John Hagee - Israel, Abraham To Armageddon
Turn with me to Genesis 12, as today we begin a new and exciting prophetic sermon series titled, "Israel: From Abraham to Armageddon". As we gather here today, the winds of war are blowing over the holy city Jerusalem, and the Middle East and our world is walking into the fires of the third world war. Not only is Israel at war for their very survival, and Iran's terrorist proxy, Hamas, antisemitism has tripled in scope since this massacre in October the 7th. The fact is, antisemitism is sin. And as sin, it damns the soul. Antisemitism is Jew hatred. Antisemitism brings the wrath of God on men and nations who permit it. God has made a very clear promise to all antisemites. "I will curse those who curse the people of Israel". Read with me, Genesis 12:1-3. Now, the Lord said to Abraham: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house. And I want to show you the land. I will make you a great nation: I will bless you and I will make your name great: and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you," this is God speaking. "And I will curse those who curse you: and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed".
Father God, thank you for your word. It is a light. It is a sword. It is the truth, therefore let us, as a people, humbly bow before the authority of God's word, and obey it to the nth degree. In Jesus' name, we pray. All of God's children said, amen.
You may be seated. Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem, it's an American problem, if we are to survive as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Antisemitism is a cancer. You either get the cancer, or the cancer gets you. I went to Israel for the first time in 1978 as a tourist. And I came home a Zionist. While praying at the Western Wall, I turned and looked over my shoulder, and there was an elderly Jewish man sitting in a rocking chair, kissing the Torah, with tears on his cheek. That's the picture, right there. I was moved by the passion with which he was worshipping. And the Lord spoke to me and said, "That man is your spiritual brother, and you know nothing about him, and he's afraid of you. I want you to do everything in your power to bring Christians and Jews together in an atmosphere of love and respect without any ulterior motives".
Praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem is where the night to honor Israel was born. The night to honor Israel gave birth to Christians united for Israel in 2006, when I invited 400 of America's leading pastors to come to Cornerstone Church, to establish this organization. One of the greatest miracles of my life is that all 400 of them came. All of them. Christians united for Israel was born, and today, we have over 10 million members who are standing with Israel boldly and aggressively in the battle against antisemitism. Is America's antisemitism bringing the curse of God to this nation?
Allow me to read a letter that I received from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu just a few days ago. I have known the prime minister personally since 1985. He's brilliant. He's aggressive. He's just exactly the leader Israel needs for times like these.
"Dear pastor hagee, on behalf of the people of Israel, I thank you for your condolence letter following the October 7th atrocities. On October 7th, 2023, Hamas waged war on Israel, and not since the darkest days of the holocaust have the Jews suffered such despicable savagery. More than 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals, including men, women, children and babies, and the elderly were murdered in the most inhumane and sadistic ways imaginable. Thousands more were injured and abused, and hundreds were taken hostage into gaza. Israel did not want this war. It was forced upon us by the depraved ISIS-like Hamas terrorists, with no regard for the sanctity of human life, who have taken root in our borders. However, they miscalculated the strength of our resolve. We will win this war. We will dismantle Hamas. Now is the hour for all civilized people that value human life and decency to stand together against the forces of evil. As we continue to mourn the many lives so violently taken, we embrace our moral obligation to safeguard our people and the common values of humanity. And we appreciate the longstanding and full-throated support of Christians united for Israel. Sincerely, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu".
God bless you, mr. Prime minister. The Christians of America will stand with Israel until total victory comes. To our congregation and our listeners across America, let me update you on the facts you need to know, and transmit to your circle of influence. The Hamas massacre of October the 7th slaughtered over 1,400 innocent people. It was the deadliest day in Jewish history since the holocaust. Israel discovered that the lengths of the tunnels, listen to this, the lengths of the tunnels that Hamas has dug under Israel, the length and breadth, where they can hide large numbers of soldiers and tons of military equipment. Those tunnels have more than 300 miles in distance. Think about that. That cost billions of dollars. Where did they, this terrorist organization, get that kind of money? Because they are supported by Iran. Iran gives them the money. Where did Iran get that money? Two U.S. presidents have given them billions of dollars in recent years. Therefore, does America have blood on its hands?
The Jewish people are a covenant people. Those covenants that God made with them still stand. They have not been replaced by the church, as many of you have been taught. The Jewish people are a cherished people. They are a chosen people. God chose those people. They are, the Bible says, "The apple of God's eye". The apple is the pupil of your eye. So if you start picking on Israel, you are sticking your finger in the eye of God. Try sticking your finger in someone's eye, and see how quick you getting their attention. The birth of Israel did not happen in 1948 by an act of the United Nations. Israel was born by an eternal covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 12, one of the most seminal chapters in the Bible. "Seminal" comes from the word "Semen," which means the source of life, the source of new direction.
