Is modern Israel the heir of the promises and covenant God made with ancient Israel?
If I say “Egypt,” what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Some might say the pyramids, others say Moses, while still others say Cleopatra, the Coptic Church, or Arab-Israeli conflicts: one name, same place, yet many associations throughout history.
The same goes for “Rome.” One person thinks of a delightful vacation in Italy, another the Pope, and still another the empire of the ancient world. One name, same place, yet because of Rome’s connections to religion, history, and culture, before we discuss “Rome,” we first have to establish which Rome we are talking about.
And then there’s Israel, which makes talking about Rome or Egypt seem like child’s play. Leaving aside what connotations “Israel” might have, just the name itself can refer to a man (Jacob); Jacob’s physical descendants (the biblical nation of Israel); a geographical area in the Bible (the land of Israel); a smaller region within that broader area (the northern kingdom of Israel); the descendants of Abraham according to the promise (“spiritual Israel” [Rom. 9:6-8]); or the modern geopolitical nation founded in 1948.
Oh, yes, just to keep things interesting, there’s also Israel, West Virginia. (You’re welcome.)
So, obviously, when we say “Israel,” we need to clarify what we are talking about. What I want us to focus on and think through are questions like these: what is the difference, if any, between biblical Israel and modern Israel? Is modern Israel the heir of the promises and covenant God made with ancient Israel? When the Bible speaks of Israel, are we to picture both the modern state and its citizens and the biblical land and its people?
Biblical Israel and God’s 2 P’s
Any talk of biblical Israel must focus on God’s purposes for Israel in salvation history. If we take our eye off that, we always—and I mean always—go astray. Sure, we can have some stimulating side conversations about archaeology, politics, the Hebrew language, and whatnot concerning Israel. That’s fine. But those are minor curiosities. God chose Israel for salvation purposes, and those salvation purposes came to full and definitive fulfillment in a man from Israel, a descendant of David named Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed Son of God.
In short, for Christians, we can’t talk about biblical Israel without centering on salvation, and we can’t talk about salvation without centering on Jesus. Therefore, all talk of biblical Israel that doesn’t talk of Jesus misses the point of Israel.
Let me tease that out a bit. On the very day humanity kicked off their rebellion against God, he kicked off his plan to get humanity back. Central to this saving plan was what we might call the 2 P’s: People and Place. The first two people (Adam and Eve) had lost their place (Eden). So, in time, God called two more people (Abraham and Sarah) and gave them a place (the Promised Land).
The Lord also had bigger and better plans. What he promised Abraham was universal in scope: “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Clearly if the Lord was to bring salvation (“shall be blessed”), not only would the people of God greatly increase in number (“all the families”), the place of these people would expand as well (“of the earth”).
Already in the opening chapters of the Bible, therefore, God promises a plan of salvation that extends to all humanity and expands throughout the world.
What does this have to do with Israel? Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and God gave Jacob the new name of Israel. This man, Jacob/Israel, fathered a dozen sons who became the dozen tribes of the people of Israel who lived in the land of Israel. Note the 2 P’s: the Israelite people lived in the place of Israel. They lived there, under a covenant the Lord made with them, as God’s witness to the world of who he is and what he had promised, until the time came when he would fulfill those promises (see Gal. 3:15-29).
That fullness of time came when “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). All the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). “Salvation is from the Jews,” as Jesus said (John 4:22), so Jesus, who is salvation, was born a Jew, an Israelite, to bring God’s saving plan for all people to its fulfillment.
Jesus accomplishes the Father’s bigger and better plans. Christ is the seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth are blessed (Gal. 3:8, 14). He lived, died, and rose again for Jews and Gentiles, uniting them as one people in his one body (Gal. 3:28), and placing them in his Father’s kingdom.
In other words, Jesus brings the 2 P’s, people and place, to their final, divine goal: the people of God, Jews and Gentiles, are now all who believe in Christ, and the place they occupy is the kingdom of God established in Christ.
Biblical Israel, therefore, never ended. It continues today wherever the chosen people of God congregate as baptized, beloved members of his kingdom. The church did not replace Israel. Jesus did not move out of the “Israel House” to build a new “Church House” next door. Rather, he moved into the Israel House and began knocking down walls, pouring concrete, adding rooms and floors, and throwing on extensions to the house. Jesus made the one house bigger—big enough for all the families of the earth.
Modern Israel
This long answer to what biblical Israel is leads us to a very short answer as to what the modern state of Israel is. The Israel we visit today or hear about in the news is 77 years old. It was founded on May 14, 1948. The Zionist movement, the Balfour Declaration, World War II, and the horrors of the Holocaust are all integral factors in its creation. Like countries all over the world, Israel has leadership and citizens, an economic system, military forces, allies, and enemies.
What the modern state of Israel does not have is any place in God’s plan of salvation. Certainly, Christ died for the modern citizens of Israel, Jews and non-Jews, but he did the same for the modern citizens of Canada, Russia, and Iran. Again, to be sure, Jesus desires all citizens of Israel to be saved, Jews and non-Jews, just as he desires all people in Iceland, Egypt, and Iraq to be saved.
In other words, what the modern state of Israel does not have is theological uniqueness in the world. God’s people and God’s place are certainly found within Israel, where the gospel is preached and believed, but the messianic people of God who are part of his kingdom in Israel are neither holier nor on holier soil than the Messiah’s people who gather in Iowa or Thailand.
Biblical Israel, that is, God’s people in God’s place, continues today wherever the Father is worshiped in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23-24). Modern Israel is just one more country in the world that happens to occupy the land where, long ago, Christ won salvation for the world and sent the kingdom message outward from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) so that “all the families of the earth” would be blessed in him (Gen. 12:3).
