Israel@60 - A nation born in a day
By Henk Kamsteeg

It was sixty years ago, that the modern statehood of Israel was formed. On May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion called the independent state of Israel into being. We have seen the miraculous birth and survival of the Jewish people and nation with our own eyes. It was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 66:8, “Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?”

After Israel’s independence, the Jewish population doubled in just the first three years of statehood. The ingathering and integration of people from more than 100 countries was nothing short of astonishing. Less than 60 years ago, fewer than 600,000 Jews lived in Palestine; today Israel’s total population is more than seven million.

On this momentous occasion of Israel@60, Christians for Israel joins all our friends and supporters worldwide in congratulating the Israeli people on the 60th anniversary of their state’s founding.

Because Israel attracts so much media attention, it is perceived to be much larger than it is. Once you see the geography firsthand, it’s easier to understand what Israelis mean when they talk about the need for secure and defensible borders!
Forget for a moment the nine miles across the midsection of Israel. If you go to Jerusalem, only a few feet separate Jews and Arabs. The Temple Mount, on which sits the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque, is literally on top of the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. Around the corner is the well-known church of the Holy Sepulchre. How do you draw lines between Jews and Arabs, Christians, and Muslims?

Israel is geographically so tiny, especially in comparison to the vast space of the Arab countries, which combined are some 650 times the size of Israel. Yet, the Jewish state remains the unceasing target of hostile criticism, with some countries openly threatening its extinction. From almost the beginning of human history, the Jewish people have faced threats to their survival, but overcome them by the grace of Almighty God. Today, Israel is probably the only country in the world whose right to exist is debated and whose future is questioned. Why does most of the world hate the Jews? What have the Jews ever done to the world? Will Israel survive?

To many people, the entire conflict seems to be about geography. Two people, Jews and Palestinians, claim one piece of land as their own. But of course it goes much deeper.
In his book “Will Israel Survive” Mitchell G. Bard writes that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to subjugate the infidels and it is unacceptable for non-Muslims to rule over Muslims or for non-Muslims to control Muslim territory. “This is absolutely basic to understanding the intractability of the Israeli-Islamic conflict. It is inconceivable that Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Hizbollah or any other fundamentalist group can accept the existence of a Jewish state in the body of the Islamic world. Israel is the cancer (a reference they often use) that must be excised, and there is nothing that anyone can do to change their minds. If Israel were to withdraw tomorrow from all of the West Bank, all of East Jerusalem, and give every inch of the Golan Heights to Syria, there still would be no peace, because the Islamists will not be satisfied with a return to the 1967 borders; they demand that the border be the Mediterranean Sea.”

Even Israelis question their future. In a September 2006 poll nearly one-fourth of the Israelis answered they were not certain. Three-fourth of Israelis said they were in a struggle for survival and 56 percent said the country is less secure than it was a decade ago. The following month another poll found that 54 percent of Israelis feared for the existence of the state.

But despite doubts about the future, the history of the Jewish people is a story of survival.
An unknown author said that they survived – not as Israelis, but as Jews. The world would have no problem with a secular Israel. Or with a Muslim Israel. What it cannot live with is a Jewish Israel. It cannot even explain why. One of the most enduring mysteries of the ages is, to my mind, the phenomenon of Anti-Semitism. It doesn’t follow any logical pattern that could explain it – indeed, taken as a purely social phenomenon, it makes no sense whatever. Anti-Semitism appears to be universal; it has existed in every generation, among every people, on every continent upon which the Jew has put his foot.
Although an infinitesimal fraction of the global population, Jews have been awarded a quarter of all the Nobel Prizes given in the 20th century for chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics and medicine. Even the nations of the Arab world could have peace with Israel for the asking. Yet there is no nation on earth more universally despised.

The spread of Islamism outside the Middle East is beginning to open the eyes of many international leaders who preferred to believe the danger was confined far from their borders. As the threat escalates, Europeans especially may find common cause with Israelis. In the short-run, however, the growing Muslim populations in democratic countries raise the possibility that this constituency will adversely influence government policies toward Israel.
“While disturbing and dangerous”, says Mitchell Bard, “the new and possibly worsening anti-Semitism poses no threat to Israel’s existence as long as the United States remains steadfast in its support of Israel until there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Israel is here to stay.”

President Bush said in his speech to the Knesset, “Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because the United States of America stands with you.” According to the President’s words, the establishment of the state of Israel was “the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David, a homeland for the chosen people, Eretz Yisrael.”

In his famous explanation of the first verse in the Torah, the preeminent commentator, Rashi, teaches that the Torah begins with the statement that the Almighty created the heavens and earth so that when He gives us, the children of Israel, the land of Israel, we will all know it was His to give.

There is but one logical explanation for anti-Semitism, and that explanation is spiritual. The devil is trying to convince the world that Israel is the problem of everything - Jews deserve what they get! But why does Satan so passionately hate the Jewish people? Michael Brown in his book “Our Hands Are Stained With Blood” says that by hurting them, Satan seeks to hurt the Lord and takes revenge for his own sentence of death. His effort to annihilate the Jews is to discredit the Lord. If Israel ceases to exist as a distinct people, then God did not, or could not, keep His promise. That would mean that God was either powerless or that He had lied!

But what about the fact that so many modern Jews no longer live according to Scripture? Why should believing Christians support them? Why should they still support Israel?
Well, the Bible says that God chose them as His people. God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham. Their current unbelief was foretold in Scripture, as was the grafting in of Gentile believers.
God has not cancelled His promises to Israel or transferred them to the Church. In God’s Word there is no place for “replacement theology”! The apostle Paul in Romans 11:1-2 tells us, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.”

Specifically, what are those promises to Israel? Ultimately, they are derived from those given to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3: The promises of a people, the promises of a land, and the promises of a blessing.

In Ezekiel 36:24 we read, “I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all countries and bring you into your own land.” Heading God’s future program will be the restored nation of Israel.

Just consider for a moment the dual promises of judgment and blessing in Micah 3:12-4:2: “Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets. In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

We know that the promise of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was fulfilled literally. Why would anyone then spiritualise the promise of restoration and blessing for Jerusalem and the temple in the next verses?

Then the prophet Micha goes on to describe a world transformed by the wonderful knowledge of God’s way of life: “He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, not will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever” (Micah 4:3-5).

Walking in the name of the Lord for ever and ever begins now, and a glimpse of God’s plan for His followers should motivate us to serve Him, no matter what the rest of the world may do.

Paul notes in his letter to the Romans, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:26-27). Paul clearly bases his theology of literal blessings for a literal Israel on Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah 59:20-21; Jeremiah 31:33-34). As a result of God’s literal promises to Israel, we can know for sure there is a lot of action still to take place in the Holy Land.

Israel is under attack from many directions. Dark times are still to come, but in the end God will prevail. The conclusion of the Bible is more than a fitting conclusion for this editorial. The apostle John’s final prayer must be our ultimate prayer as well: He who testifies to these things says, ”Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen (Revelation 22:20-21). Why does most of the world hate the Jews? What have the Jews ever done to the world? Will Israel survive?

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Israel@60 - A nation born in a day By Henk Kamsteeg

Israel@60 - A nation born in a day
By Henk Kamsteeg