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Tiny Israel! You can hardly see it on a map of the Middle East. And yet every day this small nation is written about in newspapers and periodicals, worldwide; and it is a rare day when Israel is not mentioned on national television. Why is this? Doesn't it strike you as being very unusual that a country with only six million people makes the news on a daily basis? Imagine a large, empty football field. Now, in your mind's eye, place a matchbox in the center of the field. This will give you some idea of how small Israel is in comparison to the Arab nations that surround her. Do you see how absolutely absurd it is for the Arabs to insist that Israel give up even more of its land to the Palestinian people? The Bible tells us that Israel is the place where God has chosen to set His name (Neh. 1:9). Those who study the Scriptures know that Israel, from God's perspective, is the center of the earth. Men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, and Solomon lived there—not to mention the world's most famous Jew, Jesus of Nazareth! Mohammed never lived in Jerusalem. The Scriptures also tell us in several places that, although the Hebrew people become scattered all over the world, God will "hiss" for them, "gather" them, and bring them back to The Land. These predictions in the Bible have come to pass in this current generation, much to the astonishment of many people. And even though a coalition of six nations did everything they could to abort this dream, the dream became a reality anyhow. Israel became a nation May 14, 1948 (5th of Iyar, 5708)! God promised Abraham that all the land would be given to his seed. This Promised Land encompasses all the real estate from the river of Egypt (the Nile) to the great river (Tigris-Euphrates). "For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever. . .from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen. 13:15; 15:18).
If you look at a map you will clearly see that the land that God promised to the Jews covers six nations, what is presently Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. An amazing thing will happen in the near future, according to the Bible. All the land will become Israel's land. This means that the Israel as we know it now will become many, many times larger. The challenging idea for believers is that Israel is a type of the church. What happens to Israel takes place in many of our lives. Have you ever compared the suicide bombers in Israel with the massive destruction taking place inside the American church? We have now reached a point in the United States when approximately 50 churches are permanently closing their doors each week! That is horrific destruction. Pastors aren't running off with secretaries any more — they are running off with other men. The divorce rate, child abuse, and wife battering within the church are higher than in the secular world. It has become embarrassing. We are in a war and don't even know it! The saddest thing is that we are losing the most precious commodity in our country—our young people! Just as Israel has a much smaller piece of The Land than what was originally promised, we believers have not entered into our Promises either. One day Israel will be many times larger than she is now. Hopefully, the Church will also see beyond the small perimeters we have painted for ourselves and break out of our tiny cages, entering into the limitless power of Almighty God. The Arab people who now have control of the nations in the Middle East will not freely hand over their countries to Israel. They hate God's chosen people and would never give them one inch of their land. My guess is that one of these days the Arab nations will provoke Israel once too often and light the fuse that will cause the Jews to use their ultimate weapon—The Sampson Option (read the book of the same title by Seymour Hersh). Many scientists believe that Israel has a secret weapon, aptly named, that can absolutely disintegrate an entire city. When they are provoked, and find themselves with their backs to sea and nowhere else to go, the Israelis will then take the land, which is rightfully theirs—all of the Promised Land. God "hissed" for His people and "gathered" them to the place He has chosen for them. Six Arab nations attacked Israel the next day, May 15, 1948 hoping to drive them into the sea and bring to pass Hitler's "final solution"—the commitment to annihilate every living Jew—"the extinction". The Arabs delude themselves in thinking that they can wipe the Jews off the face of the earth, and Israel has decided that it will not accommodate the Arabs by disappearing from the map. The Arabs have determined to liquidate the state of Israel, but God has other plans for His people. After the War of Independence (1948-49) Israel has suffered through, and won, six more wars (Sinai War, 1956; Six-Day War, 1967; Yom Kippur War, 1973; Osirak Raid, 1981; Lebanon War, 1982-84; and the Second Persian Gulf War, 1991). And I have not mentioned here the constant Arab raiding gangs of snipers -- and more recently the suicide bombers, who have targeted women, children, university students, and farmers, blowing them to smithereens. Innocent victims riding buses have been killed, permanently maimed and disfigured. Arafat, the costumed multiple murderer, plans and finances these butchers and then dares to call them freedom fighters. We have been hammered by the media with the phrase "Islam is a peaceful religion". If this is true Muslims should do their part by not killing people all the time. President Bush was fed misinformation by Cleveland State University law professor David F. Forte. That's why he said, "All the world continues to benefit from this faith and its achievements." This is why, even after 