(Psalm 33:10-12) ” The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.”
On November 27th The Union for the Mediterranean 8th Regional Forum was held in Barcelona in Spain to address the critical situation in Israel and Gaza. In attendance were the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other regional and western nations to join together to call for a cease-fire to take hold with the expressed intention of utilising an international momentum to force upon Israel the so called two-state solution. The Forum included the presence of Foreign Ministers from nations that had altered their initially voiced support for Israel to eradicate the Islamist Hamas terrorist organization.
Germany was an exception and its foreign Minister publically affirmed Germanys support for Israel. No delegation from Israel was present at the forum. Qatar, being a key patron of Hamas which hosts the terror groups political leadership in Doha, ironically is supposedly working ‘tirelessly’ to exploit its role as a mediator, to try and force and end to the Hamas instigated conflagration. In his speech Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed AL-ANSARI stated that Qatar needed the push of the whole International community to make sure that an end to the violence happens. Of course if this happens Hamas gets a reprieve which would no doubt impress the Islamic world including the leaders of Hamas living in luxury under the umbrella of Qatar, which in reality is no friend of Israel.
Qatar is also a long standing backer of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization wanting to see Sharia Law imposed globally. It is also interesting to note what Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said that the two-state solution is still the consensus of the international community. He also stated that the International community has the ability, the mechanism, to enforce a two-state solution and to implement a two-state solution. He reiterated that Egypt believed that it is the time now to implement the two-state solution and to create a Palestinian state so that there can be a final conclusion to the conflict between Israel and Gaza.
Of course when you look at the enemies Israel had to fight in 1948, in 1967 and in 1973 Egypt was among those hostile nations attacking Israel. Egypt is no friend of Israel. The same territorial satanically controlled principality that was behind the Pharaoh of Egypt in the time of Moses and the Israelites is still the same principality over Egypt today. This principality has been hell-bent on destroying Israel even to this day. Behind the current war Israel is fighting with Hamas and in reality with the whole Islamic world, is the visible manifestation of an age old war going on between God with Satan in the unseen spiritual realm (Daniel 10:12-14). Not only is Satan’s forces in the unseen spiritual realm seeking to destroy Israel but also to destroy the Body of Messiah, the faithful Church (Ephesians 6:12) (Daniel 7:21, 25) (Revelation 13:5-7). The two people groups on earth Islam hates with a malevolent militancy are Jews and Christians.
In Psalm 33:10-12 we are told several things about what the Lord does in relation to the politicians of the Gentile nations that oppose Israel.
“The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations;” Literally it could read ‘the Lord “crushes or “breaks”” the counsel of the nations. We see this kind of alliance against God and Israel in Psalm 83:1-8 where God’s enemies conspire against Israel and plot against those God cherishes. They are hell-bent on destroying Israel as a nation to the point where even the name Israel will no longer be remembered. They are of one mind as they plot together and form an alliance against Israel. The nations mentioned specifically by name are all Islamic. In the psalm Asaph goes on to describe their end and who it is that rules over the kingdoms of man and the one who raises up and pulls down kings. (Daniel 2:21) (Psalm 75:7).
This gathering of nations to destroy Israel in reality is what we saw happening at this Forum meeting on the pretext of bringing some kind of peace agreement with the two state solution from hell on the agenda. In any ongoing so called ‘ceasefire’ Israel will lose out and Hamas will remain in the bosom of Qatar and its allies in the Arab and western world. God sees the plots and the counsel of these nations and He will eventually crush and break them and ground them into fine dust that will be blown away by the Spirit of burning and judgement when the Messiah returns (Daniel 2:35, 44-45).
They will be blown like tumbleweed before the Spirit of the LORD! The nations may rage against God, against His anointed Messiah our Lord Jesus, against His blood-redeemed saints, and against Israel, but our Triune God will laugh at their puny efforts and rebuke them in His anger and terrify them in His wrath as He installs His Son on the throne of David at Jerusalem. His son will rule them with an iron sceptre and dash them to pieces like shattered pottery (Psalm 2:1-6). And then we read;
“He frustrates the plans of the peoples.” To “frustrate’ the plans of the peoples has the idea of “to hinder, to restrain, to forbid, to disallow, to discourage, to make of no effect.” While God allows these adversaries of Israel to plot and to plan He allows them to go so far and no more. So then the Lord looks upon the motives of men and women’s hearts and sees everything they think and in the end no matter what they plan, plot or scheme, they will never succeed against His sovereign purposes. The counsel and plots of men do not last. And then we read;
“The counsel of the Lord stands forever,” The plans of His heart from generation to generation.” We know that our Triune God does not change and inhabits eternity as He Himself is eternal and the one who knows the end from the beginning of all things in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth (Malachi 3:6) (James 1:17) (Isaiah 46:10). We are told in God’s Word “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). God looks upon the heart, not merely the outward appearance that men value so much, but He sees what men do not see. God thoroughly scrutinizes the motives of the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7).
His Word is the spiritual searchlight that exposes the hidden corners of spiritual darkness. As it is written; “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). No matter what men plot it is only the counsel of the Triune God revealed in His Word the Bible that stands forever. His Word is settled (firmly fixed or anchored) forever in His heavenly realm (Psalm 119:89). No matter what the unsaved and Satan and his cronies in the unseen spiritual real throw against us or plot against us, it cannot change what God has said and promises us in His Word. God’s Word will say the same thing tomorrow as it does today!
As it is also written; “When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD will raise up a battle standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19). As it is also written; “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD” (Isaiah 54:17). Those who seek the LORD’s counsel, who seek to walk in that uprightness of heart that comes by faith through God’s enabling grace, will lack no good thing either in temporal and spiritual matters (Matthew 6:33). As it is also written; “For the LORD God is a sun and a shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity” (Psalm 84:11). And then we read;
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.” God’s blessing is always upon individuals and nations that honour Him and give Him His rightful place of absolute sovereignty and specifically blesses those people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. These chosen ones will live in His eternal kingdom established on earth in the Millennial age to come, and then in the new heaven and earth centred in the New Jerusalem. The blessed will be the remnant chosen by God’s grace and foreknowledge that have, by saving faith in the Messiah and in His redeeming, cleansing and atoning blood, have washed themselves in the blood of the Passover lamb and consequently have the right and privilege to enter into the New Jerusalem. This is the ultimate blessing! As the apostle John writes; “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they might have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14).
In closing, the politicians may have many more forums related to Israel. They may plan and plot against God’s inheritance. Ultimately on mass they will turn on Israel and on the Body of Messiah spiritually grafted into Israel. Satan is at work against Israel and the engrafted Body of Messiah, the faithful Church, knowing full well that his time is now short before his incarceration in the centre of the earth away from all human contact after the Messiah has come back and established His Messianic reign on earth. The nations are starting to rage against Israel. It has not come to the boil just yet but when it does Israel will pass through its darkest hour, yet in their extremity they will call upon the name of the LORD and see their Passover Lamb coming back in the clouds of heaven and in that day all Israel will be saved! (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Romans 11:25-29).
As the prophet Isaiah writes; “For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamour—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it” (Isaiah 31:4-5). In that day as God’s inheritance Israel will indeed be truly blessed!!!
