Why Stand with Israel?

We are living in a sobering moment in history that calls all Christians to take a stand with Israel, the most important piece of real estate on this planet. 

Many today denounce the Jews as "occupiers" of the land formerly known as Palestine. But this land belongs to God Almighty and He has given it to His people, the Jews.

In today's post and subsequent posts, I will explore current issues being raised regarding Israel's existence as a nation: 

• Whether the Palestinians have a right to statehood,
• The claim that the Jews are engaging in an mid-east version of apartheid by their treatment of the Palestinian people. 
• Israel's right to exist as a nation. 
• Whether-or-not Israel is a holy nation or a nation of unbelievers who are no more special than any other people or land. 

Here are my 5 reasons for standing with Israel:

1. Every believer is charged to make the Jews a priority in their value system because God has.

• The Lord has selected a people—and He began by selecting a man named Abraham. In Gen. 12:3, the Lord says in the covenant that He makes with Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
• The Lord chose the Jews for His purposes—and He made covenants with them: The Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the New Covenant.
• The Scripture speaks to us very clearly that we’re dealing with the roots of everything that has to do with the revelation of God to humankind. The proof of this is in the very existence of the Jews as a people, and the fact that they have been recovered as a nation. Today the struggle is over Jerusalem, over Israel, and over the presence of the Jews and their right to have a land. There are few nations willing to make an abiding commitment to stand by the Jews and Israel, but the Bible says God will honor those who do.

2. God has made unique declarations regarding the land of Israel which have never been rescinded:

• Leviticus 25:23—The land is the Lord’s land, and it is His to assign and dispose of: “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine.”
• Deuteronomy 32:43—“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people—He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”
• Isaiah 8:8—This land belongs to Father God and it is the land of His Messiah: “…and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.”
• Joel 1:6; 2:18; 3:2—Three times in this book, the land is referred to as belonging to the Lord, “For a nation has come up against my land….Then the Lord will be zealous for His land…” (2:18) “I will gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up my land.” (3:2)
• Zechariah 9:6—“The Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of His people, for they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land…” 

3.  Israel’s present conflict is neither by their initiative nor perpetuated by expansionism on their part.

• The general attitude of the world today regards the Palestinians as the underdog, but Israel is defending the land covenanted to them in 1917 and established by the United Nations Assembly in 1948. The Palestinian goal is not to secure a homeland but to drive Israel out altogether. 
• For the sake of mounting public opinion against Israel, surrounding, well-resourced Arab nations have NEVER offered refuge to the Palestinians. 

4. To stand with Israel is not to oppose Arab peoples as an entity or to oppose the rights of Arabs living in Israel to a peaceful, politically secure, and prosperous life.

• God has no disposition against any human being, certainly not Arabs, who are the offspring of Ishmael, the other son of His chosen leader Abraham. Standing for Israel doesn’t require an anti-Arab stance and doesn’t require us to be loveless toward other peoples.

5. The relentless animosities of sectors of the Arab world are not merely political causes but are driven by spiritual powers that will not be satisfied until Israel ceases to exist.

• The forces opposed to Israel are not simply those of people who don’t like Jews. These forces cannot be overthrown politically, or by the power of persuasion. These forces can only be broken by intercessory prayer where principalities and powers are cast down.