Israel in the Bible, Not the News
There are few topics where religion and politics come together like they do in the case of Israel. Should they? Does the Bible have anything special to say about the nation of Israel that it doesn’t say about every other country?
In this episode we will look at the highly controversial issue of the nation of Israel today and its relationship, if any, to prophecies in the Old Testament.
This is also one of the most common biblical subjects of our time. Millions of churchgoing people all over the world look at the Jewish people as heirs of a future empire on earth that will surpass any civilization in history.
What does the Bible say about this question?
Read about this subject:
- Scriptures: Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 2:1-4; Matthew 21:43
- Unfulfilled Prophecy a Discussion on Prophetic Themes by H. Leo Boles and R.H. Boll
Listen to more on this subject:
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Israel is always in the news. Whether a person is religious or has no interest in religion, what happens in Israel seems to capture the attention of people everywhere.
On the religious side, this is one of the most talked about and controversial subjects in religion. What does the Bible say about the nation of Israel? Are Jews still God’s chosen people? Is Jesus coming again to establish the nation of Israel as God’s kingdom on earth for a thousand years with Jesus as the King?
Our format today is simple. We’re going to ask some questions about Israel and turn to the Bible for answers.
Question number one: What did God promise to Abraham? The passage we need to read is in Genesis 12. In verses 1 through three the Bible says, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12 verses 1 through three).
This is one of the greatest promises anywhere in the Bible. Everything in the Word of God from this point forward is connected to this passage and builds on it. But let’s notice what God said to Abraham. First of all, He told him about a certain land. He told him to leave where he was, which was the land of Haran, and go to “a land that I will show thee.” That is very important. This is where the great land promise begins. If you’re going to understand why so many churches have their eyes fixed on what is going on in this land today, you have to start in this passage. If you’re going to understand why so many powerful nations have their attention in the Middle East you have to go back to the starting point in Genesis 12. And if you’re going to understand all the fighting between the Arabs and the Israelis, you need to know something about Genesis chapter 12. God is making a promise to Abraham that has affected the course of human history down to the present time. And the first thing that God mentions in this promise is land. The second thing God mentions, which happens to a the most important part of the promise, is the great nation that will come from it. God told Abraham that he would make of him, that is from or out of Abraham, a great nation. That means that Abraham’s descendants will grow into a great nation. Not just any nation, but a great nation. A nation God would providentially bless and protect. A nation God would preserve until he sent the Messiah. When God said He would bless whoever blessed Abraham and curse whoever cursed Abraham, he wasn’t just talking about Abraham. He was talking about Abraham’s descendants who would be this great nation. At this time, Abraham doesn’t even have any children. His wife, Sarah couldn’t have children at this point. But even though Abraham didn’t know how God would accomplish all this, he trusted God and he obeyed Him. That nation was the nation of Israel. The third part of the promise that concerns you and me is what the last part of verse three says: “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” We don’t have to wonder about what this means. The Bible explains it in the New Testament. Paul quotes these very words in Galatians 3 verse 8 and says that this promise God made to Abraham includes the Gentiles coming into the church! In Galatians 3 verse 8 he wrote, “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Paul called the words “In thee shall all nations be blessed” Scripture! These words were actually a promise of the gospel! “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen” (the Gentiles) “through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham”! How could Paul say the promise in Genesis 12 was “the gospel”? Because this promise was ultimately fulfilled in the gospel. God blessed other nations in the Old Testament through the Israelite nation, but the most important aspect of those words is salvation for nations other that Israel. Paul is talking about how the Gentiles are saved in the book of Galatians. And how are we as Gentiles saved? The same way Jews are saved—through the gospel! This is a great example of the Bible being its own best interpreter. But that’s not all Paul tells us in Galatians three. Notice what he says in Galatians 3 verses 26 through 29: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Paul said in verse 16 that we are all children of God by faith in Christ. What does he mean by the word “all”? He means both Jews and Gentiles. In verse 27 he tells us how we get into Christ: we are baptized into Him. Verse 28 says that we are spiritual equals in Christ. Gentiles are just as much the children of God as Jews. And did you notice the word “promise” in verse 29? He says that if we are in Christ, we belong to Christ, and is we are His, then we are “heirs according to the promise.” What promise? The promise in Genesis 12 verse 3. Not the part of the promise about God blessing whoever blesses Abraham and curses anyone who curses him. The promise in Galatians three verse 29 about being “heirs according to the promise” refers to the words in Genesis 12 verse 3: “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Paul said in Galatians 3 verse 8 that this was the gospel! It was fulfilled in the Gentiles who became God’s children by obeying the gospel! These are very important verses to remember. Too many people either don’t know about them or skip past them when they read the Bible. Most people agree that the best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible. Since Paul quotes from Genesis 12 verse three in the book of Galatians chapter 3 and says it refers to the gospel and teaches us that Christians, whether they are Jews or gentiles, inherit the blessing contained in the last words of that famous promise to Abraham, doesn’t it make sense to listen to God’s interpretation of Genesis 12 instead of listening to all kinds of modern day interpretations of that passage?
