Focus on Israel

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: I'm Laurie Cardoza-Moore, and this is Focus on Israel.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: Hello and thank you for tuning into Focus on Israel. I'm Laurie Cardoza-Moore, President of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating Christians about their biblical responsibility to the Jewish people. Many Christians do not realize that the word explicitly tells us to stand with our Jewish brethren and defend the land God calls His.

Three weeks ago, we began our teachings on the relationship Israel has with the international community and America. And today, we're going to see how God works inside of that relationship.

Earlier in our series, we concluded our teachings on the evidence for the Jewish state. Those teachings opened with the biblical evidence, as I had a chance to travel to Israel and meet with and interview two rabbis from Israel.

In programs 5, 6, and 7, we focused on the archaeological, historical, and political evidence for the state of Israel, and I spoke with prominent archaeologists, historians, and political leaders in Israel.

On our last two programs, we focused on the relationship between the nations of the world and Israel, and America with Israel. These teachings are also available for you to view on the website, and there's a wealth of information there from a former Israeli ambassador, as well as a present member of the Israeli legislature.

I also highly recommend that you purchase the DVDs of our past programs, as each program makes a great group study source to share with your family, friends, home group, or church. So please consider how you can make a difference and spread the word.

Today we'll be focusing on another area of major controversy: the spiritual relationship as given by God between the Jewish people and the rest of the world. What we'll see is that what this verse spells out can be a curse, or it can be a blessing.

Genesis 12:3 reads, "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

Long ago, in these three short verses, the Creator of the universe, the Almighty himself, set into motion a force that would affect all mankind for all time. The magnitude, the weightiness of what he established through His divine decree, is almost beyond comprehension. It is truly staggering.

By it, He wired into the very existence of mankind a law that is as real as the law of gravity, and we must understand that the power of its force continues to shape history even today.

For while this ancient text has been forgotten, obscured, and discounted in most circles of modern-day life, the ongoing effects of it are chronicled daily as front-page news.

For God has chosen Israel to be the deciding factor in the earth, the plumb line by which all is measured.

This is the hour that not only individuals, but whole nations are aligning with the blessing or the curse, depending on whether they choose to reconcile with God's plan for both the Jewish people and their covenant land.

Those who align by defending, aiding, and honoring them will be blessed. But for those who do not acknowledge and embrace this truth, for those who ignore and transgress God's will, as stated clearly and repeatedly in His word, they will decline.

The prophet Isaiah echoes the warning of the Genesis curse in chapter 60 and verse 12. "For the nation or kingdom that will not serve Israel will perish. It will be utterly ruined."

And in chapter 49 and verse 25, Yahweh warns yet again, "I will contend against those who contend against Israel."

While in Israel, I had the chance to speak with a leading rabbi on this subject, Rabbi Abraham Greenbaum. Rabbi Greenbaum is founder and president of Azamra. He established Azamra to help reconnect those in the Jewish communities who are not connected to Judaism. He gave me new spiritual insight into the Genesis curse.

Rabbi Abraham Greenbaum: We find when God calls Abraham to go to the land that he says, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you."

And God here is teaching humanity that those who are associated with the mission of Abraham to bring the knowledge of God to all humanity through the ways of peace and hospitality and loving kindness, will receive the blessing of Abraham. And those who won't will be in a dark spot. A person may have an outwardly wonderful life of health and prosperity and family, but it may be that on the last day, he suddenly realizes that it was all completely empty. It's a bubble, and they'll take him past the amazing wonders that will be perceived by the souls that served God. He'll suddenly know he's going down to destruction.

I don't know exactly. I've seen these things that are written in the prophets. We do see in Ezekiel a graphic description of the kings of the nations in hell. We see an explicit prophecy in Ezekiel of how the nations go down, and how for example, when Nebuchadnezzar went down into hell, all the kings were shaken at this terrible spectacle.

And historically, we do see that none of the nations that ever fought against Israel in the past are really on the world scene.

We do not hear anything of Assyria. If Assyria is anywhere, perhaps it's been absorbed by Turkey, I don't know, but what do we hear about Babylon? What do we hear about about Egypt as a power consonant with ancient Egypt? What do we hear about Rome? Every all the dresses have changed, all the the identities have changed.

