In November our friend Pastor Rich Nathan sent us this compelling sermon and we've been looking for a good time to post it ever since. The occasion of Bush's trip to the Middle East seems to be a good time for Christians to reflect on their relationship with the modern nation of Israel. You can click to read the full text, or download mp3 audio from Rich's church, Vineyard Columbus.

Now, the issue of Israel is not just academic to me. Most of you know that I was raised in a Jewish family. And in terms of my personal identity, I consider myself to be a Jew who believes that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the one promised by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are three branches of modern-day Judaism. The strictest, that is the most adherent to Jewish tradition, is called Orthodox Judaism. The most liberal is called Reformed Judaism. And the middle is called Conservative Judaism. I was raised in the branch of Judaism known as Conservative Judaism.

So, growing up I went to a synagogue in which the prayers were all said in Hebrew. I wore the skull cap known as the yarmulke and a prayer shawl known as a tallis each week as I attended synagogue – and I attended weekly. I went to Hebrew School and Hebrew High School. I was bar mitzvah which is a rite of passage for Jewish boys at age 13. In growing up I had a deep attachment to Israel. I gave money as a child to plant trees in Israel. At Jewish holidays we always greeted each other with the Hebrew greeting, L'shana habaa biyerushalayim which means "Next year in Jerusalem."

In other words, next year may we celebrate this holiday in Jerusalem. As a child I celebrated the victory of the 6-Day War. "We won!" I remember saying that in my 6th grade class, "We won!" My Roman Catholic teacher responded and said, "The State Department doesn't recognize the victory in Israel as an American victory." I thought to myself in the 6th grade, "Well, maybe it is not an American victory, but it is my victory!" I even considered leaving college my freshman year and joining the Israeli Army when the Yom Kippur Day War broke out in 1973. I would have been able to do this as a Jew. I could have immediately enlisted in the Israeli Army.

Now, Israel is at the very center of almost all of the great divisions in the world today, especially the division between America and the Arab world. Many Christians believe that America must support Israel because the land was promised to the Jews by God 4000 years ago. And many Christians see the formation of Israel as the major sign that the return of Jesus Christ is near. Other Christians are not so sure. As we continue this series on the end times, I've called today's talk, "How Should Christians Relate to the state of Israel?" Let's pray.

Full Sermon Text:

How Should Christians Relate to the State of Israel?
Rich Nathan
November 17-18, 2007

Back in 1894 a cleaning woman named Maria Bastian was cleaning the German Embassy in Paris, France. She was a spy on the payroll of French counter-intelligence. And in one of the waste paper baskets in the German Embassy she discovered a hand-written list offering French military secrets to the Germans. Suspicion immediately focused on a French artillery office named Alfred Dreyfus.

SLIDE – Alfred Dreyfus

Dreyfus was a Jewish Captain in the French Army. Despite testimony by hand-writing experts, who said that Dreyfus did not write the list, the Army rushed to prosecute Dreyfus. By the time the trial came, the Army became aware of the fact that there was a significant amount of evidence exonerating Dreyfus from guilt. But by then, it was politically impossible to withdraw the charges without creating a major scandal for the Army.

And brewing below the surface in France was the ever-present anti-Semitism which now boiled to the surface. Many French newspapers demanded that Dreyfus be

punished and they carried horrible cartoons caricatures of Jews with the suggestion that Jews were always lurking in the shadows conspiring to sell France out to the Germans.

The Roman Catholic church in France joined in the condemnation of Dreyfus. In a public ceremony in Paris Dreyfus was stripped of his military ribbons; his sword was broken in two; and, he was exiled to the notorious French prison on Devil's Island.

But that wasn't the end of the case. Railroading Alfred Dreyfus didn't end the matter because exculpatory evidence exonerating Dreyfus from guilt began to not only pile up, but leak to more fair-minded French officials. One military officer found irrefutable evidence of Dreyfus' innocence. Higher-ups in the military refused to listen saying, "What do you care if another Jew remains on Devil's Island?"

Finally, the evidence made its way to a brilliant French novelist named Emile Zola.

SLIDE – Emile Zola

In an open letter to the French president, the novelist detailed Dreyfus' unjust conviction and the French Army's cover-up. Zola's attack was published in a front page story about the case in his newspaper under the headline:

SLIDE – J'Accuse!