Chapter 12 Genesis is one of those chapters in the Bible. The covenant to the land of Israel excluded Ishmael, which means the Arab nations have no claim to the land of Israel, according to God's legal text. That's in Genesis 17:19-21. But God promised Ishmael, the father of Arabs, that his descendants would have unlimited wealth and prosperity, because Abraham loved that boy, and they are very wealthy. It's the Arab states that are now rolling with oil and money unlimited. Radical Islam makes peace with Israel impossible. Radical Islam calls us, Americans, "The great Satan". They call Israel, "The little Satan". But the objective that they have written down in covenants, to kill every person that disagrees with their faith. And yet, we have politicians saying, "We need a two-state solution".
How brainless is that? That's not possible! That's not possible when someone wants to kill you, that you embrace them and make a state. The greatest question of the century: to whom does the land of Israel belong? Does it belong to the Arabs, who have lived there for generations? Or does it belong to the Jewish people, who have conquered it, and possessed it for centuries as a great and glorious homeland until they were driven out by the Romans in 70 ad? When settling a real estate contract, when you have a controversy, you go back to the original owner of the land. And in this case, the original owner of the land is God Almighty. Can you imagine that? In Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". The word "Created" is the Hebrew word, "Bara," which means to make from nothing. So God took nothing and made the earth. Therefore, as the Creator and owner of the earth, he has rights to do what he wants to with the earth.
The Bible makes it clear, God chose Abraham and his descendants forever to have that land. Genesis 13 says, "And the Lord said to Abraham, 'lift up your eyes now and look from this place, north, south, east and west: all the land'" listen. "'all the land which you see I will give it to your descendants forever'". You need to write that verse down. Genesis 13:14-17. "To all of your descendants I will give forever. Arise, and walk through the length and breath, I will give it to you". In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, "Unto your seed have I given this land from the rivers of Egypt to the river Euphrates". University students who quote this verse are, in fact, calling for the extermination of the Jews, who live between those two bodies of water. That is those who actually know what they're talking about. God clearly included Abraham's descendants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 1:8 said, "See I have placed the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants after them". Deuteronomy 1:8. That includes the Jews who live in Israel today. In the Old Testament, there were three ways by which a contract could be consummated. A shoe contract, a salt contract, and a blood contract. I press this issue, because this issue has the world on the brink of the third world war.
Consider the shoe covenant. Israel is covered with rocks and hot sand. Without shoes, you're not going to go very far. When Boaz, who was Jewish, was going to marry Ruth, who was a gentile, he took off his shoe, and took it to the judges. The kinsmen redeemer went to Ruth and said, "Do you accept this proposal"? All she had to do was nod her head, and they were engaged. I mean, it was easy to get engaged in the Old Testament, you just needed an old pair of shoes. They got married. They produced obed, obed, the grandfather of king David: and 28 generations later, Jesus Christ. Ruth is a gentile. She's in the genealogy of Jesus. Therefore, we get plugged in, even in the Old Testament to the Jewish people.
The second and more binding covenant was the salt covenant. Salt was vital to those traveling the deserts. And every person carried a salt pouch to meet their needs. Salt was so valuable, it was sometimes used as currency to pay working men. They had a salt pouch that looks something like this. When a working man really wasn't doing his fair share, the phrase was born, "He's not worth his salt". There have been wars fought over salt mines. We are the salt of the earth, by the way, the church, but that's another sermon. The salt covenant in marriage ceremonies are common here, at Cornerstone Church. Here's how it works. If he and I have an agreement, we verbalize that agreement, and then I take my salt and put it in his pouch, he takes salt and puts it in my pouch, then we shake the salt pouch (shakes the salt pouch), shake hands, the covenant's done. How do you break that covenant? By going into his pouch and getting my grains of salt back. He has to get his back. That's impossible. This is a permanent covenant. We have married couples who get married at this church, and use the salt covenant. It's just a whole lot stronger than, "I do". Thank you, Matt.
The third most severe covenant is the blood covenant. The title to the land of Israel was a blood covenant by God himself. In the ceremony of the blood covenant, the contracting parties of two would come together and agree on the terms of the covenant. They would take an animal and kill it, and divide the carcass and walk down the middle. You see the animal parts that create the aisle up and down which Abraham is over here, asleep. But here is God himself, walking between these animals that have been slaughtered. Beginning with a heifer and ending with the doves that have been killed. The light is the symbol of God being in the contract. The significant thing for you to remember here is that God Almighty is making an unbreakable covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forever that the land belongs to the Jewish people, end of story.
