In May of 2024 I did a sermon on this topic at the end of an End Times series called How The World Ends. You can listen to it here. 

In the last 6 to 9 months, I have been asked questions about my understanding of how Christians should view the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Questions like: 

• Are the Jews the chosen people of God even if they reject Jesus as their Messiah? 
• If the answer to that question is yes, what does that mean? How should Christians support them and come alongside them?
• Does that mean Christians should always vote for governmental support from America? Does it mean money and weapons? 
• Does it mean we can never criticize the nation of Israel?
• Does it mean the Jewish people have a divine right to the particular land of Israel as the borders are presently drawn?

Here is a short video about why I decided to write a blog post addressing some of these questions - and why I think those questions are being asked. 

 Below is what I believe to be the story of God's chosen people. 

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THE UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE TO ABRAHAM  

In Genesis 12 God chose a man named Abram and said:

“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

God is promising that Abram will have a family, and all peoples on the earth will eventually be blessed by that family. 

What does Abram need to do? Just trust and go. Leave everything you have ever known, and go “to the land I will show you” (v. 1).

This is an unconditional covenant. No strings attached other than the need to trust and GO. 

Now at this point he and his wife Sarai were pretty old. They were not just childless; she was also way past menopause. 

So in the midst of waiting to see how this would come true, and while wrestling with doubt, God came and reminded him of this promise.  

He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”- (Genesis 15:5). 

As numerous as the stars as the sky. Uncountable. 

And those descendants are promised certain land, outlined later in the same chapter: 

18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21).

That is an unconditional promise. 

CONDITIONAL COVENANT 

Abram had Ishmael and Isaac. But God worked through Isaac as the promised seed to continue his plan of redemption. 

Isaac had Jacob and Esau. But God chose to continue his plan through Jacob. 

In time Jacob’s family turned into a large family. 

Then they became slaves in Egypt. 

While in slavery they became a nation.  

Through Moses they were led out of Egypt and towards that Promised Land. 

Before entering the Promised Land, God made another covenant with this new nation, and this time it had some conditions attached. This is important to take note of. 

Deuteronomy 28:

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.....(Deuteronomy 28:1-2). 

Then God listed out many many blessings (too many to list in this blog post).

But then He gave consequences for disobedience, for stepping outside the covenant parameters:

15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

Again, I cannot list them all, but here are just a few examples to take note (we will reference them again later on):

• 49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand…. 

• 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. 

• 53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.

Now this is graphic. But I show it for a reason. Keep this in mind. 

—-

RECONCILING THE UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE WITH THE CONDITIONAL COVENANT 

So God said through Abraham that all peoples - families and nations – of the world will be blessed. It will happen. Through his offspring. 

That is the unconditional promise. 

But now God is saying to Israel that any particular generation who steps outside of covenant with God will experience his curses.   

That is the conditional part. 

How do we reconcile these two ideas? 

Well, God will bless the whole world through the descendants of Abraham. 

But God was in a sense saying “If you as a generation want to be a part of it, if you as an individual want to be part of it, you better obey.”

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FROM ABRAHAM’S FAILED DESCENDANTS TO THE BLESSING FOR THE NATIONS

They failed miserably. They disobeyed God. They worshipped foreign gods. They committed horrific sins. 

So God allowed other nations to attack them, seize them, and eventually take them into exile. 

But He promised he would bring them back to the land after 70 years of exile, and He did. They rebuilt the temple that had been destroyed. 

However, within a short period of time, they once again showed themselves to be covenant breakers. 

And yet God continued to be faithful to forgive and restore them. He promised them a future – a future through a king that would come through the line of David. The Messiah, a ruler, a shepherd. 

And He promised to give them new hearts (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Years went by. Hundreds, in fact. 

Finally, a baby was born. From the tribe of Judah, through the family of David. 

He announced that the kingdom - the promised kingdom - is here. 

He even said shortly before his death, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. - Luke 22:20

This was huge. “I am the new passover lamb,” he was declaring. “My blood is what you must take shelter under now. All the animal sacrifices pointed to me, and now I am here.”

He was perfectly obedient to God the Father. 

He took the curses on himself. 

He rose.

He proved that he’s not just Israel’s Messiah but the Savior of the world. 

This is what Christians believe. 

Then he said to his disciples - who were pretty much all Jewish at this point (with a few possible exceptions) - to “Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded" (Matthew 28:19-20). 

And that brings us back to what God had promised Abraham back in Genesis 12 when he said that through his descendants, all peoples on the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3). 

Jesus and the kingdom he brings is how God's promise to Abraham is fulfilled. As his disciples go and make disciples of all those nations, and as they are baptized into a new identity and taught to obey and follow Jesus, they enter into the covenant blessings. 

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ANOTHER FORK IN THE ROAD FOR ABRAHAM’S DESCENDENTS 

As the nations take shelter under the blood of Jesus as the lamb slain before the foundations of the world (Revelation 13:8), they receive all that God had in mind for Abraham’s descendants. 

But for the Jews, for ethnic Israel, there was a split. 

