When it comes to the end-times, there have always been plenty of people willing to come up with detailed charts, graphs and line-ups of key nations. Even in the early church there were those who believed they were living in the last of the last days. In our own time, with events occurring virtually every month that seem to advance scenarios such as that outlined by Zechariah in chapters 12 and 14 – which depict the nations of the world gathering against Israel – it is not hard to believe that we are in the run-up to the end of this age.

Many people are inclined to shovel these Old Testament prophecies into a ‘millennium basket’ and leave them to await their fulfilment then – whenever it may be. Other believers – probably the majority in fact – view the Old Testament as primarily a ‘forerunner’ to the New (and in particular to the arrival of the Church on the scene), and take it for granted that it is the Church who, to quote Peter’s words, are the ‘elect’ and God’s chosen possession, priesthood, and holy nation. In other words the Church has replaced Israel as God’s called-out people, and we should therefore not expect the literal fulfilment of specific prophecies.

By this reckoning, Paul’s longing for the hard hearts of his people to be softened so that they may come to faith, as expressed in Romans 9 – 11, is no more, (but no less either) than the longing of a fellow Hebrew rather than a prophetic longing for the fulfilment of promises made to God’s original nation. But while Scripture certainly does make it clear that the new covenant supersedes the old, what such an understanding potentially lacks is any recognition of the miracle the Lord has wrought in preserving the Jewish people through all the tribulations they have passed through in the last millennia. For myself, it seems both simpler and more satisfying to follow David Pawson’s line of reasoning on these matters, and to ask why it should be that, just because God has now raised up followers of Jesus from every nation, He would therefore forget and cast off His firstborn?

While I have not verified the claim for myself, David Pawson taught that there are at least 70 references to the literal land and nation of Israel to be found in the New Testament. The only clear reference otherwise is Paul’s discussion of the now meaninglessness rite of circumcision in Galatians, in which he blesses God’s new creation, speaking ‘peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.’ (Gal. 6:16) i.e. the congregation of all believers, who together make up the new Israel of God, having gained entrance to the Kingdom of God by the blood Jesus shed for us on the cross, and been grafted by grace into God’s vine.

Whether or not you believe Israel as a nation still has a purpose in God’s plan, or whether it has been superseded by the Church, the New Testament is quite clear is that there is only one way to salvation, it (He!) comes through the Jewish line and through Him, salvation has been extended to all people everywhere. Theologian George Eldon Ladd summarises this succinctly in his teaching on the Kingdom of God,

‘God’s Kingdom creates the Church and works in the world through the Church . . . [This means that] there is therefore but one people of God.’ Only one olive tree (Romans 11), and only one flock.’ (John 10) To suggest otherwise is to leave orthodoxy. ‘It is impossible to think of two peoples of God through whom God is carrying out different redemptive purposes without doing violence to Romans 11’ This does not mean that God has forgotten the Jewish people, however. There will be a time when their hardening ends, and they will come to Christ. They will recognise their Messiah. Thus, in God’s hand, ‘the salvation of Israel is an essential part of God’s single redemptive purpose.’

May the Lord hasten the day, and inspire a deep love for the Jewish people in the hearts of believers everywhere, that more and more may come to know the salvation that is ours through Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, and that they may come back to their identity as a nation belonging to God – but without seeing the matter through rose-coloured spectacles and claiming things for and about Israel that the Word of God does not support. What there is is wonderful enough! There is a lovely verse to be found in Isaiah, for example, in which the Lord speaks of shielding Jerusalem in a special way:

Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it. (Is. 31:5)

Not all will identify with that concept of praying for the Lord to ‘hover’ over the land of Israel like an eagle, but many of us will – and therefore be inclined to view certain events as evidence that He is indeed continuing to spread His wings over it. For instance, after British Bible-believing General Edmund Allenby dramatically liberated Jerusalem in 1917 from the Ottoman Empire, he took to the air and dropped notes from a plane saying ‘Surrender the city,’ and symbolically signing it ‘Al Nabi’ – which means the prophet.* It has been a joy to meet people in many places, including Dresden, where many believers have a genuinely deep heart love for Israel but without going OTT about it, incorporating that alongside an equally passionate missionary heart for other countries – in their case very much including Mongolia!

I certainly believe too that there have been numerous examples since the re-founding of the nation of Israel when God has moved to directly protect the nation from its enemies. There are too many of these to look at now – though that most certainly does not mean that everything that modern day Israel does is in any way right and excusable in God’s sight. Personally, I favour a literal interpretation of Ezekiel 38 and 39, and believe that the events that Zechariah foresaw all those years ago will unfurl, exactly as God has said that they will. It seems to me that it is poor exegetics for the Church to leap to appropriate all the promises given to Israel, whilst firmly dumping all the more challenging requirements and judgements of God on Israel.

Keeping the balance

Whatever we believe about God’s continuing love for Israel as a literal nation, we are not called to excuse their actions against starving, unarmed people in Gaza. Those to whom much has been given He also holds to high account. It is so important not to become obsessed by an interpretation of Scripture either to the point where we believe that everything that the literal nation of Israel does is right, or even to denounce other Christians who happen to take a different view. Nor should any God-given love and concern for Israel to override every other revelation of God’s heart and character, or to posit alternative routes to salvation: Jesus remains the only way to the Father for both Gentile and Jew.**

Pray rather that all people everywhere do the very thing the apostles called them to do: ‘repent and turn to God so that their sins may be wiped out, and times of refreshing come from the Lord.’ (Acts 3:19)

*https://www.oneforisrael.org/israel/1917-end-muslim-rule-holy-land-foretold-bible/
**You may also appreciate this in-depth overview of the New Covenant and Israel.
https://ruachministries.co.uk/the-ever-controversial-matter-of-israel/