There are 38 different passages in the Bible that give the borders of Israel. God promised the Jewish people these lands: one-half of modern day Egypt, all of Israel, all of Lebanon, all of Syria, all of Jordan, all of Kuwait and three-fourths of Saudi Arabia. This is going to become a reality in the millennial reign, when Jesus Christ rules the world from Jerusalem with a rod of iron. God's not saying, "Let's make a deal". He's saying, "This is the deal". This is the property they have. This is Israel right now. And this is what will happen whenever the Messiah comes back. It will be a massive land grant. There's a dominant fact that the angel who said to Abraham and Sarah, "You will have a son about this time next year:" was the same angel that said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God".
Hear this: by that biological miracle in the womb of Sarah birthing Isaac, God created a miraculous nation of Israel. It's Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Without the miracle of Isaac, there would never have been a Jacob. There would not have been 12 tribes, no Joseph and Mary, or Jesus of Nazareth, no crucifixion for our sin, no Bible, no hope of eternal life. The second part, as an infant, he is called the Son of God. As an infant, Israel was called God's son. God Almighty commissioned Moses to carry a message to Pharaoh saying, "And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'thus saith the Lord God of heaven,'" listen. "Israel is my son, even my firstborn". "Israel is my son, even my firstborn: I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. And if he refuses to let him go, I will slay his son, even his firstborn son".
That story is told in Exodus 4:22-23. Let me tell you something, the God of heaven plays hardball. He's not asking you, can his will happen? He's going to make his will happen. You either get with it, or get run over. National Israel is called in the Bible, "The Son of God". It is in Hosea 11:1, God says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him and called him my son out of Egypt". Israel is, in fact, God's son in a national sense. God's pledge to his firstborn son, "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you". "He that touches you touches the apple of his eye". "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps". That means God is watching what happens to Israel night and day, all the time.
The third hint, he was taken into Egypt to preserve his life. Jesus was taken into Egypt by Mary and Joseph to escape the wrath of king Herod, who had all the male babies in Bethlehem murdered who were two years of age and down, because he was told that a Messiah was coming. They fled to Egypt to save the life of Jesus Christ. Israel became a nation in Egypt. Joseph was the forerunner of his father, Jacob, and the 70 souls that followed him into Egypt to become a mighty nation. Joseph endured a blast furnace of trials. He was sold into slavery. He was falsely accused of rape. He was sent to prison for ten years. How many of you know if you went through that, you'd get the idea you were out of the will of God? I would, long before I'd been there ten years.
Let me take you to an event that's going to happen in the near future, in which you're going to be either a participant or an observer. If you're a Christian, you will be an observer, because you're coming back to the earth in the second coming. Don't confuse the rapture with the second coming. The rapture is when Jesus comes for his church. The second coming is when Jesus comes back to earth with his church. It's seven years later. We're now talking about the seven years of the millennial reign. Jesus has returned to Jerusalem for the judgment of the nations. It's recorded in Matthew 25. "And the king," that would be Jesus, "King of kings, and Lord of lords". I'm going to enjoy watching all those pompous politicians kiss his feet. "Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father". And the Bible says, "And the king (Jesus) shall answer to those who have gathered there. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it (acts of kindness) to the least of these my brethren (the Jewish people), you have done it unto me".
To individuals in this audience, and those of you watching by television, what has been your treatment of the Jewish people? Remember, Israel is God's firstborn son. They are the apple of his eye. What have you done, literally done to bless the Jewish people? To the leaders of the churches in America, the church has two Bible responsibilities toward Israel. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and to comfort them. That would be to comfort them from the antisemitism they are suffering right now in the United States of America and around the world. I say to the pastors of America, what is your church doing to bless Israel? It's really important to God. Matthew 25, "Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these, the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me".
I want us to stand together. Can we stand together? I want us to have a prayer by praying for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for antisemitism in our government to be exposed and expelled. Let's pray together.
Our most gracious Heavenly Father, Creator of heaven and earth, today according to your word, we call upon the God who created the nation of Israel, the God who defends Israel, the God who brings a curse to nations who abuse your people. Let there be peace in Jerusalem. Expose every antisemitic act in our government. Expose and crush the political career of every politician in Washington, D.C. who plots to torment Zion. Our petition is now recorded in the Chronicles of heaven, in the authority of Jesus' name. Let your words, "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you," become a reality in America and the world now. Amen.