Why We Stand with Israel
The God of the Bible is passionate about Israel. The name “Israel” is mentioned over 2,300 times in the Bible. In fact, Israel is mentioned over five times more than the words “love” and “sin” combined. In Zechariah 2:8, God calls Israel the “apple of His eye.” In Psalm 129:5, God says that anyone who hates Israel will be “put to shame.” In Zechariah 3, God rebuked Satan because of the devil’s hatred for Israel.
For Christians, the Bible has come to us by God through the Jewish people. The first five Books of the Bible are the Torah, the Jewish Law. The Torah is the Law of God and the written Word of God, and it is a part of the Christian Bible. The Bible is written by more than 40 different authors, among them 39 were Jewish. The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, who was a Jewish Rabbi. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Jewish Law. In John 4:22, Jesus tells a Samaritan woman that “salvation comes from the Jews.” In Romans 11:18, the Apostle Paul says that the Jewish people are the roots and Christians are the branches.
The Bible also declares in Zechariah 2 that God promises the most severe punishment for the nation or nations that stand against Israel. In Genesis 12:2-3, every Christian will be treated based on how he or she treats Israel and the Jewish people. Therefore, every true Christian (1) owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the Jewish people for Christianity and the Bible, (2) has a biblical mandated to stand with the State of Israel and (3) is morally obligated to honor the Jewish people as an act of obedience to Jesus Christ.
God’s Covenant with Israel
The God of the Bible is a God of covenant. In Deuteronomy 7:9, we see God’s covenant is “everlasting;” thus, God never breaks His covenant with His people. Any doctrine or belief that declares God has broken or replaced His covenant is false and must be rejected under the authority of the Word of God. Similarly, any doctrine or belief that declares God has replaced the State of Israel or the Jewish people is also false. The Word of God declares that the Lord made an everlasting covenant with Noah and his descendants in Genesis 9:8-16:
8 “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Over a thousand years later the Lord affirmed this same everlasting covenant to Abraham. While living in Haran, God commanded Abraham to move to a specific, foreign and unknown land (Genesis 12). Abraham responded by traveling from Haran through Shechem and Bethel to the land of Canaan. It is here in Genesis 12 when God promised Abraham that He would make him into a great nation. Then in Genesis 15:9-21, God made a blood covenant with Abraham given him and his descendants the land of Israel. And this covenant still applies today. This same covenant was renewed in Genesis 17:7-14:
7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The wholeland of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” 9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.”
God’s eternal covenant with Abraham was later extended to his son Isaac in Genesis 22 and his grandson Jacob in Genesis 28. This everlasting covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also confirmed by the Word of God in Genesis 17:17-21:
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
The Land of Israel
God renewed His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:17-21. God promised Abraham that his son Ishmael (by wife Hagar) would be blessed. But this blessing would not fall under the eternal covenant God made with Abraham and Isaac (by wife Sarah). Muslims claim that the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem belong to them because they claim to be descendants of Ishmael. There is no doubt that the Arab people have been enormously blessed as God promised Abraham in Genesis 17:19. Today, the Arab nations own two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves.
But the eternal covenant God gave Abraham was for his descendants of Isaac and Jacob through his wife Sarah; thus this covenant includes the right of the Jewish people to own and possess the land of Israel. This covenant was reaffirmed by God nearly a thousand years later with King David in Psalm 105:8-11:
8 He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, 9 the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. 10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: 11 “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.”
The land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. God is the original owner of the land and He gave it to the Jewish people. Therefore the Bible declares that the State of Israel has (1) a right to exist and (2) her land belongs to the Jewish people. And this is God’s eternal covenant and it still applies today.
We Stand with Israel & the Jewish People
We are committed to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. This is an act of obedience for every devoted follower of Jesus. We are unashamed of our faith in Jesus Christ and His Lordship, the Word of God and the nation of Israel. The Holy Spirit is calling for a movement of unity among every Christian to stand beside every Jewish man, woman and child for the sake of Israel and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:1; Psalm 122:6).
God’s call began in the summer of 2009 after several of us attended Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington D.C. It was here that God placed a desire to see Christians standing with the Jewish people and to witness the first ever Night to Honor Israel in Butler and Western Pennsylvania. We hosted the first leaders’ luncheon led by Pastor Victor Styrsky of Christians United for Israel on September 14, 2011. A total of 34 Christian and Jewish leaders participated.
Since the moment we began to publicly honor the State of Israel and the Jewish people in Butler and Western Pennsylvania, God has poured out supernatural provision. And many Christian leaders are now speaking out for the first time! When we are obedient to the will of God, then God blesses His people. But we do not honor Israel to be blessed. We do it as an act of obedience to God.
Every Christian in America must recognize the perilous times in which we live today. It is the year 1939 all over again. It is imperative for every Christian in Butler, Western PA and America to obey the will of God and honor Israel! As for us and our household, we will serve the Lord. We will not be silent.
