How should Christians feel about Israel?
Over the past week, violence intensified between the democratic state of Israel and Hamas, an Islamic terrorist group that occupies a strip of Israeli land called Gaza.
The decades-long violence reignited when Israel called for the eviction of Palestinians from an East Jerusalem neighborhood called Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian-held area which Israel has made numerous attempts to reoccupy. While missile attacks were initiated by Hamas, most have been diffused mid-air by Israel’s rocket defense system called, “Iron Dome.” This has led to a disproportionate casualty rate between Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
Violence between Jews and Muslims is nothing new. At times, it can be easy to feel numb toward the headlines that, yet again, report violence in the Middle East. Most of all, the conflict can seem so confusing that knowing exactly how to feel, or who to support, is difficult. So then, what is the biblical response to the violence happening between Israel and Palestine?
Here are three things to keep in mind:
- Yes, Israel remains God’s people
The modern state of Israel is relatively new. Formed in 1948, today’s Israel is less than a hundred years old, inhabited initially by refugee Jews who fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s and 1940s. Yet, the people of Israel have existed for millennia.
Israel first began in Genesis 12, when God gave Abraham three promises known as the “Abrahamic Covenant.” The covenant gave three promises: descendants as numerous as the stars, the land of Canaan, and to bless the families of the world through Abraham. While God has fulfilled the first and third promise, to this day, the Israelites have never fully possessed the Promised Land. This does not mean that God has failed in His promises, but rather that His promises extend to our modern age. Because of this, Christians in 2021 should recognize the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people, and the rightful recipients of the promises made to Abraham. Times change, God’s promises do not. God still has a plan for the world, one in which both Christians and the national state of Israel will play a role.
- No, Israel is not without sin
However, there is a troubling pattern among American evangelical Christians that must be acknowledged. Many have developed an almost superstitious attraction to Israel under the belief that God will “bless those who bless [Israel] and curse those who curse [Israel]. This has led many to see Israel through rose-tinted glasses, and to interpret all conflicts in the Middle East through the assumption that the Israelites are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
This kind of thinking is not only unwise, but also unbiblical. For one, God throughout history has routinely blessed those who curse Israel. God specifically rose up the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires in biblical history for the sake of punishing Israel. More often than not, Israel’s enemies seemed to prosper. Biblical books like Habakkuk, Lamentations, and Psalms feature Israelites who specifically question why God does not curse those who curse the Israelites. Simply put, it is for God to decide who to bless and who to curse, and Americans must stop treating the Israelites superstitiously as a foreign-affairs “good luck charm.”
Secondly, while Israel’s status as God’s chosen people remains intact, this is not a result of Israel’s goodness, but of God’s goodness. Most Israelites have rejected God’s Messiah in Jesus Christ. Today, modern Jews base their religion, not on the written laws of the Old Testament (Torah), but on the oral tradition of Jewish rabbis (Midrash), something which Christ himself even criticized. Paul made it clear that faith, not ethnic birth, is what truly made someone a “child of Abraham.” Sadly, many Israelite Jews will die and go to hell as a result of their rejection of Christ. The Jews must be prayed for and evangelized just as much as any other people group. With this in mind, it must also be recognized that the Jewish people of Israel are capable of sin as much as any other people group, and that the nation of Israel, like all nations (including the United States) has not always been perfect in how it has conducted itself. Christians must be okay with acknowledging when Israel sins and calling it out as such.
- Christ Died for Palestinians
Finally, while it is good to recognize the Jews as God’s chosen people, it runs the risk of seeing other Middle Eastern people — especially Palestinians — as intrinsically bad. Islam is a wicked religion, one which has fueled militant extremist groups like Hamas and others to hurt the innocent for centuries. However, it must be remembered that Christ died for Muslims as well as for Jews.
Most of us, as fair-skinned citizens of the United States, are just as “Gentile” as the Palestinian Muslims being caught literally under the rockets of two warring governments. Love for Israel should not develop into bigotry toward Palestine, or any other Middle Eastern ethnicity.
While the Palestinian claims on the Promised Land may be unfounded biblically, Christ still died to save and forgive the Palestinians. In fact, this is exactly what God meant when He told Abraham that He would bless the “families of the world” through Abraham’s “seed.” In the end, both the Jewish Israelites and the Muslim Palestinians are both guilty of the same thing: both have rejected Jesus. Americans should pray for the safety of the civilians on both sides, and for the spiritual revival of both sides.
Stephen Angliss is pastor at Bayview Bible Church.