Israel and the Promises of God

Today, we’re going to take a brief break from our study of 1 John, because I feel the need to do something I don’t normally like to do.

We’ve all seen the news reports about the gruesome terrorist Hamas attacks on Israel and that nation’s continuing response by leveling large parts of Gaza and preparing for a ground invasion of that land.

It would be easy for us to shake our heads and say, “Well, they’ve been fighting each other for thousands of years” and just sort of go on our way, wondering why neighbors can’t live in peace.

But when we trivialize the situation in Israel that way, I think we’re ignoring some important historical considerations. We’re ignoring what the Bible tells us about the significance of the Jewish people and their Promised Land to the Kingdom of God. And, perhaps most importantly, we’re ignoring what God has promised Israel.

Now, I know there are significant political issues involved in the continuing conflict in the Middle East. And I know there are legitimate grievances among both Jews and Palestinians. And I’m no expert on Middle Eastern affairs and politics.

But we who have followed Jesus, the Son of God who was born a Jew, should be able to see world events unfolding around us and articulate a world view concerning them that fits the theological doctrines revealed to us in Scripture.

So, I’m going to do two things today that I don’t normally do. I’m going to preach from the headlines, as it were. And I’m going to going to give you a history lesson, along with a little geography, for good measure.

But I’m still Pastor Res, and so, I’m going to ground what I say here today in the Word of God, in the God-breathed Scripture He has given us, which is “profitable for teaching for reproof, for correction, [and] for training in righteousness.”

It’s useful for us to start by understanding that, in the Bible, Israel is both a people and a land.

God first called His chosen people “Israel” back in the Book of Exodus, when He told Moses to return to Egypt, where the descendants of Jacob had been enslaved. In the instructions He gave to Moses, God said:

Exodus 4:21–22 NASB95

21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

In the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew patriarch, Jacob, wrestled with God, and God renamed him “Israel” after that night.

And then, in the first three and a half chapters of Exodus, we see God refer to the Hebrew people enslaved in Egypt as “sons of Israel.”

What’s significant about the shift here in the middle of chapter 4 is that in now calling those people “Israel,” God has given them a national identity.

But Israel was still enslaved to the Egyptians, and a nation without a land is not much of a nation.

And so, the rest of the Book of Exodus follows Israel as God causes them to be released from captivity and begin their journey to the land God had promised them.

Now, this promise goes all the way back to Abraham, the first of the Hebrew patriarchs. And it’s a promise that God repeated and expanded several times to Abraham, to his son, Isaac, and to Jacob.

Let’s take a look at the first time the promise appears, back in Genesis, chapter 12.

Genesis 12:1–3 NASB95

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Now, the first thing to note about this promise is that it’s unconditional. God didn’t put any stipulations on it. And Abraham, who was named Abram at the time, hadn’t done anything to merit this blessing.

God simply chose to bless Abram, much as He would later choose to bless Israel.

He would make this childless old man the father of a great nation. He would use this great nation to bless the world — that’s fulfilled in Jesus, by the way.

He would make Abram’s name great — note that Abraham is considered an important patriarch in all three of the world’s great religions.

And the significance of verse 3 can’t be overstated. As we read through the Book of Genesis, it becomes clear that those who are on Abraham’s side do well, and those who are opposed to Abraham find themselves in trouble.

But the blessing extends to Israel, too, because Israel descends from Abraham. So, those who bless Israel are blessed by God, and those who curse or revile or oppose Israel may thrive for a time, but in the end, they are crushed.

Think of the events we read about in the Book of Esther, for example. Esther was a young Hebrew girl whose family had been exiled from Judah into Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

She’d been brought into the harem of King Ahasuerus, king of Persia, which had overthrown Babylon. (And, by the way, don’t miss the fact that Babylon, which had conquered the Jews in Judah, was then crushed by the Persians.)

After Esther had become queen to the Persian king, she and her cousin, Mordecai, discovered an evil plot by Haman, one of the king’s highest court officials, to kill all the Jews in the vast Persian kingdom.

Now, if you haven’t read this account for some time, I would encourage you to do so, because you’ll see that God works in unexpected and surprising ways to save His chosen people.

We don’t have time this morning to look at the whole story, but in the end, Haman is hung from the gallows he’d prepared for Esther’s cousin.

And the king gave the Jews in his kingdom the right to destroy all who sought to harm them.

God kept his promise to curse those who cursed Israel. He did it in the Book of Esther. He did it to the Assyrians who had defeated the northern kingdom of Israel.