I heard a Messianic Jew explain it this way: there was a fork in the road for the Jewish people. To the right was the way of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, and some did indeed trust in Him and go down that road. That was the way God was trying to shepherd his people. 

To the left was the way of rejecting Jesus and waiting for another Messiah. And that was the majority. And by going that way, they actually walked away from their Jewishness. This was a Jewish Christian saying this, mind you. 

From where did he get such a crazy offensive claim? 

From the apostle Paul, who said in Romans 9:6-8: 

6 It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. 

Not everyone who descends from Israel is actually Israel. That’s quite a statement. Not everyone of Abraham’s physical children are actually children of the promise.

Those who are physical children, but did not place their faith in the promised seed of Jesus as Messiah, are actually not true Israel. 

Remember how God chose Isaac over Ishmael to continue his plan of redemption? Remember how God chose Jacob instead of Esau to continue his plan of redemption? 

Those chosen sons were foreshadows of the ultimate chosen Son - Jesus Chist. In a sense, those who reject Jesus go the way of Ishamel and Esau.  Descended from Abraham from birth, but not children of the promise. 

Here he is again in Galatians 3: 

Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. ‭‭(Galatians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭9‭)‬‬

The blessings to Abraham are for Gentiles, too. By faith in Israel’s Messiah. 

Again: 

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.“ ‭‭(Galatians‬ ‭3‬:‭26‬-‭29)‬ ‭

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed - even if you are Gentiles! 

I am not Jewish by ethnicity. I am Italian, Portuguese and Irish. But I am a son of Abraham by faith. I am a spiritual Jew. 

This is such amazing news! All the promises of God to Abraham are yes for those in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20) - even if we are not physically descended from Abraham. 

But those promises are NO for those who are physically descended from Abraham and yet reject Abraham's promised seed. 

JESUS’ WARNING FOR ETHNIC ISRAEL

And this is why, towards the end of Jesus‘ ministry, he was so brokenhearted for his own people that he cried out in Matthew 23:

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39). 

This speaks of a coming judgment.  

In the next chapter, his disciples began to call his attention to the beauty and wonder of the temple’s construction (the 2nd temple that had been rebuilt after Israel returned from exile, and which was renovated in a sense by Herod the Great). 

“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2). 

It’s all coming down. There’s coming a day when this thing is going to crumble. 

Then he goes on to explain the signs to look for as the end of this temple system is getting closer (and signs that I believe will be repeated in some sense as we get closer to Jesus’ return). 

This blog is already quite long, so I will not include all of Matthew 24. But look at just a few more verses: 

 16 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 

Sure enough, in the years leading up to 70 A.D., there was a Jewish revolt against the Romans, and Rome responded by circling Jerusalem.

The Christians in the area saw the writing on the wall and remembered Jesus’ words above. Those who were in Judea literally fled to the wilderness. Many of them went to a city called Pella for refuge. But the Jews who had rejected Jesus did not heed these warnings and stayed. 

The zealouts - the right wing conservatives, if you will – saw this secular Roman army and assumed God would protect them, so they led the people to stay and fight. 

They believed, in other words, that this was the land of promise, the city of God, and therefore God would protect them and their houses. 

They were, after all, children of Abraham. 

But it did not go well for them. 

Rome starved those in Jerusalem to the point where they were eating their children. 

Finally, in 70 AD, Rome went in and ransacked the city. The temple was lit on fire, and the gold melted down between the large stones. To get the gold, Roman soldiers took the stones down one upon another – thus fulfilling what Jesus said: “Not one stone will be left upon another.”(Matthew 24:2). 

And why did this happen? 

Remember Jesus’ words from the end of Matthew 23: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I longed to gather you but you would not let me. So your house is left to you desolate.” 

They would not let Jesus gather them under his protection, under his covenant love, under his blood. 

So people starved. Mothers and fathers had nothing to feed their children. Some even ate their children. And bodies were piled up in the temple, desecrating it, making it unclean. 

These details are important. 

Not only did Jesus say in chapter 24 that such things would happen, but remember what we looked at earlier in Deuteronomy 28? Remember what God said would happen if the Israelites failed to obey his commands? 

• 49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand…. 

• 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. 

• 53 Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.

The curses came on an unbelieving people who were chosen to bring about the messiah, but who then rebelled against that messiah  - and by doing so they put themselves outside of God's hand of protection. 

Jesus’ words came true for Christ-rejecting Israel precisely becauase they rejected Christ. 

——-

BUT GOD IS NOT GIVING UP ON ETHNIC ISRAEL

Although God would call all Christians children of Abraham, this does not mean that ethnic Israel has disappeared from God's plan. 

In explaining to Gentile Christians what has happened to Israel, Paul explained it this way in Romans 11: 

22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! (Romans 11:17-26)

Paul likens Jesus-rejecting Israel to a branch that has been cut off from the original olive tree.

But God can graft them back in.

And what's more - if us Gentiles become self-righteous, we can be cut off (see v. 22). I do not believe that those who truly belong to Christ can ever be cut off, but if we do not continue in humility and trembling before a holy God, it shows we did not truly belong to Him (but that is an argument for a different day). 

