CHAPTER 1
ISRAEL
May 14, 1948, was a pivotal day in human history. On that afternoon, a car carrying Jewish leader David Ben-Gurion rushed down Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv and stopped at the Tel Aviv Art Museum. Four oâclock was only minutes away, and inside, Jewish leaders and press representatives from all over the world were assembled in an auditorium, awaiting his arrival. Ben-Gurion bounded up the steps. Precisely at four oâclock, local time, he stepped to the podium, called the meeting to order, and read these historic words:1
Six thousand miles away, President Truman sat in the Oval Office reading a statement. He signed his approval and noted the time: 6:10 p.m. One minute later, the White House press secretary read the release to the world. The United States had officially recognized the birth of the modern nation of Israel.
Isaiahâs prophecy, written 740 years before the birth of Jesus, declared, âWho has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?â (Isa. 66:8). Secular Israel was born that day.
In the past seven decades, this tiny nation with a population of 8.5 million has become the geopolitical center of the world.3 Why is this so? Why is a fledgling country with a total land space smaller than New Jersey mentioned in the nightly news more than any other nation except the United States?
To answer these questions, we must understand what happened on that day in 1948, what is happening today in Israel, and how these events affect the entire world. For answers we turn not to the evening news or the front page of the newspaper but to the Bible.
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
The story of Israel begins in the book of Genesis. The almighty God of heaven and earth made a binding covenant with Abraham, who was to be the father of the Jewish nation. The provisions of that covenant are recorded in Genesis 12:1â3, in which God said:
Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your fatherâs house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Godâs covenant with Abraham consists of four unconditional promises. First, God promised to bless Abraham. That promise has been lavishly kept; Abraham has been blessed in many ways. For thousands of years, Abraham has been revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.
Second, God promised to bring out of Abraham a great nation. Currently, more than 6 million Jews live in Israel alone.4 Another five million live in the United States, and a significant Jewish population remains scattered throughout the world.5
Third, God promised to make Abraham a blessing to many. Just think what the world would be missing had it not been for the Jews. Without the Jews, we would have no Bible. Without the Jews, there would be no Ten Commandments, the basis of jurisprudence among most of the civilized nations of the world. Without the Jews, there would have been no Jesus. Without the Jewish Jesus, there would be no Christianity.
Fourth, God promised to bless those who blessed Israel and curse those who cursed her. He has kept that promise faithfully. I believe one of the reasons America has been blessed as a nation is that she has become a homeland for the Jewish people. Here Jews can retain their religion. Here they have economic, social, and educational opportunities. Today, the Christian church in America stands firmly between the Jewish people and the repetition of any further anti-Semitism.6
Godâs covenant with Abraham reveals both the mission and future of Godâs chosen nation. Studying these promises will give us great help in understanding the present unrest in the Middle East, the future of the Israeli nation, and how the destiny of todayâs nations will be affected by their stance toward Godâs chosen people.
This historic document includes seven important features. The Abrahamic covenant is . . .
AN UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT
Seven times in Genesis 12:1â3 God declared in emphatic terms what He would do for Abraham. His covenant with Abraham was unconditional, and He ratified it in a ceremony described in Genesis 15. In The Jeremiah Study Bible, I explain the meaning of this ceremony:
No provision was made for this covenant to be revoked, and it was not subject to amendment or annulment.
A PERSONAL COVENANT
In His covenant with Abraham, God promised extravagant blessings not only to Abrahamâs descendants but also to Abraham himself: âI will bless you and make your name greatâ (Gen. 12:2).
In Genesis 12:1â3, God addressed Abraham using the personal pronouns you and your eleven times. The promises are ultimately far-reaching and eternal, but they were made first of all to Abraham personally and each has been fulfilled.
God directed Abraham to travel to the land He promised to his descendants, and Abraham found it to be, as Moses later described, a rich land âflowing with milk and honeyâ (Ex. 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3). His flocks and herds increased exponentially, and he became an extremely wealthy man (Gen. 13:2). Yes, this land would be the eternal possession of his descendants, but it was also Abrahamâs personal home throughout his life (25:7â8).
Godâs promise to make Abrahamâs name great has also been lavishly fulfilled. Even in his own time, Abraham was known throughout the land as a rich and powerful leader who was highly respected and feared.
A NATIONAL COVENANT
In the second verse of Godâs covenant with Abraham, He said, âI will make you a great nation.â The ultimate greatness of the nation of Israel awaits the Millennium, but by all the common standards of evaluation, Israel is a great nation today. Professor Amnon Rubinstein gives us an impressive summary of Israelâs national achievements:
A TERRITORIAL COVENANT
Of all Godâs covenant promises to Abraham, I believe the most amazing is His promise concerning the land. God told Abraham to leave his country, his family, and his fatherâs house and go âto a land that I will show youâ (Gen. 12:1). God then led Abraham to the land that would belong to his descendants forever.
The land promised to Abraham and his descendants was described with clear geographical boundaries. It takes in all the land from the Mediterranean Sea as the western boundary to the Euphrates River as the eastern boundary. The prophet Ezekiel fixed the northern boundary at Hamath, one hundred miles north of Damascus (Ezek. 48:1), and the southern boundary at Kadesh, about one hundred miles south of Jerusalem (v. 28). If Israelis were currently occupying all the land that God gave to them, they would control all the holdings of present-day Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank of Jordan, plus substantial portions of Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
The strange thing is, Israel has never, in its long history, occupied anywhere near this much landânot even at the height of its glory days under David and Solomon. This fact has caused many biblical scholars to spiritualize the meaning of the term land and equate it with heaven. Others claim these promises were conditional and were forfeited by Israelâs disobedience. In refutation of these interpretations, Dr. John F. Walvoord wrote:
Any normal reading of Scripture recognizes Canaan as an actual place, a piece of real estate, an expanse of soil that belongs to Abrahamâs descendants forever.
The fact that Israel has been dispossessed of the land in three periods of its history is not an argument against its ultimate possession. Occupation is not the same as ownership. After each dispossession, God brought Israel back to its originally promised land. God has consistently kept His promise to Abraham, and that gives us absolute assurance that He will keep it in the future.
The turmoil over Israelâs right to its land will not cease till the end, for the land provision of the Abrahamic covenant is at the core of the hatred of Middle Eastern nations for Israel today.
But ignoring Godâs care and protection of Israel is extremely dangerous. The land of Israel is so important to God that, according to Deuteronomy 11:12, it is âa land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.â
A RECIPROCAL COVENANT
God also promised protection to the nation that would descend from Abraham: âI will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses youâ (Gen. 12:3). Leaders and nations that ally with Israel to preserve, protect, and defend it will likewise be preserved, protected, and defended. On the other hand, those who stand in the way of Israelâs well-being will find themselves standing against Godâwhich means they will not long stand at all.
The prophet Zechariah declared that God would plunder the nations that plunder Israel, âfor he who touches [Israel] touches the apple of His eyeâ (Zech. 2:8). History tells the tragic story of what has happened to nations and leaders who dared to opp...