The Hand of the Lord

This morning I watched a video on Facebook that caught my attention.  The purpose of the video was to easily explain the current and ongoing problems in the Middle East. It is a really great video that does explain the problem in very simple terms, but what I got out of the video is not what I think was their goal.  I saw the hand of the Lord.  Here is the video, take a look.              

                   

In Genesis 15:5-7 the Lord give Abram a promise.

He (God) took him (Abram) outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars- if indeed you can count them."  Then he (God) said to him (Abram), "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the Lord, and he (God) credited it to him (Abram) as righteousness.  

Then in Exodus 3:8 the Lord spoke to Moses and said:

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their task masters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So, I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite."

Lastly in Joshua 1:1-9 the Lord spoke to Joshua and said:

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

As I went back this morning and read these passages and thought about the journey of the Isrealites throughout the Old Testament and then the people we read about in the New Testament I was amazed.  Thousands of years ago the Lord chose this small people group to be set apart as his children.  He taught them, guided them, disciplined them and always protected them.  It did not matter who came against them whether it was the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans or the Palestinians today; this people group has always been protected by God.  As I watched the video I loved how you can see that throughout history the Lord has not allowed ANYONE to destroy or wipe out his people.  Many have tried and some like Hitler truly did unspeakable damage, yet this small people group remains.

Do I like what I hear and read in the news about the conflicts in the Middle East...I do not.  What I do know is this, no matter what any country tries to do, the Jewish nation will always remain.  That is a promise of our God and in this video we can see proof of that promise.  What an encouragement when we as children of God are discouraged.  We may not like the road we are walking, we may not like the lessons the Lord wants us to learn, but we know that as a child of the King of Kings we will always be loved and our Lord will always keep his promises to us.

We as Christians not only need to be praying for the nation of Israel but we need to thank the Lord for how through their continued protection you can see the hand of God working today.  Whether this world wants to see it or not the Lord is doing amazing and mighty things in this world around us that are being broadcast daily on TV.  My prayer is that the Lord would open opportunities for his light and glory to shine as we strive to share his love and salvation to a lost and dying world. And I will continue to smile each time a country fails to destroy the Jewish nation knowing that they are one underdog that will always win!