He did it to the Babylonian Empire. He did it in Germany during WWII. And His promise still stands today.

Those who seek the destruction of the Jews — and such people have existed as long as there have BEEN Jewish people — set themselves against God Himself.

But what of the LAND that’s called Israel? Well, let’s go back to geography and back to the the 12th chapter of Genesis.

Genesis 12:4–7 NASB95

4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Now, the land of Canaan had been settled by Noah’s grandson of the same name. There are several descriptions of its boundaries in the Old Testament and in extra-biblical literature, and they all vary from one another to some degree.

Generally, though, Canaan encompassed an area west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and from Egyptian border on the south to the Syrian border on the north.

Interestingly, what we see in the Old Testament is that the people of Israel never fully occupied this Promised Land, even though God had told them to enter it and utterly destroy those who had lived there.

You see, the people of Canaan were evil. Their child sacrifices, their idolatry, their witchcraft, and their violence were an abomination to God. And He intended to use the nation of Israel to bring His judgment upon them.

But in Abraham’s time, we see that God was still holding back that judgment.

In chapter 15 of Genesis, we hear God tell Abraham that he and his heirs will die, that their descendants will be enslaved by another nation, and that after 400 years of slavery and oppression, they will return to the land where God had brought him.

Genesis 15:16 NASB95

16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

God was giving the people of Canaan 400 years to repent from their wickedness, because He is gracious and merciful.

But finally, God had had enough, and around 1406 BC, the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan River and into the Promised Land, and they began their conquest of that land.

And among the greatest enemies they would face in Canaan were the Philistines. The Philistines lived in an area along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the western edge of Israel.

You’ll remember, perhaps, that Goliath was a Philistine and that some of King David’s greatest military exploits were against the Philistines.

Philistine territory during the early years of the nation of Israel included the five great cities, Ekron, Ashdod, Gath, Ashkelon, and Gaza.

And, yes, it’s the same Gaza as today, but the Palestinians today are descendants of the Philistines in name only.

You see, in 130 A.D., while they were still under Roman rule, a small army of Jewish rebels rose up against Rome. But the armies of Rome squashed the revolt, and Emperor Hadrian began to punish the Jews for their uprising.

He crucified thousands, and he had many others tortured. He hated the Jews with a passion and utterly destroyed Jerusalem, building a Roman city in its place.

And desiring to do as much damage as possible to Hebrew culture, he renamed the region after their worst historical enemies, the Philistines. So, in Latin, the name for this region became Palaestina, the word from which we get Palestine.

There was never a nation of Palestine and never a people who were Palestinian. At least not until the 1950s. That’s when those in the region who were opposed to the Jewish people having their own state took upon themselves the name Hadrian had made up to mock the Jews.

But back in King David’s time, the Philistines were an actual people who had caused great problems for Israel and over whom God had given David great victories.

And for that reason and others, David decided he wanted to honor God by building a temple in Jerusalem to replace the tabernacle — the tent — in which God’s presence dwelt among His people.

And you may remember the story. David shared his plans with the prophet Nathan, and Nathan said, “Hey, great idea!”

But then, God spoke to Nathan and Nathan had to come back to David and say, “Hold up. I spoke too soon. God told me YOU won’t be the one to build His temple. Your son, Solomon, will do it, instead.”

And then we hear God making more promises. Some of them sound like the promises He made to Abraham, but some of them are even more wonderful. We see this in 2 Samuel, chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7:9–13 NASB95

9 “I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. 10 “I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, 11 even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. 12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

A great name. A land where they will not be disturbed. Rest from their enemies. A house or legacy. A descendant who will reign forever — that’s Jesus, by the way.

And the thing to notice here is that, just as with Abraham, God’s promises to David were without conditions.

Which was a good thing for Israel, because from the time of David’s death, things there began to go south. His sons warred against each other, and the kingdom was split in two.

And then, the next four books of the Bible are devoted to the scandalous account of God’s chosen people in the land of promise, participating in the very evils of the people they’d been sent there to bring God’s judgment against.

And so, those books end with exile. First, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is conquered by the Assyrians. And then, the southern kingdom of Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.

But God’s promises to Israel through Abraham and David were unconditional, and God keeps His promises.

And so, the two empires that conquered them soon were, themselves, conquered, and in time the people of Israel were allowed to return and rebuild.