But there’s another verse in Genesis chapter 12 that explains the part of the promise about the land. In Genesis chapter 12 verses four and five, Abraham did what God told him to do. He left where he was, and he went to the place God showed him. That place was the land of Canaan. The Bible then says in verse 7: “And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.” This verse makes it clear that God would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. Verse 5 says Abraham came to the land of Canaan, and in very seven God said “I will give this land” to your seed—the land he was in, the land of Canaan. That part is clear. But that brings us to another question.
When God said He would give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, was that promise irrevocable? Was the land promise conditional or was it an unconditional promise that no matter what happened, they would always have a God-given right to that land? The verse we need to look at is in the next chapter. In Genesis chapter 13 verses 14 through 17 we read, ““And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” God repeated what He said to Abraham before. He said He would give this land to Abraham’s descendants. But this time he uses a word we need to look at carefully. God said I will give this land to you and your descendants “forever.” Does this mean that the Jewish people will always have a God-given right to the land of Canaan? Many people say yes.
But let’s look at some other verses where that same Hebrew word is used. It’s the Hebrew word olam. In Deuteronomy chapter 15 verse 17, God said if you have a bondservant that wants to stay with his master, then take an aul and thrust it through his ear and “he shall be thy servant forever.” Does that mean that man would be a bondservant to his master even after they die? Of course not. It means as long as he lives. That’s a far cry from thousands of years. In First Samuel 1 verse 22, Hannah said she would send her son Samuel to the tabernacle to give him to the Lord. She said that he would stay there “forever.” At the very least Samuel isn’t there now. He’s been dead over three thousand years. She just meant that Samuel would serve God all of his life. In Exodus 31 verse 17, God said that the Sabbath was “a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.” That cannot mean without an end. We know that because in Colossians chapter two verse 14 Paul said that the law that contained the Sabbath was nailed to the cross. Then in verses 16 and 17 of Colossians 2 he said that the sabbath and the other ceremonies in the law of Moses were shadows of the New Testament and they are not required anymore. So when God said in Exodus 31 verse 17 that the Sabbath was a sign forever, he meant as long as the law of Moses was in effect for the Jews.
There are many other verses in the Old Testament where the word “forever” is used to mean age-long, not permanent or eternal. Yes, it can mean eternal, but that depends on how it is used. The context determines that. It’s not that hard if you think about it. When a man says he’s building a garage so strong that it will stand “forever,” we don’t think he means forever literally. When Daniel told king Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever,” he wasn’t saying Nebuchadnezzar would live forever literally.
But there is another aspect of this question that we need to look at. The question is, “Was the land promise to the descendants of Abraham irrevocable? Was that promise conditional or unconditional?” The fact is, that promise was conditional. God never said the Jews would keep the land regardless of how they acted. In fact, He said just the opposite. He told them that if they turned away from the law of the Lord, they would lose that land. And that’s exactly what happened. Let’s look at what God told them in Deuteronomy chapter 28. In verse one of Deuteronomy 28 God said, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Then Moses said they would be blessed with prosperity and peace and safety from your enemies and that God will “bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 8). They could keep the land and be blessed IF they obeyed God. But then in verses 15 all the way through the rest of the chapter down to verse 68, he told them what would happen if they disobeyed God. In verse 15 he said, “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.” What he talks about in the verses that follow should have scared the Jews so badly that they would have never even thought about leaving God. He warned that they would suffer drought, poverty, disease, and war so horrifying that women would eat their own children because they were starving. And notice what God told them about the land He gave them. In Deuteronomy 28 verses 63 and 64: “ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end off the earth even unto the other.” That’s the same land He promised to Abraham’s descendants “forever.” But here He says that promise about the land was conditional. And the fact is, we know that the Jews did the very thing God told them not to do. They left God and served other gods. And they lost the land of promise because of their rebellion. That happened generations later. The Assyrians came and took the northern tribes of Israel off their land in 721 B.C. They lost control of their land that God gave them. In 605 B.C. the southern kingdom of Judah lost the part of the land God gave them when the Babylonians took control and deported thousands of Jews to Babylon. These are verses you don’t hear much about these days. You hear people saying, “Israel has a right to that land because God gave it to them.” But you don’t hear them talk about these passages that say they lost their right to the land just like God warned them!
The facts are clear about the land promise God made to Abraham. He made the promise. He did what he promised. There was not one thing God promised that He failed do (Joshua 23 13 through 16 and Joshua 21 43 through 45). And, the Jewish people forfeited their right to the land because of their sins, just as God had warned in Deuteronomy chapter 28.
