EUROPE
Charles the great establishes the Carolingian Empire? How did he treat the Jews? Charlemagne saw the children of Abraham as a blessing. He knew if he treated then well his empire would be blessed economically. Charles prevented some churches from persecuting the Jews. So he blessed them and protected then. Consequently, according to God’s promise to Abraham Charlemagne becomes the most powerful man in Europe. He brought unity to Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. And this would never happen again until our generation with the advent of the European Union – I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. Next comes the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Barbarossa, which means red beard. Like Charlemagne, Barbarossa sought to protect the Jews and he certainly knew it would bless him. Thus, he discouraged priests from preaching against the Jewish people, but urged them to bless them instead. No prizes for guessing correctly what happened. Barbarossa became the great king in the thousand years the Holy Roman Empire was in existence. The empire peaks and reaches its golden age in the 12th century – but never again would it equal that glory. In subsequent years the lands of the Holy Roman Empire would start becoming hostile to the Jewish people and the empire would spend most of its thousand years declining. In the 19th century it ultimately collapsed. Emperor Barbarossa remains to this day the most revered king of the era. Later on when Hitler planned his attack on Russia, he called it operation Barbarossa naming it after a king who blessed the Jewish people. And that campaign would end up being the destruction of Nazi Germany. What happens in Europe now? Western Europe begins the persecution of the Jews. After the Crusades the situation in Europe worsens for the Jewish people – they start slaughtering them and expelling them. In the 13th and 14th century particularly, expulsions between the mid 14th century….the first quarter of the 16th century, Southern and Central Europe evict the Jews residing there.
France and England expel their Jews around 1290 and 1300 -----Philip of France expels them and confiscates their property. What happened to England and France and Western Europe? That same century Europe is weakened with tribulation. 3 years after France expels its Jews, comes the splitting of Christendom, called the Babylonian exile. Then comes the great famine in 1337 followed by the 100 years’ war between England and France which had both expelled the Jews. In 1333 came the black death, the same thing that had appeared when Justinian passed his laws against the Jewish people. Now that same plague came upon Europe and wiped out nearly one third to one half of the population of England. And this was in lands where they had been butchering the Jewish people. In the east comes the kingdom of Poland, so the Jewish people are seeking refuge by going east.
POLAND
They’re welcomed into one of the most tolerant lands of Europe, Poland. They’re received in great numbers under the Polish king Casamere the Great. What happens? Poland is blessed and in the reign of this king Poland is united. It becomes a great refuge for the Jews as they’re being expelled from Spain. They find protection and refuge under king Zygmunt 1st. and his son the 2nd. Poland is hugely blessed, becomes a centre of Jewish learning and becomes one of the largest most prosperous kingdoms of Europe at that time just when it is blessing the children of Abraham. But in the middle of the 1600s, uprisings begin in Poland against the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are killed along with others. Poland is taken over by another dynasty under which the Jewish People lose all support from the government. The tolerance is over. Persecutions, violence and killings of Jews increase. Near the 1700s Poland experiences anarchy and disorder so much that by the end of the century one of the greatest kingdoms of Europe is divided among the other nations like Russia. I will bless those who bless you.
SPAIN
The Spanish Empire had become one of the most illustrious communities of the Jewish people in the world. It was responsible for the golden age of Jewish learning. Around this time Spain is about to become a great world empire. In the late 15th century, a man by the name of Tok Amada rises up in the church. He helps launch what is known as the Spanish Inquisition. He convinces king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. These were not great people. They issued a decree where all Jewish people were to convert to Catholicism, leave or get killed. What people don’t realize regarding the Spanish Inquisition was that they launched primarily against the Jewish people. Some Jews converted and were told we don’t believe you --------so if they were caught celebrating the sabbath or Passover they would be put under the Spanish Inquisition as heretics to be killed. Many Jews kept their faith in secret and they fled the inquisition into Latin America. An edict was issued that Jews were to be out of Spain at the end of July of that year. Harbors were crowded with boats and ships of Jewish people fleeing for their lives. Portugal would do the same except they want to keep the Jews. But they persecute them, make them convert or send them out. What happens next? At first it seems as if Spain would be blessed because for a time, Spain was blessing the Jewish people. The expulsion of the Jewish people in the year didn’t signify the end of Jewish influence in Spain as was long thought. At the end of the 15th century they may have been up to three hundred thousand Jewish people called conversos, who were converted but were still there educated and married into the Spanish aristocracy. So Spain was blessed for a season (when it is blessing the Jewish people). But this would gradually disappear. Similarly Spanish prosperity is going to remain for a time and then things will change. That is when the fulness of the curse kicks in. Spain discovers the new world and because of this Spain will lead a vast global empire with gold and wealth flowing in. The Spanish Empire will be one of the largest Empires in world history ------however, with all that advantage, it should have reigned for centuries but by the latter part of the 1500s signs of trouble start coming to Spain. Many of the Jews escaped to the Netherlands. War breaks out with Netherlands. It leads to independence from Spain. In 1588 the Spanish Armada was defeated by the Navy of England. By the mid-1600s the Spanish Empire was clearly declining. It was losing against all the other powers. And the powers that were rising against it are largely the powers that are blessing the Jewish people now, giving them refuge. Countries like the Netherlands which will be linked to Amsterdam and will lead to the forming of America. Furthermore, the wealth that flowed into Spain proved to be a curse because it stopped them from developing and produced inflation. It ended up destroying Spain. In view of what Spain did to the Jews even the wealth from the New World could not save them. The Spanish Empire declined militarily and economically and continued through the centuries so much that the mighty Spanish Empire became a second-rate European power. A similar thing happened to Portugal in AD 70. Messiah Jesus had predicted this. This happened in the summer and it happened in the Hebrew month called Av on the 9th day. Amazingly the first temple built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians also in the summer also in the month of Av and also on the 9th of Av. So we’ve gone from 70 AD to 1492 two monumental events in World History. On what day were the Jews expelled from Spain? July 31st 1492. On the Hebrew calendar that date was 9th of Av. The same day the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem according to Messiah’s prophesy. Strangely this date seems to turn up over and over in Jewish history. But there’s another side to this story showing the other side of the hand of God. On the 9th of Av the harbors of Spain were awash with Jewish people fleeing Spain.
