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Our upbringing naturally has a significant impact on our view of the Jews and of the nation of Israel. In my case, my parents ensured the children were informed about the geography and history of Biblical Israel and the then-current social, economic and political backdrop to the newly minted (1948) modern state of Israel.

I remember my parents visiting Israel from our home in England in 1960, and I went on my own, as a 19-year-old non-Christian, in 1971 to volunteer on a kibbutz. I am sure this background planted seeds of my love for Israel.

The Archaeology of the Bible

As a non-Christian teenager, I dug into Israel’s archaeology to see if I could find evidence to back up the Christians’ faith stance. I couldn’t, as faith wouldn’t be faith if it were just based on fact! But I did marvel at what was being unearthed.

Western Wall – northern section for men

The ‘Western Wall’, arguably the best-known archaeological site in Israel, is all that remains of the foundations of the Jews’ second temple (586 BC-AD 70) built after their return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon in 538 BC. Then, all but this ‘retaining wall’ was destroyed by Titus’ Roman army in AD 70.

To visit this wall, as I did in 1971 and again this year, to see the foundation stones of the temple Jesus talked about when He prophesied that their temple would be destroyed (Mark 13:2), can hardly be described.

Isaiah – Dead Sea Scroll

The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea.

This photographic reproduction of the Great Isaiah Scroll contains the entire Book of Isaiah in Hebrew, apart from some small damaged parts. This manuscript was probably written by a scribe of the Jewish sect of the Essenes around the second century BC.

So, this prophecy about the birth of Jesus is quite compelling, if God is only a myth created as a crutch for the weak:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Archaeology is everywhere in Israel; it’s hard to grasp how much there is, where nearly every settlement is built upon countless earlier communities destroyed in war.

God’s promises

The Bible overflows with promises to the Israelis about their eternal future, which always includes their promised land. (I commend Joshua Arnold’s article, 28 May 2024, that wrestles with the two-state solution, as it overflows with scriptural references.)

My view on the place of Israel in God’s narrative can be called:

Enlargement Theology – Israel remains chosen, but both Jews and non-Jews must turn to the Messiah

According to this view, God’s plan, from the beginning, was to include Gentiles within His covenant people, Israel. Since the first century, salvation comes uniquely through faith in Jesus the Messiah, for Jews and Gentiles.

But God’s purposes for the Jewish people remain unchanged despite the majority’s rejection of Jesus. There has always been a faithful remnant, and in the future there will be a widespread turning by Jews to faith in their own Messiah. (Bobby Harrington, Renew.org)

I don’t think that if you have a different view to mine, that it makes you any less of a Christian, certainly not (how can that be a thing anyway, as it would imply that our salvation is partly dependent on us, which it certainly is not). I am only trying to justify my own love for Israel.

Here, I want to focus on two promises that have particularly influenced me.

As far as the Gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. (Romans 11:28-29)

This scripture directs my thoughts about modern-day Israel. We learn from Paul that the Jews will not be saved unless they turn to Jesus (Romans 9:1-11). Paul also teaches that Jews, even after the Gospel has been delivered to the Gentiles, continue to have a special place with God, and God will never take His promises away from them – His calling is irrevocable!

Secondly, in the Old Testament, God explicitly re-iterated the promise to bring back a remnant to Israel, many times. The following are two examples:

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made (Isaiah 43:6-7).

‘In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter (Jerusalem)—I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins—and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom (Israel) and all the nations that bear my name,’ declares the Lord, who will do these things (Amos 9:11-12).

To tear these scriptures from the Bible is unthinkable for me. So, while they are there, it is self-evident that God isn’t finished with Israel and His special people.

A personal anecdote: on my flight into Israel last month, an orthodox Jewish man, a Frenchman, was sitting next to me. He had been working in London for nearly ten years. He was now returning to Israel to join his wife and young family who were already there, living in Ashdod, just north of Gaza. He told me that England was not a safe place to bring up his children any longer, that he must go home. (See Immigration to Israel Statistics)

The war has seen a drop in immigration to Israel, but there is still a net inflow, which is unusual for a war zone. By contrast, at the end of 2023, the war in Ukraine had displaced an estimated 3.7 million people within the country and forced 6.3 million refugees and asylum-seekers to seek protection abroad, nearly 6 million of them in Europe. (UNHCR)

My Sense of Place

On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People’s Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved the following proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel. The new state was recognized that night by the United States and three days later by the USSR.

Text:

ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) — the Land of Israel, Palestine] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom. Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses… (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Arguably, this was the second most significant redefinition of national boundaries following World War II, after the defeat of Germany and her allies. The ‘declaration of the State of Israel’ was a triumph for a nation, a culture and a people group that had suffered more than any other in the war.

Contrast this with today’s dominant left-wing ideology of globalism, which advocates for one world government, open borders and the self-loathing of all things western (Judeo-Christian). We can’t imagine today, the celebration of the birth of a new, independent, democratic nation-state! It would be anathema to the globalists!

I have a deep-rooted passion for my sense of place, my birthplace in Yorkshire, England, and my current home, by choice, in Australia. So, my love of Israel is fuelled by the passionate nationalism I have experienced in Israel. I respect it; I love it! It puts the responsibility for people’s destiny at their own feet, rather than abdicating responsibility to the globalists who have no understanding of, or respect for, a people’s culture and values.

The End Times

The establishment again of the state of Israel in 1948, for me, marks the beginning of the End Times.

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land… Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
(Ezekiel 36: 24 & 28)

This is so exciting to read. Literally, this scripture was being fulfilled amidst all the horror and carnage of those times. A nation was being reborn, on the very mountains and valleys God gave to their ancestors about four thousand years earlier.

The Bible says that at the end of the tribulation, all the nations of the world will be gathered together in Armageddon (Daniel 7:23-27; 9:27; 11:40-45; Joel 3:1-17; Zephaniah 3:8-11; Zechariah 12:1-11; 14:1-8; Revelation 16:16-21), in the valley of Jezreel in northern Israel. From there they will go south and attempt to defeat and destroy the Jews and the city Jerusalem, their capital.

And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.

Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. (Revelation 16:16-19)

This is the battle of Gog and Magog described in Ezekiel 38-39. Then, after the armies of the world have defeated half the city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ returns to the top of the Mount of Olives, just east of the city (Zechariah 14:1-7) and puts a halt to the destruction.

Yes, these prophecies may have a symbolic meaning, but for me, if Ezekiel 36, the rebirth of the state of Israel, has occurred, why would Armageddon and the Mount of Olives be only figurative? It seems to me that God is painting His picture on the landscape of Israel as we know it. Let’s watch His brushstrokes prayerfully unfold.

The Mount of Olives, seen across the Kidron Valley from the west.

I will Bless Those who Bless You

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.
(Genesis 12:3)

I am not loving Israel because I want a blessing! That wouldn’t be love in my book. Real love is selfless, is sacrificial. This scripture is simply reporting fact, not making a contract.

God knew that generations of Gentiles would read this, so it seems to me that He wants everyone who follows Him to love Israel because He knows that there would always be many forces of evil arrayed against Israel; He knew that they would need support.

I rather like the idea that I can align myself with God’s people and the Promised Land, and by doing so, take my stand against evil and those who would come against Israel.

Most of us have little knowledge or experience of Israel and consequently would not be able to claim we love Israel. My concern is that, as such, we are prime targets for the wave of anti-Jewish sentiment sweeping the world that is degenerating into antisemitism in so many places and could, unchallenged, grow into a second Holocaust movement. This concern is one of my motives for writing this piece.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.