John Hagee - Israel: God's Gateway To Blessing
The blessing of blessing Israel brings a supernatural prosperity to the person, to the church, to the nation that truly blesses the Jewish people. The golden key to releasing God's supernatural prosperity on your life is found in this simple verse, "I will bless those who bless you". Say that with me. "I will bless those who bless you". Consider the blessing God poured out on Pharaoh, the Pharaoh that met Joseph when he came into Egypt. He gave Joseph and the Jewish people the rich farming lands of Goshen.
Goshen were the best farming properties in all of Egypt, and he gave that to Joseph and the Jewish people. Why? Because Joseph had just predicted that there's going to be seven years of abundance and seven years of famine. He saved every Egyptian from being starved to death. And by the way, he saved the gentile world from being starved. And Pharaoh expressed his appreciation. Joseph purchased all the real estate around Egypt and made Pharaoh the richest man on the earth. That's what you call real blessing. Egypt became the most powerful nation on the face of the earth because their leadership under this first Pharaoh blessed the Jewish people.
Follow Egypt. Egypt was the place where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus fled for Jesus' life when Herod was trying to kill him. Secondly, Egypt is where Joseph was led, and he took his family of 70. And that family of 70 stayed in Egypt, 430 years, and came out a mighty nation. It is right to say that Egypt was the womb of Israel. It is an important thing to remember. But there arose a Pharaoh in the life of Joseph that did not know Joseph, who did not like Joseph. Consider the Pharaoh that cursed the Jewish people. And remember the Bible verse, "I will curse those who curse you". Say that with me. "I will curse those who curse you". The Bible says he made their lives grievous, meaning he drowned their sons in the Nile River so that they would not become too powerful or populous.
The Bible fact is what you do to the Jewish people, God, in fact, will do to you. Pharaoh drowned their children in the Nile River, so God drowned Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. The most powerful man on the face of the earth with the most powerful military was turned into fish food in about two minutes. Are you listening, Iran? Are you? "He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps". He's watching you right now. Whatever you're trying to do to Israel, God's going to bring on your own head. In virtually every home in Egypt, someone was dead because God sent the death angel on the night of the Exodus to kill the firstborn, because Pharaoh did not allow the children of Israel to leave peaceably.
Because they persecuted the Jewish people, God sent ten plagues and he wiped out the economy of Egypt. He wiped out the military force of Egypt. The wealth of Egypt disappeared and has not returned. Where are the Babylonians? They're gone. Where are the Greeks? They're gone. Where's the ottoman empire? It's gone. Where is the Roman Empire that crucified Jesus Christ? It's gone. Where are those goose-stepping lunatic Adolf Hitler people and the Nazi Party? They're all footnotes in the boneyard of human history. They're gone! But where is Israel? Israel lives! Israel lives! Israel lives! It is a mighty nation blessed of God!
Look at this story of God blessing Jacob, personally, in his own business. Genesis 30 is the story. Laban is the uncle of Jacob. Jacob goes to work for Laban. Laban lowers Jacob's check ten times in a row. And each time, it diminishes. Jacob came in and saw his uncle, and said, I'm not taking this anymore. Then this is recorded in the Bible, Genesis 30. Laban says, "I have learned by experience, Jacob, that God Almighty has blessed me, a gentile, because of you". That's Genesis 30:27, for those of you who are scrambling in your Bible. That is written in the Bible. "God has blessed me, a gentile, because of you". And Jacob stayed, got everybody married he wanted to be married to, let all of his herds get as big as they could possibly get, and in the midnight, he left prosperous, powerful, fulfilling the destiny of God.
Consider the blessing of divine healing. Luke 7:1 through 5, there's a centurion, who has a sick servant. This sick centurion has demonstrated his affection for the Jewish people by building them a synagogue. It's in your Bible. Some of you are looking at me like I'm inventing this. It's in the Bible, Luke 7. And the centurion has a very sick servant that he dearly, dearly, dearly loves. And so he knows that Jesus is Jewish. He keeps the law of Moses. He'd have to break the law of Moses to come into his house, because he's a gentile. So the centurion sends the Jewish elders out to intercept Jesus. And the Jewish elders said, "You should come and pray for this man's servant, because he has built us a synagogue".
Message: whenever gentiles start to do practical acts of kindness for the Jewish people, the heart of God is moved, moved enough to break the law of Moses. I want to tell you that is a powerful thought. Get ahold of it. Jesus went in, prayed for the sick servant, the sick servant was healed, and there was celebration. Why? Because a gentile had done something practical to bless the Jewish people.
