Does the Bible Teach that America Should Stand with Israel?

Last week, Tucker Carlson interviewed Ted Cruz in a long-ranging interview revolving around Israel, Iran, and America. There were quite a few fireworks about a fair number of issues, but one of the more interesting disagreements was whether or not America has a duty to help the modern political entity of Israel. Such a view is relatively mainstream in churches that have grown up with some flavor of dispensationalism, although there are some who reject the label dispensationalist who would see the issue similarly. Yet at the bottom of this belief a presupposition is lurking, namely that the modern state of Israel is equivalent to biblical Israel. This would mean that when God says He will bless those that bless Israel, that blessing applies to the modern state of Israel. 

This was clearly Cruz’s assumption, that the modern state of Israel is the same as biblical Israel. It’s an assumption that I don’t think Carlson shared, and in fact it is one that he openly questioned: “Is the nation that God is referring to in Genesis, is that the same as the country being run by Benjamin Netanyahu right now?” Cruz seemed unprepared for this question, but in all fairness to Tucker Carlson, it’s a question that I’ve seen floated around. And whether it’s asked as a ‘gotcha’ question or in all sincerity, it is a question that deserves a biblical answer, because there is a biblical answer.

In this post, I want to show why I believe that Scripture teaches that America should support Israel, the modern political state. To do that, I will begin by explaining what the Old and New Testament have to say about Israel, God’s New Covenant, and what God has in store for the future of the world. 

 

God Uniquely Blessed Israel

In the Cruz-Carlson debate, one of the ‘gotcha’ moments came when Carlson asked where we read in the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed. Cruz didn’t know, and so Carlson cited Genesis as the location of this promise. Ironically, that is not exactly right but it is also not entirely wrong. Tucker was likely thinking of Genesis 12:3, but in that verse this promise is given specifically to Abraham. The verse does follow right on the heels of Genesis 12:2, however, where God promised to make a nation out of Abraham. One could surmise that the promise given to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 would also apply to the nation that came from him as promised in Genesis 12:2, but that is not explicitly stated. 

Later, however, Isaac will give this promise that those who bless will be blessed and those who curse will be cursed to Jacob, who would of course later be renamed Israel (Genesis 27:29). Here we are on firmer ground to say that since this promise was given to Israel the individual, it likely also applies to Israel the nation. But just so we don’t miss it, the Bible does clearly state that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed. When the pagan king of Moab Balak hired Balaam the prophet to curse Israel, Balaam couldn’t do it. Instead, he blessed Israel four times, and in the third blessing Balaam says, “He (Israel) couched, he lay down as a lion, And as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, And cursed is he that curseth thee.” (Numbers 24:9)

So the Bible does clearly teach that the original promise to Abraham of blessing or cursing for those who bless or curse was transferred to Israel. But again, the question was whether or not that applies to the modern nation of Israel. And to answer that question, we have to answer if the modern nation of Israel is the same as biblical Israel. There are quite a few people who are, at the very least, skeptical of this claim, so let’s keep going. 

 

Israel Broke the Covenant God Made with Them, But God Didn’t Quit on Them

God made a covenant, an agreement, with Israel on Mount Sinai. “These are my laws,” He told them, “and if you keep them you will know my blessing. If you break these laws, you will face my punishment” (the book of Deuteronomy, roughly paraphrased). But sadly, Israel violated God’s laws. Over and over and over again. It got so bad that God essentially called the covenant He made with them at Sinai off. In Jeremiah 31:32 God says that Israel broke the Old Covenant, but He says that right after saying that He planned to make a New Covenant “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” This covenant would involve inward spiritual restoration as well as a restoration to the land of Israel. Included in this covenant are these strong words on God’s commitment to the future of Israel:

Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day,
And the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
Which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar;
The LORD of hosts is his name:
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD,
Then the seed of Israel also shall cease
From being a nation before me for ever. 
Thus saith the LORD;
If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also cast off all the seed of Israel
For all that they have done, saith the LORD.
(Jeremiah 31:35-36)

 

Notice what these verses are saying. God will not quit on the nation of Israel and the seed of Israel until  the sun stops shining and the moon and the stars go out, and until we can measure the universe or explore the Marinas trench. It seems pretty clear from this passage that God isn’t done with Israel, and that He never will be. But don’t the New Testament authors teach that Israel is done? 

 

The New Testament Teaches God Still Has a Future Plan for Israel

So yes, Israel broke God’s covenant, but the New Covenant that Jesus inaugurated in His blood (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20) was a covenant that, according to Jeremiah, was a covenant God promised to make with Israel. Once we realize this some interesting passages in the New Testament begin to make sense. For example, this explains why the disciples asked Jesus immediately before His ascension if this was the time He would restore the kingdom “to Israel” (Acts 1:6). Why did they think this? Because the whole point of the New Covenant as described in Jeremiah 31 was that God had not given up on Israel! This also explains why the church had such a hard time with full Gentile inclusion. I mean, yeah, they could tag along I guess, but He’s our Messiah and this is our covenant, right? It took the powerful working of the Spirit and some intentionally chosen, sovereign actions on behalf of God to show the early church that Gentiles could be brought into the church as Gentiles and not as Jewish proselytes (Acts 10-11). 

But the passage that is perhaps the clearest on this matter is Romans 9-11. Normally these chapters, especially chapter 9, are known for the role they play in the Calvinism debate, but the focus of the passage is really about Israel. Paul, a Jew of the Jews, is explaining to the church at Rome how he understands the Jewish Messiah problem. The Jewish Messiah problem is this: Jesus came as the Messiah for the Jews and the Jews rejected Him but the nations embraced Him. That’s weird, and pretty unexpected. To answer this problem, Paul marshals several arguments to explain this, including election, but we’re not going there. 

Instead I want to zero in on a few of the arguments he makes in chapter 11. First, Paul argues that God hasn’t completely thrown off the Jews, because there is a believing remnant (Romans 11:5). But then he goes on to make a fascinating and I fear often overlooked point. Building, I believe, on the Old Testament teaching that God had always intended to bring a blessing through Israel, Paul points out that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah had led to blessing for the nations (Romans 11:11). Because the Jews rejected Jesus, God is using the salvation of the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy.  

So does he then come to the conclusion that God is done with Israel? After all, maybe that was the plan all along. Maybe it was a good thing Israel rejected the Messiah so that the rest of the world could get in on it. Would we even want the Jews to accept the Messiah? Absolutely! Paul goes the opposite direction as he works out this problem. He says, “if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15). In other words, if so much blessing came from their rejection of the Messiah, imagine how much blessing there will be when they accept the Messiah! Israel’s acceptance of the Messiah will be the key that unlocks the full blessing of God and brings heaven on earth, or, as Revelation calls it, the Millennium. When Israel looks on Him whom they have pierced and mourn, then Christ will return in glory and set up His kingdom. 

 

If God Has a Future Plan, Then Israel Must Still Exist Today

This is why Paul finally ends by saying that all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). We as Gentiles have been grafted in, so that we don’t become proud because we aren’t the root. Israel is cut off for a time, and will be brought back to God through the jealousy brought about by the Gentiles. In the end, no one can boast, because both are there through God working in the other one. God gets the glory, and the glory of God comes and God reigns on earth. So what does that mean? It means that God has a future in mind for Israel! And if God has a future for Israel, then Israel must exist!

But does that apply to the government? Is the modern day nation state of Israel the same as biblical Israel? After all, the Knesset includes Muslims. It’s a Western-style democracy. Was God thinking of the national entity represented by a flag with a blue star of David when He was speaking to Abraham or prophesying through Balaam? Al Mohler helpfully suggests that the national state of Israel is not the same thing as biblical Israel, but that it is a vessel that protects biblical Israel. For that reason, he encourages supporting Israel.

That’s true as far as it goes, but I would like to take it one step further. Biblical Israel is a people, it’s the seed or the descendants of Jacob, later renamed Israel. That people group has had various governments throughout history, and that government has always represented the people. During the time of the judges, Israel had no king, and that was a disaster. During the monarchy, they had a king, and that was less of a disaster but it still didn’t work. After the exile, the nation itself basically didn’t exist. For a time there was no political Israel, until Persia allowed Israel to return to the land as a client state of the empire. Later Israel would answer to Greece, until eventually they threw off Grecian rule. This led to the rule of the Hasmoneans, Jews who weren’t descended from David, but were in charge. Eventually, an Idumean (Edomites who were absorbed into Judah) became the king with the help of Rome, and once again Israel was reduced to being a province of an empire, this time the Roman empire. At each point, we are dealing with Israel, but with differing governmental structures. And further I would argue that at every stage, that government did represent the biblical people of Israel. 

 

 

So I would say that today the secular nation of Israel represents biblical Israel. Does it do so perfectly? No, but then again biblical Israel was represented by an Idumean king and pagan governors during the time of the New Testament. Yet the nation of Israel is the place on earth today that represents the God-given homeland of the Jewish people, and celebrates and maintains the cause of the Jewish people in the world. And the Jewish people in the world today are biblical Israel, even though they have rejected the Messiah. God has said He’s not done with them yet, the apostles and Paul expected a future for Israel, and consequently so do I.

So in the end, yes, America should support Israel, the nation state currently governed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Why? Because that nation represents the cause of biblical Israel. Yes, they have rejected their Messiah, but God isn’t done with them yet. And God has said He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel.

 

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. You can check out Bible studies he has written as hearanddo.org. 

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