Monday Morning Music Ministry

What Scripture Really Says About “Blessings and Curses”

12-15-25

In my previous essay I addressed the disastrous set of circumstances besetting us at the moment – “us” being the world, the international order, peace in the Middle East, the American government and politics; and Christians. I am only one of many who identify Israel as the source – not to say “the Jews,” but expansionist Zionism and the impetus toward Greater Israel – and its influence on American politics and media.

As many people discuss many aspects of these profoundly significant challenges – even to the point where a growing number of Jews decry Israeli policies – I primarily want to address the spiritual factors. The relative paucity of religion’s role is surprising in public debates. Biblical history and God’s injunctions are essential components of the conflicts, however, and continue to exacerbate the dangers… when they should be, rather, informing and guiding us.

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It is ironic that Zionism and the creation of Israel in 1948 might not have occurred without the narrative of the Holocaust, nor have been sustained without charges of anti-Semitism. The irony increases as humanitarian impulses have morphed – most recently over the Gaza campaigns – to ethnic cleansing and genocide. The founder of modern Zionism (ironically, a secular Jew) envisioned a religious country of broad borders where displaced people would themselves displace people. Europeans, mostly, displacing Middle Easterners.

A majority of Jews reportedly consider Israel’s government to be committing war crimes in Gaza; suicides in its military are at the highest rate of any country’s. The world community largely shares these views. Israel however persists in its policies, and in fact has doubled down in justifying its actions. The awful reports of the October 7 attacks provided the trigger for virtual annihilation of Gaza’s already shaky infrastructure, and of many thousands of civilian deaths.

The defenders and sustainers of these policies are primarily of three sources: the extreme Zionist class in Israeli governments; the influence of the “Jewish Supremacist Billionaire class” (I am quoting Jewish critics themselves about influence on politicians and ubiquitous media themes); and American Evangelical Christians.

There are Orthodox Jewish sects, we have noted, that do not accept contemporary Israel as Biblical Israel, believing instead that only the anticipated Messiah’s return can bring that about. Yet American Evangelicals frequently support any and every Israeli government’s claim and action. Many believe that God spares the Jews from needing to accept Christ as a means of salvation. As a group, Evangelicals’ financial support and political pressure are unconditional. Why?

Many American Evangelicals place virtually their entire rationale on the oft-cited passage I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3). Later in Genesis the Covenant with Abraham is expanded, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

To Jews and American Evangelicals these promises of God have been interpreted as to mean any people who are circumcised (a condition of the Covenant) are free of God’s other conditions. If they are of a geographic group or are people with certain names or DNAs, or are members of a political party or a country, that is deemed sufficient. If a country called Israel is one that was founded by terrorists or persecutes Christian believers or allows abuse of Jesus followers – they are free of God’s rules supposedly meant for the rest of humankind. A “Get Out of Jail Free” card?

Many Jews and American Evangelicals ignore other portions of the Old and New Testaments: “Abraham’s seed” in His promise was not a string of nephews and nieces, but… Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself confirmed His centrality to the Abrahamic Covenant. One of myriad times He asserted His divinity and identity as the successor of Abraham and fulfillment of Covenant promises was when He distinguished between Abraham’s seed and Satan’s seed. Accusers wanted to stone an adulteress (John Chapter 8):

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, Jesus said to the Jewish mob; but you seek to kill Me because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father….You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. …Because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.

“Before Abraham Was, I AM.”

The Biblical record clearly indicates that ancient Jews were Chosen as a people to be the ancestors of Jesus. Subsequently, the spiritual descendants of Jesus are God’s Chosen.

One of the earliest Pauline Epistles, written to correct misunderstandings about God’s heart and will, was to the church in Galatia: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. God did not say, “And to seeds,” as if of many, but as of one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ (Galatians 3:16). We should note, being grammatical: not countless offspring; but singular – the Messiah Jesus Christ. Abraham’s seed.

Abram (before God chose him, later changing his name to Abraham) was the father of the faith ordained by God, and leader of humankind’s first major monotheistic people. His descendants would be found in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Members of all these major world religions commonly and mutually are called “People of the Book” and “Abrahamic” faiths. Muslims revere Abraham (and, similarly, they have a higher regard for Jesus Christ, whom they consider a major prophet, more than do the Jews, who outright reject Jesus and any aspect of His divinity).

My notes here are not shared as Bible lessons. Well, actually… they are, because misunderstanding essential Biblical doctrines has consequences. The world seems to be slouching towards not Gomorrah, but worse: broad international conflict, possible nuclear war, institutionalized injustice. At the other extreme of eventualities is not peace and harmony but mutilated babies and grieving mothers. No positive aspects.

We may grant that zealots are blinded by feelings of insecurity and hatred, perhaps doctrines of Supremacy; and that well-meaning Christians are Biblically ignorant or naive. In any case, sympathy is useless, even deadly, as the world hurtles toward calamity.

To return to my main thesis, begun in the previous essay, the questions I raise finally are being discussed openly by many people. Overdue. But some influencers are blowing smoke, changing the subjects, scattershot-blaming random parties, and kidnapping debates. For instance, Charlie Kirk’s legacy is being eclipsed by charges peripheral to his program (in the weeks before his murder, by the way, he had declared himself free of the Israel Lobby and Zionist influence).

It is tragic that American Evangelicals are major culprits to these malignant trends through their ignorance and prejudice and self-righteousness. They effectively practice divided loyalty and have Chosen to encourage distinguishing between dead babies shown on the nightly news. God forbid!

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Next Week: Are the End Times Beginning?– A final discussion of Biblical clarity and the responsibility, culpability, and choices facing American Christians. The degree to which America – the cultural establishment, the media, the government – has been subservient to foreign influence, and might regain its independence and integrity.

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