It's interesting that the one nation that is upfront today is Persia, and Persia has a great merit that they did facilitate the building of the Second Temple. So maybe now God is inviting Persia to choose if it would like to join in building the Third Temple, which I hope they will.

But one thing we see historically is that the nations that fought and opposed Israel were destroyed. Tyrants like Hitler or Stalin and others came to terrible ends. And God is a God of perfect justice, and He does not oblige any member of any nation to follow the character type of that nation if depicted negatively in the Bible.

Everybody has perfect free will to be righteous or to be wicked, and those who are righteous will get their reward because God does not withdraw the reward of the tiniest of His creatures, and those who are wicked will find they cannot get away with it. God's arm is longer than any other arm.

And so I appeal to those who look against Israel with a critical bad eye to consider carefully. Could it really be that way? Could that really be the truth? Because perhaps when people look at Israel with that bad eye, they're really judging their own selves, and if they were to look at themselves, they would see that they themselves are guilty of the very things they project upon to this demon.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: We're going to take a walk back through history to examine a few examples of the Genesis curse in action.

As we look back in history to the global scene, we see clearly the effect of the law of blessing and cursing as related to the fate of peoples and nations. In a measure, this has already proven true many times in history. There have been numerous nations and people groups from ancient to modern times that have suffered or disappeared from the earth as a result of cursing the Jewish people.

Included have been such ancient civilizations and empires that are extinct, such as the Philistines, Canaanites, Babylon, Persia, and Rome. But let us come to recent centuries. In 1492, Spain and Portugal were two of the mightiest sea powers of that day.

Spain amassed tremendous wealth and a vast colonial empire. Spanish and Portuguese colonies soon spanned the globe. However, in 1492, the Christian rulers of Spain and Portugal expelled the Jews, who had lived and thrived there for hundreds of years.

In a relatively short period of time, the vast influence of these two nations went into a rapid and permanent decline. In 1588, the mighty Spanish Armada was destroyed by the British, and the latter took over control of the seas. After this, Spain became a second-rate power and never again played a major role in European politics.

It is quite interesting that at almost the exact time of this great sea victory, there was beginning to arise a strong and favorable Zionist sentiment in Britain. Yet, Great Britain soon stumbled and befell the curse.

Up until the early 20th century, there was tremendous support for Zionism in England, and it was expressed at the highest levels of government. Britain later helped defeat the Ottoman Empire and was left to carve up Palestine. Interestingly, at the end of World War I, Britain was one of the mightiest powers on earth, with colonies stretching the world over. Charged by the League of Nations in 1920 to establish a state for newly emerging Israel, one of her first acts was to take 75% of the territory allotted to Israel, and establish the Palestinian Emirate of Transjordan. Britain then proceeded to hinder all Jewish settlement in the land of Israel, while at the same time encouraging Arab settlement there from all the surrounding nations.

This was precisely at the time when Jews were needing to flee from the coming Holocaust. Finally, in 1948, the British were forced to turn the now sticky problem of the Jewish homeland back over to the United Nations.

During the same period, while Great Britain was abusing the sacred trust given her by God, she found herself fighting for her very life against Germany. Her capital city was bombed nightly by the Germans. Although Britain survived, she soon afterward lost her many colonies. Great Britain learned, like other nations before her, the high price of seeking to curse those whom God has blessed.

As the United States has turned its back on Israel and pressured Israel to give up land, the curse has had damaging effects.

In October of 1991, President George Bush Senior became the first United States President to ever propose the division of the land of Israel by creating a Palestinian state within its borders. Within 24 hours, a wall of water, 30 feet high, slammed into the Bush's seafront residence in Maine.

As he was opening the anti-Israel Madrid conference, what came to be called the perfect storm developed in the North Atlantic, creating waves over 100 feet, the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The monster storm traveled 1,000 miles from east to west, instead of the normal west to east pattern, and crashed into the New England coastline.

The connection was captured on the front page of America's largest national newspaper, as the headline of USA Today read side by side: "One-on-one Peace Talks" and "East Coast Hit Hard by Rare Storm."