…in enormous type. More than 300,000 copies of the newspaper were sold and French public sentiment began swinging to Dreyfus' side. Eventually, Dreyfus, after a second guilty verdict, was found innocent of all charges and returned to the Army where he was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

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The history behind the Zionist Movement

Now, why is this Dreyfus Affair so important in the history of this world? While Dreyfus was being publicly humiliated in his first trial, a French crowd surrounded the courtyard where Dreyfus was being stripped of all of his ribbons. This crowd began screaming "Death to the Jews! Death to all Jews!" In the crowd there happened to be a journalist named Theodor Herzl,

SLIDE – Theodor Herzl

…was covering the trial for an Austrian newspaper. Herzl was also a Jew. And when he heard the shouts of the crowds crying out "Death to all Jews!" and he watched the public humiliation of this innocent soldier, he realized that Jews would never be treated fairly in Europe. Even in liberal France crowds were screaming for Jewish blood. And so Herzl went through a radical shift in his thinking and he came to the conviction that it was impossible to ever root anti-Semitism out of the European soul. So in 1896 Herzl founded The World Zionist Organization which called for the creation of a Jewish state in the Jews' historic homeland – Palestine.

Eventually Herzl's dream became a reality. Following the shocking discovery of the extent of the Nazi slaughter of Jews during WWII, in 1948 the Jewish State of Israel was formally recognized by the newly formed United Nations. Many Christians around the world, and even today, saw the creation of the State of Israel as the clearest sign of the present day fulfillment of prophecies written in the Bible thousands of years ago.

Now, the issue of Israel is not just academic to me. Most of you know that I was raised in a Jewish family. And in terms of my personal identity, I consider myself to be a Jew who believes that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, the one promised by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are three branches of modern-day Judaism. The strictest, that is the most adherent to Jewish tradition, is called Orthodox Judaism. The most liberal is called Reformed Judaism. And the middle is called Conservative Judaism. I was raised in the branch of Judaism known as Conservative Judaism.

So, growing up I went to a synagogue in which the prayers were all said in Hebrew. I wore the skull cap known as the yarmulke and a prayer shawl known as a tallis each week as I attended synagogue – and I attended weekly. I went to Hebrew School and Hebrew High School. I was bar mitzvah which is a rite of passage for Jewish boys at age 13. In growing up I had a deep attachment to Israel. I gave money as a child to plant trees in Israel. At Jewish holidays we always greeted each other with the Hebrew greeting, L'shana habaa biyerushalayim which means "Next year in Jerusalem."

In other words, next year may we celebrate this holiday in Jerusalem. As a child I celebrated the victory of the 6-Day War. We won! I remember saying that in my 6th grade class, "We won!" My Roman Catholic teacher responded and said, "The State Department doesn't recognize the victory in Israel as an American victory." I thought to myself in the 6th grade, "Well, maybe it is not an American victory, but it is my victory!" I even considered leaving college my freshman year and joining the Israeli Army when the Yom Kippur Day War broke out in 1973. I would have been able to do this as a Jew. I could have immediately enlisted in the Israeli Army.

Now, Israel is at the very center of almost all of the great divisions in the world today, especially the division between America and the Arab world. Many Christians believe that America must support Israel because the land was promised to the Jews by God 4000 years ago. And many Christians see the formation of Israel as the major sign that the return of Jesus Christ is near. Other Christians are not so sure. As we continue this series on the end times, I've called today's talk, "How Should Christians Relate to the state of Israel?" Let's pray.

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The background behind believing that the land is no longer promised exclusively to the Jewish people

SLIDE

The land was promised to the descendents of Abraham

Now in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, God promised the land now known as Israel and the surrounding territory around Israel to the descendents of Abraham. So, for example, we read in Genesis 15.18-19 these words:

SLIDE – Ge 15:18-19

18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—

19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

And this promise of the land that stretches from the Nile River in Egypt to include all of the Sinai Peninsula in Israel to parts of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria all the way to the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq

SLIDE – Map of Middle East – Nile River to Euphrates River

…was repeated a number of times throughout the Old Testament. So we read in Exodus 23.31 these words:

SLIDE – Ex 23:31

31"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.

