{"id":3939,"date":"2023-11-06T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T18:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3939"},"modified":"2024-01-27T13:59:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T19:59:45","slug":"love-what-god-loves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/?p=3939","title":{"rendered":"Love What God Loves"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As barbaric and evil as the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza was, the anti-Semitism that has come to light around the world since then may be even more disturbing. There are people marching, rioting, burning flags around the world, and threatening violence against Jews who probably don\u2019t know a Jew or who have never met a Jewish person. How do you explain that? Outside of dark, evil spirits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, people are jumping up and down around the world, protesting for media attention, burning Israeli and US flags, waving Palestinian flags, and defacing and destroying property while they chant “Free Palestine” or \u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

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Not surprisingly, in a recent survey, American college students were asked about the chant  \u201cFrom the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.\u201d They were asked which river and which sea. An overwhelming majority of them did not know. Their guesses were as preposterous and humorous as they were sad and telling \u2014 telling that college-educated adults in the US have so little grasp of the history, religion, geography, and politics of the region, as well as the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own experience asking three college students in our church wasn\u2019t all that different. That\u2019s also telling. The referenced sea and river are the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The PLO popularized the phrase in the 1960s, calling for themselves to have a state that encompasses all of Israel and for Israel to have no country or state at all.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Those familiar with the Bible will recall that God gave Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and their descendants forever the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River, a much larger part of the Middle East. Israel\u2019s boundaries under King Solomon about 1000 BC \u2014 1700 years before Islam \u2014 were as large as they have ever been, but the whole possession hasn\u2019t been under Israeli control yet. All the while, for 4000 years,  since Abraham, Jews have lived in the land. They just didn\u2019t have an officially recognized nation since the Romans destroyed and dispersed them 70-73 AD, that is, until the miraculous return to the land after WWII and the rebirth of their nation on May 14, 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates\u2014all the Hittite country\u2014to the Mediterranean Sea in the west\u201d (Joshua 1:4\u2014 also see Genesis 15:18-20, Genesis 26:3, Genesis 28:13).<\/p>\n\n\n

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So that is a little history and geography lesson. Maybe a theology lesson, too. Grab your Bible and some history books, or do some valid research on the web. This is going to be an important issue going forward to the end of time. You should know what you believe and why it\u2019s important. You should know what is right, historical, just, and true \u2014 the facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said, \u201cYou shall know them [people] by their fruit,\u201d by what they do, not what they say. Have a serious look at what both sides in the conflict have said and done throughout history, especially since 1948. Then, draw your own conclusions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, you can dwell on the Bible-stated truth that God hates violence, and God loves Israel. You will always do well to love what God loves and hate what God hates.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAnd God loves Israel, declaring, \u2018I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness\u2019\u201d (Jeremiah 31:3). \u201cThe LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion\u201d (Psalms 11:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who do not love what God loves and hate what God hates, those who passionately support violence and hate Israel, are shaking their angry fists at God. This never ends well for them, their political organization, and those who support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how to make sense of it, even with the smoke and media haze \u2014 misguided secular-humanist deception. Harvard? Pit? MIT? CNN? BBC? Beware<\/strong> of deception!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be aware<\/strong> of these verses: \u201cThey perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie\u201d (2 Thessalonians 2:10b-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choose the age-old wisdom and most basic Bible teaching, “Fear God and keep His commandments.” Or if that seems out-of-date or too draconian for you, \u201cLove What God loves, and hate what God hates,\u201d and you\u2019ll be fine and fare well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shalom and Godspeed on your journey to truth \u2014 also righteousness, peace, and joy.\u201cFor the kingdom of God is … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit\u201d (Romans 14:17).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.\u201d Indeed, that\u2019s what Israel is in the process of doing right now. They are freeing Israel \/Palestine from a people who love violence, oppress their own, practice lawlessness and injustice, hate Israel, their neighbors, and fire rockets and missiles at them incessantly. You reap what you sow. There is One who sees to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May our gracious Creator and King exercise justice and judgment mixed with mercy. It’s His to do. And He is the only One who can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*********************<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (Revelation 5:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[An article I wrote about end times events in 2018<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As barbaric and evil as the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza was, the anti-Semitism that has come to light around the world since then may be even more disturbing. There are people marching, rioting, burning flags around the world, and threatening violence against Jews who probably don\u2019t know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,9,7,11],"tags":[17,32,222,33,68,207,50,56,21,95],"class_list":["post-3939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendoftheking","category-be-a-leader","category-be-a-man","category-kingdom-events","category-understanding-our-times","tag-bible","tag-christian-life","tag-end-times","tag-faith","tag-fear","tag-history","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-jesus","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3948,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions\/3948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendoftheking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}