Israel Then and Now: Why God’s Covenant Still Matters to the Church

When we look at Scripture, there is one reason why the Jews are in Israel: God has given that land to them. In fact, He even gave the descendants of Abraham that very name. When Jacob was about to meet his older, estranged brother, Esau, after years earlier cheating him out of his birthright and blessing, God took the opportunity to first prepare the younger sibling. The night before the potential conflict, the Lord came in a theophany, or a human manifestation, and held a wrestling match with the patriarch. After God had bested Jacob by putting his hip out of socket, we read of Him giving His opponent a new name:

[God] said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But [Jacob] said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:26-28).

Israel is the Jews and the Jews are Israel. There is no difference. And those Jewish people are of the same heritage and ethnicity as the ones in the times of the patriarchs, of the wilderness wanderings, of the united kingdom, of the divided kingdom, of the exile, of the post-exile, of the time of Jesus, of the early church, of the Middle Ages, of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, and now into the reconstituted State of Israel. There is no break of ownership. There is no shifting of people groups. The people of the promise that was given to Abraham are the same people who are populating Israel today.

Is modern Israel fulfilling the hope found in the Israel Decree given to the great patriarch in Genesis 12:1-3? Yes and no. There’s more to be said about that. Undoubtedly, however, if Abraham were to walk through the streets of today’s Tel Aviv, it is very likely that he would slap his forehead and say, “Oy vavoy! What have I begat?” But neither the sins of today nor the sins of the past are enough to negate a promise of God. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar” (Romans 3:3-4).

But there are many in the church who do not believe this. They either say that God’s promise to Abraham was conditional or that it was only spiritual or that it was all part of a grand scheme to do a “God’s chosen” quick swap with the advent of the church age. This doctrine continues to spread rapidly through the body of Christ, and it is not new. There have been many in the history of the church who have been doing all they can to erase the ongoing importance of Israel.

I want those who love Israel and support God’s chosen nation to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what they believe is absolutely true. And I also want them to be fully equipped so that they can explain the reasons for their beliefs to others. When you look at the scriptures and read them from a literal point of view, you will see that there is no reason there must be only Israel or the church as God’s chosen people, but that we serve a both/and God who has a unique and special plan for both of His holy nations.