Part 1: The Importance of Israel and About The One New Humanity
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares… “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”
Zechariah 12: 1,3
Israel is the name for the nation descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and later on they were called Jews, so really Jews and Israel today are more or less synonymous according to Derek Prince who was an international Bible teacher highly revered for his Biblical insights and sincere Christian faith.
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Word is forever established in heaven so is His love for all people and all nations but especially for the Jewish people.
The Bible is very clear by this fact when we read Deuteronomy 7: 6-9: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.”
In this passage of scripture, you see the Father’s heart toward Israel and the Jewish people. They are His chosen people whom He loves, a treasured possession above all the other peoples and nations of the earth. God is forever faithful to His chosen covenant people; they are the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8).
Derek Prince in his sermon, “Why Israel?” talks about God’s plan for Israel which is mistakenly called Palestine. He states that its totally contrary to Biblical truth to call it Palestine since Palestine means the Land of the Philistines, and was never used until the Romans had conquered and destroyed the first temple. Derek explains that it was then they used the name Palestine to assert that the Jews no longer had any claim to it therefore it was a deliberately chosen antisemitic word.
Biblically it was called the Land of Canaan and in the New Testament it’s called the Land of Israel.
Dr. David Jeremiah gave a great illustration as quoted below in his sermon, “When America Would Turn Her Back on Israel.”
"To get a proper perspective on this, let me give you a little illustration. You are sitting in your reserved seat at a theater production. Just before the curtain rises, you get an important call on your cell phone so you leave your coat on your seat and go to the lobby to return the call in private. You return to discover a stranger is sitting on your coat in your seat.
The squatter refuses to leave and he only does so after an embarrassing scene in which the ushers force him to abandon a seat for which he cannot prove ownership. You, however, have your reserved seat ticket stub so access to the seat is given back to you. In that illustration, the theatergoer is Israel the seat is Israel’s homeland. The ticket is the Bible where legal assignment to the land is recorded. The temporary vacancy of the seat represents Israel's temporary absence from the land from AD 70 to 1948. The squatter represents various groups who avail themselves of the opportunity to take the land in Israel's absence. The coat represents the historical artifacts throughout the land that show that Israel's previous habitation really happened.
And the usher, at least in 1948, was the League of Nations followed by its successor, the United Nations, who said, "This is Israel's seat". Israel is not taking land that she does not deserve. She is just occupying the land that was given to her by God. She is not doing something that she should not do, for which she should apologize or stand in defense. She is simply doing what God allowed her to do by his promise to her in the Scripture."
“But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went” (Exodus 36:2). It’s important to understand God’s primary motive here of His actions: He is not doing it for the sake of the Jewish people but for the sake of His name.
Exodus 36:24-28 shows God’s plan for Israel’s restoration. He will gather them from all the countries, cleanse them and put a new heart and spirit within them. Then they will dwell in the land that He gave to their fathers and they shall be His people, and He will be their God. Here we recognize His statements are not just geographical or political according to Derek Prince but relational to God.
“I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8). As we read here, there’s no doubt as to whom the land belongs. God has clearly given Israel this land as an everlasting possession.
All throughout history Satan has been trying to eradicate the Jewish people and take away their land but each time he was unsuccessful because God fought for His people as He promised He would.
Why do you think Satan has been constantly seeking to annihilate the Jewish people and keep them from their land? Because these two factors are essential for the setting up of Jesus’ return which is what Satan fears most.
The Jewish people have to be in Jerusalem as their city and they have to be occupying the land before Jesus will come back.
All nations will be judged by whether they are for or against Israel.
God promises in Isaiah 60: 12 that for the nation and kingdom that will not serve them shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. It is foolish and ignorant to think that if you come against a nation that you aren’t also coming against the God they serve as well. Therefore, it’s crucial to pray for your nation to support Israel. God promised to bless those who bless Israel, and him who dishonors the Jews He will curse (Genesis 12:3).
Derek Prince admits that the minute hand on God’s clock is the Jewish people, when you see what’s happening to the Jewish people you know what time it is.
The Jews are the center of God’s purpose on earth. Prince explains that God has two people on earth by whom He has a special relationship historically, Israel and the Church of Jesus Christ, the assembly. He explains our common enemy tries to attack the identity of Israel and of the Church.
