, it is not a political state allowed to exist by proclamation of the Beast's United nations, and it IS CERTAINLY NOT a title merely limited and reserved to the exclusive relatively FEW of the Tribe of Judah who returned to the land of flowing milk and honey in Canaan 60 years ago and still do today---and who to this very date--- run a secular government there just like the rest of the heathen nations! They do not follow Yhwh's law nor enforce them! The political nation-state of Israel IS NOT a Yhwh-fearing, Torah-observant nation!
For those who may not know this, let us get this straight: only 20% of the people living in the state of Israel are in any way religious. While all its citizens may be "israelis" (NOTE THE BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "ISRAELI" AND "ISRAELITE"), 80% of them behave exactly like people of the heathen nations, like gentiles, babylonians and PAGANS. They are as "westernized" and open-minded as my next-door neighbor in USA, Mexico or Spain. Either they are into pornography, fornication, idolatry, drinking heavily, homosexuality, lesbanism, bisexuality, having abortions, lying, stealing and murdering, or they are into any other common sin of the world. A minuscule part of them know Yahwshua and actually obey Him. They are not preaching the gospel to the nations. In fact, the majority of them feel they don't have any need for Torah nor for Yahwshua---as long as their secular governmet has israeli police and troops all around protecting them!
The people living in the nation-state called "Israel" today ARE NOT YHWH'S ISRAEL, and besides this, the actual "israelites" living there today is limited to the few jews that have physically returned to the LAND OF ISRAEL. (And one should wonder how many of those might have actually SIRITUALLY RETURNED to the land to obey Yhwh!---which would be "Problem #3" but we will adress this later on)
Those who twist Yhwh's words to Abraham and his descendants (us) should ponder and consider all of these things.
Should we really be blessing a nation composed of mostly paganized jews and pharisees and egyptians and beduins and armenians and christians (as well as european and american third-generation hashish-smoking "hippies") and so forth, who actually reside in Israel and daily BREAK TORAH there? Or where does it say in Scripture that a few of Judah substituted Yhwh's Israel and that we are to bless them? Nowhere!
The physical descendants of Abraham are called בָּבַת עֵינוֹ(bavat eino), the "pupil of Yhwh's eye" (Zech. 2:8), a term of endearment Yhwh uses for the "chosen" nation composed of the twelve tribes of Israel and for no other nation on earth.
Indeed, Yhwh Elohim has never abandoned His original covenant people but will yet choose them for His Name's sake (Isaiah 14:1). The christian "church" has not replaced Israel in Yhwh's redemptive plan but their faithful and converted ones can be merely "grafted in" to the original "root" of Israel which is Yahwshua Ha Mashiach.
Likewise, Judah has not replaced Israel in Yhwh's redemptive plan either ---even if they baptised their present homeland "Israel"--- but due to Yhwh's mercy their repentant, faithful and converted ones can be merely "grafted back in." "Remember," Shaul/ Paul warns, "it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you" (Rom. 11:18). The political nation-state of Israel IS NOT THE ROOT. The people "Israel" of the 12 tribes IS NOT THE ROOT. The root is Mashiach. But as Shaul stated above, even if they were the root, WE DO NOT SUPPORT THE ROOT. THE ROOT WOULD SUPPORT US!
Did you know that the Brit Chadashah (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה), or "new covenant," is described in only one place in the entire Tanak? Here is the relevant passage, and grasp the future TIMING of this covenant, and with whom it will be made:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares Yhwh (יהוה), when I will make a new covenant (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares YHWH.
"For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yhwh: I will put my Torah (תּוֹרָה) into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts; I will be their Elohim, and they will be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, "Heed Yhwh"; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me -- declares Yhwh. For I will forgive their iniquities, And remember their sins no more. (Jer.31:31-4)
Many people read that passage and stop here and ignore the surrounding context of this passage, namely:
1) that Yhwh has promised to make a NEW COVENANT "with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" --- both HOUSES, not just Judah! ...and...
2) that in the second paragraph quoted above from Jeremiah Yhwh stated would make His covenant of putting Torah "with the House of Israel after those days" --- notice that here at this point He DID NOT mention the House of Judah! (this does not mean that they are excluded, but they DO NOT have the birthright. They have not been promised to be the one "House" of the two that would distinguish itself from the other by being in both Torah and Yahwhshua! and,
3) that Yhwh made the remarkable promise that ethnic Israel (actual descendants of the 12 tribes, as we have explained already) would continue to exist as a unique people as long as the laws of nature are in operation. He does need to preserve a people whom He has promised He will make a new covenaant with later on in the future, doesn't He? He cannot fulfil a promise with an extinct people, can He? Therefore he promised:
"Thus saith Yhwh (יהוה) who gives the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, Who stirs up the sea into roaring waves, Whose name is Yhwh Elohim (יהוה צְבָאוֹת שְׁמוֹ): If these laws should ever be annulled by Me -- declares Yhwh -- only then would the offspring of Israel (זֶרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) cease to be a nation (גּוֹי) before Me for all time (כָּל־הַיָּמִים).
