I was taking a pottery class in October 2023 when Hamas brutally attacked Israel. One of the ladies in our class was as Israeli immigrant. I’ll never forget her face the morning of October 8 as she explained the horrific attack on the people she knew and loved.
She told us, “My friends can’t find their daughter. She was at the concert. They have hope she’s alive, but they don’t know for sure.”
I was confident the United States would jump to Israel’s aid. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and our greatest ally. I thought Americans would be outraged by the barbarism. I thought they would remember the holocaust and cry, “We won’t stand for this! Never again!” But the response was weak.
Instead, I started seeing mixed messages on social media. A very good (but gullible) Christian friend sent me articles about how the Jews are “not real Jews.” And I had to show her in the fine print that the material she was reading was most likely Muslim propaganda.
After a few months of seeing the faltering Christian response, I realized I needed to include a chapter on Israel in this book. All Christians should be strong supporters of Israel, so let’s discuss the reasons why.
God Loves Israel, so We Should, Too
God has a special place in his heart for Israel, so we should, too. We know God loves all people of all nations. Every tribe, tongue, and nation will be represented in Heaven (Revelation 7:9), but God does have a favorite.
Just like he favored Jacob over Esau (Genesis 25:23), the Hebrews are considered “the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8). God made a covenant with Israel going all the way back to Abraham through Isaac (Genesis 17). And when God makes a covenant, it lasts forever.
Even though the nation of Israel turned its back on God many times, he never turned his back on them. He has always kept a remnant (Isaiah 10:22). The Apostle Paul explains:
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! … God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace (Romans 11:1-36).
Paul’s heart broke for Israel, just as ours should. He longed to see the day they receive Christ because salvation belongs to them. He said:
My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5).
We should have the same desire. We should support them, pray for them, and fight to preserve their people and their heritage because it isn’t only their heritage. It’s ours as well.
We Are Grafted In
We should support Israel because we share a history with the Jews. Like a tree has different branches but the same root, the history that holds up their faith holds up ours. Pastor Allen Jackson of World Outreach Church put it this way:
“Without the Jewish people, we would have no vision of the divine glory, the covenants, the law, the temple, worship, the promises of God. We would have no patriarchs. We would have no messiah. We have no story.”1
The Apostle Paul described Christians as being “grafted in” to the Jewish faith, like a wild olive branch is grafted into a cultivated olive tree. Paul explains this relationship in Romans 11:17-24:
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
Paul warns us not to become arrogant and think we’re better than the Jews who rejected Christ. He reminds us God can just as easily cut us off, but only by grace do we stay.
Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.
Finally, Paul points out that any Jews who come to faith in Christ can be grafted back in! If a wild branch can grow from the root, then how much more can the natural branch?
And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Christianity and Judaism are part of the same family. While we believe their rejection of Jesus was and is wrong, we believe the root is very much alive, and new believers can spring out of that root. Perhaps our support will convince them to finally receive the salvation that rightly belongs to their people.
Did the Church Replace the Jews?
I’ve hears some Christians say God replaced the Jews with the church, and every time you read the word “Israel” in the Bible, you should read “the church.” But I hope the previous section shows you how that belief doesn’t line up with scripture.
This concept sprung up during the Diaspora, a time when the Jews were spread out over all the earth (between 70 A.D. and 1948). The nation of Israel didn’t exist for 1,878 years! So, instead of believing the prophecy that Israel would be a nation again one day, many Christians created an alternate theory, concluding Israel must have been replaced by the church.
It’s true that the church is a part of Israel, as the previous section explains. But we haven’t replaced it. Judaism and Christianity go hand in hand. That’s why we need both the Old and New Testaments. The new doesn’t cancel the old. The two sides fit together to make a whole. As Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish [the Law and the Prophets] but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
Israel’s Enemies are God’s Enemies
Another reason to support Israel is to stay on God’s side. He’s a fierce protector of Abraham’s seed. Joel 3:16 says, “The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.”
If you’re an enemy of Israel, then you are also an enemy of God. God said to Abraham, “I will bless you … I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:2-3). If we turn our back on Israel, God will turn his back on us.
That’s true now, and also in the judgement to come. According to author and prophecy expert Todd Hampson, the sheep and goats’ judgement in Matthew 25:31-46 is based on how the Jews were treated (See verses 39-40, 45).
Hampson says, “The goats are the surviving unbelievers who mistreated the Jewish people (they will have gathered in an army against God and in pursuit of the Jewish people.) The sheep are the believers who survive the tribulation period. The goats will be sent to hell…”2
The Ultimate Acceptance of Jesus as Messiah
Finally, we should support Israel because the Bible prophesies that the Jews will eventually accept Christ as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:20; Matthew 23:39), and they will be our brothers and sisters in Christ!
