Giving Israel Her Due
By Elwood McQuaid

The resurgence of premillennial thinking among a significant number of evangelical Christians over the past few centuries has brought to the scene a consistent approach to interpretation of prophetic Scriptures. The great boon for Bible students found in the premillennial view is that it makes the prophetic Scriptures comprehensible and world events decipherable. A central factor in premillennial interpretation is not to misidentify God’s program for Israel with His program for the church.

Scripture’s teaching about Israel is one of the great assurances that the book we call the Bible is historically accurate- a trustworthy document that only a God who sees the future before it is lived out on the stage of human history could produce. Let’s take a text from Scripture and see how history comes alongside the written Word. The passage is Ezekiel 11:16-20.

Thus saith the Lord GOD: Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come…Thus saith the Lord GOD: I will even gather you from then people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come there, and they shall take away the detestable things and all its abominations from there. And I will give them one heart I will put a new spirit within, and you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances, and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Four essentials are defined in this passage. (These same things are said in different words in a number of other passages.)First we are told that Israel would be cast among the nations. We need not be reminded that this is one of the best-attested facts in all of human history. For nearly 2000 years, Jews have wandered as footsore sojourners among often-inhospitable Gentiles. The prophesies of Israel’s dispersion have been very literally fulfilled. Next is the promise that even though the nation would be forced from its home for extended periods of time, there would always be an Israel. That Jewry has survived, as the Scriptures said it would, is certainly one of the great miracles of human history. Every rational conclusion would insist on the assimilation of the Jew, especially given the vilification faced in virtually every society they entered. However, the Lord promised to be “a little sanctuary” to them, implying protection and a limit to how long their suffering and expulsion would last. So emphatic are the Scriptures about divine protection of the Jew and the nation Israel that Jeremiah 31:35-37 lays down an astonishing declaration of intent by God to preserve His Chosen People.

Thus saith the LORD, who giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The lord of hosts is his name: If these ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus saith the LORD, If heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

In other words, if anyone is to destroy Israel, he must control the universe and dethrone God Himself. Thus in a very real sense the credibility of the bible is placed squarely on the pedestal of Jewish preservation- a remarkable concept indeed. The Scriptures have stated it prophetically; history is proving it literally. Third, the nation would one day be brought back to Israel, the land of their fathers. Biblically, two movements are involved and one seems to be well under way. The resurrection of the modern state of Israel has been a once-in-the history-of-the-planet event, and many of us have stood in awe of the spectacle. Jews from over 108 nations have streamed into the land since the turn of the century. In the latest eruption of returnees to the ancient land from the former Soviet Union, nearly half a million Jews have gone home. Such numbers are truly astonishing. I wonder how many of us realize that to find anything comparable to the return of the Jews from Russia we would have to go as far as back as the days of Noah and Pharaoh and those famous “let my people go” confrontations. Yes, the scriptures said there would be an eventual secular return of the Jewish people to Israel, and today we are witnessing it historically. Finally Ezekiel 11 announces the climatic reconciliation of the nation to the Messiah and the subsequent golden age of His triumphant reign. He will be their God and they will be His people. This is the consummation of His plan for His special people. Only this aspect has not yet been literally fulfilled. But considering what has transpired regarding the other prophetic projections, can we expect anything less than a literal fulfillment?

A Promised Land for a Chosen People

The broad view of evangelical premillennial belief about Israel is based on the following biblically rooted propositions. Genesis 12:1-3 introduces the basic provisions of God’s covenant with Israel.

Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father’[s house unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, ad I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

This passage establishes land rights (to be detailed later) and the promise that the presence of Abram and his posterity would bless the world; it also sets forth the principle of individual and international relationships with Abram’s seed.
Genesis 12:7 adds an indispensable note: “And the LORD appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land…” Dr John Walvoord, an eminent premillennial scholar, has emphasized the importance of this statement. “It is not too much to say that the interpretation of Genesis 12:7 determines, in large measure, the prophetic interpretation of the rest of the Bible” (Prophecy Knowledge Handbook, p26).
It is fascinating to note that the land grant for a Jewish homeland envisioned in the Balfour Declaration possesses borders similar to those outlined in the Bible. Genesis 15:18 delineates the boundaries of the land promised to Abram. “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”
Abraham, however, had two sons. Who then would become the principal heir of the covenant? God answered that question in Genesis 17. “And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him” (Genesis 17:19). So the line of descent was established through Isaac- that is, through the people known to us as Jews.

But at the center of the most volatile contests on earth today is the question of who holds the rights to the land called Israel. There are those who charge Jews and Christians (who say that the land has been given to the Jewish people in perpetuity because it is theirs by divine right) with being anti-Arab and discriminating against the sons of Ishmael. The following verses in genesis 17, however, speak to that very issue.
“And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Genesis 17:20, 21).
There is no inkling of discrimination to be found here. As a matter of simple fact, the land holdings of the Arab peoples today far exceed that granted to Israel. Israel’s current difficulty is keeping the small slice of the Promised Land it now holds.
What we learn from these foundational passages is that the land rights for Israel are, from a biblical viewpoint, nonnegotiable. Whether the Jewish people are in or out of their land in any particular juncture in history is irrelevant. Eretz Israel belongs to the Jewish people. This fact impacts evangelicals in such a way that there is unqualified support among this sizable segment of the Christian community for Israel’s presence and national right in the Middle East. When Israelis identify such evangelical Christians as Israel’s best friends in the Gentile world, it is not a statement to be taken lightly. Evangelical allegiance does not shift with every political wind that blows. It is based on a commitment stemming from the Word of God as we understand it.
Furthermore, Jewish people as individuals (and as a whole, for that matter) are to be recognized for who they are – God’s Chosen People – and not only for who they are, but for what they contribute to the general well-being of the peoples of the earth. For Christians the biblically mandated view of the Jew is one of appreciation, support, and willingness to be true friends.
The idea of being the Chosen People rankles some of my Jewish friends. A short time ago one said that Jews, he supposed, were legitimately designated the “Chosen People.” “But I’ll tell you how I feel about it personally. I wouldn’t mind terribly if God decided to choose someone else for a while. This being the “Chosen People” is a pretty tough job.” Nonetheless, the assignment has been made by a higher authority than either Jews or Christians; ours is to respect the title and act accordingly.
Another issue is anti-Semitism. If God regards those who defame and persecute Abraham’s heirs as worthy of being cursed, we have a binding obligation to combat anti-Semitism wherever it is manifested. This is one vital area were Jews and evangelicals are obligated to present a united front.

(Source: The Zion Connection, Elwood McQuaid. The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, PO Box 908, Bellmawr, NJ 08099)

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Giving Israel Her Due By Elwood McQuaid

Giving Israel Her Due
By Elwood McQuaid