I am amazed by how many Christians seem unsure of where they should stand on the topic of Israel. Others openly oppose it altogether. And yet, the God we serveโthe God of Israelโis using the Jewish State to try to get the attention of the world.
That is what we read in Ezekiel 36:19-24, when God speaks about the Jewish people living in disobedience: “So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy nameโwhen they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’ But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. ‘Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ‘I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,’ says the Lord God, ‘when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.”
The nations should recognize and know the Lord because of the miraculous things that He is doing today concerning Israel. Unfortunately, they don’t! They have not read nor believed in God’s word. But for Bible-believing Christians to follow in the world’s ways is unimaginable! It’s hard to fathom that they could be so ignorant of what God is doing.
The sad reality is that more and more Christians are embracing replacement theology, which teaches that either the church has replaced Israel or it is the “real and true Israel.” Many even believe that modern-day Israel is just a result of political operatives after World War II, and therefore, it has no business being discussed at the pulpit.
None of those Christian leaders and churches that embrace replacement theology would disagree that God literally scattered the Jewish people to the four corners of the earth as a result of their disobedience. They take no issue with that. However, when it comes to Israel’s regathering, somehow, they shift gears. They go to great lengths to try to prove that God doesn’t really mean what He says.
I say, if the political is biblical, we’d better start talking about it from our pulpits. The truth is that God says what He means and means what He says.
Consider these verses.
In Genesis 15:18, we read, “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates'”
In Genesis 17:7-8, God says, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
Psalm 105:8-11 powerfully states, “He remembers His covenant forever, The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac, And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, Saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan As the allotment of your inheritance.'”
When God made this covenant with Abraham some 4,000 years ago, Abraham was in a deep sleep, and God swore it by Himself: “For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater,ย He swore by Himself” (Hebrews 6:13). Thus, as we read in Ezekiel 36, it is God’s name that is at stake because of the promises that He has made.
Here are a few more verses.
Jeremiah 23:7-8 states, “‘Therefore, behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that they shall no longer say, โAs the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,โ but, โAs the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.โ And they shall dwell in their own land.'”
Jeremiah 31:8-10 reads, “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who labors with child, together; A great throng shall return there. They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn. ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, โHe who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.โ”
Can it be any more clear? Here is one more verse that should silence all of the naysayers: “Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lord of hosts is His name): ‘If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lord, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever'” (Jeremiah 31:35-36).
In other words, as long as the sun, moon, and stars are shining in the sky and the function of this world is intact, Israel is going to remain before God forever as a nation. Period.
God has done something truly extraordinary right before our very eyes. Can’t you see it? Israel stands today as a living modern-day miracle. Never before in all human history has there been a people scattered across the nations, exiled from their ancestral homeland for 2,000 years, only to return, rebuild their desolate cities, restore the land, and cause the desert itself to bloom once again.
God is calling for the world’s attention. To the Christians who still deny what He has done, I ask you: what more will it take for God to capture your attention?