Now, you say, "Pastor, you know that was 3.000 years ago. Get real. What's happened lately"? Let me give you just a running digest of some of the things that have happened in my own family. In 1981, our church decided to do practical acts of kindness towards the Jewish people. And we decided to have the first night to honor Israel. I really only planned to do it one time. But when people promised to shoot me, and drove by my house and shot out the windows to my car, and then threatened a bomb threat in the building the night we had the event: that was just too much pushing around. I said, "We're going to do this until they get used to it".
But in 1981, we started blessing the Jewish people. And I will tell you there were problems that came along we didn't ever think would ever come along. Diana had a double mastectomy and God healed her supernaturally. My daughter, Tish, had a severe cancer called "Leiomyosarcoma", which is the most kind of aggressive cancer you can imagine. When we looked on the internet, it said first level of treatment is amputation. We began to pray. We sent her to the hospital. We prayed. God healed my daughter. She's alive and well today.
In 2008, my doctor called me in. He's a good Jewish doctor, Dr. Schnitzler. And he said, "You have a heart blockage and you need open heart surgery". I said, "Look: I've got three speaking engagements I've got to do". And I started naming them off. He said, "Listen to me. You could die before you get home". Now that got my attention. He said, "Get in that bed right over there". I did. They hooked me up with wires and I had to stay there for a couple of days, because they had Plavix that makes your blood like water before the surgery.
And as I was scheduled to go to surgery, the men with the gurney came running in, and said, "We have a chart right here that says you're on the verge of having a heart attack". And they rolled me on that gurney and started running down the hall with me. My television partners had come from all over America and were having a prayer meeting in that hospital at that very time. Rabbi Schoenberg was there with them. And they were all praying together and reading the Word of God. Supernaturally, the hand of God took that scene over. My recovery was swift, total and complete, 10-12 years ago, and now I am healed by the power of the living God.
"I will bless those who bless you". "I will bless those who bless you". What are the spiritual things the Jewish people have given unto us? They have given to us the Word of God. Every word in this book was written by Jewish hands. They gave to us the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Bible says, "Abraham was a friend of God". Abraham was the father of all who believed: therefore, he is our spiritual father. Read Paul's writings in Romans, the 11th chapter. "Do not boast against the roots, because the roots support you (Christians): you don't support the roots".
Abraham, by the way, was very rich in gold, and silver, and cattle. And I can testify that almost 4.000 years later, those are still three good things to have. All of these people, Daniel, Hosea, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Obadiah: there's not a gentile in the bunch there. They are the authors of this text. The first family of Christianity, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus: take Jesus out of the equation and there wouldn't be one person in this building. The 12 disciples, the apostle Paul, that is the Jewish contribution.
Jesus said, again, in John 4:22, "Salvation is of the Jews". Think about that. Take away the Jewish contribution, and we would not be here! Judaism does not need Christianity to explain its existence! Christianity cannot explain our existence without Judaism! Think about that. It's time to stop praising the dead Jews of the past, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: while avoiding the Jews who live across the street from you!
To know the future, you must master the past, because everything that's in the past is going to happen in the future. The Old Testament is God's will concealed. The New Testament is God's will revealed. Let's compare the lives of Joseph and Jesus to understand the past, the present, and the future. The names, Joseph and Jesus, have the same Hebrew root word, "Savior". Joseph saved the world from starvation with his revelation of abundance in famine. Jesus saved the world from sin and satan. You are not saved by your good works! You are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from all sin!
Joseph's brothers came into the land, searching for food. They were starving to death. Each time they came, they faced their brother right in front of them, and they couldn't recognize who he was. He was dressed as an Egyptian. He spoke as an Egyptian, and sometimes spoke through an interpreter. You know what that symbolizes. Joseph's brothers came into the land on the third time. Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. "I am your brother, Joseph". What did they do? They fell on his shoulder and they cried. All of them wept together.
The Jewish people have come to the land for three times. The first time is with Joshua: the second time, from Babylonian captivity: and the third time, Israel was reborn in may, 1948. Isaiah said, "A nation shall be born in a day". The only time that's happened in the history of the world is at the birth of Israel. On the third time into the land, the revelation of who Jesus is will happen. Why did Joseph's brothers believe he was related to them? Well this was something that I searched long and hard for. I should have talked to the rabbi first. He said, "That's easy". He said, "The Egyptians did not circumcise their sons: only the Jews circumcised their sons". They recognized it was Joseph by the scars of his body, his circumcision.
How are the Jewish people going to recognize Jesus when he comes to earth again? The Bible says, "And when they see him whom they have pierced, they will weep as one weeps for his only Son for seven days". They're going to know him by the scars of his body. Why did Joseph send the gentiles out of the room before he revealed himself to his brothers? The answer is God was showing us, the gentile church, is going to be taken out of the world before Jesus reveals himself to the Jewish people.
