Imagine a world with no Bible, no Ten Commandments, and
no Psalms. Imagine a world with no Abraham, no Moses, no Mt. Sanai, no King
David, and no Elijah. Imagine a world with no Isaiah, no Jeremiah, or other
prophets who prophesied such wondrous and glorious things to come.
Imagine a world with no New Testament, no Gospel, no
Sermon on the Mount, and no “love your neighbor as yourself.” Imagine a world
with no Jesus, no Cross, no Resurrection, and no hope of eternal life.
Remember, Jesus was a Jew according to His natural lineage
that is traced through David all the way back to Abraham (Matthew 1:1-16). All
Twelve apostles were Jews and of the 27 books of the New Testament, 25 were
written by Jews. Luke, who wrote the Gospel bearing his name and Acts, was
likely a convert to Judaism who then accepted Jesus as the Messiah.
Imagine a world with no Christianity, no Paul the
apostle, and no missionaries who sacrificed their lives to tell the wonderful
story of Jesus throughout the earth. Imagine a world with no churches, no
revivals, no evangelistic crusades, and no Great Awakenings. Imagine a world
with no Augustine, no John Wesley, no Charles Finney, and no Billy Graham.
If you can imagine such a world, it is indeed a dark
and hopeless world. But this is the world if there had never been a Jew. I am
not here talking about individual Jews for there are wicked Jews just as their
wicked Gentiles. I am speaking of the Jews as a people and Israel as a nation.
God’s
Call to Abram and His Descendants
It was indeed a dark world when, 4000 years ago, God
spoke to a nomadic Bedouin named Abram and called him to leave his home and his
biological kin (who were idolaters) and come to a land that He would show him.
God promised that in this new land Abram would be greatly blessed and that
through him and his descendants, all the families of the earth will be
blessed (Genesis 12:3).
Abram came to the land of Canaan long before there were
Palestinians or Muslims. God made a covenant with him and promised to give this
land to him and his descendants. Genesis 15:18 says, On the same day the
LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this
land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.”
God’s call of Abram, later called Abraham, was the beginning
of His plan to reconcile fallen and rebellious humanity back to Himself. He
would make a covenant with Abram and his descendants, give them a Law, a system of worship, and seek
to teach them His ways. One of Abraham’s descendants (according to natural lineage)
would be the Messiah and Savior of the world.
This is the key to understanding God’s words to Abram
in Genesis 12:3, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who
curses you. This doesn’t mean that God plays favorites and that Jews are His little favorites. It
means that God’s eternal purposes are bound up in Abram and his descendants, so
to fight against them is to fight against God.
This does not mean Israel cannot be criticized. God
raised up prophets in the Old Testament to rebuke Israel and call her to
repentance when she strayed into sin and idolatry. Israel can be justly criticized, but those
who seek to injure or destroy her inevitably find themselves fighting against
God.
It is this recognition of Israel as the vehicle God
has used to bring such blessings to the world that makes loving Israel a
natural response for real Christians. I have found that in all parts of the
world, where you find true Christians who love Jesus, those same people have a
love for Israel.
Two
Covenant People in the Earth
Only two people in the earth have a covenant with God:
the natural descendants of Abraham--the Jew--and the spiritual descendants of Abraham--the real Christian. Paul
spoke of the spiritual descendants of Abraham in his letter to the Gentile
Christians in Galatia. He said to them, And if you are Christ’s, then you
are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
It is so interesting that the people of the world who
hate Israel, also hate true followers of Jesus. For example, a senior Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Zahar, in a recently
resurfaced clip, declared that after their successful takeover of the globe,
the world would finally be rid of “Zionism” and “treacherous Christianity.”
The opposite, however, is also true. Wherever you find
true followers of Jesus, you will find that they also love Israel. I have
personally found this to be true in all parts of the world.
God’s
Eternal Purposes at Work in Jews and Christians
This is so because God’s eternal purposes are at work
in both people, whom Paul says are being reconciled to God in one body. Speaking
of the division between Jew and Gentile, Paul says of Jesus, For He Himself
is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation
. . . that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the
cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:14-16).
Yes, God has worked through the Jewish people to bring so many blessings to humanity, including the Messiah and Savior of the world. Since the Bible, the Messiah, and Christianity itself would not exist without the Jewish race, real Christians will love and support Israel and pray for her salvation.
Dr. Eddie Hyatt is an author, revivalist, and ordained minister. His book, 1726: The Year that Defined America, documents how the early immigrants to America, fleeing religious persecution, saw themselves as a new Israel and sought to pattern their lives in their new home after God's dealings with Israel.
Wonderful article!
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