Oz Elections 2016 – it’s first about Israel

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

“For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you [Zion] shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined.” (Isaiah 60:12)

Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up…. Neither let those who pass by them say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord!” (Psalm 129:5,6,8)

“I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.” (Joel 3:2)

Concerning the July 2 Australian general elections (and today’s Brexit vote and the November elections in the USA*), a sense of almost fierce urgency drives me to write what follows. I hope, fervently, that Christian readers will permit this prayerful consideration before being tempted to ‘delete’ and push the above – apparently off-the-wall – headline immediately from their minds.

These elections see Australia at a critical crossroads. The people in that Land Down Under are poised on the cusp of determining a direction that will result in their nation either continuing to grow under the blessing of Heaven, or moving into the shadow of God’s disfavour.

This observation is soundly Scriptural.

In my Biblically-based estimation, there is a reality that as believers we simply have to factor into our assessment of what is happening behind the scenes – as it were – in the outworking of the political processes in our lands. What God’s Word makes abundantly clear is that the wellbeing or otherwise of any nation is first and foremost predicated on its behaviour towards Israel.

This is the matter that down through history has impacted every Gentile nation, and that will impact every Gentile nation in the future.

It is not something that I am saying. It is something that our unchanging God has already said.

As important and even critical as the other issues that confront us are – morality in marriage; the ‘Safe Schools Coalition program’; the LGBT agenda overall including the new assault on our values, that of “gender fluidity”; the abortion of human life, etc – in terms of where the Lord places His focal point in the Bible, the question of our nations’ relationships with Israel is by far the principle one.

In fact, these other ‘social ills’ – everywhere being contended for or fought against -are really the symptoms of societies that have already turned their backs on God. Whether through ignorance or anti-Semitism, their rejection of His purposes for Israel leaves these nations vulnerably exposed to Satan’s attacks and victims of his victories in all these areas that are causing distress to us as Christians.

What we desperately need to understand, brothers and sisters, is that the downward spiral into depravity and immorality and violence and godlessness in our nations is a DIRECT RESULT of our abuse of the Jews as Christian nations and our nations’ readiness not just to take their land from them (not just to force them out of the land that is theirs), but to in fact oppose and work to reverse what God has done in restoring the people of Israel to their land.

For the restoration of Israel is the single most important thing that God is about in our day. The nations are sliding into darkness, and I’m afraid to say that, according to the Bible, they will continue that slide. It is over Zion that the light of God’s countenance is rising once again (Isaiah 60:1-2), as He turns away from the Gentiles whose time is drawing to a close now that God’s set time to favour Israel has come (Psalm 102:13).

We simply have to grasp this. Unless we do, we are in danger of being swept away with the godlessness that is rushing like an unbridled tsunami to engulf our once Judeo-Christian lands.

“I will curse him who curses you.” We ignore or reject this age-old truth – this age-old warning – at our peril.

What it boils down to is this: if we truly wish to see our nations blessed and healed of these diseases that are corrupting and devouring them, then with all of our might and with all of our strength and with everything that is in us we need to pray and to act to get our countries to stand with and not against Israel in these days.

As Christians we need to “plug into” Zion so that the light that is rising to shine over her will transmit some light to our own lands against the darkness that is rolling in to cover us.

For Australia (and America, and the UK) – this is the secret. This is the key.

Still don’t get it? Follow along with me:

From a Biblical viewpoint – clearly and unequivocally – Israel is at the centre of everything God is doing on this earth concerning the nations.

It has been this way since Genesis 12:3.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with favouritism, or – should this thought catch in your throat – with Israel’s “deserving” of special status.

It has everything to do with the sovereignty of the Lord and the conditions whereby He has attached blessings or curses to every nation.

God has declared Israel to be His “special treasure” and “the Apple of [His] eye” and His “dearly beloved.”

It was in and through this nation that the LORD determined to redeem all of mankind to Himself; to restore all of creation in harmony with Heaven as it was in the beginning.

For GOD, this is the most important thing of all. This is His top agenda item.

Yet, somehow, Christians who profess to love the LORD their God just will not grasp it.

It is into the nation of Israel and into the land of Israel that the Messiah was predestined to be born. As alien as the idea might be to our Greek-oriented minds, God meant for Him to have a country and to have countrymen.

How the nations of the world – as nations – relate to the land of Israel, and how they treat the people of Israel, directly affects their national existence in the present, and will definitely determine their future when His kingdom has come “on earth as it is in heaven.”

It is because of this manifest truth that I maintain with certainty that the Australian elections next week are, in fact, first of all about Israel and Australia’s relationship with her.

Israel is already featuring – albeit apparently on the periphery but in a notably different way – in the race for the premiership.

Whereas a plank in the platform of the Liberal Coalition has been supportive of Israel and has remained resistant to being commandeered by Israel’s enemies, the Australian Labor Party has robustly embraced pro-Palestinianism and is calling actively for the creation of a new Arab state on the ancestral lands of the Jews.

Were I an Australian, I would put praying into this issue at the top of my prayer list.

Were I Australian I would vote Liberal. And I would encourage as many believing Aussies as I could to vote Liberal too.

And then, after that party is returned to power (which I pray it will be) I would channel my efforts into ensuring that the federal government stands firm in its position (as established under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott – God bless him – when Julie Bishop stood by his side before the coup) to not side with Israel’s enemies and to not pressure Israel into rescinding its right to extend sovereignty over its ancestral homelands in the contested areas of Samaria and Judea.

For Zion’s sake, and for Australia’s sake, voting for the Coalition would be my first step to help try and ensure that Australia never unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state – which will be nothing less than a weapon that is being formed to destroy the Jewish one.

* This “Israel first” principle is just as pertinent to the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, and to the dramatic election campaign that is unfolding in the United States.