Even the most zealous promoters of the idea that the land of Israel was promised to the Jewish people 4000 years ago because of the promise to Abraham don't today hold to these biblical boundaries. So when someone says the land was promised to the Jewish people, it is appropriate to ask, what are the boundaries of the promised land? And if you don't have a problem with Israel not encompassing all of Jordan and Syria and parts of Iraq, why do you say it is unbiblical to negotiate with the Palestinians about the West Bank. In fact, this promise to Abraham of the enormous plot of ground in Genesis 15 was fulfilled 1000 years later during the reign of the third Israelite King named King Solomon. Here is what we read in 2 Chronicles 9.26,

SLIDE – 2 Ch 9:26

26He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.

The question today, of course, is whether the promise to Abraham means that the current state of Israel, as a Jewish Nation, has a biblical claim to the strip of land they are occupying. This is a huge political question. It may be THE single biggest religious/political question facing the world today. Does Israel have a biblical claim, not only to the land as set up by the United Nations in 1948, but according to Genesis 15:18-19, to the West Bank and Gaza, to portions of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and all the way to Iraq? Can the current Middle East dispute simply be settled by citing some of the Old Testament verses I just quoted? The land belongs to the Jewish people – period, end of case.

You know, a lot of conservative Christians in our country believe this to be the case. This is certainly the view of virtually all of the televangelists like John Haggi, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell before his death. This is the view of Dallas Theological Seminary. This is the view of the International Christian Embassy and end-time writers like Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey and Mike Evans. This is the view of many people in our government. The issue of the land is certainly something that sincere Christians can differ over.

You know, as a Jewish believer in Jesus, as a man who prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob every day of my life, and who grew up praying "next year in Jerusalem," as a Jew who loves my own people, who knows our history, I have a deep commitment to a Jewish State of Israel. But as a believer in Jesus as my Messiah and Lord, I have struggled with the idea for years that the hopes, aspirations, homes, families, safety, and the very lives of millions of Arabs don't seem to matter to my fellow Christians. As a Jew I understand what it feels like from a history of being victimized by enemies too strong for you. I deeply empathize with Arabs whose homes and lives have been taken because the Israeli army backed by America is too strong for them.

When Christians cavalierly say that the Bible gives the land to the Jews, then what the Arab, and the broader Muslim community hears is: You Christians care nothing about me, or my family at all. I mean nothing to you as an Arab, whether I am a fellow Christian or a Muslim. And Muslims say, I suppose I mean nothing to your God. Your Bible is not worth reading.

Why should an Arab or Muslim embrace something that tells that person that their family, their history, their home, their life doesn't matter? I really grieve when I hear local Christian radio hosts and TV evangelists speak as if every Arab is a terrorist and The Bible has nothing but bad news for Palestinians. I think to myself: Have you spent even 30 seconds walking in the shoes of an Arab?

Do you know that the Arabs who occupy Palestine, many of them can trace their lineage back to Christianity before the 7th century when they were overwhelmed by the Muslim invasion. Many Palestinian Christians have lost their land through all of these wars. I think to myself when we cavalierly say: Well, the Bible simply doesn't give you the land – sorry! How would you feel if you got your house knocked down or your niece, nephew or son or daughter was shot in front of you? I'm really saddened about the current post-9/11 American Christian culture that writes off a billion Arabs and Muslims, and views all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists or potential terrorists.

I know the approach I'm about to take will be new for many of you. But I ask you to consider this truth. Jesus Christ, who is, according to the Bible, both the Prince of Peace and the God of Justice, passionately desires both peace and justice for both Jews and Palestinians.

I've spoken very rarely about this subject, but as a follower of Jesus coming from a Jewish background, I think that the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis that has affected the entire world cannot be resolved simply by appealing to a few Old Testament texts. In fact, I do not believe that the promises in the Old Testament that give Abraham and his descendents the land apply to the modern state of Israel at all. Why, as a Jewish follower of Jesus, do I disagree with the most popular American Christian interpretation of the Old Testament promises? (And, by the way, a significant percentage of Jews living in Israel and virtually all Middle Eastern-born Christians, as well as all American Christian missionaries to the Muslim world, disagree with the most common American Christian view of the Old Testament promises. But I do believe that the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, point a way forward in the Middle East conflict.)

Let me share with you five biblical reasons why, as a Jewish believer in Jesus, disagree with the most common American Christian view of the Old Testament promises and how I believe the Bible offers a real answer for the current Middle East conflict.

First of all, the land was never owned by the Jews. The land always belonged to God. The Jews were simply tenants in the land. Leviticus 25.23 says this:

SLIDE – Le 25:23

23" 'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.

