Hey! What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back?
A stick!
Here’s another one: “Boomerangs are frisbees for people with no friends.”
Or this one: “I bought a new boomerang, and I can’t throw away the old one!”
Okay, just one more, I promise: “I forgot where I threw my boomerang. Then it hit me.”
(OMGoodness! I’m dyin’ here!)
Whew! Alrighty then. Now that we have that out of the way, why don’t we talk seriously about another boomerang? And just like a true boomerang, it gets thrown away and keeps coming back. Not only that, how people and nations treat this boomerang will have a significant impact on their current and future well-being. (Pun intended.)
Are you intrigued?
I’m talking about Israel and the Jewish people.
From a historical perspective, the Jewish people have been “thrown” from their land into the world twice and have come back both times.
The first time was when God called to the Assyrians and Babylonians to be His hand of judgment on His people for their idolatry (Assyria – Isaiah 7:17-20, 1 Chronicles 5:26 and Babylon – Jeremiah 22:25, 29:4). Using these two nations, God threw His people out of the Promised Land into their Promised Exile.
But the Jews came back to their land!
After 70 years, the Lord stirred up the new Persian king who just conquered Babylon, Cyrus, who made a decree granting all the Jews the right of return (2 Chronicles 36:23). Like a boomerang, the Jews were thrown away into exile and returned as the Lord’s hand intended.
Almost 600 years later, the Romans invaded the province of Judea to put down the 1st Jewish rebellion. In the end, Jerusalem was razed, the Temple was burned to the ground, and the Jews were once again exiled from the land with only a remnant remaining, prohibited from entering what was left of their city.
But the Jews came back to their land!
After nearly 2,000 years, beginning in the late 1800s, a stirring arose in the hearts of the Jewish people (and you know it was from God!) which caused many of the dispersed Jewish people to begin returning to their Promised Land.
Wave after wave of immigration broke upon the land that was under Turkish occupation at the time. When Britain gained control of Jerusalem in 1920 under the British Mandate, the Jews continued to make their way to their God-given homeland despite the Brits' best efforts to hinder them. This came at a great cost to Britain as you’ll see. Remember the word impact!
Finally, on May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself a nation. The United States recognized the State of Israel that evening with the U.S.S.R. recognizing Israel three days later.
The Jews that had been thrown away into the nations via the Roman Exile returned as the Lord’s hand intended.
According to prophecy, Israel will again be thrown out of their land. Once the Antichrist reveals himself in the Time of Jacob’s Troubles (Jeremiah 30:4-7; ), the Great and Final Persecution of the Jews will begin. What is Jesus’ advice to the Jews in Jerusalem when this happens?
RUN LIKE THE WIND! (Luke 21:20-24, cf. Mark 13:14, Matthew 24:16).
And yet, when Jesus returns and the proverbial dust settles, the Jews will once again return in toto. And the “boomerang of God,” the people of Israel, will never again be thrown away. “I will plant them on their land, and they will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them. The Lord your God has spoken” (Amos 9:15).
I tried throwing a boomerang once.
ONCE!
It almost hit me. I’m not kidding. After I threw it, it circled and rocketed toward my head. I had to duck or I would’ve been beaned. I can’t imagine the mark it would have left.
But why was I surprised that it returned? Boomerangs are designed by their builder to return to the thrower. Duh.
And that’s the case with Israel and the Jewish people. God created both and made them inseparable. The Jewish people were designed for their land and the land was designed for Israel. They go together! They were meant by God to be together, one prospering along with the other.
Do you doubt me?
When Israel was faithful to God, the land prospered as God promised (Leviticus 26:1-13). When Israel was unfaithful to God the land languished, just as God promised (Leviticus 26:19-20; 1 Kings 17).
When the Israelites were in the land, the land was amenable (Numbers 14:7, Deuteronomy 8:7). When the Israelites were gone, the land grew wild and untamed, even hostile (2 Kings 17:26). It took just one Israelite priest teaching Yehovah’s ways to the newly-resident Gentiles transplants to tame the land physically and spiritually (2 Kings 17:27-28, albeit not perfectly as you can read in the last piece, The Isaiah 9 Prophecy - What This Child Will Do).
The point is this. God has a Boomerang Effect in play with the Jewish people. No matter what the world does to them, God’s hand turns everything around to benefit His people according to His loving, merciful plans, purposes and promises to them. Even their disobedience won’t cause Him to throw them away for good, even though He must discipline them as needed.
But there’s another aspect of the Boomerang Effect I want to share with you, dear reader.
Up to this point, we’ve looked at how God deals with Israel as a boomerang because of the way they were “designed.” Well, on the flipside boomerangs can have an awful effect on the thrower, if the thrower is not wise. I’m not talking about God. I’m talking about people and nations doing the “throwing.”
In other words, “What goes around, comes around.”
Remember, impact?
In the next piece, we’ll explore the Boomerang Effect found in Genesis 12:2-3. This is the moment Abram (Abraham) is called to separate himself from Ur of the Chaldeans (future Babylon) about 2,100 B.C. (about 4,100 years ago). Yehovah promised Abram,
I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
Over the next few segments, I want to unpack the Abrahamic blessing and show you why it’s a boomerang. Next, I want to show you that it has actually worked, is still in operation, and its impact on the world. And finally, I’ll give you ideas on how to benefit from the Boomerang Effect and not be harmed.
Keep this in mind throughout this series: When God makes a promise, He’s not kidding.
And speaking of promises, remember that promise I made at the top about no more boomerang jokes?
Forget it!
“I threw a boomerang, like, six years ago and it never came back. Now I live in constant fear!”
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts