Katrina hurricane - God's Judgement
By Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director, International Christian Zionist Center
I am not so much religious but a deep believer in the existence of AN ETERNAL BEING, the Creator of heaven and earth, the God Who became known and personally related to as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - or as later - the God of Israel. This is the God I have come to trust and rely upon as my heavenly Father, full of love, mercy, truth and holiness. A God we all can be extremely proud of and thankful for.
I don't think we all realize how holy this God is. Yes infinitely merciful to those who in true repentance and brokenness call upon His Name in truth, but always true to His Word and that Word in these days that His people are back in His land has much to do with Israel. "He who touches you - says the prophet Zechariah - touches the apple of His eye." (Zechariah 2:8). This is either true or religious nonsense. In that case only true to those who believe it to but not true in reality. This is therefore exactly at stake, the reality and truthfulness of God Himself.
If it is true that Israel is His people and their land His land to which He has promised over and over again to bring His people back from the four corners of the earth after a long time of dispersion then to be against this will undoubtedly bring His answer.
He states this already at the very beginning in Genesis that he or she who curses Israel will be cursed and he who blesses Israel will be blessed (see Genesis 12:3). All of history bears witness to this truth that those who have come against His people have dearly wounded themselves and their nations.
We all have seen during these last weeks how His people weeping and wailing, praying and fasting till the very end, have been forcefully removed from their own precious God given land in Gush Katif - Gaza. According to Joshua, Gaza and its surroundings were given by God to the tribe of JUDAH AS AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION. The problem in Gaza was not that the Jewish people living there in their lovingly built houses in Gush Katif, did not want the Arabs there to live also on this their land, but the problem was that these Palestinian Arabs, with all their hatred towards their Jewish brethren, did not want to see the Jews live on this their own God given land. They had to be removed whereas the Israeli Jews had always let them live peacefully beside them on this their land.
We have to see the tears, the heart breaking scenes of Jews, while praying for a last minute miracle in their homes and synagogues, forcefully removed by their own Israeli Defense Forces under pressure and great applause of the nations of the world who all saw this heart wrenching spectacle before their eyes on their television. I wept and prayed with His people and knew that God would act to honor His Name and His promise and His Word, not just to save and help this His poor afflicted people but to sanctify His Name and Word before an increasingly belligerent and unbelieving world, who has thus scorned, with much of the church, denying that God has anything to do with all this. Thus the nations who have pressurized Israel shall know, after His judgments will be meted out to them, that He is God who will keep His Word for good and for bad to anyone who will dare to go against His plan and love for His people at this time.
As He clearly says in His Word:
For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12)
I pity the United States of America with all her hurricanes and billions of dollars worth of damage through all these devastations after all the blessings God in the past brought through this nation to the world! I wish for her that her government would not have been dragged by Europe into his halfhearted approach towards God's people and plan.
I have prayed that at least this last terrible hurricane would open the eyes of the President and his staff not to go this way any further but to stop before more plagues, as happened once to Pharaoh, will bring the U.S. to total ruin because of their unwillingness to go with God in serving and blessing Israel. May it not have to happen - I pray.
A godly pastor in the United States, after much prayer and fasting, wrote just now the following alarming words:
I've been preaching everywhere that God is going to judge the nation for the decisions that have been made against Israel. Today we're being hit with a major hurricane - the news is reporting that this could be one of the deadliest storms ever. I know these are serious times and I fear for our nation if we don't wake up. J.S.
Let me be very clear. No amount of prayer or intercession will be able to hold back God's further judgments on our nations if there is not a real turn on this point of our policy and relationship to Israel. So if today's leaders - like Pharaoh - want these divine initiated plagues to stop, they will have to come around on the point of supporting Israel. But where are the people among the millions of true believers in the U.S. who can like Moses and Aaron make this point clear to their senators, congressmen and President?