He Who Blesses Israel is Blessed?

Across America the line is heard, “He who blesses Israel will be blessed and he who curses Israel will be cursed.” This sentence is often quoted as a behind-the-scenes reason for the present prosperity of the United States. The idea is: America has become the most powerful nation o­n earth because she supports Israel.

First of all, America was a mighty nation long before she began to support Israel (which wasn’t reborn until 1948). Secondly, the sentence, “He who blesses Israel will be blessed and he who curses Israel will be cursed” is typically a misinterpretation of Genesis 12:3, where God told Abraham,

I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Notice that in this verse, the direct “bless-curse” part concerned Abraham alone, not Israel per se, for “all the families of the earth” were to be blessed in Abraham, through “his seed,” which was Jesus Christ (see Galatians 3:16). In order to receive that blessing, individuals must be “turned away” from their sins by God’s grace (see Acts 3:25,26).

It’s true that in Numbers 24:9 Balaam prophesied about Israel, “Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you,” yet this statement was spoken when Israel was obedient to the Lord. In Deuteronomy 28, God clarified that if Israel followed Him she would remain “blessed,” but if she strayed, she would be “cursed.” Throughout the Old Testament, God’s blessing or curse upon the Israelites was connected to their faith and obedience to His will. In Scripture, there is NO UNCONDITIONAL BLESSING upon any individual or nation that chooses to reject faith and disobey God. Paul said that “glory, honor, and peace” would come upon “the Jew first, and also the Gentile,” if they do what is right, whereas “indignation and wrath” would come “upon every soul of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile … for there is no respecter of persons with God” (Romans 2:8-11).

If Jewish people respond to God’s infinite love, repent of their sins, trust Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah, and do what is right in God’s sight, they will surely be blessed. If they don’t, a curse is all that’s left. The same is true for every human being inside Jerusalem, America, Russia, Europe, China, or Japan.

Bottom line: There is no UNCONDITIONAL BLESSING in the Bible upon any man or nation, including America, or the modern nation of Israel.

God pleads with us now,

I call heaven and earth to record against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live. Deuteronomy 30:19.