In other words, the land promised to the descendents of Abraham in the Old Testament was always to be thought of as a gift to Abraham's descendents, not as a legal right, or a claim.

SLIDE

The land was always a gift and not a legal right.

It is so important in an age of entitlement where everyone screams as loud as they can about their rights; we have different groups marching about their rights; we who claim to follow Jesus nail down in our minds this distinction between gift and right. Because the notion of everything in life that is good coming to us as a gift, not as a right, but as a gift is absolutely essential to Christian growth and maturity. When we Christians survey our lives especially before Thanksgiving, we have to understand that everything that is good in our lives has been given to us as a gift by God, not as a legal claim or our right.

And this distinction between gift and right should lead us to at a few thoughts about our own lives. First, if something precious is taken from us – if we lose our homes in a fire, or our cars in an accident, or our health through a disease, or a loved one through death, the issue, brother and sister, is not why God did you allow this to happen at this time. That is probably going to be our first reaction. But some of you have suffered loss and have gone on to a deeper and more mature reflection regarding your loss. You have come to say not why God did you allow this to happen, but why God did you allow me to have this precious gift so long?

There is a little book by John Claypool called "Tracks of a Fellow Struggler" in which John Claypool tells of the horror of losing his 10-year old to leukemia. A couple of years after his death, when he was able to look back from a little distance, he said,

SLIDE

"At least it makes things bearable when I remember that Laura Lue was a gift, pure and simple, something I had neither earned nor deserved nor had a right to. And when I remember that the appropriate response to a gift, even when it is taken away, is gratitude, then I am better able to try and thank God that I was given her in the first place…the way of gratitude does not alleviate the pain, but it somehow puts some light around the darkness and builds strength to begin to move on."

Gifts, not rights – why God did you allow me to have health so long? Why, God, did you permit me in your goodness to enjoy my spouse so long? My incredible child? My amazing mother or father? My job? I don't have a claim on anything in this world – nothing has to be. And especially this week of Thanksgiving, survey your life both the wonderful things that you currently have and the precious things that you used to have that have been taken from you and say, "God thank you for these gifts. Thank you for your generosity." Take time this week to say thank you to God.

The land promised in the Old Testament was always a gift. Here is the second thing, if Israel disobeyed God, they would lose their right to live in the land.

SLIDE

The land would be lost if Israel disobeyed God.

This is said over and over again throughout the Old Testament. For example, we read this in Lev. 18.24 and 28,

SLIDE – Le 18:24, 28

24" 'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.

28And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

And we see the same thing in Deut. 4.25-27,

SLIDE – Dt 4:25-27

25After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger,

26I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.

27The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

Exile from the land was always threatened by God as a punishment for Israelite disobedience to the Lord.

Now, God doesn't make idle threats. So when the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria sinned against God, God carried out his threat of punishment and drove the Northern Kingdom of Israel into exile. And a little over a hundred years later when the Southern Kingdom of Judah sinned against God, just like its northern sister, the Lord exiled the Jews of Judah. Here is what we read in Jer. 9.13-16,

SLIDE – Je 9:13-16

13The Lord said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.

14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them."

15Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.

16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them."

Now, does anyone believe, even among the most zealous Christian advocates, that the modern secular state of Israel in which a high percentage of Jewish people do not even believe in God, and a high percentage of Israeli Jews would label themselves as atheists, does anyone believe that this state is living in obedience and submission to God's law?

The Old Testament never ever separated obedience to God's law and the gracious gift of being able to live in the Promised Land. The land was forfeited, in other words, when people turned their backs on God.

But let me for a moment move away from this focus on the Middle East and apply these principles that we're learning to those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus today. See, the story of God's relationship with Israel in the Old Testament is not simply meant to be of interest only to students of ancient history. Whenever you read the Old Testament as a follower of Christ, you ought to say to yourself, "this story of Israel is my story as a follower of Jesus." The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has not changed. God will treat me and God will treat you the same way he treated the Israelites. Do you know that?

Do you know that this is same God of the Old and New Testament, the same story, the same way of relating? Here is what the apostle Paul says in 1 Cor 10.6-12,

SLIDE – 1 Co 10:6-12

6Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry."

8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

9We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

10And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

11These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

12So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!

We are repeatedly warned against presuming upon God's grace. Don't be like the Israelites, Paul says. We are repeatedly warned against presuming upon God's grace. What does it mean to presume on God's grace? Have you ever said to yourself, "I can do whatever I want because I believe in Jesus and I've asked Jesus into my heart, so God will still bless me." I have, in other words, a "get out of jail free" card that I can pull out at any time and use it on God. God can't do anything about it.

"Hey, God, I know what you want. Your Word is crystal clear. But I won't do it. And I say this with all respect to you, God, but you can't discipline me because I believe in Jesus."

There are so many things that happen, friends, when a Christian sins. You will lose a sense of God's presence, if you continue to live in disobedience to God. The Bible says in 1 John 1.5-7 these words:

SLIDE – 1 Jn 1:5-7

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

You won't feel God's presence, his fellowship, his closeness. You won't feel connection to God while you live in sin. And your ministry, the power of anything God wants to do through your life, and your fruitfulness will be damaged. God will eventually switch off the power. And you can become a slave of sin. Paul warns us about that. And many of us know this one – becoming addicted. There are so many negative things that happen when we live in disobedience to God. The story of the Israelites is our story. They were exiled for their disobedience. And we can experience huge distance from God when we turn our backs on God. And some of you are experiencing huge distance from God today.

But God promised a return from exile. When the people of Israel repented, God promised to restore the people to their land. Here is what we read in Jeremiah 29.10-14,

SLIDE – Je 29:10-14

10This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

11For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

14I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

SLIDE

The land would be restored if Israel repented.

And these promises and prophecies of return from exile were fulfilled during the reign of Persian King Cyrus back in the 6th century BC from their captivity in Babylon. God brought the Jewish people back. Here is what we read in 2 Chron. 36.22-23,

SLIDE – 2 Ch 36:22-23

22In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

23"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: " 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you—may the Lord their God be with them, and let them go up.' "

In applying this principle to our lives, brothers and sisters, when we repent we are restored to a place where we can receive blessing as well. Listen to me now. I am not saying that all will go well in your life if you obey God. Obedient people often experience great difficulty in this fallen world. There is not an exact one to one correspondence between obedience and blessing and disobedience and a lack of blessing. The world is broken. The rewards are not always handed out fairly in this broken world.

But if you are going through significant, ongoing, trouble in your life, you might want to examine your life and ask God, "God, why is this happening to me? Is this a result of your fatherly discipline?" It may not be. It may be the result of life in a fallen broken world. But it is right to ask God if you are going through a hard time and it is not stopping, "Have I offended you, Father? Is there an area of my life that you are trying to put your finger on that I am just not listening to you? Father, am I in exile, far from your blessing in my search for work? Or I'm having so much trouble on my job? Far from your blessing concerning peace in my home? My finances? My health? A difficult situation with a loved one?"

Again, let me say as plainly as I can that I do not believe that all difficulty and suffering in a fallen world is necessarily the result of disobedience. But some of it is. And we'd be less than biblical if we didn't say that sometimes we can live under the fatherly discipline and displeasure of God. We need to ask God that question with an open heart: Am I being squeezed and pressed as a disciplinary matter?

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The view of the land by Jesus and the apostles

Here is the fourth thing: Jesus and the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, reinterpreted all the promises given to Abraham in light of Jesus' coming. Because Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, because the Christ of God has come, every single promise in the Old Testament, every single statement, every command and ritual and symbol is seen in an entirely new light. The coming of Christ changes our vision of everything. It is the difference, ladies, of what your skin or hair color looks like in a dimly lit room and what it looks like in the sunlight. It is the difference of when you're moving of what your couch looks like in your dimly lit living room and what it looks like when you move it outside and you say, "Oh my goodness, this couch is filthy and faded."

The coming of Jesus sheds an entirely new light on the whole Old Testament and all of its promises and all of its statements. For example, in light of the coming of Jesus into the world, who are the children of Abraham today?

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Who are the descendents of Abraham?

Who can say today according to the New Testament, "I am a descendent of Abraham? I am one of Abraham's kids?" Listen to what the first New Testament prophet, John the Baptist, said to the Jewish people living in his day. Luke 3.7-9,

SLIDE – Lk 3:7-9

7John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

9The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

And on a more positive note, listen to what the apostle Paul said about who the true children of Abraham are today in Gal. 3.26-29,

SLIDE – Ga 3:26-29

26So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

28There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Now, what do the children of Abraham, who become children of Abraham through faith in Messiah Jesus, inherit? What is the promise given to us as sons and daughters of God, as the newly constituted people of God, as the holy nation of God? These are all names given by New Testament writers to followers of Jesus. What is our inheritance?

