Submission by Pastor Johnny Teague
Hear the echo of God from ages past. Listen as His voice bounces off the walls of Mount Sinai. Can you hear it? “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” You remember this was God’s promise to Abraham and his children, as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Genesis.
Listen. Here comes God’s echo again: “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” You quickly look up the verse and find it spoken in the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, chapter three.
Before you can finish your thought, you hear another voice repeating what it heard God say, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”
You sit down and take note. Another round of echoes pierces the darkness: “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples… It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land. The Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
We think of David and his sins. We think of Solomon and his. We think of Abraham giving in to Sarah, of Jacob tricking his father, of Samson chasing skirts, of Manasseh butchering people, of Moses and his temper, of Aaron molding the golden calf. God chose a stiff-necked people indeed. Ah, but the beauty God brought through their lives—and the assurance that if God will not give up on the nation of Israel, He will not give up on us either.
We move forward twelve hundred years and three hundred and thirty miles from Mount Sinai to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Sit there. Look at the city. Hear the voice of God’s Son echoing up from the Kidron Valley: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
Is God through with the Jewish people—those who comprise the land of Israel and are scattered throughout the world? Paul said, “No! 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.”
Did Israel continue in their role after Jesus ascended into Heaven? Absolutely. We read of saved Jewish believers going into the diaspora, leading people to Jesus. All twelve disciples—minus Judas and plus Matthias—along with Paul, Barnabas, Mark, Silas, and others spread the Gospel throughout the world. Even in the present day, God is using Jewish Christians such as Jay Sekulow, Marvin Olasky, Lewis Lehrman, and Mortimer Adler.
Will Israel play a role in the last days? Absolutely. Read of the witnesses in Revelation, chapter seven—twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, sealed, saved, and protected—who will go throughout the earth and live out God’s plan for them: to be the priests of the world, the witnesses who lead people to Jesus the Christ.
Will saved Jewish people be in Heaven as a nation still? Yes. Jesus’ words to His twelve disciples are clear: “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
God does not change. Remember hearing His echo? Jesus said not one promise of God would be revoked—not even a title changed. Yet, as in the late 1930s through the mid-1940s, Christians today are walking away from the Jewish people, saying God is through with them—that they are a stiff-necked, boastful, penny-pinching, wealthy people no longer worth defending. The Holocaust took millions of them. Christians repented. We joined with the survivors to say, “Never again.”
How quickly we have relapsed into pride. Jews are being killed again in great numbers. Christians are turning on the Jewish people and the Jewish nation. Are they the most lovable people? No. Have they ever been? No. I would say, honestly, no more than I am lovable. Do they deserve for God to abandon them? Do you deserve God to abandon you? You may not want to answer that, but I will answer for myself. Do I deserve for God to abandon me? Yes. Yes, I do. But God is not like man. He does not change. He stands with Israel—the descendants of Abraham, the nation that has been and will be the priests of this world.
Look at how He has defended the Jewish people since the dawn of time. Just as God foretold through Isaiah: “Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” On May 14, 1948, Israel was reborn. One year earlier, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, showing that God’s Word has not changed. A year later, with Israel’s rebirth, God showed His promises do not change either. Almost twenty years later, Israel was attacked on all sides, yet miraculously their enemies were defeated in six days—count them, six days.
God is defending Israel to this very day. Those who bless Israel will be blessed. Those who curse them will be cursed. Woe to those who dare to say anything different.
