Turmoil in the Middle East and the United States’ involvement has raised comments and questions as of late. One man recently texted me the following: Curious, what should our opinion be on Israel? As in, how we should view them as Christians? Do we have a loyalty to them, for lack of a better term, or is that not really relevant in modern times? Jews don’t even believe in Jesus the Messiah so just curious what your thoughts are on this.
What I write below represents what has come to shape my thinking about current geopolitical entities and events involving the modern state of Israel.
Here is the main implication of what follows: I believe we are in the last days because we live between the first coming and second coming of Christ (I Tim. 4:1; II Tim 3:1). I do not believe the Bible, nor current events in the Middle East or elsewhere, provide any mechanism to determine exactly how close we are to His second coming. As a result, I do not spend time speculating how current geopolitical entities (including Israel) and present wars and rumors of wars fit into God’s timetable.
Israel. The word is introduced when God renames Jacob – giving him the name Israel (Gen. 32:28). From then on ‘Israel’ mainly refers to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but with some significant distinctions. Below are three ways the word Israel is used in the Bible, and then today.
1. Ethnic Israel — At times Israel refers to the ethnic people group promised by God to Abraham. The LORD told him, “I will make you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2-3) and that nation came through Isaac then Jacob (Israel). About 400 years after Abraham, Israel had grown to several million people and came under the authority of the Mosaic covenant to be lived out in a specific geographical area God had promised them.
Israel as a theocratic nation/state was established about 1,300-1,400 years before Christ’s first coming.
2. Northern tribes — After the time of King Solomon (c. 900 B.C.) the nation was divided; the ten northern tribes were called Israel, the southern Judah (see I, II Kings). The northern tribes were scattered and Israel as an autonomous theocratic nation was never reunited. Judah, which included Jerusalem and the temple, became the geographic locus for Abraham’s descendants. With that came the development of the label Jew/Jewish. By the time of Jesus, that label for Abraham’s descendants became predominant
3. True Israel – This phrase comes from distinctions the Apostle Paul makes between the ethnic descendants of Abraham as opposed to all who believe the same promises Abraham believed God would fulfill in Christ (Rom 9:6-8; Rom chp. 4; Galatians 3:7-14; 3:26-29). I’ll say more below.
4. Modern-day Israel (beginning in 1948)1. Today’s Israel is a country of 9.8 million with a democratic system of government (free elections). A 2016 survey found 49% of the Jewish population defined themselves as secular (non-religious)2; 20% identified as atheists3. Of the religious in Israel, Judaism is the predominant religion. However, the range of religious Jews spans from agnostics who merely participate in Jewish traditions (e.g., Passover, Hanukkah) to the serious ultra-orthodox.
Christ: The True Vine/The True Israel (John 15:1-11). Vine imagery is used several times in the Old Testament as a symbol for the nation of Israel under the Mosaic covenant (Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; 27:2ff; Jeremiah 2:21; 12:10ff; Ezekiel 15:1-8; 17:1-21; 19:10-14; Hos. 10:1-2). The word translated ‘true’ in John 15:1 means real, or genuine (John 1:9; 4:23; 6:32). It is in contrast to the false, but also in contrast to a type or picture of the real. I carry an accurate picture of my son but that photo is not my true/real son.
Every time in the Old Testament Israel is called the vine it is an indictment of their adulterating what God had commanded as to how He was to be worshipped and how they were to live. As a theocratic nation under the Mosaic Covenant, Israel was to serve as a type or shadow of Christ (Heb. 10:1ff). Their idolatry and immorality presented a defiled (inaccurate) picture of the Real that was to come and thus brought God’s holy judgment (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:20-28 (esp 21); Hosea 10:1-2).
Jesus is not the picture; He is the True Vine (as well as the true light of the world, the true bread that came down from heaven). He is the true Son (Matt 2:15; Ex. 4:22; Hos 11:1). He is the blessing and seed God promised Abraham and that Abraham believed and rejoiced God would fulfill (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; Gal. 3:16; John 8:56). Jesus, as the Israelite from the tribe of Judah born under the Law (Gal. 4:4) — from circumcision to His death. was what Israel was to typify. He is Messiah because He is the perfect and final Prophet (word from God); the perfect and final High Priest (offering up His sinless Self). He is the King from the line of David (who upon His perfect obedience according to the Law was exalted to the right hand of God). What Israel was to be a picture of to the world, Christ is the final and complete fulfillment for the world.
Modern Israel cannot be the theocratic nation/state formed under the Mosaic covenant. That typological role was fulfilled and “made obsolete” with Jesus’s sinless life, substitutionary death, resurrection and ascension (Hebrews 8:13; Romans 10:1-4). However, Jews living in modern Israel (and elsewhere) who hear of Christ, who reject their false beliefs and practices, and acknowledge Christ alone as Savior and Lord, are united to the True Vine, the True Israel (Rom 10:8-13; John 15:5-11).
“I will build My church” – Jesus the Christ
Since the completed work of Jesus and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2), those united to Christ through faith are His covenant community. All who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in their flesh are the true circumcision (Phil. 3:2-7).
God does promise that “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26). In the context of Romamns 9-11, this likely means a large number of ethnic Israelites will turn in faith to Christ and be saved. That is yet to be seen. Paul in his day wept that most of his Jewish kin were not saved (Rom 9:1-6; 10:1-4). In our day, the vast majority of ethnic Israel remain in unbelief.
Today, all those united to Christ through faith are of the household of God – the church (Matthew 16:18-20; Eph. 2:11-22/4:7-16; I Tim. 3:14-16; I Peter 2:4-10). Jews and Gentiles – wherever they are on the planet — who are trusting in Jesus as the Christ are all part of one spiritual body/temple/nation (Ephesians 2:11-22; Galatians 3:28; I Peter 2:4-10). To be in Christ through faith is to be part of the True Israel.
1 https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Independence_(Israel)
2 https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/03/08/key-findings-religion-politics-israel/
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_Israel