The story ends as Joseph brings his family into Egypt to occupy the rich lands of Goshen. The Jewish people were not forgotten in Joseph's kingdom. In the kingdom that Jesus Christ is going to establish in Jerusalem, the Jewish people are going to be front and center. The Bible says, your Bible says, that seven men will grab them by the sleeve, and say, "Take us. We want to go with you because we hear God is with you". "God is with you". They will not be forgotten in the millennial kingdom. Here's what we're going to do. In the millennial kingdom, we're still going to have the feast of tabernacles. We're still going to have Passover without the sacrificial part because Jesus was once and for all the sacrifice. It's going to be very Jewish. And if that makes you uncomfortable, you better stretch your legs just a little bit, because this is what the Bible is teaching.
Israel has not been replaced. I say this in closing. The book of Romans was written by Paul. Paul was the most brilliant theologian who has ever lived, past or present. He had the capacity to describe more in less time than Shakespeare or Longfellow could ever do. Paul wrote Romans 1 through 8 and Romans 12 through 16 with one theme. But Romans 9, 10, and 11 is God's position paper on the Jewish people. It is, in theology, called "A codicil". A codicil is a document written by an attorney, who's writing a will. And when he wants to add something to the will that he may have forgotten, he will write the codicil, sign his name to it, and put it in the contract. And it is equal standing with the other covenants of the contract.
Therefore, Romans 9, 10, and 11 is something that Paul put in that the New Testament church needed to hear, because he knew people would come along, saying, "The Jews have been cast aside forever". That's exactly wrong. That's not even close to right. It's false doctrine. Romans 11:1, Paul writes, "Has God cast away his people (the Jewish people)"? And he used simple logic. He said, "God is using me, and I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. And if God is using me, then he's not through with the Jewish people". And then for those who just don't get it the first time around, he says, "Have the Jewish people been cast aside"? And Paul said, "Certainly not".
In the Greek, that is the most powerful, ugly word you can use. It comes out in English, "Certainly not". God has not cast them aside and neither will he! In the Bible, something that has been replaced, never reappears. Sodom and Gomorrah has been replaced. Geologists have looked for it everywhere. They say it's under the salt sea, the Dead Sea, but they can't find it. Israel was reborn, may 15, 1948, by the will of God. And it has become a powerful, powerful nation because of God's blessing. Israel and the Jewish people have not been replaced, because they have been reborn! And that rebirth proves it!
If Israel was replaced, as some teach, why were they reborn? Isaiah 66:8, "A nation shall be born in a day". Say it, "A nation shall be born in a day". Thirdly, the relationship of Christians and Jews is reflected in the book of Genesis when God describes the children of Abraham as the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. Abraham has two kinds of children, a physical children, and spiritual children. Think hard. Stay focused. Genesis 15:5, God said to Abraham, "Now look toward heaven and tell the stars if you're able to number them". And God said unto him, "So shall your seed be the stars". God says to Abraham, "I will make your seed as the dust of the earth," physical.
God represents the children of Abraham as being like the stars of the sky and the dust of the earth. Once it was the sand of the sea. The fact is Abraham has two kinds of children: physical, being the Jewish people: spiritual, being the church, the stars of the sky. Now how do you reconcile that scripturally? Just this way: what is the Bible's purpose of stars? The answer is to give light. Philippians 2:15 says that you (the church) may be blameless and shine as the light of God in the world. Genesis 1:14, 16, then God said, "Let there be lights in the heaven to divide the day from the night and to give light on the earth". Jesus said to the church, "You are the light of the world".
Now let me tell you something: that's exactly what you are. You are salt and light. But right now, we're talking about light. You are the light of the world. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven". Start being what God wants us to be, a light in a dark place!
I'm often asked by young preachers, "How do you find the blessing of God"? I said, "I'm going to give you the simplest answer you've ever heard. All those books you've got stacked on your desk by people that never accomplished a thing in their life," I said, "Find out what God wants done and do that, because God will furnish the money. He will furnish the guidance. He will furnish the people. Everything you need. He will make the crooked path straight. He'll move mountains. He'll even chase your enemies out".
Stand. Stand. When you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, God's blessings begin to move in your way. Christians have no idea how much God loves Jerusalem. The Bible calls it "The city of God". God says, I have put my name there. That's my city. Jesus is coming back, not to Washington and not to Rome. He's coming back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the shoreline of eternity. That's the fact. Pray this prayer with me.
Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I come today to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May the enemies of the Jewish people be scattered in confusion. May they turn one against the other. May the people of Israel be comforted by the hand of God: that for the first time in 2.000 years, millions of Christians in America and around the world now stand with Israel. We are obeying the Word of God. Now let the Word of God go forth from this place today that Israel lives, and the body of Christ supports the Jewish people. Amen.