9/11, we have been asked by the liberal press to bow down and cow-tow to Muslims. Many of us are not bowing down! In The War for Independence 6,373 Jews were killed (1% of the population). That would be like the United States suffering about 3 million casualties, or, to make it even clearer, about 60,000 deaths per state. One wonders how a new, struggling nation could withstand such atrocities and weather such horrible storms. This in itself is miraculous. Someone has said, "I believe in God because the Jews exist!" Think about it. The Jews know that they have nowhere else to go. If they are defeated on their own soil it will be the end of their culture, their nation, their religion, their tradition, the Hebrew language, and their dreams. A Jewish scientist from Tel Aviv sat next to me on one of my flights to Israel. As we chatted I asked him if he had ever heard of any group of people who had returned to the same land after 2,000 years and who had retained their language, culture, traditions, and religion. He agreed with me that what the Jewish people have done by returning and building the state of Israel is nothing short of a miracle. This Jewish scientist was an atheist who used the word "miracle" in referring to what his people have done by achieving a national identity. Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism wrote, "If you will it, it is no dream!" The state of Israel is no longer just a dream; it is a reality. It has become fait accompli — an irreversible fact. Israel exists! And the sooner the Arabs recognize this the better. They would do well to read A Place Among the Nations, by Benjamin Netanyahu, or So Sorry We Won, by Ephraim Kishon. Can you blame any people who refuse to be permanently turned into clay pigeons? And the Israelis have learned a truth that America is painfully realizing since 9/11—giving in to terror only leads to more terror. During the Six-Day War of 1967 so many modern day miracles took place that it is impossible to list them all. Any sane person has to realize that God is on Israel's side. Surrounded by more than 200 million angry Arabs intent on bathing themselves in Jewish blood, it seemed that the six million Jews did not have a chance, either in 1948 or 1967. When the Six-Day war started there were 100,000 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai with more than 900 tanks. In the North, Syria was invading with six brigades and 300 tanks, from the vantage point of the Golan Heights. Seven brigades and 270 tanks were coming across from Jordan, with more back-up support from Iraq and Lebanon, not to mention the financial backing of Saudi Arabia's oil money. Syria had been shelling Israel from the Golan Heights for several days before Israel struck back. 175 acres of orchards, 75 acres of grain and 205 houses had been destroyed before Israeli troops counter-attacked. And then the Arabs dared to protest to the United Nations that Israel had provoked the war and struck first. In the natural, Israel did not stand a chance. But in the first six hours of the war Israel destroyed 400 enemy planes, and then totally destroyed and demolished 80% of Egypt's military equipment. Eleven thousand five hundred Egyptians died and Israel took six thousand prisoners. In the North the young Jewish soldiers faced 300 tanks, but bravely began clawing their way up the slopes of the Golan Heights inch by inch. If ever a "David" had faced off with a "Goliath" it was that day when, against insurmountable odds, boys spilled their blood and became men on a horrible battlefield. Like Nachson (the name of the first man into the Red Sea when it parted), and Samuel Brand (Israel's first legal immigrant, May 15, 1948) these young men chose to step into the line of fire of massive tanks and dismantle them. They won a historic victory, even though 776 lives were lost. Young Israeli boys fought so ferociously and with such bravery that the Syrian army ran before them and cried out to the United Nations for a cease-fire. A death sentence for Israel had been lifted. Israel stared the threat of extinction in the face and decided that there would be no second holocaust. Israeli soldiers rushed into Jerusalem to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) and wept, prayed, danced and shouted. Moshe Dayan, distinguished by his eye-patch, led his men to the Temple Mount for the first time in 2,000 years. Those who were praying at the Kotel pressed Kvitlach (prayer requests on small slips of paper) into the cracks of The Wall. Placing the Kvitlach has become a tradition for most of those who go to The Wall. On each of my trips to Israel someone sends along a scrap of paper with an unanswered prayer for me to leave in The Wall. The Arabs delude themselves into thinking that they can wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. They have found themselves to be fighting against the God of the Bible! "The situation", a reference to the current danger to Israel's survival, continues up to this present moment. Even as you read this article there are Arab forces determined to kill one more Jewish person. Each day in Arab schools hatred is taught and pumped into the young minds and emotions of Arab children. They are told that to be a suicide bomber is "honorable". They are told that the moment that they give up their life God will take them into heaven where they will be blessed, rewarded, and surrounded by 70 young virgins for eternity. So, believing what they have been taught, hundreds and hundreds of young Arabs strap on the dynamite that will destroy them and catapult them into the real eternity — the one without Christ. This is beyond heartbreaking, both for the Jews and for these innocent Arab children who have never known any other reality than the lie they grew up with. This brings us to another very serious question. Why do the Arabs hate the Jewish people so much (read my article at www.flc7.com/news/roots.html)? The two million Arabs who live in Israel have the right to vote. None of the Arabs living in the Arab states can vote because every Arab nation is a dictatorship. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.. Arabs can get jobs, run businesses, and be members of a free society in Israel. When Palestinians attempted to settle in Jordan more than 10,000 of them were put to death. Syria butchered another 25,000 Palestinians and it barely made the news. In 1922 300,000 inhabitants of Smyrna were butchered by Muslims—another example of the "peace of Islam". But when an Israeli soldier shoots a Palestinian who is attempting to blow someone to bits, the press screams out the headlines and publishes the incident for the world to see. What people on this planet, other than the Arabs, place their children on the front lines of a war armed with rocks, and then dare to make an outcry to the Western press when one of them gets killed? Why don't the "brave" Arab terrorists and "freedom-fighters" replace these children on the front lines? Why did they hijack The Achille Lauro in 1986, then torture and murder an old Jewish man in a wheel chair---all in front of his wife---and then dare call it a protest against Israel? What would we do in the United States if our citizens were being murdered and maimed on a daily basis? There would be a very great outcry by the American people to find the perpetrators and stop the violence. And we would want justice! We would want the people, whoever they were, and whatever religion they represented, to be imprisoned or put to death. When John Allen Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo were indiscriminately shooting innocent people out of the back of their car (October 2002), media attention focused on it so much that for a few days there was not much else in the news. And there was a strong outcry for law enforcement to do something about it. For just a few days we Americans lived in fear for our lives. So we have a little understanding of what the Jews have faced since they became a nation. Ever since May 14, 1948 the Jewish people in Israel have lived like this every day! We cannot even imagine how brave these people are. What spirit they have! And they continue going to work, going to the store, going to school, taking busses (that are frequently boarded by suicide bombers), and going for walks. Whenever I mention to someone that I am going to Israel, the very first thing he says is: "Aren't you afraid to go over there? I wouldn't go over there for anything in the world." My daughter and her family live there all the time. I guess that I can spend one month over there once in a while. If you want to see what they are doing: www.shevet.org My daughter and her husband figured it up on the computer and discovered that, percentage-wise, it is safer to live in Israel than in the United States. More people are killed, per capita, in the U.S. than in Israel! Of course, informing the world of this truth is impossible because Israel receives so much negative press. This has completely crippled Israel's tourist industry and drastically taken a large bite out of her economy. But the nice thing about going to Israel these days is that a person does not have to wade through gawking tourists to see interesting sites. There has never been a better time to visit Israel! Contact us when you are ready for a journey to the Holy Land. "One trip to Israel is worth listening to 100 speeches." — Golda Meir Israel is mentioned 2,566 times in the Bible! Jerusalem is mentioned 811 times! The original meaning of the word "Israel" is found in Genesis 32:28: when Jacob, the supplanter (one who supersedes another by force or treachery) or heel holder, was given a new name: "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." The word "Israel" literally means God prevails! "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee" (Psa. 122:6). "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people for ever" (Psa. 125:2). "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem" (Psa. 51:18). "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Is. 40:2). ". . .that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof" (Is. 44:26). ". . .even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid" (Is. 44:28). "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence," (Is. 62:6). [There are praying believers from many nations of the world walking Jerusalem's streets day and night—at least 500 of them. These people have left everything to move to Israel and have become intercessors for the nation.] "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart" (Jer. 3:17). "In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 33:16). "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:2-3). "Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem" (Zechariah 12:6b). "In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; . . ." (Zechariah 12:8). "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" (Zechariah 12:9). "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; . . ." (Zechariah 13:2). "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle" (Zechariah 13:3). "And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth" (Zechariah 13:12). Jerusalem is "The city of The Great King" (Mt. 5:35). "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one" (Zechariah 13:9). "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" (Mt. 23:37)! "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). God has given us spiritual weapons to use in our war. Let's use them! Wesley Smith wesed@hotmail.com Contact
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