When Jesus was on earth He wept over Jerusalem because they had largely rejected him. They had also rejected many of their prophets before Him. He wept because He knew the destruction that would follow (Luke 19: 41 - 44). In AD 70 the temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were scattered all over the world.
In 1947 Israel was restored to their land as a nation which many prophetic words in the Bible had predicted (Jeremiah 30: 1 - 38: 22). So we can see that God is working prophetically fulfilling His word. But does this mean we should agree with everything the state of Israel does as Christians?
But does this mean we should agree with everything the state of Israel does as Christians?
I don't believe so. Although the early church started from the root of David, Jesus being the Jewish Messiah, it was also made clear that He came for the Gentiles (the nations) (Matthew 28: 18 - 20). The early church was a Jewish movement, however it soon became clear that the Spirit was sending the church into the whole world (Acts 1: 8). This caused tensions in the early church between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Slowly the church realised that it was to be a worldwide movement and that the only qualification for being a part was to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour and be born of the Spirit.
The church gradually learnt you didn't have to practice the Jewish religion to be a Christian. Or as Paul puts it, you had to have a spiritual circumcision of the heart rather than a physical circumcision (Romans 2: 28 - 29).
However, in case the non-Jewish Christians should become proud and persecute Jews, Paul also made clear that we as non-Jewish believers should always remain humble and grateful to God for grafting us into the fig tree (a symbol of the Jewish people) (Romans 11: 11 - 31). We should respect that Israel was chosen to have the original covenant with God and give Jesus the Messiah to us. Our job now is to show them mercy and share the Good News with them.
Does this therefore mean that everything that present day Israel does should be supported?
Does this therefore mean that everything that present day Israel does should be supported? I do not believe so. We as Christians must always be followers of Jesus. He showed compassion to the poor, the oppressed, the up and outs and the down and outs. When the Jewish religious leaders rejected the Samaritans, Jesus spoke prophetically to the woman at the well and her whole town became believers and followers of Jesus.
The Forgiveness of the Cross
I believe that right now Jesus is weeping over the people of Israel and those who have had these atrocities carried out against them by Hamas. Hamas in the Hebrew Bible is the word for violence (Genesis 6: 7 - 11). God said he would wipe out the earth in the flood because of violence (Hamas). However in the New Testament we are told that God sent Jesus to cancel the record of debt and sin that was against us (Colossians 2: 14). The word for cancel or blot out is the same word in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that God used to say he was going to wipe out the sin and violence in Noah's day. The gracious thing about the New Covenant established by Jesus death on the cross, is that everyone whether Jew, Gentile, Palestinian, etc. can have their violence and wickedness cancelled and forgiven.
How Should We Respond?
So how should we respond as Christians to this crisis in the middle East, between Israel, the Palestinians and Hamas. We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We should weep over the suffering of their men, women and children. But we should also pray for the peace of the Palestinians and weep over the death of their men, women and children. Jesus, I believe is weeping over both Jew and Palestinian at this time. He is reaching out his nail pierced hands to them and saying you are forgiven, repent and believe in me to have your sin, violence and hatred wiped out by the cross. And then turn around and forgive and love your enemies.
Lets pray for this kind of reconciliation for the Jewish and Palestinian people towards God and each other. Let's pray for the healing of Ishmael and Isaac, the Ishmaelites and Israel.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 2: 14 - 18 NIV