Theology may teach you that God has given up on Israel because they proved unfaithful, so God has reneged on His covenant and commitment with Israel and has transferred that from Israel to the Church. I assure you this is bad theology and a lie from the pit of hell. Derek Prince states that if you think like this, you cannot have a clear picture of God’s program to close this age. Simply put according to Paul, “I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).
The simple truth is Israel is Israel and the Church is the Church. There’s no place in the New Testament that talks of Israel as being used differently from what it is in the old. Hence, this theory is not faithful to scripture. If you believed in this Replacement Theology, I urge you to confess your sin before God and repent.
Jews and Christians both serve the same God, the one true God, we stand together.
There are messianic Jews who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah but there are others who have not but that does not change the fact they are still God’s chosen people. In Romans 11: 25-32 you will read that God has a plan to save and bring back the Israel (the Jewish people) back to Himself.
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:12-15)
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Romans 10:14-15)
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Romans 10:14-15)
With love we are to show them the simple truth that Jesus in fact is their Messiah. Their unbelief does not make God love them any less or has changed His position at all concerning them. We as Christians are not to consider ourselves superior to them.
We are only able to be saved because of the Jewish people. They gave us everything; they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises (Romans 9:4). They gave us our savior Jesus Christ, the Bible, the apostles, everything that we hold dear. It’s because of them we are grafted into the kingdom.
Romans 11:11-24 tells us that it was through the Jews’ trespass and disobedience (the rejection of Jesus) God made salvation available to the Gentiles so that His people (the Jews) would become jealous and claim salvation for themselves. The roots of the tree talked about in Romans 11 are the Patriarchs of Israel, children of the promise, Abraham’s descendants through Sarah (Romans 9:6-9). The branches, a part of the original and natural tree, are the Jewish people. The gentiles are only “artificially” grafted in.
If it wasn’t for them, we would also have no hope. We see this Ephesians 2:11-22 where it talks about the Jew and Gentile are reconciled through Christ. Verses 12-13 tells us that we were at first separate from Christ excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus we who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
One New Humanity: Paul goes on to say Jesus made the two groups (Jews and Gentiles), one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:15-16, 18).
Paul also talks about this unity in Galatians 3:26-29 where he says that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Through Jesus we are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household (Ephesians 2:19). Again therefore, we both stand together.
The Jews are Gods chosen people making them Satan’s number one target, His other target naturally is us, Christians, Gentile believers, the Church.
Logically then, if Satan were to be successful in eradicating the Jews I assure you Christians would take over as his primary target. This war in Israel very much involves every Christian, every believer in Jesus Christ in this entire world. This is a full-on attack on all of God’s people.
Do not stay silent and be afraid, silence too is a response and a wrong one in this time. Neutral Christians will be no more but will be forced to choose a side. Choose now what side you are on, are you on God’s side or the enemies?
Jesus has won the main war on the cross, but we have battles where we have to take a stand against Satan on this earth.
Be sure to check out Part 2, “The Church: United We Stand, Divided We Fall” to find out how crucial it is that as Christians we put aside what separates us and unite as Jesus’s Church and come back to holiness.
More Israel Facts
Derek Prince identified that the name Israel or Israelite occurs in the Old Testament more than two thousand five hundred times therefore he concludes, logically, you cannot fully understand the Bible unless you know something about Israel and if you’re confused about Israel, you’re confused about the Bible.
Derek goes on to say that the name Israel occurs seventy-nine times in the New Testament and never once is a description of the Church. Other facts he mentions is that the word Jew occurs eighty-four times in the Old Testament and one hundred ninety-two times in the New Testament and the word Christian occurs only three times in the New Testament.
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References:
Derek Prince Ministries. (n.d.). About Derek Prince: Derek Prince Ministries. About Derek Prince | Derek Prince Ministries. https://www.derekprince.com/about
Jeremiah, D. (n.d.). David Jeremiah – When America would turn her back on israel ” watch online sermons 2024. Watch Online Sermons 2024. https://sermons.love/david-jeremiah/666-david-jeremiah-when-america-would-turn-her-back-on-israel.html
Prince, D. (n.d.). Why Israel?: Sermon: Derek Prince Ministries. Sermon | Derek Prince Ministries. https://www.derekprince.com/sermons/471
The Israel Bible. (n.d.). Biblical boundaries of the land of israel. The Israel Bible. https://theisraelbible.com/biblical-boundaries-land-israel/
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