And this should give us comfort. Because if God could turn from His unconditional promises to Israel because of their rebellion against Him, then He could turn from His unconditional promise of salvation through faith in Jesus whenever we Christians rebel in our own sins.

But even in the midst of their rebellion against Him — even as the prophets of Israel and Judah warned against the coming punishment for their rebellion — the people of Israel received even greater promises from God from the very same prophets.

We don’t have time to look at it this morning, but sometime this week, I’d like to encourage you to read chapter 43 of the Book of Ezekiel, where the prophet describes a vision of the glory of God returning to Jerusalem and filling the temple.

In the midst of this vision, Ezekiel writes,

Ezekiel 43:4–7 NASB95

4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. 5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. 6 Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me. 7 He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. And the house of Israel will not again defile My holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their harlotry and by the corpses of their kings when they die,

This is the King whose eternal reign in Jerusalem was foretold by Nathan the prophet. This is Jesus. And He will reign from His throne in Jerusalem.

But Jesus warned His disciples that many things had to take place before the prophecy could be fulfilled completely. Look at Matthew, chapter 24:

Matthew 24:3–8 NASB95

3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. 6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Look, we don’t have nearly enough time today for me to explain all the prophecies of the end times. I want you to understand two things about the end times this morning.

First, the church will be raptured BEFORE the seven-year tribulation from the Book of Revelation period begins. Not everyone who is a Christian believes that, but I think the evidence for it is clear in Scripture.

And the second thing to understand is that God works through the events of history to accomplish His plan. Jesus was born “when the fullness of time came,” Paul wrote.

God had been superintending the events of history so the right conditions would exist for the gospel of Jesus to spread after He ascended back into heaven.

Similarly, I believe God is superintending the events of modern history so the appearance of the Antichrist will seem like a welcome and natural answer to the problems in the Middle East.

And so, it would seem that things will get worse there — probably much worse — before Jesus returns for His church.

But in the meantime, God’s promise to Abraham still stands. He will bless those who bless Israel, and He will curse those who curse Israel.

This promise will play out ultimately at the battle of Armageddon, where the nations of the world will align themselves against God — very possibly near Jerusalem — and will be vanquished with a word from the mouth of Jesus.

What we are seeing in the Middle East today is not that. But it very well may be among the “things that must take place” before that happens.

So, what does all this mean for us? How should we followers of Jesus live in the knowledge not just of current events, but in the knowledge of Israel’s history, of prophecy concerning the end times, and of God’s promises to Israel?

Well, in light of the promises to Abraham, we should, as David the psalmist wrote:

Psalm 122:6–7 NASB95

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. 7 “May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces.”

There is no room for a Christian to be a hater of Israel or the Jews. We can certainly call for that nation to act justly and righteously and even mercifully when possible.

But to align ourselves with those who call for its destruction is to put ourselves in opposition to God.

The Jewish people are STILL God’s chosen people, and He has made promises to them that remain unfulfilled.

We should look forward to the day when Christ-following Jews see those promises fulfilled and when Jesus sits on His throne in Jerusalem.

We should pray for the Palestinians. We should pray that they turn away from the false god of Islam and turn TO the one true God and Father of Jesus Christ.

This is happening even today in pockets of Muslim countries around the world. Indeed, the current events in the Middle East mean that the harvest is riper than ever.

And let me remind you that followers of Islam need Jesus no worse than you and I needed Jesus before we were saved.

To the extent that we are able, we should redouble our efforts to support ministry to Jews and to Muslims.

We can’t allow ourselves to simply lift up a quick prayer and say, “Go in peace. Be warm, be fed.” We have to continue to look for ways to DEMONSTRATE the reconciling love of Jesus.

And finally, we should pray for Jesus to return soon. We should be eager for the day when His perfect justice will prevail, when He will vanquish His enemies.

But if you’ve never followed Jesus in faith, then the events that are playing out in the Middle East today should serve as a wake-up call.

Whether He comes today or next week or next year or in 50 years, Jesus IS coming. In the fullness of time, God will send Him back to retrieve His church, all those who have turned to Him in faith — past, present, and future.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 NASB95

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

What a grand reunion that will be! But will you be a part of it?

When the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, will you be among the great multitude He takes with Him back to heaven?

There is nothing you have done — no sin too great — that will keep you from sharing in the joy of that glorious day if you will only turn to Him in faith. If you’ve never really done that, let me show you how this morning.

Events are unfolding, and the time for you to repent and believe draws nearer its end each day. Won’t you give your heart to Him today?