Israel and the Christian's Responsibility

As a Christian, one of the sweetest realities in this life, and in the one to come, is that the promises of my God are “yes and amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). The fruition of His promises may not come to pass on my desired timetable, but I can rest assured that if God has promised good to me, it will come to pass (2 Peter 3:9)

In the scriptures, we find two kinds of promises. Conditional and unconditional.
Let’s deal first with the latter and then we’ll spend most of our time in this article on the former.
What does it mean that some of God’s promises are unconditional?

Unconditional promises will be fulfilled regardless of human actions. The fulfillment of these promises is based solely on God's character and faithfulness. Some examples could include God's promise to never leave or forsake His people (Hebrews 13:5) or God’s promise to never again destroy the entire earth by flood (Genesis 9:11).

On the other hand, some of the promises that we find in scripture are conditional and if a promise is conditional, the fulfillment of the promise depends upon certain requirements being met.

These conditional promises can usually be identified as such in the Bible when we spot the words “if” and “then”.

The familiar promise found in 2nd Chronicles 7:14 is a great example of this: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

There are also conditional promises that may not contain the words “if” or "then” but they certainly imply them.

I think about the promise of provision that Jesus makes in Matthew’s Gospel that follows a commitment to first seeking Him: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” – Matthew 6:33

Or how about the promise of wisdom being granted, not to all, but to those who ask for it by faith and without doubt: “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord” - James 1:5-7:

There’s another conditional promise that I want to take a few moments to address today. It’s a promise that has actually been in the headlines as of late, specifically due to an interview of Senator Ted Cruz that was conducted by media personality Tucker Carlson.

As the two were exchanging ideas (and a few barbs) in regard to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, Senator Cruz remarked that the foundation of his support of Israel in this conflict is a promise from God that he learned about as a child in Sunday School, “God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel”

Though he couldn’t cite the text, Senator Cruz was referring to a portion of one of the very first promises found in the Bible. In Genesis 12:1-3, the scriptures record, “The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you”

This great promise is given to Abram, who He had appointed to be a blessing to the whole earth. The Lord not only promises the old patriarch that he would receive the Promise Land and have many children, even in his advanced age, but also, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt”.

Think about that for a moment. The Lord says I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you…and He doesn’t place an expiration date on this promise. That means that the blessings (and the cursing) that are attached to this promise are still in play today.

You may be thinking, “That can’t be. Abram died a few thousand years ago. We can’t bless Abram or curse Abram any longer”

Well, the Bible teaches us in Genesis 27 that the promise to Abraham was passed down through his son Isaac to his grandson Jacob, who was ren=maned Israel. The sons of Jacob would grow to become the founding fathers of the tribes of Israel and in Numbers 24 we find that the promise that the Lord made to Abraham was passed on to Israel as well.

This promise was never withdrawn so it remains in effect.

Senator Cruz was correct in saying that the Lord will bless those who bless Israel and He will curse those who curse Israel and that much, from a Biblical perspective, is clear

…yet, here’s where things get a bit tricky...

Who is this Israel that we are promised: if we bless, we’ll be blessed?

Is the Israel that is featured in this promise the nation-state named that is occupies a large portion of the territory that is referred to in the Bible as the promised land? If the answer to that question is yes, then if we desire God’s blessing, we must unequivocally bless the modern nation of Israel by championing and supporting everything that nation does. If the Israel that is mentioned in this promise is speaking about the modern nation-state called Israel, we certainly wouldn’t want to be guilty of speaking or acting against her in any way, shape or form, as the negative aspect of this promise, “I will curse those who curse you” is as sure as the positive.

As you can see, this question of, “who is Israel?” is a massive one and getting this right is extremely consequential.  

Thankfully, the Bible provides us with the answer.

The Apostle Paul makes a jarring statement in Romans 9:6. He says emphatically, “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

Take a moment to process that.

Let’s give this some context: The Apostle Paul has spent the first eight chapters of His epistle to the Roman church expressing man’s desperate need to be redeemed due to his fallen state and God’s provision of a redeemer in Jesus Christ.

He begins chapter 9 with deep anguish over the lost spiritual condition of his countrymen, those who shared his physical lineage, the Jewish people. He writes about the great benefit and privilege they had in being a people in whom God had shown such favor to…yet they still rejected the Messiah who had come from their own line to save them from their sins.

Paul then imagines someone saying, “Wait a minute! Not all Israelites have believed in Jesus! God has failed to keep his promise to Israel”

The Apostle answers that argument in verse 6, “It is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

Here Paul distinguishes those who are Israel according to the flesh from those who are Israel according to the promise.

The true Israel, the Israel that we will be blessed if we bless, are all of those who have placed their trust in Christ alone for salvation.

Paul goes more in depth on this in Romans 11, explaining why so many of those who are Israel by flesh alone do not believe Jesus is the Messiah while so many gentiles do.
Paul likens Israel to an olive tree and says that those who are part of the tree by birth—the natural branches, the Jews—can be broken off by their unbelief in Christ. He then says that those who were not part of the tree by birth—wild branches of a different tree, the gentiles—can be grafted in to the olive tree of Israel and become part of that tree.

Faith in Christ is what makes a person a member of the Israel of God, not mere ethnic descent.

By the way, this is certainly not the only place where Paul addresses this. In Romans 2:28-29, he writes, “A person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter”

Furthermore, in Galatians 6:16, he identifies the Galatian church, which is made up predominantly of gentiles who have placed their faith in Jesus, "the Israel of God.”

The true Israel of God, then, consists of Christ (Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15, John 15:1) and all the Jews and gentiles who believe in Him by faith.

Now with that being said, as Christians, we are called by God to do good to all people, Jew and Gentile alike (Romans 1:16, Galatians 6:10) and concerning the welfare, actions and policies of the modern nation-state of Israel, particularly as an ally of the United States, there are sound and legitimate reasons to be supportive, to advocate for their cause and if necessary, to intervene on their behalf.

In fact, there are a wealth of moral, ethical, political, and yes, spiritual reasons to champion the nation-state of Israel, but Genesis 12:3, contrary to Senator Cruz’s view, simply does not provide us with a theological reason to do so.

This great promise of God, in this new covenant era, means that the Lord will bless those who bless His people, the church and He will curse those who curse His people, the church.

Please join me in praying for a swift and just end to the conflict between Israel and Iran, for wisdom for the leaders of our nation and for peace in Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6)

In Christ Alone,
Pastor DK