It gets more promising for Israel. Paul now moves to “They COULD be grafted in” to “In fact, it WILL happen:”

25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25-26). 

All Israel will be saved. 

Right now there is a hardening  - they are rejecting the messiah. 

But one day - All Israel will be saved. 

Whether this means the majority of ethnic Jews throughout the world or the majority of the nation of Israel, I do not know. But I do know it means God is not finished with the Jewish people through whom He brought the Savior of the World. 

Every nation, tribe and tongue will be represented in the kingdom of God, we know from the book of Revelation. 

But no other people group is promised to be saved in such large numbers as Israel. 

Not even America. 

IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS: 

1. Are the Jews the chosen people of God even if they reject Jesus as their Messiah? 

Yes and No. 

Yes, in the sense that God has a chosen plan for them to be eventually saved. 

But No, in the sense that they are no longer under his covenant protection. They have been cut off from the olive tree, as Paul put it. This is why they went into exile in Babylon and the first temple was destroyed, and it was why the Romans besieged Jerusalem in 70 AD and destroyed the second temple. 

God wants them saved and will have them back - but in the meantime, they are not under his covenant protection from their enemies. 

2. Are Christians obligated to support them and come alongside them? 

Yes. 

But not based on what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12 where he said “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (v. 3). 

That is for those who are spiritual children of Abraham. It is not for any physical descendant of Abraham. It was not for those who went the way of Ishamel and Esau, and it is not for those who reject Jesus. 

It is for those who are in Messiah Jesus. 

But Christians should support the Jewish people based on 

• God’s desire to save everyone (1 Timothy 2:4); and
• God’s promise to save all of Israel (Romans 11:25-26). 

Therefore, we want to partner with His plan to reach them. 

3. What about Jews who oppose Christians?  

When God said in Genesis 12:3 that he will “bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” – we know now from Jesus and the apostle Paul that this applies to all Christians.  ”In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (Romans 9:8). 

Christians - whether Jew or Gentile - are the ones God promises to be a blessing to, and therefore He will oppose those who oppose Christians. 

As a result - follow me here, as offensive as it might be – if Jewish people who reject Jesus are cursing and opposing Christians, which happens quite a bit in Israel (at least on a social level), then they better watch out.. Not only are they not under God' s covenant protection, but they are now cursing the true spiritual children of Abraham. 

4. Should Christians always vote for governmental support from America, like money and weapons? 

I hope you can see now that if ethnic Israel is not what God was talking about when He made that promise to Abrahma's descendants - at least not until they come back into covenant through faith in Christ – then there is no obligation to support the nation state of Israel based on that passage. 

But I would argue that there is an obligation to support them when they are victims of injustice, as they have been numerous times throughout human history. 

God calls his people (us) to be a people of justice, so we should come alongside the outcast, the little guy, and the oppressed. 

Israel and the Jewish people have been in this place numerous times. October 7th of 2023 was one such horrific example. Christians throughout the world – not just America - should do what we can to support them and stand up for them when they are victims of injustice. 

But this also goes for other people groups who have been the victims of injustice - whether they be from Haiti or Japan or Nigeria or even Gaza. 

This is why we must use discernment in every situation and every conflict. 

There is still unbelievable anti-semitism in our own country. There are still awful violent attacks on them.Christians should stand up for them.

We should stand up for any group who is being targeted en masse like that (that included anti-Muslim actions after 9/11). 

Unfortunately, we have failed to do that many times throughout the last 2,000 years.

5. Does it mean the Jewish people have a divine right to the particular land of Israel as the borders are presently drawn?

Israel has a divine right to the promises of God IF they come back to covenant with him through the Messiah. Israel does not have a divine right to the promised land in their present Christ-rejecting state. 

It is through covenant, and covenant comes through shelter under the Passover Lamb, and the Passover Lamb is Christ. 

But I think (and I can only say I think because I cannot stand on Scripture for this conviction) that Israel has a moral and legal right to their land, and justice demands condemnation of anyone who wants to wipe out the Jewish people.

Hitler was able to turn many Christians against Jews by making them fear the Jews. 

I was talking to a pastor from Pakistan who told me that Christians are tolerated there. They are legally allowed to be there, to gather, and just not to convert Muslims. 

Jews, however, can’t be there at all. He told me they will be killed. 

They deserve to have land and to defend that land. 

But Israel’s right to defend herself does not mean she is justified in every act or that we should uncritically support their reactions. Just like we should not support every action of the American government.

It’s not anti-semitic to think critically about, and debate about, whether the government of Israel should do this or that. I discussed this at length in the podcast with a Jewish rabbi friend two years ago. 

SUMMARY 

To love the Jewish people in their Christ-rejecting state, we must speak the truth in love to them. 

This means saying we think they are wrong about Jesus being the Messiah, and it means speaking up when the government is guilty of its own unjust actions. 

But it also means speaking up when they are victims of injustice, and it means remembering that we Gentiles were the ones grafted into their tree - and with that knowledge should come humility.