WHICH GOD DO YOU WORSHIP?
Part 5

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people"
(Luke 1:68).

Our great God has many names. Every name reveals another aspect of His character, or the manner in which He wants to reveal Himself to us. Sometimes we forget that God is called “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). God called Himself this name to Abraham at the burning bush, before He revealed Himself as “I AM THAT I AM.” Immediately following this revelation He once again stated in verse 15: “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” And He repeats it again in Exodus 4:5.

Not only did He tell Abram three times that this was His name, but affirmed that it is His name FOREVER. Did you get that? There are some Christians who say that God has finished with Israel and the church has taken her place. That does not line up with what the God of the Bible says.

Did you know that God is called the “God of Israel” 201 times in the Bible? I think that is enough to establish His identity, don’t you?

If we truly worship the God of the Bible we have to embrace Him as the God of Israel. We have to know Him as the God of Israel. Because He is the God of Israel, we have to embrace the people of Israel. We have to embrace the land of Israel (and that is a lot more land that the Jews have today). In Genesis chapter 15:18-21 it tells us: “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt (the Nile river in Egypt and Sudan) unto the great river, the river Euphrates (which is in modern-day Iraq).”

To understand more fully the actual boundaries God promises Abram in verses 19-21 that his descendants will inhabit all the land of the following people: “The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and Jebusites.” These people lived in what is known today as Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, part of Asian Turkey, and of course ALL of Israel, including Gaza and the West Bank. God gave the promise of this land over and over again. He didn’t say it was only for Abraham, or even Isaac, and Jacob, but for their descendants.

We don’t know when, nor can we even fathom how Israel will get all this land, but we know it will belong to them someday. These Scriptures don’t say they have to fight for it, for God has given it to them. It will become theirs in God’s divine way. All we have to do is believe and stand fast to God’s Word and promises.

That’s the next thing. If we worship the God of the Bible, who is the God of Israel, we must believe and embrace all God’s promises to Israel, those which are happening right now and many more that are still to happen in the future. The land of Israel is a living proof that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and that God is alive today. We are living in times of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and we will see much more to come.

It is an awesome experience to go the mountains of Samaria (the West Bank) and seer prolific vineyards growing out of stones! How can they grow in such arid ground? There is only one reason. By the prophetic word of the Lord. God speaks not only to people, but to the lands. Ezekiel 36:4, 8 says: “Therefore ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen . . . O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.”

God promised that when He would gather His people back from the four corners of the earth that they would settle again on these mountains and the land will bring forth fruit. It is totally miraculous. Everything in Israel is miraculous. Read the whole chapter of Ezekiel 36 to be encouraged.

Why do the nations of the world hate Israel? Why does USA and the nations of the world want to take the West Bank from Israel? Why would they like to throw Israel into the sea if they could? Because it is satanically inspired. Satan hates Israel, and hates God’s land. Or I should say, he fears it. He know they are the proof that God is alive today and His Word comes to pass.

If Israel and the land can be wiped out, the Bible is no longer valid, because it fills God’s Word from beginning to end.

But what does the God of the Bible say? “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever” (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

God cannot forget Israel, therefore if He is our God, we will not forget Israel either.

Blessings from NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Dear God of Israel, please teach me to know who You are. Please help me to know you as the God of Israel. Please fill my heart with your revelation so I can understand your ultimate purposes for Israel and for the world. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Because I am on God’s side, I am on Israel’s side.

FURTHER RESEARCH:
To know what the God of the Bible says about Israel now, and in the future, look up these promises: http://tinyurl.com/IsraelEverlastingPossession

Further Scriptures regarding the boundaries promised to Israel:
Exodus 23:31; Numbers 34:3-12; Deuteronomy 1:7, 8; 11:24; Joshua 1:4; and Nehemiah 9:7, 8.

Further Scriptures calling God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:
Genesis 28:13; Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37; and Acts 7:31, 32.