When they looked in the ark, the Lord killed thousands of them, (1 Sam. 6:19) when they sinned against Him, He sent poisonous snakes among them, (Numb. 21:6) when David took a census of the people he should not have undertaken, thousands died. (2 Sam. 24) It is what the world once called collateral damage, but now calls “the death of the innocent,” and it has grown in the eyes of those who embrace the enabled and inclusive society, but those who run the show, so to speak, understand there is no such thing as an innocent person when it comes time for many to die.
When was the last time you heard of a pestilence or plague that affected only the children of God, those saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? We are grafted into the vine (Romans 11:17) of that you can be assured, but we are not as the sons of Abraham through Isaac are, they are specific in that regard. They are set apart as much as Christians are set apart from the world, they are God’s own. We are in Christ, and as born-again believers, Gentiles who have been called and chosen of God, we are hid in Him, (Col. 3:3) it is God that justifies. The coming Tribulation time will affect the entire planet, saved and lost, man and creature, even the earth itself, yet “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:17) Not those who love God but have forsaken the name of Jesus Christ, not those who do not acknowledge Him as the Lord’s Messiah, they will remain, and as the Lord always has, as a nation, as a people who are stiff necked and rebellious, they will suffer greatly.
We, the born-again believers, are in a way meant to provoke them to jealousy, (Romans 11:11) we have attempted to step into the temple as Gentiles, not by the blood of Abraham, not from the seed of Isaac and Jacob, we are seen as usurpers, as unfit to worship the Lord God, because to them, Jesus Christ is not Lord of Lords and King of Kings but was a prophet only in great power. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” (John 8:56)
There is in a sense, as best as my finite mind can comprehend, a blessing within a blessing for those who are of the seed of Abraham and know in truth that Jesus is the Lord’s anointed, the only way to salvation. “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Gal. 3:6) And also the words of the Lord, “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt. 3:9) We are saved by grace through faith, (Eph. 2:8) Jew, Gentile, it matters not your heritage when you come to Christ.
Christians, as far as we know, are not grouped together, rounded up and killed for disobeying the will and Word of God as those in the Old Testament who were of the nation of Israel, but they will be someday, perhaps sooner than we think. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4)
Israel will suffer, those who come to Christ during the Tribulation period will suffer, they will be the target that the world will once again aim for. There will be great rejoicing among the sinners the day the two witnesses are killed, people will send gifts to each other (Rev. 11:10) and celebrate their deaths. Our brothers and sisters in that time will be grouped together, hunted down, tortured and killed, and the world will rejoice over their deaths.
We are adopted into the family of God, (Eph. 1:5) we have been grafted into the vine, all those who are of the seed of Abraham are our brothers and sisters, and as such, when the time arrives, those in that day, who will come to Christ for the salvation of their souls, who will not love their lives unto the end, (Rev. 12:11) will become part of the collateral damage. Pray for Israel, pray for each other.