Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The Lord is on our Side



Psalm 124:1-8

The Lord is on our Side

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—let Israel now say— if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters.  Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!  We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!  Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

I would like us to ponder on these two verses; God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27)  Also Jeremiah 23:22-24, “But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.  “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away?  Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”

In 1948 Israel once more became a Nation, and in 1967 they were 2 % in population of the Middle East.  Their neighbors were not happy about this small Nation, a nation that had its roots in Abraham, Isaac’ and Jacob, and the great King David, used by God to win every battle he entered and bring peace to Israel.  But this small insignificant nation had a greater claim than those listed, they were the chosen people of God.  And the archangel Michael is also the prince of Israel, who fights for them. You will find that in the book of Daniel 10:13, 21 and Chapter 12:1.

On June 5, 1967 Egypt, Syria, and Jordan declared war, and Israel Defense Forces launched preemptive air strikes that crippled the air forces of Egypt and its allies. Israel then staged a successful ground offensive and seized the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.  The war was over in six days it ended June 11, 1967.

In those six days the Arab states lost 10,000 military men, and Israel lost 800, but that does not tell the real story, of what Israel’s prince Michael was doing both in the air and on the ground, but go to Israel and talk with some of the pilots and tank commanders and they will tell you about enemy planes falling from the air when they had no ammunitions left to fire at them.  Make no mistake on this truth, Israel is and always will be the chosen people of God, and as a Rabbi told us many years ago when the people left Egypt to follow Moses only about 20% believed in the God of Abraham, and he said it saddens me to say the same is true today with the Jewish people.  That is sad, but our God is a God of promise, and He has graphed us into His chosen through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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