April 19, 2024
For two millennia the Jewish people have been persecuted. Some contend that the persecution is well-deserved because those first century Jews were guilty of deicide. They instigated the arrest of Jesus when Jewish religious leaders led the Roman soldiers into the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus and advocated His crucifixion when they said to Pilate, “Let Him be crucified.”
But nowhere does the Bible indicate that God has wanted vengeance to be carried out on those who cried, “Crucify Him!” Even though those Jews standing before Pilate said, “Let His blood be on us, and on our children,” there is no reason to believe that God consented to punish their children over the centuries. If He had committed Himself to carrying out the curse they invoked upon themselves, He would have knowingly bound Himself to violate His own law for centuries.
Nevertheless, no group of people has endured more maltreatment and torment than the Jews. Perhaps the prime example of their persecution is the Holocaust in which approximately six million Jews were victims of a systematic genocide by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC, has said, “Dispensationalists have served the church by pointing us to our responsibility to support the Jewish people and the nation of Israel through a century that has seen the most horrific anti-Semitic violence imaginable. We need not hold to a dispensationalist view of the future restoration of Israel (and I don’t) to agree that such support is a necessary part of a Christian eschatology (and
I do).”
Interestingly, one of the United States’ most worthwhile accomplishments has been its consistent regard for the plight of the Jewish nation. No nation in the history of the world has a better record of treating individual Jews with respect than does America.
The same can be said for our befriending Israel as a nation. America has committed many sins for which we may well deserve judgment, but as a nation, we have been a consistent friend of the Jews and the nation of Israel, as well as a benefactor.
Since the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 the United States has supported the Jewish state and considered the nation of Israel to be its greatest ally in the Middle East. Israel has been an oasis of Western Democracy and Judeo-Christian morality in the midst of an otherwise totalitarian Arab/Muslim Middle East. Ever since she has become a nation, Israel has sought peaceful coexistence with neighbors dedicated to her destruction.
Since the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 the United States has supported the Jewish state and considered the nation of Israel to be its greatest ally in the Middle East.
However, many people across the nation are expressing concern about the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Israel. Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in The Atlantic, declared, “The relationship between these two administrations – dual guarantors of the putatively ‘unbreakable’ bond between the U.S. and Israel – is now the worst it’s ever been.”
On Feb. 13 the Vancouver Sun stated, “It’s no secret that there is no love lost between President Barack Obama and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Commentators have claimed the relationship hovers somewhere between distrust and contempt, which doesn’t leave much space for compromise.”
Tensions between the two national leaders have simmered on the back burner since 2009. However, when Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address the U.S. Congress several weeks ago the pot boiled over. Since Mr. Obama was not consulted about Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to Congress, the White House called it a breach of protocol.
Regardless of the stressful relationship that may exist between the governmental leaders of the U.S. and Israel, those who believe the Bible are instructed to befriend Israel, honor the Jewish people, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The land of Israel is the cradle of our faith.
The nation of Israel is very special to God. Moses wrote: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Dt. 7:6-8).
God’s eternal purpose is to bless the world through Israel. Already He has done so in measure, for “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
The declaration that “salvation is from the Jews” suggests our immeasurable debt to Israel. All that we have worth having has come to us through the Jews. Our Bible is a Jewish book, and our Savior is a Jewish Savior. Let us never forget to pray for God’s chosen people.
The declaration that “salvation is from the Jews” suggests our immeasurable debt to Israel.
It is true that Israel, today, is in the place of rejection. The nation is a secular, unbelieving (for most continue to reject Jesus as their Messiah) nation; but “… at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). Some Jews are being saved and are becoming members of the body of Christ through faith in their Messiah.
Jews are, biblically speaking, the “chosen people of God” and dearly loved by Him. Another reason for Christians to support the nation of Israel is because of the Abrahamic Covenant. We read of God’s promise in Genesis 12:2-3, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed.”
In other words, those who bless Abraham and the Jewish people will have God as their advocate and those who curse the descendants of Abraham will have God as their adversary.
From the biblical declarations of God’s love and care for His chosen people, the nation of Israel, and from the history of nations being destroyed because of their evil dealings with God’s chosen people, the Jews, Christian believers should give support to the chosen people of God.
The Bible warned that conflict would always characterize the relations between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. Sadly, this conflict will continue until Jesus comes back to judge the nations and sets up His 1,000-year reign of peace on earth.
But we must look at the “big picture” with a biblical worldview. While we do not have to support everything Israel does as a nation, we most definitely should support Israel’s right to exist. God will fulfill His promises and covenants with Israel. God still has a plan for Israel. Woe to anyone who seeks to defeat that plan; “whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).