President Bush Senior's popularity plummeted from the time he announced plans to divide the land of Israel, and he was a one-term president in spite of his success in the Gulf War. In August of 1992, under the leadership of President Clinton, the Madrid conference was convened on American soil for the first time. Under the guise of peace talks, the goal of the conference was to move forward in forcing Israel to give away her land. That same day, a Category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Andrew, slammed into the East Coast and was recognized at that time as being the worst natural disaster to hit America. It caused an estimated $30 billion in damage and left 200,000 people homeless. USA Today and The New York Times both chronicled the connection as their headlines read side by side: "Hurricane Andrew and Peace Talks."

In August of 2005, President George W. Bush made a very grave mistake in forcing Israel to give up her covenant land. The repercussions of this transgression were indeed both catastrophic and swift. Under the oversight of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the US government forcibly evicted Jewish families from their homes in the Gaza communities. As the world looked on, there was great anguish and many tears, while business owners were wrenched from their properties and families were torn from their homesteads.

While this was happening, a weather system was forming in the Atlantic. The storm developed into Hurricane Katrina, a monster storm that destroyed New Orleans. And as the world looked on, there was great anguish and many tears, as business owners were wrenched from their properties and families were torn from their homesteads. Secretary of State Rice, whose home state was Louisiana, watched as the force of nature evicted distraught residents. President Bush's popularity suffered in the polls as he was greatly criticized for his handling of the Katrina crisis.

For Psalms 105 verse 14B says, "God reproves kings for the sake of Israel." Israel suffered the loss of land and experienced great anguish, upheaval, and financial loss. Within days, the United States suffered the loss of land and experienced great anguish, upheaval, and financial loss. While most people never made the connection, others believed this parallel was simply an extraordinary coincidence. Is it possible that the fury of the winds and the waves of the monster storm were driven by the power of God's word? By the very force that holds the universe together, a force that is immutable and unchangeable?

The day before 9/11, President George W. Bush was completing the most comprehensive plan ever to be drafted, calling for a Palestinian state to be created out of Israel's own land. He was doing this in order to appease the Saudis because they felt he was favoring Israel. But he was not able to complete the proposal because the following day, he was confronted with the largest terror event in American history.

On April 19th, 2010, President Obama announced that the United States will no longer automatically stand with Israel. The next day, an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and leaked a vast amount of oil over a lengthy period of time. On May 18th, 2011, President Obama proposed in a public forum that Israel give away more of her land by returning to her pre-1967 borders. Because of Israel's small size and topography, that would make her borders indefensible. So essentially, President Obama was issuing a death threat to the nation.

The news of this unfortunate proposal swept the globe like a firestorm, as the flames of anti-Semitism were fanned, and terrorist organizations became more emboldened in their siege against Israel. Over the next few days, storms swept the US, causing the biggest loss of life from any tornado in history. The town of Joplin, Missouri, was completely devastated, and several others suffered heavy damage.

We as individuals are also given the choice to curse or bless Israel and the Jewish people. One successful businessman I spoke with in Dallas recently expressed his love and deep desire to bless God's land and His people.

Guest (Male): What I do for my business, I'm in private equity. Been doing that for over 30 years, and we invest in different kind of capital assets for corporations and run a portfolio, but that's the boring part, the technical. What I enjoy the most is the relationship part of any kind of business because I get to deal with people.

And through that, we get to have an opportunity to do a lot of traveling, do business overseas with my company. We're in about 12 nations right now investing our capital, and all that we're behind Israel also because as a believer in Jesus of Nazareth, I also believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So that kind of brings us together.

So if there's a God in heaven that actually controls life on planet Earth, and he made some pretty bold statements about His people. God has not finished with the nation of Israel. God has not finished with the world.

God made some promises to them, correct? God doesn't have an opinion. God doesn't change His mind, and He's never had a new thought. So if He tells me that Mike, I'm going to bless you if you bless My people. I'm just going to do that. And as I bless Israel financially, God will see to it that I get blessed. And I want to go a little deeper on this. I happen to believe what God says. So if God says, "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you." Look at, I believe that.

Let's, let's bring it back closer to home. Some guy comes to me, and he goes, "You've got to invest in Microsoft. You have to. Mezzanine level." Micro who? "Well, there's this guy that's got this software and it's called Microsoft and they're going to tie the world together because every home is going to have a computer." I'm going, "Well, that's absurd."