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What is the inheritance promised to us today?

Is it a piece of ground in the Middle East? Is it the West Bank? The Gaza Strip? The Sinai Peninsula? Listen to the apostle Paul's answer in Romans 4.13,

SLIDE – Ro 4:13

13It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

I want you to hear from what I believe is one of the very best and most balanced books on how Christians should think about the land of Israel. It is called "Whose Promised Land: The Continuing Crisis Over Israel and Palestine" by Colin Chapman. If you love the Bible and you enjoy history, you might want to pick up this book in our bookstore.

Again, Romans 4.13 says this:

SLIDE – Ro 4:13

13It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

Here is what we read in Colin Chapman's book:

SLIDE

Paul is here referring to the promise in Genesis that Abraham and his descendents would inherit the land, but that in referring to this promise, he substitutes "the world" for "the land." In other words, for Paul, the "children of Abraham," are those Jews and Gentiles who through faith in Christ have been made righteous. The "land" becomes the "world" which is the inheritance of the righteous. In Paul's thinking therefore, all the divine promises in one way or another find their fulfillment in Christ. And all Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, who place their faith in Jesus are "Abraham's seed" and therefore inheritors of the promise given to Abraham.

Jesus says that our inheritance is not merely the world, our inheritance as children of Abraham is the kingdom of God. See, the return from exile and the re-gathering of Abraham's children from the four corners of the world was not fulfilled according to Jesus in 1948 with the Israeli declaration of independence. The re-gathering of the people of Israel – well, listen to the words of Jesus himself speaking to a Roman centurion who believed that Christ would heal his servant who was sick at home simply by saying a word without Jesus actually having to go to the servant; and, Jesus echoing the promise of re-gathering and restoration from exile and from Isaiah 43 says this in Matthew 8.10-12,

SLIDE – Mt 8:10-12

10When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

11I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

12But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

See, the bottom line, brothers and sisters, is that nowhere in any New Testament writing does Jesus or Paul or the apostle John or Peter or any other New Testament writer reaffirm the promise of a piece of land to the Jewish people. The Old Testament promises have been extended and furthered beyond any Old Testament horizon to include not just the Middle East, but the world and not only the world, but the kingdom of God; and, to include not only people who are Jews by way of natural descent, like me, but to include you who are Jews by spiritual descent through your faith and my faith in Jesus.

See, the question that divides Christians today, and let me put it as starkly as I can put it – here is the question: Did Jesus and the apostle Paul properly interpret the Old Testament regarding who are God's people today, what is the covenant promise, and how we should think about the promised land?

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Did Jesus and Paul properly interpret the Old Testament?

In other words, can we trust Jesus and the apostle Paul as Old Testament scholars and Old Testament interpreters? Are Jesus and the apostle Paul our authorities for interpreting various passages from the Old Testament so that we read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. Or I say this with all affection and respect, should we trust instead Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey, and Pat Robertson, and John Haggi, and all the other folks on TV, and who write books in the biblical prophecy section of the bookstores, and read the Old Testament as if the Messiah had never come and the New Testament had never been written?

This is the great divide. When you read the promises in the Old Testament, especially about the land, do you read them the way that Jesus and Paul read them, or do you read them as if the coming of Jesus did not radically reinterpret everything, shedding entirely new light, entirely new understanding on all that we see in the Old Testament.

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The view of the land today

And here is where I'm at as a Jewish believer in Jesus, as a person who has come to trust Jesus as my authority in life and my ultimate interpreter of God's Word found in the Old Testament. Jesus is my supreme, infallible interpreter of the Bible. I do not believe that it is right for any Christian whether you became a Christian from a Gentile background, or you became a Christian from a Jewish background, I do not believe it is right or biblical to resolve the current political dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians based on quoting a few verses from the Old Testament. I think we are pulling those verses entirely out of context and we are reading them in a way that Jesus himself and the apostle Paul and the other apostles did not read them.

Now, does this mean that the Jews have no claim to their historic homeland? I didn't say that. I said you can't base Jewish claims to the land on promises made by God 4000 years ago to the descendents of Abraham. Now listen, I do believe, as a matter of biblical justice, not the promise of God to Abraham, but as a matter of justice, biblical justice, that the Jewish people do have a claim to at least a portion of that land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biblical Justice.

