Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel last October and the subsequent war exposed the current global rise of antisemitism. Protesters justified Hamas’s massacre and declared support for the terrorist organization with the rallying cry “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” But many who chant this phrase don’t understand its implications.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a cry for the elimination of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. It demands the removal (or murder) of all Jewish people from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Calling for Israel’s demise is not only antisemitic; it’s genocidal.
Many within the church sadly fail to understand modern Israel’s existence as an act of God’s will. Some of these skeptics believe the State of Israel’s establishment was an overreaction to the Holocaust of World War II, and they hold the nation responsible for all violence in the Middle East.
Such thinking indicts God for permitting Israel’s rebirth and allowing the Jewish people’s return to their ancient homeland—a development that began in the late 19th century, prior to the Holocaust. Yet, God did exactly what He said He would do through the prophets (Isa. 11:11; 66:8; Jer. 16:14–15; Ezek. 20:33–34; Hos. 3:4–5). He declared the Jewish people will be replanted in their land, never to be uprooted again (Amos 9:15). Thus, to oppose Israel’s existence is to oppose God’s will and plan.
This defiance also impugns God’s sovereignty, implying that He was uninvolved in bringing about Israel’s return or failed to foresee the trouble it would cause. Claiming Israel’s regeneration was an accident accuses God of mistakenly permitting it to happen and denies that He purposefully acted to return the Jewish people home from the places to which they were scattered.
But through a biblical lens, modern Israel fits neatly into God’s redemptive plan. Just as God prophesied and fulfilled the scattering of the Jewish people, He also promised to return and restore them from the four corners of the earth. The process of Israel’s regathering that began more than a century ago continues today.
Modern Israel is a miracle. There is no other way to explain how the Jewish people were exiled from their Promised Land for 1,900 years and then returned. Yet, everything aligns with God’s promise to bring them back.
The fact of Israel’s return and restoration is a unique historical phenomenon. Usually, an exiled nation is absorbed into the people groups it joins. It is unnatural for a nation to live in exile for centuries and keep its identity and dream to return home. No other exiled people have ever returned to their homeland to become a nation again. This is why the State of Israel is a miracle unfolding before our eyes.
Israel still faces hatred and violence because the Jewish people are God’s uniquely Chosen People and the vehicle through whom He will redeem the world. But continued attempts to wipe Israel from the map, like Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, will result in utter failure. Israel will never be destroyed.
One day, God will complete His plan (Rev. 21:6). He loves the Jewish people “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3) and has promised they will endure forever (vv. 35–36). Seeking Israel’s destruction is a fool’s errand spearheaded by Satan, God’s enemy.
The modern Jewish State of Israel is proof that God continues to fulfill His prophetic Word and that we are quickly approaching the end of this age.
Jim Showers is the executive director and president of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
