If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Today, we continue our examination of some of God’s promises. Genesis 12:3 reads, “I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. . . .”

God is talking to Abram here, before He changed his name to Abraham. He is specifically promising to bless those who bless Abram personally and to curse those who curse him, but he’s also speaking to him as representative of his descendants.

His descendants at first were his family and those of Isaac and Jacob. More generally, He was speaking of the nation of Israel—and, I believe, of all Jews anywhere.

The typical caricature image society has of Jews is of wealthy people hoarding and counting their money. Actually, the only time I’ve seen a Jew hoarding and counting money was when I’d see a friend of mine in college counting his penny collection. This is not what Jews are about.

However, have you ever noticed the percentage of Jews who are relatively well off financially. Except when they are recipients of official persecution, as in Nazi Germany, very few Jews are truly poor and remain so.

Sociologists may come up with all sorts of reasons for that, but I have my own pet theory. I think this is part of the blessing God mentioned above. I believe when we speak disparagingly of a Jew, we do so at our own risk. We just may bring the second part of this scripture crashing down on our own heads.

These thoughts relating to our attitudes toward individual Jews are strictly my own. There is great agreement, however, when we apply the scripture to the nation of Israel. Those nations that bless Israel, God will bless. Those who curse Israel, God will curse.

Supporting enemies who are sworn to the destruction of Israel is cursing Israel. We don’t have to utter and actual curse. Actions still speak louder than words.

The danger has arisen in the last 60 years or so to favor Israel’s enemies because they have oil we’d like to be able to buy. As we so frequently do in our voting, we have a tendency to put our pocketbooks—our needs and desires—ahead of principle.

Most Middle-Eastern nations have huge reserves of petroleum. Most also have as a part of their national aim the absolute destruction of Israel. There is great temptation to support those petroleum-producing nations because we want the oil. We do so at our own peril.

Although the temptation is great, I’ll refrain from getting into a political discussion here of which nations or politicians are good and which are bad. I’ll merely state that God has not forgotten His promise to Abram. He was serious when He made the promise, and He’s still serious about it today. We need to be serious also.

How seriously do you take this blessing and curse?

What do you think about applying this promise to the treatment of individual Jews as well as the nation of Israel?

We always love to hear from you.

David N. Walker is a Christian father and grandfather, a grounded pilot and a near-scratch golfer who had to give up the game because of shoulder problems. A graduate of Duke University, he spent 42 years as a health insurance agent. Most of that career was spent in Texas, but for a few years he traveled many other states. He started writing about 20 years ago, and has six unpublished novels to use as primers on how NOT to write fiction. He has just e-pubbed his devotional, Heaven Sent: 67 Stories of Godly Thoughts and Inspiration (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008CRL82M). His new fiction work—a series of novellas set during the period from 1860 to 1880 is underway. The first one is in the editing process, and he’s currently writing the second one.

Contact David at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx