Israel: blessing or curse?

While Jews around the world have been celebrating for the past few days, Muslims in general, and Palestinians and Iranians in particular, have been grieving, at best, or filling the air with profanity, curses, and threats, at the worst. The cause of such a mixed reaction is the sixtieth anniversary, on May 8th, of the declaration of Israel's independence in 1948. On that day the unique nation of Israel was born by United Nations decree; for sixty years Israel has clung to survival by her fingernails against relentless opposition from those opposed to her very existence. No other nation arouses such mixed and intense emotions.

Christians, too, are riven by conflicting opinions and attitudes towards Israel. Let us throw our hat in the ring. Rather than considering the future role Israel as a nation may play in end-time prophecy we will deal with the far more significant question - has God abandoned the Israelite people as His "special treasure" (Ex. 19:5)? Many Christians are convinced that the purpose of Israel's calling by God was to demonstrate - by contrast - that "works" wrought by a "physical" people accomplish nothing, and that only faith in Christ has any value. In standard Christian theology, Israel disqualified as God's special people and has been replaced by disciples of Jesus who are now "spiritual Israel". Israel has no further role to play, it says. Not so. Although Christ is the grounds and agent of salvation, that fact does not logically require the abandonment of Abraham's physical seed by God as having a special role in His plan. Fact is, Scripture makes as plain as can be that Abraham's physical seed will yet fulfill its divinely-appointed destiny to assist Abraham's "one seed", Jesus Christ (Gen. 22:18, Gal. 3:16) in turning all people into Abraham's spiritual seed, followers of Jesus Christ.

For those who take the Old Testament seriously, nothing could be more certain than that the One True God, who calls Himself "the Holy One of Israel" (Is. 48:17 and thirty other places!), will ensure that Abraham's physical descendants will ultimately "show forth [God's] praise" (Is. 43:21) and thus be a blessing to all mankind. This truth is summarized in Hosea 1:10:

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, "You are not My people," there it shall be said to them, "You are sons of the living God."

Paul understood this truth well:

For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Rom. 11:15).

When John the Baptist was born, the Holy Spirit inspired John's father to prophesy of Jesus:

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets. that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life (Luke 1:68-75).

These words will be fulfilled. Christians should not forget that Jesus Christ came to, amongst other things, "confirm the promises made to the fathers" (Rom. 15:8), the best-known of which involves the divine decree, "To your descendants I will give this land" (Gen. 12:7). Whether or not the presence of Jews in the promised land at this moment in history has come about by an act of divine intervention cannot be proved either way; the strong opinions many people have on the question prove nothing. A strong case can be made that they are there in readiness for future important events, but to make a tenet of faith out of it might be unwise. Nevertheless, the promised land will eventually be returned to Abraham's descendants in full:

Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28).

Where else will the twelve tribes live other than in the land promised to them by the God whose word cannot be broken?

Both individual Israelis and the national government have at times committed gross injustices over the past sixty years against Palestinians. Israel's enemies spin these instances into a case for the total destruction of Israel. Men and women of good will deplore such injustices, but will also recognize that the same argument cuts both ways. In the day of judgment justice will be meted out against both Jews and Palestinians who have committed atrocities. In the meantime, nations that might seek to uproot the Jews from the land promised to Israel just may find themselves fighting against the creator of heaven and earth. Not a smart idea.