Israel is here to stay, Scripture promises peace for their people

“Bloody Weekend” filled the headlines, and defined videos, and images of brutal violence. After two years of planning, what transpired against the Jewish people in their homeland was carried out by Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, with “zeal,” as their Arabic name indicates. Unrestrained ravishing in terms of maiming, murder, kidnapping, rape, and beheadings – even of babies – are now well-known expressions of what some are saying is another holocaust or a 9/11 for the Israeli nation. “Unprecedented” is the term echoed by our politicians, but in truth, what we have seen is akin to descriptions of ancient warfare – the breaking down of city walls to brutally annihilate the inhabitants. Last Sunday in New York, as supporters of Israel sang their anthems, pro-Palestinian demonstrators celebrated Hamas’ massive deadly terror attack. Waving Palestinian flags, they chanted, “Resistance is justified,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “Smash the settler Zionist state.” In ancient times, the prayer to the God of equitable justice was, “Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You; according to the greatness of Your power preserve those who are appointed to die; and return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord” (Ps 79:11-12) and again, “O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!” (Ps 137:8-9). Can we not still pray to the God who hears?

It is remarkable that a Middle Eastern nation the size of the State of Vermont daily commands international attention. Is it because its territory stands at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa? Or is there more? The recent attack by the Iranian-funded terrorist organization, the first in some fifty years of relative peace in the region, has again brought the occupation of this land to the consideration of world leaders – from the Senate Majority Leader to the communist president of China, from contenders for the presidential nomination to those already occupying the White House. Why Israel? What’s the big deal over this land – these people? The word of God offers several answers worthy of our consideration.

First, the nation of Israel was founded by God. The Jewish and Arab patriarch, Abraham, was told, “I will make you a great nation” (Gen 12:2) and give your descendants this land “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites” (Gen 15:18-21). This promise was passed on to his descendants through Isaac and Jacob, to whom God said, “Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body” (Gen 35:11). Throughout their generations, Israel was to remember that the fulfillment of this divine pledge of real estate had nothing to do with “your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land,” but because of the wickedness of those nations and that God had promised it to their fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deut 9:5). By the way, those nations have all dissipated, but Israel remains.

Second, “Israel” refers to a constituted people, an ethnicity, a people group – blood relatives of Abraham, the Hebrew, and his grandson, Jacob. Yes, there are references to Jews who are “circumcised of heart” (Rom 2:28-29; cf. Deut 13:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4) and to “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), but these describe Jewish people who have been born again by faith in Jesus, their Messiah – staking their claim to heaven not on their physical connection to Abraham (Matt 3:9), but by becoming children of God through accepting His Son (John 1:12-13). Nonetheless, the Land of Promise uniquely belongs to the Jewish people who have continuously out-endured other claimants, since the days of Joshua over three millennia ago. God who cannot lie has pledged to give them this land, in all its fullness, in the kingdom age of His Son, which is yet to come (Ezek 47:13-23).

Finally, the Jewish people are inextinguishable. They are a war-hardened people, having persevered through the long centuries. But we must again appeal, not to their self-determination, but to the promise of Yahweh, “Who gives the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, and its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name): If those ordinances depart from before Me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever” (Jer 31:35-36).

My Jewish friend, Jesus was “sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:6; 15:24). The suffering of your dear people is in large measure connected to the rejection of their Messiah, who, with tears, announced, “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’” (Matt 23:38-39). Oh, may you see Him today. And until then, Christians everywhere will continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May God bless you from Zion.

Scriptures to Memorize: Psalm 128:5-6

Pastor Chandler, a graduate of The Master’s Seminary (MDiv/ThM), serves Victor Valley Bible Church at 16439 Hughes Road in Victorville. Join us for worship on Sunday mornings at 10:15. Please visit victorvalleybiblechurch.org, email the pastor at bibletrom@gmail.com, or see his Bible on Our Day broadcast on YouTube.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Israel is here to stay, Scripture promises peace for their people