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What would biblical justice demand?

Why do I say this? I believe that the world owes the Jewish people a secure nation in their historic homeland in light of 2000 years of the world's treatment of the Jewish people. We cannot read world history, especially the history of the 20th century and the Holocaust, with its systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews and participation of so many countries in the world of that slaughter, including the United States. We shut our borders to Jewish refugees. We sent Jews back to Nazi Germany to be exterminated. We cannot read the history of the world without coming to the conclusion that Jews can never be ultimately secure in a nation ruled by others – whether ruled by the Germans, the French, the Russians, the Americans, or the Arabs. As a matter of biblical justice, Jews must have a nation in their own historic homeland.

But biblical justice, brothers and sisters, cuts in two directions. It also cuts in the direction of the Palestinians. And when Palestinians, who can trace their ancestry back 1300 years in the land, are pushed off of their land, and Palestinian children are murdered in bombing raids, when houses are knocked down, and men, women, and children are systematically humiliated and abused, biblical justice stands up for the victim and says this must not continue. We must have justice for both Jew and Palestinian.

And any one-sided tilt is less than justice. Do you know, justice not only for Jews, but for Palestinians is what a lot of Israelis are working for. This is what virtually every Christian who lives in the Middle East believes. President Bush had the courage of proposing a two-state solution. His Secretary of State, Condolesa Rice, has been courageously advocating for a two-state solution. Tony Blair and other respected world leaders, said that we need a two-state solution. I'm not going to stand up here and say that this is easy, this is simple. There are so many unresolved problems – terrorism, political complications, water rights, outside countries – but the God of the Bible cares for all people – not just Jews. The God of the Bible works justice for all the oppressed, not just Jews.

So what is the way forward? How can there be peace in the Middle East?

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What would biblical peace require?

You know, peace in any relationship begins when two unreconciled people are willing to listen to the hurt and pain of the other person and not just their own hurt and pain. If you are married and you are distant from your spouse, you are alienated, the only way you will ever be brought together is if at some point you open yourself up to hear the hurt, the wounds, the pain that you caused to your spouse. If you simply insist that they understand your hurt and pain, and you are not willing to ever listen to the pain and hurt that you have caused, there is no possibility of true reconciliation. People have to get past simply telling their own story. They have to listen to the story of the other person. We can't have peace unless we walk in the other person's shoes.

And what is true at a personal level is also true at a national level. Palestinians must acknowledge that the Jewish Holocaust changed everything for the Jewish people and the pain experienced through the Holocaust and subsequent terrorist attacks deeply affect the Jewish need for security. And Israelis must acknowledge that the discrimination, and bombing, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians deeply affects the way Palestinians relate to the State of Israel today. Here is where I think Christians have an opportunity to be bridge builders and peace wagers.

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What should Christians do?

If we Christians become truly just arbiters, if we stop communicating to Palestinians that none of their claims are legitimate, that they are all just terrorists, that Christ has nothing good to say to them, that the only blessing of God is a blessing upon the Jewish people – if we Christians repent of our biases and our prejudices and offer ourselves as possible bridge people; this will take a mammoth degree of work in earning the trust of both Israelis and Palestinians; I think that in Jesus' name we could assist in this process of reconciliation and peace. I have hope for us as Christians. I believe we can change. I believe that if we do change, if we become people who love justice and love peace, there is hope for peace in the Middle East.

Let's pray.

How Should Christians Relate to the State of Israel?

The History Behind the Zionist Movement
II. The Background Behind Believing that the Land is no longer promised exclusively to the Jewish People

A. The land was promised to the descendents of Abraham

(Gen. 15.18, 19; Ex. 23.31)

B. The land was always a gift and not a legal right (Lev. 25.23)

The land would be lost if Israel disobeyed God
(Lev. 18.24, 28; Dt. 4.25-27; 1 Cor. 100.6-12)

The land would be restored if Israel reprented
(Jer. 29.10-14; 2 Chron. 36.22, 23)

III. The View of the Land by Jesus and the Apostles

A. Who are the descendents of Abraham? (Lk. 3.8, 9; Gal. 3.26-29)

B. What is the inheritance promised to us today?

(Rom. 4.13; Mt. 8.10-12)

C. Did Jesus and Paul properly interpret the Old Testament?

IV. The View of the Land Today

A. What would biblical justice demand?

B. What would biblical peace require?

C. What should Christians do?