Why Israel?
— Because the reputation of God is at stake.
There is a glaring question in the Bible: Is God a covenant-keeping God?
In Genesis 12, God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, and He confirmed it to Isaac and to Jacob.
However, there are a growing number of Christians today who dismiss Israel as a rejected and replaced people, considering God's promises to restore them to be null and void.
What happened? Did God go back on His promises?
Was He forced to give up on His covenant people and start from scratch? Does man’s faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
It’s an important question to ask because the way God deals with Israel is the way that God deals with us. If He is able to forget His covenant with Israel, then He is also able to forget His covenant with us.
— But that is not the character of God.
Paul wrestles with this question in Romans 9-11: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” (11:1) Why is Paul so convinced of this? Because he knows the character of God— “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)
This is what leads the apostle Paul to declare: “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Romans 15:8) Paul believed that in relation to the Jewish people “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29)
— There remains in the plan of God a promised restoration of Israel.
ONE GOD. ONE PEOPLE.
There are many opinions today about who are the people of God.
Are there two “people of God?” Is Israel His “chosen people”? Is the Church His “chosen people”? Or has the Church merely replaced Israel? The Bible, however, describes the people of God as a SINGLE OLIVE TREE in the FAITH OF THE FOREFATHERS:
“And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” (Romans 11:17-18)
If you have faith in the Messiah of Israel, you have been adopted into the family of God and share in the rich root of the Olive Tree.
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:12-13)
You share in their adoption and promises.
— As the church, let us not be arrogant and cut ourselves off from the nourishing root. Instead, let us respond in humility.
— What is God’s purpose for the relationship between Israel and the nations?
“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” (Romans 11:11)
Despite the controversy over the Messiah’s identity, the early followers of Jesus believed that one day Israel would welcome their Messiah.
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15)
— God has a unique role for the Gentiles in Israel’s restoration.
“And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:5-6)
Through Israel, light has come to the world in the form of God's mercy.
Through the Gentiles showing Israel the same mercy, Israel's ongoing restoration becomes a blessing to the whole world.
— Why would God choose to do things this way?
So that God’s love, mercy, and desire for reconciliation will be known by all.
He alone will receive all the glory.
— The glory of God is most clearly seen in the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile together in one body.
“For he [Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us…for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” (Ephesians 2:14-15)
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)
*Why Israel?: Content is used by permission from FIRM at: https://firm.org.il/whyisrael/