Does Israel Still Matter To God?
Pastor Leslie Chua
“As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Does Israel matter to God?
The question of whether the Jews are still God’s chosen people has persisted for 2,000 years. That is because Israel seemed to have faded from God’s divine plan decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and upon the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the exile of the Jews from their original homeland in A.D. 135.
So, does Israel still feature in God’s plan and purposes? Essentially, does Israel still matter to God?
My answer to these questions is a resounding yes. God’s redemptive plan began with Israel and it will also end with Israel.
I will give 4 reasons to support my argument that Israel still matters to God.
God’s Covenant with Israel Remains in Force
The first reason: God has a covenant with Israel, and the covenant remains in force.
After the Tower of Babel incident where the inhabitants of the earth rejected God’s rule over them, God confused their common language and divided them into nations.
From among the nations, God chose a man by the name of Abram, who is better known as Abraham.
God promised to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation – “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).
Later, God gave Abraham more promises, which included multitudes of descendants (Genesis 15:5) and the Promised Land spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates in modern-day Iraq and stretching south to the Nile River in Egypt (Genesis 15:18-19). This is more land than the nation of Israel is currently occupying.
God formalised His promises to Abraham by making a covenant with him. God never lies and He always keeps His promise. Yet, He found it fit to seal His promises to Abraham with a covenant.
God instructed Abraham to cut a heifer, a female goat, and a ram into two halves. Then, He put Abraham into a deep sleep. After that, God in the symbols of “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Genesis 15:17).
In ancient times, when 2 people entered into a covenant, they took animals and cut them into two halves. Then, they would line them up just as Abraham did. Each of them would stand at opposite ends. After that, they would walk around or between the cut pieces. Each would solemnly vow to keep his part of the covenant failing which they would end up like the sacrificed animals.
The Hebrews, like most ancient people, took covenants very seriously. Covenants were meant to be kept.
In the case of God’s covenant with Abraham, it is important to observe that only God moved between the cut pieces of the animals. Abraham did not do so because he was fast asleep. So, this is a unilateral covenant, which means that God promised to keep His words even if Abraham’s descendants – the Israelites and later the Jews – failed to keep their part of the covenant.
The significance of God’s action must not be missed. God will always keep His covenant with Abraham regardless of whether Israel is faithful or unfaithful.
Does Israel still matter to God today? Absolutely! God will never abandon Israel because He cannot and He will not break His covenant with Abraham.
The Church is Part of the Commonwealth of Israel
The second reason: the church is part of the commonwealth of Israel.
Ephesians 2:12-13 (ESV) - …remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Simply put, the apostle, Paul, was saying that we were not a part of the community of Israel when we were separated from Christ. It is only after we have received Christ that we are integrated into Israel and become a part of it.
The Greek word, politeia, which is translated as “commonwealth” is translated as “citizenship” in some other translations such as the NIV (New International Version) – “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel...” (Ephesians 2:12).
The idea is the same. Essentially, Gentile believers become citizens of Israel when they are saved. We have been subsumed into spiritual Israel.
Notice also that God’s covenants - the Abrahamic Covenant and the Old Covenant - were cut between God and Israel. Not many know that the New Covenant is also made between God and Israel, and not between God and the church.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV) - “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Few believers realise this truth. When we receive Christ, we enter into the New Covenant that God had made with Israel.
Paul said that we were strangers to these covenants of promise. But now, having believed in Christ, we are partakers of the New Covenant through Israel.
Writing to the Romans, Paul asserts that Gentile believers are like wild olive shoots that are being grafted into the cultivated olive tree, which represents Israel. Further establishing the significance of Israel, Paul continued saying that we “now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” (Romans 11:17). Gentile Christians are the branches whereas Israel is the root.
Does Israel still matter to God? Absolutely! Both the New Covenant and our citizenship in Israel are meaningless without Israel. Israel matters not only to God; it also matters to Gentile believers in Christ.
The Election of Israel is Irrevocable
The third reason: the election of Israel is irrevocable.
In his epistle to the Romans, Paul asked concerning the Jews, “Has God rejected his people?” (Romans 11:1)
Paul then answered his own question, “By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2)
This is as straight an answer as you can get from the Holy Scripture concerning the destiny of the Jews. Paul is clear and categorical in his assertion that God has not rejected His chosen people.
Paul went on to say that God had always kept a faithful remnant when the majority of Israel fell into apostasy (Romans 112b-6).
After that, he argued that while the Jews might have fallen away, God had the power to restore them. He used the analogy of the grafting of olive branches – “And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you (referring to Gentile believers) were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree (Romans 11:23-24).
Paul concluded his argument by stating that finally “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26) and God’s election and covenant with Israel are irrevocable - For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
God is Not Done with Israel Yet
The fourth reason: God is not done with Israel yet.
Based on biblical eschatology, God’s redemptive programme with Israel is not completed yet. God still has work to do with His chosen but stiff-necked people. He will judge them one last time at the end of this present age for their persistent unbelief and stubborn refusal to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, and through a most severe trial all the remnants of Israel shall be saved.
Where is the evidence for all this?
The proof text is taken from the prophet Daniel’s Seventy Weeks prophecy recorded in Daniel chapter 9.
The Seventy Weeks prophecy begins with these words: - "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy (Daniel 9:24 - NIV).
Seventy sevens mean 70 weeks of years. It means that Israel is given 490 years (that is, 70 X 7) to complete the redemptive timeline and plan as decreed by God, after which the end of this present age will come. Please note that one biblical year comprises 360 days.
Read Daniel 9:25-27.
This prophetic time clock started ticking sometime in 445 B.C. when the Persian king, Artaxerxes, issued the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. He sent Nehemiah to oversee this monumental task of rebuilding Jerusalem.
Fascinatingly, this prophetic time clock suddenly stopped ticking after 69 weeks of years on 6 April A.D. 32. That was the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem and presented Himself to the Jews as their Messiah. But the Jewish religious leaders and most of the Jews rejected Him. In the words of Daniel, “the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing” (Daniel 9:26).
This was when the church came into the picture. In a sense, since then, Israel disappeared from the scene until 14 May 1948 when it was reborn as a sovereign nation.
Notice that there is still one missing week of 7 years – the 70th week - yet to be fulfilled.
When will this last week of 7 years come into play?
Paul has the answer in Romans 11:25-27 (NIV) - I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
Sometime in the future, when the full number of Gentile believers have come into the Kingdom of God, the church age will be over and God will once again focus His redemptive work on Israel. The church will be raptured and after that, the 7-year Tribulation will begin.
This will take place in the last 7 years of this present age, which is the 70th week of Daniel’s 70-week prophecy.
Speaking about what will happen on the 70th week, Daniel prophesied – “He (referring to the Antichrist) will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him" (Daniel 9:27 - NIV).
In the middle of the 7-year Tribulation, God will allow the Antichrist to wreak havoc in the land of Israel. The Antichrist will desecrate the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and destroy much of Israel.
According to the prophet, Zechariah, two-thirds of the Jews will be killed (Zechariah 12:8). The one-third who are left alive will turn to Jesus – “This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God'" (Zechariah 13:9 - NIV)
So, as of now, God is not done with Israel yet. After the church has been raptured, He will deal with Israel and bring the remnants to salvation through a series of judgements.
Does Israel still matter to God? Absolutely! Israel will always feature prominently in God’s plan, even in eternity. In the new heavens and new earth, all believers will dwell in a city called New Jerusalem and the 12 gates leading into the glorious city will be named after the 12 tribes of Israel.
Israel always matters to God, now and forevermore!