Faith, not political power, is the true blessing of Israel
In Genesis, God makes a covenant with Abram, and later with the renamed Abraham to create a great nation with descendants more numerous than anyone could count. God’s promise to the descendants of Abraham were that they would be a blessing to all the earth. In assurance of the Divine blessing and covenant, God promised that all who bless Abraham’s descendants would be blessed by God and all those who cursed the descendants of Abraham would be cursed. This covenant has defined and informed much of the theological teachings of all three world religions who are descended from Abraham—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Yet tragically, much of the interpretation of this Divine blessing has been distorted and corrupted for evil purposes and is today, often applied as a heresy of Scriptural interpretation.
To begin with, being a blessing to the nations has nothing to do with political power, military might, or authoritarian control. Rather, it is the presence to be a light that shines hope, peace, wholeness, and assurance into the dark places of evil throughout the world. Similarly, the archaic language of “nation” has little correlation to any modern, secular, and highly politized organization of nations as they are defined in the world today. Finally, the promise given to Abraham and his descendants was contingent on following the will of the Creator and never intended as a blind consecration of nationalistic or religious power over and against all others in God’s creation. Sadly, some in all three religious traditions have ignored the scriptural intent of God’s blessing and covenant with a sinful, perverse, and evil distortion of the Biblical tradition.
Some within Christianity have interpreted the blessing and covenant to mean that the United States must unquestionably and uncritically support the modern government of Israel. This is problematic because of the blatant Apartheid rule of the Knesset and the arrogant racism of the current Israeli leadership towards the Palestinians, including the numerous Palestinian Christians suffering under both Christian and Jewish persecution under political discrimination facing them and their inhumane living conditions. Such atrocities are “justified” because many falsely believe that American Christianity is Biblically married to the false presumption of “blessing” Israel. Yet to do so actually brings curse upon God’s people for no other reason than believing in Jesus Christ in a world that discriminates against them for being born in Palestine.
Coupled with this egregious violation of God’s Word is the arrogant presumption that the Jerusalem Temple must be rebuilt in order for Christ to return. Aside from the fact that such a premise is a sinfully narcissistic misinterpretation of Revelation, it also feeds into the evil promotion of violence, destruction, and domination in the name of God that violates the very nature of the original covenant made to Abram in Genesis.
These are harsh words. For generations, Christians have been fed the false Gospel of supremacy and domination based on the misunderstood virtues of “blessing” the nation of Israel out of a misguided and distorted scriptural interpretation. Few recognize that partisan politics, narcissistic nationalism, and Cold War propaganda, not authentic Biblical teaching, has created and driven this lie. Overcoming the damage and distortion it has created is not easy and understandably many will angrily reject this truth because it goes against populist belief. God, however, was never one to be the champion of the contemporary populist propaganda of the age. Rather, the God is the One who loved the world enough to sacrifice his only son in order to overcome the populist sin of the world and God’s covenant seeks more than popular political theology. God’s covenant requires fidelity to the covenant of being a blessing to the world.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Faith, not political power, is the true blessing of Israel