"Thus said Yhwh: If the heavens above could be measured, and the foundations of the earth below could be fathomed, only then would I reject all the offspring of Israel (זֶרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) for all that they have done -- declares Yhwh". (Jer. 31:35-37)
Have you seen the sun out today? Is there still a moon and stars in the sky filling the unmeasurable universe every night? If so, then "all the offspring" (all 12 tribes) "of Israel" has not been rejected!
So if Yhwh has not rejected us (ISRAEL), why do so many modern actual israelites ("efrayimites") REJECT THEMSELVES?
Why do they deny their own identity and grant "Israel" status to only one tribe (Judah)?
From this passage it should be very clear that the continuation and perpetuity of the physical descendants of Israel (zera' Yisrael) is to be reckoned as sure as the very "laws of nature" that are upholding the physical universe. In other words, so long as there is a sun shining during the day and moon and stars during the night, Israel will continue to be a nation (goy) before Yhwh for all time (kol-hayamim)---all twelve tribes of them.
Yes indeed.Yhwh's "chosen people" of Israel has always been and is still composed of ALL twelve tribes of them. Except that today we have learned that the covenant He "will make with the house of Israel after those days," as Yhwh promised when He stated: "I will put my Torah (תּוֹרָה) into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts" in reality means that His Israel will be a called-out remnant from ALL Israel who follow His Son Yahwshua and are able to inscribe Torah/ Yahwshua in their hearts---which is only possible through the Ruach Ha Kodesh that Elohim only pours on His truly obedient.
Using another analogy, it is as likely for someone to accurately measure the extent of the heavens and earth than it is to suppose that Yhwh will cast off all of the seed of Israel. Note especially the last qualifying clause of this verse, "for all they have done," does not indicate that the unconditional faithfulness of Yhwh is not based on the conditional behavior of national Israel. Certainly obedience IS required to be grafted back-in, for forgiveness and for being granted LIFE, and we see this in passages by Ezekiel and in the Gospels.
Have you seen the sun, moon or stars today? If so, you can be assured that the ethnic people of Israel (WE) retain a place in Yhwh's plan. The gift and the calling of Yhwh are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).
Yudah by itself was never exclusively what Torah terms "Yhwh's Israel" in the Tanak. Even after the dispersion of the Kingdom or House of Efrayim, the ten northern tribes were still referred to as "Israel." Did Yahwshua NOT SEND his disciples to "the lost sheep of the House of Israel"? In ancient times Yudah, the jews, was never exclusively Yhwh's Israel. (Even less at this time when to be "His people" requires conversion to Yahwshua!---which as mentioned before is "Problem #3, and a VERY SERIOUS ONE too). The House of Judah is not the House of Israel. The Tribe of Judah is not all of Yhwh's Israel. They have always been only 1/12 th of it, and will be 1/12th of it. If you do not believe this, go read in Revelation how many of the 144,000 belong to Judah! They have 12,000 kings and priests just like the rest of the tribes listed there, not one more, not one less. And that rest is still mostly scattered "among the nations," from which Yhwh is actually calling a select "few" to carry out his first stage of the plan of restoration through Yahwshua's Kehilah. That "rest" is not living in the old land of flowing milk and honey. That "rest of them" is actually 11 / 12 ths of all Israel, and they are living among the nations of the world, and they total BILLIONS of people. So THAT "uncountable" billions "as the sand of the sea" is too the REAL Israel that Yhwh talks about in His Kodesh Word!
Yhwh's Israel continues to exist, still mostly scattered among the nations, like they have been for the past 2,700 years. Israel is a people.It is Yhwh's people.
It is composed of 12 Tribes, like it has always been, of which Judah is only 1/12 th of! Israel is not composed exclusively of Judah or those living in the land of Canaan!
Israel today, as it was in ancient times, is composed of all 12 Tribes, and their modern descendants are what Yhwh considers His people today. WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE. WE ARE ISRAEL.
Thus, when Yhwh states "I will bless those who bless you," He is letting us know (in reassurance) that whoever blesses US, He will bless in return. It is not a commandment for us (the REAL modern and end-time ISRAEL) to bless Judah! It is not a commandment for us to look-up to and bless the jews, in total ignorance as to who we actually are in Yhwh's mind and plan! Genesis 12:3 is a promise that Yhwh has made to the nations, TO ALL THE WORLD, THAT WHOEVER BLESSES US He will surely bless! And it is certainly not an understatement that it would be to their own benefit and blessing, if the jews would bless some of us "Israelites" for a change! So brethren, are we caananites or are we Israelites? Are we not the Torah- and Yahwshua-OBEDIENT "lost sheep of Israel" who Yhwh has called through His Son Yahwshua and responded, and to whom Yahwshua sent His renewed covenant priesthood and disciples?
Or are we followers of men, obeyors of tradition, sun-idolaters, whitewashed tombs, hypocritical "worshippers of Yhwh and Torah," who exclude the lost sheep of the House of Israel from the new covenant Yhwh has made with?
So it shall be accoring to each one's faith....
Halleluyah!, and may our loving Abba Yhwh enlighten any of you out there who might not know his real identity in Torah yet, and be giving his crown of salvation to others who unrighfully claim to be exclusively Israel!