Discovery of the new world: America
Along with the ships fleeing Spain, the harbor was also filled with ships taking the Jews abroad. In that same harbor were three ships waiting to sail. One of them was captained by a man named Christopher Columbus. The names of the three ships were: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. And there were people seeking for a new trade route to the east. That same year 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail on August 3. Even the notes of his diary record that the Jewish people were fleeing Spain. The king and the Queen who signed the order to expel the Jews from Spain also signed the agreement to send Columbus -----which would result in Columbus’ discovery of the New World, America. Yet the financing of Columbus’ exploration came not from king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, but from the Jewish people of Spain. On Columbus’ ship were Jewish people. One of them would be the first European to settle in the new world ----the prophesy said “I will scatter you to the ends of the earth.” The first European to settle in the new world was Jewish. They actually had a translator who spoke Hebrew and when they saw the Indians, they thought they might be the last tribes of Israel and started speaking in Hebrew. The two events are connected. God said I will scatter you to the ends of the world. But also, this reveals the mercy of God because in all this comes the discovery of what we know as America. That is linked to the scattering of the Jewish people. And the mercy of God. When the Jewish people lost their refuge in Spain from those very days the seeds were being sown to prepare a new land which would become the greatest refuge of the Jewish people since Israel.
AMERICA: HAVEN TO HOME FOR THE JEWS
And it’s interesting because this greatest of Jewish havens has also become a shelter for people from all over the world. Many who are Americans today (non-Jews) are in America because their ancestors went to America to seek refuge. When America began its rise to the global stage at the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th, interestingly it would happen around the time when it would have a war with a nation. What nation was it? It was Spain. The date April 29th, is key in American history. On that date as the ship landed at Cape Henry and they planted a cross on the sands of Cape Henry they dedicated America to God. Before that when Ferdinand and Isabella signed the edict that gave the Jews 3 months to get out of Spain the date of signature was April 29. This was the same date as God would start a new American civilization in the sand. Behind human history, behind everything, is the principle of God’s hand. From the greatest Empire of the ancient world to the founding of America. From the fall of the Egyptian Empire, the Assyrian empire, Persian empire, Greek, Roman, Byzantine. Holy Roman, Middle Ages, France, England and Poland to the Spanish Empire and from the Pharaohs until this day, the key has been held, what was given to a man from Ur of the Chaldeans named Avram (jAbram). That prophetic word has determined the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms. And when you look at the present day, the principle that’s determining what’s happening right now, from the United States of America, to Russia to China is what is contained in the pages of the bible. We’ve seen it. It is true because it is God’s word.
This one phrase from Genesis, has so incredibly determined the history of the world not only for nations but also for individuals, people. Those who bless Israel as a nation or as a person will be blessed or cursed. How you treat Israel’s Messiah is how you’ll be treated. The word of God is true. It will prove true in the end. The one who stands on it will be vindicated and established. If God so honored His word to His ancient people ---a 4000 year promise how much more will He honor His word to you. God will let kingdoms and Empires crumble in order to keep His word to His people. And even if they don’t keep their end of the deal, God will still honor His word. That is how faithful He is. Four thousand years ago, God calls the obscure man from a place called Ur. An unknown man from Chaldea and gives him a word. In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That has come true. Through his seed has come the bible and through his seed has come Messiah.
Look up Abraham and see if you can count the stars
Look up Abraham and see if you can count the stars or the sand on the seashore. So shall your descendants be. So this man whose wife is barren---looks up at the stars and wonders if its possible to have children as numerous as the stars. Could he have any idea what God was going to do? How many millions of descendants he would have? Then God says I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. And even when Abraham was long gone God has kept His promise. So the faith of one man would be used by God to change the course of world history. What does that tell us? Your efforts as a person are not in vain for God. Your giving, fasting, prayers, your devotions are recorded in heaven. God sees all that and keeps it as a memorial. The eyes of the Lord search the entire earth to see the one who is completely His. And He is going to take that person and lift him up. God can change the world through that one person. You BE that person. You change the World.
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