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The Bible says that God "chose" Abraham, telling him in Gen. 12:3 that "in you and in your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed." God later formed Israel into a nation, took them out of the House of Bondage, and gave them the nation of Canaan.
The "Song of the Vineyard" in Isaiah 5 and Jesus' parable in Matthew 21 tell us that God "planted a vineyard" in Canaan and that Israel was that "vineyard." God then is said to have sent His prophets to Israel to receive the fruits of the Kingdom. He was looking for "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit," as the Apostle defines the prime elements of the Kingdom.
In Isaiah's day, Israel only produced "sour grapes" that could not be eaten. In Jesus' day, after God finally sent His Son to receive those fruits, the leaders refused to render Him the fruits. In fact, as Jesus says of them, they saw Him coming and said, "This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him and seize His inheritance" (Matt. 21:38).
In other words, they added murder to theft. In the next chapter of Matthew, Jesus told another parable in which He gives the ultimate verdict for their actions in Matt. 22:7,
"But when the King heard thereof, He was angry and He sent forth His armies and destroyed those murderers and burnt up their city."
This is one of those passages that make Jews angry and evangelicals uncomfortable. In fact, there is a move afoot to expunge these statements from Scripture. A number of liberal theologians, both Catholic and Protestant, now are teaching that these statements were added decades later by Christians who hated Jews, and that these should be edited out of the New Testament.
The Jewish rabbis themselves would love to see the New Testament banned altogether and trashed in the dustbin of history.
The fact is, Matt. 22:7 clearly teaches that, in effect, the Roman armies that destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. were God's own armies, and that those Jewish leaders who knowingly killed the Heir are "murderers."
The death of the Messiah was prophesied in the Bible, so it was necessary that Jesus suffer for the sin of the world. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the sacrifices in the law, and so it was fore-ordained that this would occur. Yet from the perspective of the chief priests' motives and intent, they were "murderers."
Now, please, I am not the one who said that. If you have a problem with that, please send all complaints to Jesus. I'm only a reporter who happens to believe what I read in the New Testament instead of assigning the statement to a bitter old Christian about 85 A.D. who had never met Jesus.
As I wrote in yesterday's web log, Edom was conquered and forcibly converted to Judaism in 126 B.C. Thus, the nation of Judea in Jesus' day was a combination of Judah and Edom, and the spirit of each lives on in Jewry today. During the Roman war, the Idumeans (Edomites) were some of the most rabid zealots of Judaism, and their cruelty and desire to fight Rome is well documented in history.
After the dispersion of that nation, Edom's prime directive was to "return and build the desolate places" (Malachi 1:4). God still had to give Esau-Edom his due, since he had been wronged by Jacob so long ago. God did this in 1948 when He allowed the rabid Zionists to form their own state, which they called "Israel."
God even blinded the eyes of the Church in order to lend Esau their support. He also blinded America as a nation so that it would give "Israel" half of its foreign aid as tribute to the new Chosen People and ensure its survival for a time.
Not knowing the biblical record, the Palestinians fought back at the Zionists who had designs on their land. But this only aroused the American public to indignation that those people would dare to defend themselves against God's Chosen People who were stealing their land and massacring whole towns of people.
The only biblical solution for the Palestinians is to recognize that God has given their land to Edom for a time. Every time they fight the divine Plan, they only give the Israelis another excuse to bomb them. The Israeli government can hardly hide its glee whenever another suicide bomber strikes, for it justifies their long-term goal of expelling all Palestinians from the land.
As for the rabid Zionists who have claimed the Birthright through Esau's suit in the Divine Court, if you are really "chosen," then act like it. Being chosen does not mean that each Jew gets to have 2,500 slaves, as the Talmud says. It does not mean that Jews get to have any slaves at all. It means that you are supposed to be a priestly nation, a nation of "ministers," a servant people.
Jesus said that if you wish to be great in the Kingdom, you must become a servant. The greatest ruler is the greatest servant. Once God gave you that land, you should have come to BLESS the Palestinians, not mistreat them. You should have produced the fruits of the Kingdom worthy of your calling.
But so far you have not done so. Worse yet, if you were all to become "Jews for Jesus" tomorrow, you would only become more rabid in your Zionism and in your determination to kill or displace the Palestinians. Christian Zionists are among the worst. They supported the Likud leaders like Ariel Sharon as long as he was a hard-liner, and withdrew their support of him as soon as he decided to withdraw from Gaza. When Sharon had his stroke in January, Pat Robertson confidently announced that God had judged him for softening his Edomite attitude!
The real solution, and the only sincere advice I can give to a Zionist, is to recognize the Divine Plan, repent for killing the Heir (the King), accept Him as King, and begin to live according to the principles of the true Kingdom of God. If you prove yourself to be a worthy son, then God will give you the Kingdom. If not, you will be disinherited according to the law.
You can begin by apologizing to God and to the world for not being a blessing to all families of the earth. Then make Jerusalem a blessing, rather than a curse (Jer. 26:6) and a bloody city (Ez. 22:2). You still have a little time to turn things around and make things right. It will only be too late once God destroys Jerusalem (Jer. 19:10, 11). Until then, you have time to bless, rather than to curse.
As long as your time of "chosenness" is here, you are responsible and accountable before God to do this. If you do not do so, God will not allow you to continue being a curse to all nations. He loves them, too, and will not set up tyrants to rule His Kingdom in the Age to come.
The time is fast approaching when Babylon will fall, and its leaders with it. Jesus warned in Matt. 21:44 that those who are caught ruling Babylon at the end of the age (the "foot" portion of the Image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream) will be crushed by the Stone cut from the mountain without hands. This is the Stone Kingdom that is coming, and it will be ruled only by those with the character of Jesus Christ.
Edom, you still have a short time remaining to learn the ways of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. I know from prophecy that this will not happen with Edom as a national unit, so my appeal really goes to individual Zionists to repent and get out of town before Jerusalem is cast out (Gal. 4:25-30). Become part of the New Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26) and live in peace and equality with all men under God.