Is there anyone out there ? (part 4)

But there are two sides to this. Where there is the possibility of disobedience there is also the possibility of obedience.

Go to the beginning of Deuteronomy 28 and read the first 14 verses. This lists out the blessings that the Jews would, and did, receive by being obedient to the commands of God.

* a blessing on towns and their fields (verse 3).

* many children, with abundant crops and with many cattle and sheep (verse 4)

* a blessing on corn crops and the food prepared from them (verse 5)

* a blessing on everything you do (verse 6)

* defeat for all enemies (verse 7)

These things actually happened during times of obedience. You would think that, knowing these blessings (and the curses already mentioned), the Jews would have chosen obedience every time.

Unfortunately human nature then, as now, doesn't work like that. We always choose the hard way, because we always think we know better. There is every chance that we would have behaved in exactly the same way ourselves, if it had been us and not them.

But there is more, as we move on to Chapter 30. Because here, in words written over 3000 years ago by a scruffy old man, schvitzing in a tunic in the hot sun (Moses), we see the present day situation.

We read the words 'He will bring you from the nations where he has scattered you, and he will make you prosperous again'.

A hundred years ago you would have scoffed at this, sixty years ago you would have shaken your head, but in 1948, with the formation of the State of Israel we saw the fulfilment of these words.

It goes on to say, "Even if you are scattered to the farthest corners of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you together and bring you back, so that you may again take possession of the land where your ancestors once lived."

Aren't these words incredible? How could Moses have known about the Diaspora, the scattering of the Jews truly to the corners of the earth, New Zealand, China, Russia, Argentina and so on?

Read the rest of this Chapter 30 for further revelations. If we go to the start of this section, to verse 2, we find the reason for this ingathering. It is not a random event. There is a cause. The key word is obedience, yes obedience. In some way the Jewish people have turned back to their God and, as a consequence of their actions, we find the re-establishing of the Jewish homeland.

Have Jews become holier? Are synagogue attendances up? Where is this obedience? What has been a feature of the past hundred years of Jewish history that has warranted this change of fortune? This is one of God's mysteries, though I have a personal opinion that is something to do with an event that happened 2000 years ago. But I won't go into that now.

I know this all sound so glib but remember what I said earlier - anger towards me should be pity for me, but anger towards God is healthy and, I believe, will eventually lead you to the truth. Some may say that what we have here is wish-fulfillment. In order to 'prove' the Bible, people 'manipulate events' so that what the Bible says would happen, actually did happen.

Poppycock! Was it in Jewish interests to suffer as they did? I think not. It is clear though that the Jews have rarely been in a position to affect their destiny, as it was so often out of their hands. But what about the Christians? They surely could have carried out the curses in Deuteronomy 28, if not the blessings in the same chapter. But from historical evidence there is little or no use made of the Old Testament by Christian leaders in their justification of their actions to the Jews. To them the Old Testament was too Jewish. If they had spent time studying the Old Testament they would have noticed other scriptures that speak against their attitude, scriptures like Genesis Chapter 12, Verse 3 (the first book of the Bible) that teach that those who curse the Jews will in turn be cursed themselves (a study of history bears this out, though there is no time to go into it here) !