Vol - 1/ no. 8                                       August 1999

The Incorruptible Seed
By Pearly Solomon

                  The Bible says that Abraham, the "Friend of God," would sire an incorruptible seed, the Jewish nation. In numbers the Jewish race makes up a mere one percent of world's population, but their strength exceeds the total might of many nations put together.

                  In the book of Deuteronomy, God said to the nation of Israel that they are to be an object lesson to the whole world as one chosen from among the smallest, but destined to be unexcelled. Israel is a sign to the nations of the world.

                  God promised the land, though small in size, had numerous Palestinian nations dwelling in it, all fiercely warlike. Overpowering them would not be easy, as his children found out on their return home after four centuries of Egyptian captivity.

                   Hostilities and war from all its neighbors have been a fact of life for Israel. Israel has had to endure the oppression of Egypt for four centuries; she has had to combat the powers of the Amalekite and Cannanitish nations in her early days; of Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Babylon and Persia in later eras; of newer powers like Spain, Germany and Russia among others in the first half our century; of all the Arab nations in our day. Ironically, Egypt, Babylon and Persia benefited by the wisdom of Israel since the shaping forces of their history came through the counsel of men like Joseph, Daniel, Mordeccai, Esther and the like.

                    With an average life span of four hundred years of less, the great imperial powers of which we speak with awe have faded away into oblivion. The seed of Abraham witnessed their rise and fall of each of them.

                     Israel itself was driven out of its tiny homeland by the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Romans and the land made desolate, Israel as a people were scattered all over the face of the earth, but against all odds, they have returned to build up their nation more than once. As a people scattered, they not only survived but flourished in knowledge, power, wealth and influence all over the world. Though a mere trickle of the population of the world, they own the greatest banks of world, control global commerce, the stock market, the media, deeply impact the arts, science and technology; they appear invincible in war and are stable in an extremely volatile part of the world.

                       Foes of Israel have invariably perished. The Pharaoh and his forces perished in the Red Sea. The Amalekites planned the destruction of Israel in Exodus, but God allowed them to live through 700 more years and to be completely wiped out by Saul, the first King of Israel. Haman, the Persian counterpart of Hitler, planned the extinction the Jew, but himself ended up on the gallows, thus opening an era of great prosperity for the seed of Abraham.

                          In later history, Queen Isabella of Spain decreed that all Jews should leave her empire if they did not choose to convert instead..... About a million Jews left Spain in compliance with Isabella's the Edict of Expulsion, but God prepared a new haven for them in America which would be discovered by the Spanish explorer, Columbus. The Spanish empire is reduced to a mere footnote of history, but the seed of Abraham remains strong.

                            Even Britain, a modern day ally, initially resisted the statehood of Israel through the UN in 1947 and aided the Arab side in an effort to exterminate the budding state at its birth. England as an empire has waxed and waned, but Israel still remains. Six million Jews died under Hitler, but Hitler died ignominiously and stepped into eternity to meet a Rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth as his final judge.

                             God's promise to Abraham abides still and is read as proof in every child of Christ. The foes of the seed of Abraham are against the flock of Christ as well. They are poised to destroy and kill the children of God even today, be it in Orissa, Littleton, Colorodo or Kosovo. Despite the rage and power of the enemy, the seed of Abraham is here to stay for he has the promise that no power on earth can destroy him.