But you may be thinking, “What about the promise in Deuteronomy chapter 30? God said He would bring His people back to the promised land after their captivity.” God did promise that He would bring them back from the land of their captivity when they repented. Deuteronomy chapter 30 says, “the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you…Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it” (verses 3 and 5).
The book of Nehemiah tells us about the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. And in Nehemiah chapter 1 verses eight through 10, Nehemiah says that return was the fulfillment of Deuteronomy chapter 30. Think about it. The Bible explicitly says in Nehemiah chapter one verses eight through 10 that the promise of the Jews returning home was fulfilled in Nehemiah‘s day. “Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.” This passage says that Deuteronomy 30 has already been fulfilled! That was over 400 years before Jesus. But even then, there was a big difference between the Jewish people in the promised land before they went into captivity and after they came back to the promised land after the captivity. When the Jews in Babylon returned to Jerusalem in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they were not the kind of kingdom they were before. They were not an independent nation. They were under the rule of a foreign nation – Persia, and after the Persians, they were under the authority of the Greek Empire. Then, after the Greeks, they were under the power of the Roman Empire. Even though God restored them to their land, He didn’t restore their power and their status as a kingdom with their king ruling on a throne like He did before their fall.
These facts are straight from the Bible. They don’t add drama to international politics surrounding Israel. They don’t add excitement to the latest news about the Middle East. They don’t keep people on the edge of their seats guessing about the end of time. But this is the truth about Israel.
You may be thinking, “But what about prophecies in the Old Testament of the kingdom? Are you saying those prophecies have already been fulfilled?” Let’s take a look at some of those prophecies. In Isaiah chapter 2 verses one through four, the prophet wrote, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Let’s ask some very simple questions about this passage: When? What? Who? Where? How? And why? The first thing he mentions is the time factor. He said this would take place in the last days. If you ask 100 people today what the last days in the Bible are, probably 99 out of a hundred will say it refers to the last few months or maybe years before Jesus comes. But if we just read the Bible, we’ll see the Bible interpreting what this means. In Acts chapter 2, Peter said he and the people of his day were living in the last days. That’s 2,000 years ago. In Acts chapter 2 verses 16 and 17 he said: “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh.”
That’s a quotation from the book of Joel in chapter 2. Joel prophesied of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to begin the new dispensation that ushered in the church. Peter said these words about what was happening on Pentecost Day: “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.“ How could the Bible be any plainer?
But that’s not all. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse two, the writer says God has spoken to us “in these last days by his Son.” “These last days” mean the days he was living in, not the time we’re living in 2,000 years later! Peter said in First Peter chapter 1 verse 20 that Jesus was “manifest in these last times for you.” He calls his day and age the “last times.” How could that be? The world didn’t come to an end in Peter‘s day. But he’s not talking about the end of the world. That’s the problem. That’s the misunderstanding. These verses clearly show that people living in the first century 2,000 years ago were in the last days. The last days of what? Not the last days of the world itself. This means the last days of the Jewish nation that God promised to Abraham. It’s coming to an end.
The second question about Isaiah chapter 2 verses one through four is what? What is he talking about? The answer is the house of the Lord. Here again many people assume that he’s talking about the literal physical temple in Jerusalem. And although Isaiah does prophesy about the future of national Israel, the main focus of the prophecies in Isaiah is the Messiah and his kingdom, that is, Jesus and his church. Notice what the New Testament says about the house of the Lord. In First Timothy chapter 3, verse 15, Paul said that the house of God is the church of the living God. In Second Corinthians chapter 6, verse 16, Paul said “for you are the temple of the living God.” In First Peter chapter 2 verse 5, Peter said that Christians are living stones who compose a spiritual house. The book of Hebrew shows that the Old Testament temple, which was the house of the Lord, was a foreshadow of the church. It was never intended to be permanent. So the church being the house of the Lord fits perfectly with what Isaiah said.
Number three. Who are the people who come into this house? Not just the Jewish people. Isaiah said that all nations will flow into it. Gentiles in Jesus’ day came to the temple to pray and to learn, and they could convert to Judaism, but as a whole they could never fully participate in the worship. But in the house of the Lord, which is the church, God’s spiritual building, Gentiles are equal to Jews. Jesus died for all men – Jews and Gentiles. He told His apostles to make disciples of “all nations” (Matthew chapter 28 verse 19). Peter said that God was not a partial God, but in “every nation” he who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with him (Acts chapter 10 verses 34 and 35). So in the third point of Isaiah’s prophecy, we find that the New Testament corresponds perfectly to what Isaiah wrote.
