Netanyahu at the UN, empty chairs, and the God who still keeps covenant

Hi folks, I want us to open the Word and share some scriptures with you and look at this week with honest hearts.

I am a Scotsman living in the United Kingdom. I sat prayfully and watched Benjamin Netanyahu stand before the United Nations. I wasn’t surprised as I watched row after row of delegates get up and walk out. Israel counted seventy-seven countries gone from the hall. Outside, crowds raged against the Jewish people. Inside, empty seats. And the world called it virtue.

I wrote under that speech: Thank you, from a bewildered Scotsman trapped in the UK, for your strong and courageous speech at a much-needed moment in history.

I meant it. I am not confused about the Bible. I am grieved that so many nations — and so many churches — will not say what God has already said.

Murder is still murder

Back in October 7, 2023, Hamas came out of Gaza. There was not one Israeli living in Gaza that morning. Not a civilian. Not a soldier. It did not matter. They murdered at the Supernova festival. They murdered in the kibbutzim. They murdered the old. They burned. They raped. They took hostages. They filmed it for the world.

Do not dress that up. The Word will not let you.

“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13, NKJV)

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” (Isaiah 5:20, NKJV)

You know, folks, that walkout wasn’t a search for peace; it made me cringe as these weak men and women left the room so they wouldn’t have to face the truth. The same spirit that butchered families now hides behind flags and resolutions.

The United Nations has no moral centre

Folks, do not be fooled by the marble and the flags. Look at who sits in the chairs.

China sits on the Human Rights Council — the body that is supposed to weigh the rights of men.

In 2025 Saudi Arabia’s ambassador chaired the Commission on the Status of Women.

In 2024 Iran held the rotating presidency of the Conference on Disarmament — the room that talks about nuclear weapons.

Those are facts. Not opinions.

The psalmist asked a question that hall will not ask:

“Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have fellowship with You?” (Psalm 94:20, NKJV)

“Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street.” (Isaiah 59:14, NKJV)

Jesus said it of another house that had the right name and the wrong heart: “You are like whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27, NKJV). Clean on the outside. Death on the inside. That is the United Nations in this hour.

A double heart

Now look at Britain in the same week.

The Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, sat down with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of that Assembly. London says he warned Tehran not to threaten Jews on British soil. Tehran says they discussed “bilateral ties.” That is how a regime photographs a handshake.

That same week he announced £88 million for Palestinians and used the microphone to lecture Israel. That sits inside a £127 million budget. And in the same season the British Army is cutting live-fire training to save about £30 million. A NATO commander called it a recipe for disaster.

Listen carefully. The same government cannot find thirty million to train its own soldiers and can find eighty-eight million to announce in New York — while sitting with the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic.

And here is what many will not say. Gaza has been flooded with aid for a generation. Billions. Tunnels were built. Rockets were built. Leaders lived well. Ordinary families still suffered. Hamas has taxed aid, stolen aid, sold aid, and blocked aid. A UN official said so this year — armed men in the warehouses, drivers beaten, distribution stopped.

So the question is not only the size of the cheque. The question is who stands between the cheque and the child. Compassion that will not name the thief is not compassion. It is a subsidy.

“Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, And for lack of justice there is waste.” (Proverbs 13:23, NKJV)

“Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves.” (Isaiah 1:23, NKJV)

Miliband comes from a Jewish family that fled the Nazis. That matters. It does not settle the matter. Ancestry is not obedience.

“For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.” (Romans 9:6, NKJV)

Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.” (John 8:39, NKJV)

“They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14, NKJV)

We wrestle “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age” (Ephesians 6:12, NKJV). There is a spirit in this world that always turns against Israel and calls it kindness. Priorities preach. That £88 million and that £30 million is a sermon. It is a poor one.

Look at Saudi Arabia. Reports came that Riyadh sought Israeli intelligence against the Houthis — through the Americans, not under the lights. Help in the dark. Then, when Netanyahu stood up, the Saudi seats were empty.

That is a double heart.

“With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” (Psalm 12:2, NKJV)

“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:10, NKJV)

Netanyahu said Israel was defending nations whose delegates had just walked out — and that some thank them privately. The empty chair is that sentence made visible. “The fear of man brings a snare.” (Proverbs 29:25, NKJV)

God has not forgotten His covenant

Now I want you to hear the Word, not the Assembly.

God said to Abram:

“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3, NKJV)

That has not expired. The Jewish people are not a footnote. From them, according to the flesh, came Christ.

“of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” (Romans 9:5, NKJV)

To walk out on that people as a moral show is to walk near a fire you did not kindle.

“Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed.” (Psalm 2:1–2, NKJV)

They rage. He sits. He has set His King on Zion.

Zechariah saw Jerusalem become a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone. “All who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:3, NKJV)

The nations are gathered. The stone has not moved.

Iran is not the Iranian people

Netanyahu spoke of Iran. He was right. The Revolutionary Guard and that regime fund the terror axis. They also shoot their own sons and daughters in the street.

I love the Iranian people. Many of them hate the darkness over them. The gospel is for Tehran as surely as it is for Helensburgh. Love does not require a lie. Jesus said the devil is “a murderer from the beginning” and “a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44, NKJV)

Murder and lying travel together. They travelled on October 7. They travel in the empty hall. They travel in the private request and the public walkout.

Do not be surprised when the world hates this

If you stand with the Jewish people because the Bible tells you to, the world will not applaud you.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” (John 15:18, NKJV)

Antisemitism is not a side issue. It is rebellion against the God who chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and who brought forth the Messiah from that line.

The church is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15, NKJV) If the pillar will not hold the truth, it is only furniture.

Has God cast away His people? Paul said, “Certainly not!” (Romans 11:1, NKJV) Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. “And so all Israel will be saved… The Deliverer will come out of Zion.” (Romans 11:26, NKJV)

The Deliverer is Jesus. We do not save Israel with politics. We tell the truth about gifts and calling that are irrevocable. And we preach Christ crucified to Jew and Gentile alike.

What then shall we do?

We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, this is no slogan but it is obedience. (Psalm 122:6)

We continue to pray for the hostages, for the bereaved in Israel, for the Palestinians crushed under Hamas.

Pray for the church in Iran.

Bless the Jewish people. Do not curse them to look kind.

Preach the Word. In season and out of season. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Do not let the newspaper interpret the Bible. Let the Bible interpret the newspaper.

Scotland is small. Israel is small. That hall looked large until the seats emptied and you saw how thin courage is.

Yoni Netanyahu said in 1967, We’re going to win. We have no other choice.

The church has no other choice. We stand on the Word. We stand with the people God has not cast away. We preach the only Name given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) That Name is Jesus — Son of David, Lion of Judah, Lamb who was slain.

The nations rage. The Anointed still reigns.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Until He comes, we stand on the Word.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Peter