In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke for many American Evangelicals when he declared that Christians “are commanded to support Israel.”
He explained:
As a Christian growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible [that] those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and from my perspective I want to be on the blessing side of things.
Although Cruz was unable to cite any verses to back up his contention, he was undoubtedly thinking of Genesis 12:3, in which God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.”
The prophet Balaam later applied that promise to all Israel (Numbers 24:9). Thus, it seems clear that God has decreed that those who seek his favor must bless Israel.
But who, exactly, constitutes Israel? Cruz again answered for most Evangelicals when he asserted that the modern state of Israel and the Israel of the Bible are one and the same.
A closer look at Scripture, however, reveals a different picture. The Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, clearly indicates that the true Israel is defined by faith, not DNA.
Even in the Old Testament, it was possible for non-Jews to become part of Israel provided they worshipped the Lord. Both Rahab, who hid the Hebrew spies in Jericho, and Ruth, a Moabitess who married an Israelite, were welcomed into the people of God because of their faith-driven acts. Ruth (and possibly Rahab) even wound up in the lineage of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Messiah.
In the New Testament, the connection between faith and God’s kingdom (i.e., Israel) became explicit.
John the Baptist, for example, warned the Pharisees and Sadducees, the most outwardly religious people in Israel, not to assume they were God’s people because of their genealogies but to repent lest they face judgment. “I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham,” he said (Matthew 3:9).
Jesus likewise cautioned the Jews against trusting their ancestry to get them into the kingdom. In John 8, when the Jews insisted that Abraham was their father, Jesus told them, “You belong to your father, the devil.”
In Matthew 8, after healing the Roman centurion’s servant because of the centurion’s complete trust in him, Jesus said:
Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And after the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46), Jesus told the Jews, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” Genes, it seems, were no substitute for obedience.
The Apostle Paul further elucidated what it means to be a true child of Abraham:
“Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7)
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith…. There is neither Jew nor Gentile … 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)
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. (Romans 2:28, 29)
In Ephesians 2, Paul states that prior to Jesus’ coming, the Gentiles
were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ….
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people.
In short, there is only one “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), which consists of all who believe in Jesus, Jew and Gentile alike, for “God does not show favoritism.” (Acts. 10:34)
From this, we can conclude that Christians are under no obligation to bless the state of Israel. They are, however, commanded to bless the true Israel by “lov[ing] one another” (John 13:34).
Even supposing, though, that Christians really are commanded to bless the state of Israel, what does that mean in practice? Does it mean unconditionally supporting everything the Israeli government does? The Old Testament prophets certainly didn’t think so; time and time again, they upbraided kings for doing things that displeased God. If the Israeli government today is doing things displeasing to God — and quite possibly endangering its own citizens in the process — should Christians really be rooting it on?
Christians ought to bless the Israeli people and their leaders by praying for them, especially that they would come to Christ. But they should not uncritically back everything the Israeli government does. Nor should they urge their own government to unconstitutionally and unwisely involve the United States in Israel’s — or any other foreign country’s — conflicts.