Land, blessing and borders 
3 July 2020

A weekly reflection on current global affairs concerning Israel and
the Jewish people from a Biblical perspective. 

Dear friends, 
 
In the whole debate about “annexation” and sovereignty, we are challenged as Christians to think deeply about the calling of the Jewish people. And our own calling. 
 
So much of the debate – whether it is legal for Israel to “annex” territory, whether it will create conflict etc – is missing the point. 
 
God has called the Jewish people – “Israel” – to possess and settle the land. Why? In order to live exclusively, to ignore the rest of the world, and to dominate others? No, on the contrary! Their calling is to be a. a holy nation, and b. a blessing to all the nations. God will only fulfill His plan with this world that He loves so much and for which He has paid what is most precious to Him, if the nation of Israel is re-united with the land of Israel.
 
The Bible tells us that the return of the Jewish people to the land that after the destruction of the Temple became known as “Palestine” will be God’s way of blessing the world. We have witnessed that over the last 100 years. In the first instance, Israel has been a blessing to the Arab Palestinians. Just compare the human rights and economic prosperity of Israeli Arabs with those of the citizens of all countries in the Middle East. And through their trusteeship/administration of the land, in the borders given by God, all nations will be blessed – in the borders given by God to those nations. Just look at how much the Jewish people have blessed the nations over the centuries, and how much Israel is a blessing today. 
 
So where does the church fit in? Did the church replace Israel as God’s chosen vehicle for blessing the nations? Did Israel’s calling to possess the land terminate when God created the church at Pentecost? 
 
No. The church’s calling, of course, is not to possess land or to determine the borders of nations. Our citizenship is in heaven, we eagerly look for our Saviour to return from heaven (Philippians 3). Our job is to go out and tell the nations about who God is. Not some God of our own Western/Greek invention, but the God of the Bible – the God who revealed Himself as “the God of Israel” and continues to reveal Himself to the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and who has promised that one day the “time of the Gentiles” will be finished, and He will come in glory to reign over the nations from Jerusalem in the midst of Jacob, on the throne of His father David (Luke 1). 
 
Should Israel “annex” the West Bank? It is not for us Gentiles to say. It is God who determines the borders of nations, including Israel’s. All we can say to Israel is: turn from all idolatry, govern the land well, and be a blessing to all people. 
 
Read Johannes Gerloff’s article on Biblical borders (below). Is it possible that Israel’s decision in 1967 not to possess Judea and Samaria – however well-intentioned - was a mistake? Perhaps it is only by really taking responsibility for these territories that Israel can truly become what it is intended to be. The de facto occupation and military administration must come to an end. All agree on that. The question is what replaces it. Israeli sovereignty over the whole area would require Israel to give the Palestinians full autonomy, and the Palestinians to accept some form of autonomy less than full statehood.
 
But that all depends on the Palestinians - and the rest of us - accepting the unique calling of the Jewish people, and supporting them in it, instead of condemning them. – for our own sakes, not for the sake of Israel!