Standing with Israel

God's words to us are reliable and sure. Thousands of years ago, He made a covenant with a man named Abram, whose name He changed to Abraham. That covenant even extends to Israel today. Genesis 15 says:
5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it."

Throughout the Old Testament, even though the descendants of Abraham rebelled against God, He continued to extend His love, to hold out His hand.  The Jewish people are a covenant people, and we read in Revelation that God will send out evangelists to reach out to His chosen people, to reunite them to Himself.  Israel has a special place in God's plan, and that is why Christians, who have been brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, are directed to stand with the Jewish people.  

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A significant passage of Scripture regarding current events in the Middle East can be found in Genesis chapter 12:
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

The PR campaign by Hamas to somehow show the false righteousness of their cause - case in point is the recent bombing of a hospital that the terror group tried to pin on Israel, with the complicity of a number of American media outlets; Israel has presented strong evidence that it was a bomb that was designated for Israel but went astray that resulted in lives being lost.  

Joel Rosenberg at All Israel News reported:

Without doubting Hamas’ words for a moment, most of the media ran with the terrorist 'spin' that Israel was the guilty party.

But, he adds:

It was a malfunctioning rocket fired by a terrorist organization in Gaza known as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or “PIJ.”

This morning, the Israel Defense Forces released incontrovertible proof showing that PIJ – not Israel – was responsible for the explosion.

Video from security cameras from a nearby building in Gaza clearly shows a salvo of rockets being fired at Israel and that at least one of the rockets malfunctioned and fell on the parking lot of the hospital, causing several vehicles to explode and catch on fire.

The IDF played audio recordings for reporters so they could listen to Hamas terrorists discussing that it was a PIJ rocket – not Israel – that caused the devastating destruction at the hospital, as you will see in the transcript below.

The false reporting has inflamed tensions in the Middle East, and even in the U.S., demonstrators in some major cities and on college campuses have bought into the narrative and responded with anti-Semitic expressions, showing favor and fervor toward the brutal actions of Hamas.

But, by and large, the polling data shows widespread American support for Israel.  For example, the New York Post reported on a recent Rasmussen poll, stating:

A majority of Americans stand strongly behind Israel over Palestinians in their bitter decades-long territorial conflict —while an even stronger 66% support a “complete eradication” of Hamas in the Gaza Strip following the terror group’s mass killings of civilians in the Jewish state, according to a new survey.

The Rasmussen Reports poll asked likely voters, “Which is closer to your opinion about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: That Israel is mostly to blame, that the Palestinians are mostly to blame, or that both sides are about equally to blame?”

The article states, "53% of respondents said Palestinians were mostly to blame for the dispute, while only 10% said Israel was mostly to blame and 24% said both sides are about equally at fault."

This article was published on Sunday; so was an ABC News article reporting the results of another poll.  It said:

Forty-nine percent of Americans say the United States is doing "about the right amount" to support Israel in its war with Hamas, while 29% say the U.S. is actually doing too little, per the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel.

Last Friday, there was an article posted at The Hill that featured the results of another survey.  The article related:

The NPR-PBS News Hour-Marist poll found that nearly two in three Americans — or roughly 65 percent — say the government should publicly support Israel. About 23 percent said the U.S. should say or do nothing related to the conflict, and 8 percent say the U.S. should publicly criticize Israel.

The Bible teaches about God's love for all people, but it illustrates for us His choosing of the nation of Israel and the covenant He has made with them. While the nation of Israel is certainly a secular nation, the roots of the Abrahamic covenant and promises of God run deep.  So, Christians recognize that Jewish people as people who have a spiritual heritage that is intertwined with our own.

Dr. Jürgen Bühler, President of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, has written, regarding Christians supporting Israel:

There is no doubt that Israel enjoys growing support from the Evangelical movement today. At times this support is little understood, especially since the Church struggled for centuries to accept the Jewish people and even engaged in antisemitic actions against them. Many Church fathers taught that God was finished with the Jews, and left them in exile as a sign of their divine rejection. However, this all changed dramatically with Israel’s restoration as a nation back in its ancestral homeland.

Dr. Bühler affirms that idea of covenant in his article called, Ten Reasons To Support Israel on the ICEJ website.  He writes:

One of God’s main character traits is that He is a covenant keeper. In the past, some Christians insisted God had changed His mind about Israel, gave up on them, and established a new covenant with the Church – the ‘New Israel’. But that would be catastrophic news for every Christian believer today. With our every sin, lukewarmness or lack of commitment, do we need to fear that God will change His mind about us, too? No, for “even if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful; since He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13) Thus, the great hope for both Israel and the Church is that God always keeps His covenant promises – forever!

He also points out the teaching from Romans 11:

According to the Apostle Paul, Israel’s full restoration will release an unprecedented blessing to the Church. In Romans 11, Paul makes two most amazing statements: “Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!” (Romans 11:12); and, “For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15)

Paul presents it as almost a mathematical formula. Looking at Israel’s stumbling and casting away, he still sees blessing released of “riches for the Gentiles” and “reconciliation of the world.” Then he looks to Israel’s future fullness and acceptance, and foresees an even greater release for the world of “life from the dead.”

John Wesley commented on these verses: “So many prophecies refer to this grand event, that it is surprising any Christian can doubt of it. When it is accomplished, it will be so strong a demonstration, both of the Old and New Testament revelation, that will doubtless convince many… It will release overflowing life to the world, which was dead.”

Bühler writes: "That means Israel’s restoration is key for everyone who thirsts for the outpouring which God still has in store for the Church. Or to put it another way: If you thirst for revival, pray for Israel!"

So, Christians in America, and America itself, founded on Christian principles, ideally should possess a favorable view toward Israel.  Politically, the nation has been a historical ally.  Spiritually, there is a kinship that exists.  

The regathering of Jewish people and the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 has been described as miraculous.  It has also been regarded as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy - one example: when Ezekiel offers an account of a coordinated attack on Israel in the last days, that assumes that there is a Jewish nation to attack.  So, we are living in days in which Bible prophecy is unfolding, and we can continue to trust God to fulfill His plan and recognize that we are living in urgent times.  And, the times are growing short, so we should possess that sense of urgency in the way we live.