Sunday, September 10, 2017

Birthpangs 2017 Part 2

I have never been a big fan of the direct connect-the-dots of political incidents against Israel to catastrophic weather events. Years ago it was popularized in an extremely detailed book which was well received by our community of Messianics and Messianic supporters. Regardless of the warm welcome it got almost universally from those of us who love Israel, I did not and still do not believe it says the right thing about the God we serve.
Maybe some of you think my comment yesterday, Birthpangs 2017, was in part mocking those who believe that God is directly punishing America for recent political moves related to Israel. Maybe I was mocking - although it was sparingly I believe. The real problem is what it says about God. For the record, I don't like what it implies about God when believers connect their causal dots to abortion, homosexuality or other sins that specifically push their buttons as followers of the LORD.
As I explained, there were spiritual laws laid down in Genesis 3 that govern the whole of mankind and one of those is that the curse of sin would not entirely rest on the man and women and their descendants, but some of the curse for their sins would be absorbed into the very ground. "Cursed is the ground for your sake."
Then later on in Moses time, God gave His people something that would keep them safe in the repercussions of sin. He gave them laws - statutes and ordinances which would not bring curses on the them directly, nor into the ground on which they lived. This was so important that God told them not only were they to live by these moral laws but they were to see to it that the strangers that lived among them did the same. And why because if some did not the curse of those sins would be absorbed into the very ground beneath their feet, and when that happens, then at some point the ground will begin to "vomit" out the inhabitants. Natural disasters are that vomiting out.
This is a universal spiritual law over the whole earth like gravity is a natural law over the whole earth. It is going to happen when a land absorbs the sins of the people who inhabit it. God does not have to issue a judgment, He already did in Genesis 3.
Sometimes there are connect the dots causal curses that are unleashed on us through political actions we take. But those are different from weather events which belong to the Genesis 3 curse. The sowing and reaping law is the direct causal spiritual law that impacts us when bad political moves are taken. "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn."
We are about to come upon the 16th Memorial of such an event of political sowing and reaping tomorrow, the 9/11 terror attack. Politically in 1993 the decision was made to allow Hamas to fund raise in the U.S. which meant Israel would bear an increased brunt of terror attacks. When the 9/11 terror attack occurred, the United States literally reaped what it had sown against Israel when it did not cut off Islamists within us from funding the effort against Israel.
The whole of Europe is in much worse shape than the United States on the same count of evil political moves against Israel and for Israel's Islamist enemies than we in the US are. That is because they are reaping on the same level that they sowed evil against Israel politically. This is a DIRECT cause and effect, sowing and reaping. It is also a spiritual law that is in effect that does not require God to say one word in judgment. He may stay the reaping, giving people a time to repent, but the sowing and reaping is going to happen regardless.
I grew up in a denomination that continually looked judgmentally at individuals upon whom bad things happened. I grew up thinking God was mad and mean, directly punishing us for every single time we screwed up. It has taken a lot to transform that view of God in my heart. Maybe that is why it bothers me so much to hear believers say God is punishing us when a major natural disaster strikes. The world is literally in our hands, it operates under God's laws, but we are the ones on the ground that are releasing what happens either through our obedience or our disobedience to His laws governing this earth.
In times like the current weather events in the USA, it seems to me that we are to be representing God as the way to safety, refuge, peace and compassion. I don't know about you, but when I returned to the God of my childhood, I was in dire straits. I was looking for help, not an explanation that God was hacked off at me and that was why I was in such a pickle.
Anyway, a few clarifying thoughts this morning.

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