Every home's going to have a, but you got to get in. You know, put 10,000 on this. I've never heard, what is this? The people that said, "Okay, I'll invest." Do you know what a $10,000 investment in a mezzanine level when Microsoft was first trying to raise money to get this going would be worth today?

100 million, 200 million, an ungodly amount of money, right? Blindly. "Oh, this is a good investment." How often do we as businessmen, every single day, invest in the stock market, invest in hedge funds? Do we think, "We don't know?" I'm trusting a stock broker to tell me, "I know you invest here." I don't know the CEO, the CFO, the CIO, I don't know any of these guys.

And I'm trusting they're making decisions for my money, and I'm going to make money out of it. And all of a sudden I invest all this money in the stock market and I'm a billionaire and people go, "Boy, you're a smart guy." Smart? I just did what some guy told me to do. How much more when the God of the universe says, "I will bless you," and I'm going to bless His people? Are you kidding me? That return, what is that return worth? I don't know, but if God says it, it's sure. There's no if, ands, or buts.

So, Mike, why do you invest in Israel? I want to be blessed. That's selfish. Who cares? Bless me as I bless your people. I believe what He says.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: The Creator of the universe has placed before all of us, as well as the nations of the earth, a choice, the blessing or the curse. Those like Mike Moore who have blessed the Jews have indeed been blessed. On a larger level, the most prosperous country for more than 200 years has been the United States, as it has also been the most blessed place Jews have ever lived in.

The Jewish people have suffered longer and more horribly than any other living people, but they are still around. Their historic enemies are all gone. Those who curse the Jews were indeed cursed, and those who curse the Jews today seem to be cursed.

The most backward civilization today is the Arab world. One could make the case that the Arab world's preoccupation with Jew hatred and destroying Israel is what has sealed its descent, keeping it from progressing. The converse is what worries tens of millions of Americans. The day America begins to abandon Israel, America will begin its descent.

At Focus on Israel, we appreciate hearing from you. Please send your comments and questions to comments@pjtn.org. I've received such encouraging notes and emails, as well as great questions from all over, from both US viewers as well as many from other parts of the world.

In the mailbag today, I received several emails that I wanted to read.

"Thank you for all you're doing to stand with the Jewish people, and may the Lord bless your work in the churches and open the eyes of many who are sleeping and need to be alert."

"Could you please add me to your email blast updates? I would really appreciate it."

That's coming from Karen in Jerusalem. This is from Gary. "I wanted to express my appreciation to Laurie for her comment about Netanyahu. I am grateful that this man stood alone not only for the nation of Israel, but for liberty. Thank you, Laurie, for making note of this."

And then finally, this comes from Pastor Commando in Cameroon. "My dear sister Laurie, greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus. It is a great work you are doing in calling the Christians to get back to what made them to be Christians because of the falling away of the people of God. The Bible is very clear on this subject, yet like the Christians of old who created covenants, monasteries, etcetera, and locked themselves by praying while the enemy was ravaging the people out there and the Muslims took advantage of that."

"A minister spoke to me about the great work you are doing, and I would very much want to be a part of it to take to Africa. By His grace, I hope to see you soon, God willing. God bless you and your entire family."

Ladies and gentlemen, the time to stand up is now. Be a leader in your community and in your church. One person can make a difference. Get involved with and support pro-Israel organizations such as PJTN. Call your senators, congressmen, the White House. Let your elected leaders hear from you. Please visit our website to learn more, sign up to receive action alerts and order our films to share with family and friends.

I want to thank you for watching our program today. Be sure to join us next week as we'll be focusing on the prevalent media bias against Israel. So please encourage your family and friends to tune in and check the PJTN website for the program schedule. God bless you and thank you for all you do on behalf of your Jewish brethren and all Israel. We'll see you next time on Focus on Israel.

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Anti-Semitism has reached epic proportions, and Israel is now surrounded by nations who seek its destruction. For Israel to lose just one battle would mean losing everything. As Christians, it is our biblical responsibility to stand with our Jewish brethren and Israel. PJTN needs your help to reach more Christians with this urgent message. Please visit our website to become a member today and order our award-winning documentaries. You must decide that you won't be silent. Sign up now at pjtn.org. God bless you and thank you for your support and prayers.

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