The next question is: how? This finds the same agreement in the New Testament. Again, in the great commission of Matthew chapter 28 versus 18 through 20, Jesus said to go everywhere and teach. Isaiah said that people will go to the house of the Lord to be taught the ways of the Lord. The church is God‘s teaching institution. When you read the book of Acts, you find the disciples teaching everywhere at all times. So the fourth point of harmony and agreement between the Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament fulfillment is how people in the house of the Lord learn God‘s will.
Number five. Where? Again the Bible is very specific. The starting point is not in Rome. It is not at Antioch. It is in Jerusalem. Isaiah said that the law of the Lord would go forth from Jerusalem. Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, He told His disciples to wait in the city of Jerusalem for power from on high (Luke 24 verse 49). The disciples did what Jesus told them to do. They were in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. That’s when the true house of the Lord, the spiritual temple of God, the house Isaiah foretold, was established. Do you see how all these details fit together perfectly?
The last question is why? Why did God establish this house in Jerusalem in the last days in act chapter 2 on Pentecost Day? The answer is in Isaiah chapter 2 verse four. The Old Testament prophets spoke in highly figurative, very symbolic language. For instance, in Isaiah chapter 13, Isaiah talks about the overthrow of the nation of Babylon in the Old Testament. He says in Isaiah chapter 13 verse 10 that the stars of heaven and the constellations would fall to the ground when Babylon fell. The stars in these Old Testament prophecies often mean powerful rulers and governments. When great rulers and their nations are conquered, it’s like stars falling to the ground. This is a symbol. It’s a figure. This is like Daniel eight verse 10 saying that a powerful ruler would take the stars of heaven and throw them down to the ground and stomp on them. There’s no way that can be literal. The same thing is true in Isaiah chapter 2 verse four. When Isaiah says they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, he’s not talking about physical war. He’s talking about spiritual conflict. He’s talking about he’s talking about the personal, the national and the racial prejudice between the Jews and the Gentiles in the first century. The animosity between the Jews and the Gentiles was so thick that it seemed impossible to bring these people together. But the Lord brought them together. Not all of them. But many. How did he do this? In the church. Jews and Gentiles in the first century were baptized, added to the Lords church, and became brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s how they found peace with each other. Paul said in Ephesians 2 verse 14, “For He is our peace, who has made both one.” He’s talking about peace between both the Jews and the Gentiles. That’s what Isaiah chapter 2 verse four is about, not international military peace between Israel and other nations today.
So Isaiah chapter 2 is not a prophecy of a future kingdom. It’s a prophecy of the kingdom that is already here: the church. In Colossians chapter 1 verse 13 Paul said that Christians are in the kingdom of His dear Son. In Hebrew 12 verse 28 the writer says that we are receiving that kingdom. In Revelation chapter 1 verse nine, John said that he was in the kingdom. The parts of the Bible fit together perfectly.
When you add Daniel chapter 2, the harmony is even more amazing. In that chapter, Daniel showed that there would be four great empires starting from the time he spoke: the Babylonians followed the Persians, the Greeks, who followed next and then the Romans, who were the ruling power when Jesus established the very kingdom we’re talking about. Over 500 years before Jesus was born, Daniel said, “and in the days of these kings“ – the very kingdoms we just mentioned, culminating in the Roman Empire – “the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom that shall stand forever“ (Daniel chapter 2, verse 44). Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28 says that kingdom cannot be moved. Jesus said in Matthew 16 verse 18 that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. So Isaiah chapter 2, Joel chapter 2, and Daniel chapter 2 all fit in amazing detail with the church being the kingdom, the house of the Lord, that was established in Jerusalem in A.D. 33 in Acts chapter two.
As far as the Jewish people being God’s chosen nation is concerned, Jesus said that was about to come to an end. He said in Matthew chapter 21 verse 43, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of it.” The Jewish people lost their status as God’s chosen nation. That privilege was given to another nation—not just one particular nation, but the Gentile people. They are in the true kingdom today which is the church.
The kingdom or the reign of God was taken from national Israel. In Matthew chapter 21, chapter 22, chapter 23, and much of chapter 24, Jesus foretells God’s final punishment of the Jewish nation. That happened in 70 A.D. when the Roman army destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Why did this happen? It was Old Testament prophecy. Daniel foretold this calamity in Daniel 9:24-27. Jesus said the destruction of Jerusalem was a fulfillment of Daniel’s words in Matthew chapter 24 verse 15. The temple was destroyed. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered. That put an end to the Jewish system as they had known it.
God never intended for the law of Moses to be permanent. He never intended for political Israel to be the focal point of Christianity. The Old Testament prophecies of the kingdom have been fulfilled. Jews today are just like anyone else. They are just as subject to the gospel as the rest of us. They are not God’s chosen people anymore. Galatians chapter 6 verse 15 says that Christians are the Israel of God now.
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