Paul explains the conversion of the Jews in Romans 11:14-32. He starts out hoping the Jews will be jealous when they see Gentiles seeking after God. He also reminds us that their remnant is like a piece of dough that makes the entire lump holy:
Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches (Romans 11:14-16).
Then Paul explains that the hardening of Jewish hearts was necessary for all the nations around the world to come to Christ. Their distance from the Messiah is for our benefit. He says:
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25).
Finally, Paul reminds us that none of us are better than the Jews. We were all once disobedient and distant from God. Just as we Gentiles once needed the mercy of God, they do, too. And the mercy of God is a privilege and a blessing to experience, one that we will all have in common in the end.
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all (Romans 11:28-32).
Perhaps God will use the love and support of Christians to show the Jews the gospel. Maybe they will finally accept the meaning of Jesus’ sacrifice through our loyalty and camaraderie.
The Land
The nation of Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey, yet it has been fought over more than another other piece of land in the world.
As this book is being written, there are debates about who rightfully owns the land. There are protests on American college campuses claiming the land belongs to the Palestinians and calling Israelis “occupiers” and “colonizers.”
But that land was given to Abraham, the father of the Jews. Genesis 13:14-18 says:
The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
The ancient occupancy of the Jews in Israel is well documented in archeology. There is no debate that the Jewish people lived there thousands of years ago. It wasn’t until they were conquered by Rome in 70 A.D. that they were forced to leave.
As we discussed in a previous chapter, Isaiah prophesied Israel would return to its land. He said, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).
Sure enough, Israel became a nation again in a single day—May 14, 1948.3 Not only that, but Ezekial 36:8-10 foretold the Jews would return to their land from all corners of the earth. And that is what has been happening (and continues even now).4
Many claim the land originally belonged to the Palestinians. But Palestine has never been a nation. Before World War I, “Palestine” was a region of the Ottoman Empire. When the Ottomans were conquered by the British in WWI, the area came under British rule.
The British favored the return of a Jewish state, and encouraged Jews to return to their homeland. Many did return, which resulted in a civil war between Jews and Arabs in 1947. The Jews won the war and established themselves as a nation in 1948.5
So, whether you look at it biblically or socio-politically, the land justly belongs to the Jews. Anyone who disagrees with the facts only covets a land is not theirs, a land they lost in war. They may not like it, but this is the way all boundaries are determined by all nations everywhere.
We should support Israel’s right to exist as much as any other nation who won their land through conquest. Borders of all nations change throughout history, determined by the treaties of the winners. Israel is no different.
We Are Connected
The people of Israel have taken a beating for thousands of years. They were mistreated by the Romans, the Nazis, the Russians, and the Muslims, among others. As soon as Israel was recognized as a nation again in 1948, they started fighting for their land and have continued ever since.
Even if some uniformed and naïve Christians can’t see the connection between Christianity and Irael, Satan certainly sees it. He hates Israel as much as he hates the church.
The enemies of the Jews call Israel the “little Satan.” And the United States is the “big Satan.” The only thing they want more than to destroy Israel is to destroy America.6
Like it or not, Israel and America are in the same boat. The enemies of Yahweh are on the march to wipe Israel of the face of the earth, and to take over the White House.
Unfortunately for our enemies, we know Yahweh wins. He wins every time. And as long as America stands with Israel, we’ll be on the winning team.
End Notes:
- Allen Jackson (Host). (2024, April 17). God Is Moving — Israel, the Church & the Nations (No. 546) [Audio podcast episode]. In Allen Jackson Ministries. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/bringing-gamma-back
- Todd Hampson, The Chronological Guide to Bible Prophecy: An Illustrated Panorama from Genesis to Revelation (Eugene, OR: Harvest Prophecy, 2022), pp 143.
- Todd Hampson, The Chronological Guide to Bible Prophecy: An Illustrated Panorama from Genesis to Revelation (Eugene, OR: Harvest Prophecy, 2022), 91.
- Todd Hampson, The Chronological Guide to Bible Prophecy: An Illustrated Panorama from Genesis to Revelation (Eugene, OR: Harvest Prophecy, 2022), 105.
- Jewish Virtual Library. Origins of the Name “Palestine” and Palestinian Nationalism. Jewish Virtual Library. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/origin-of-quot-palestine-quot
- The Week UK. (2024, February 17). Iran and the ‘Great Satan’. The Week UK. https://theweek.com/politics/iran-and-the-usa-history