What does it Mean to Stand with Israel?

As bombs flew over Iran heading for Israeli soil, the world watched, unsurprised, as the Iron Dome did it’s job. The scales of the Middle East that shifted again just days ago continue to propel the ongoing political and humanitarian nightmare. Christians look on with a variety of perspectives as so many questions bubble up:

• How do we as believers respond to the events in the Middle East?
• Should we pay attention to them or be concerned?
• Should we be observing Passover? Easter? Both?
• Are biblical prophecies coming true?
• Is Jesus coming back?
• Could this be the end of the age?
• Is God a nationalist?
• Do we take a side, and if so, which one and why?

Among Christians who have come out in support for Israel, many are sympathetic towards what happened on October 7th because they are genuinely compassionate people who love God and neighbor. They deeply desire to do right by others and don’t want to see any more suffering, in Israel or anywhere else. They recognize that the attacks of Hamas were evil, and they stand alongside the Jews because of the hurt and pain they endured.

For others, it’s a political motivation. The United States and Israel are allies, therefore we advocate for our ally. We’ll do whatever’s necessary to defend them and make sure that the status-quo in the Middle East and the global balance of power remains in our favor. We take pride in democracy, freedom, and living in safety.

Other camps of evangelicals stand with Israel because they know that Israel has something to do with eschatology. There is wide debate as to what that “something” is, but at the least, they know that Israel is the center of “end time” events. So they watch and wait, looking for little signs of biblical prophecy coming true. Some harp on Christian Zionism, but most just want to be on the side of the Lion of Judah when the Day of the Lord comes, and to bless those whom God has blessed.

Most often Christian supporters of Israel embrace a tangled combination of all the above paradigms. Almost all of these postures are held by loving and well-intended people, nobly anchored in faith. However, on their own, none of these ideologies get us close to the fundamental reason outlined in the scriptures that calls non-Jewish believers from the nations to align themselves God’s chosen people.

I recognize that many wonderful Christians whom I admire and respect will disagree with my views, and that’s ok. I’m going to share them anyway. Because I think when we take the best of all these postures, we move towards understanding what it means for believers to commit themselves to a relationship with Israel and the Jewish people.

This relationship is actually something the Bible spends a great deal of time outlining and explaining in various modes, but it has been grossly overlooked and even outright denied within Christian teaching and conversation. As believers, if we only stand with Israel because we are politically motivated to do so, or because we don’t want innocent people to get hurt, or because we have a static, eschatological-only use for the land of Israel and the Jewish people, then unfortunately, I believe we are standing for the wrong thing. Our sentiments may be well-intended, perhaps, but alone they are alienating us from the Jewish people and from the heart of the Father Himself.

To stand with Israel as a non-Jewish followers of Jesus means that we pursue a covenantal connection with the Jewish people.

That’s an eery idea for many of us. Covenants are not something we tend to understand well. It’s a word that’s vague and religious-sounding. But if we say that we are going to stand with Israel for the reasons our scriptures point to, then what we are doing is recognizing the wisdom of God’s outrageous plan.

We recognize that He’s knitting believers from the nations together with His chosen, covenant people, Israel. For as much as we quote the book of Ephesians, it often seems as though we have missed it’s central point:

…remember that you [non-Jews] were once separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Jesus you [non-Jews] who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both [Jew and non-Jew] one…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace…

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Messiah…This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Messiah Jesus through the good news. 

Ephesians 2:12-16, 3:4-6

God, in His great wisdom, is unveiling a new man made up of every tribe, nation, and language, that originates in Jesus–Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah–and grows from the root of the Jewish people. It’s easy to translate this to “Jews accept Jesus, get saved, convert to Christianity, and join the body of Christ.” But that is a misunderstanding of the text. Instead, it is Gentile believers who join themselves to Israel through their Messiah! God, in His wisdom, has a plan to redeem the nation of Israel and the Jewish people and reveal Himself to them by His timing and design. God has always, from the very beginning, invited non-Jews to play an intricate part in that plan while retaining their unique ethnic identities.

But often we understand the plan backwards: Jews accept Jesus and become Christians, when actually the plan is non-Jews accept Jesus and become fellow heirs with God’s covenant family through Messiah.

…the nations will know that I am Yahweh, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you [Israel] before their eyes. For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. Then, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean…

Ezekiel 36:23-25

Israel is extremely precious to God. He’s set His love and name on them. He’s chosen them, He’s made promises to them, and He’s committed Himself to blessing all humanity through them, with their Messiah at the helm and on the throne. Israel is God’s firstborn, the apple of His eye. He delivered them from Egypt and married them at Sinai. Nothing has changed since the days God spoke those words through Moses and the prophets. It didn’t change at the cross or the resurrection, and it remains unchanged today.

What’s hard is that Christians have generally not been well-equipped to embrace this kind of message, let alone understand that this is the topic a massive portion of our Bible is concerned with. For lot of us (myself included), it leaves us discombobulated. Christians have been taught that we are the center of a story about us, God, and sin, and if we choose forgiveness in Jesus, we get to go to the happy place when we die. But on the issue of Israel and her Messiah, the Bible is presenting us with a different story than what most of us have been prepared to receive.

Many followers of Jesus stand under-informed at uncomfortable crossroads with these truths. We must wrestle with what we are going to do with the issue of Israel and why we are going to take the position we take.

By and large, Jews reject Jesus as Messiah and many secular Jews reject God Himself. Standing with Israel does not mean we condone their every action or behavior, or that we convert to Judaism, leaving our own heritages behind. But our pioneering Jewish brother, Shaul or Paul, warns Gentile believers not to get haughty:

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
‘The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.’

Romans 11:25-27

Paul’s understanding of salvation frequently challenges my garden-variety soteriology. What he isn’t saying is that the Jews get a “free pass” to eternity. Instead, Paul trusts that God has a plan to bring all Israel to salvation in His Kingdom, despite their temporary and partial hardness of heart. Frequently on the run for his own life because of this message, he still proclaims their vindication:

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…Again I ask: did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

…[Gentiles,] do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: you do not support the root, but the root supports you…Do not be arrogant, but tremble…they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

Excerpts from Romans 11

Paul writes this letter as a messianic Jew, completing his Judaism on the victorious side of the resurrection and ascension, declaring that despite their near total rejection of Him, God is still not yet done with Israel. He has not forsaken those whom He chose. He never has; He never will. And he sternly warns non-Jewish believers to honor and bind themselves to the root of their faith.

Paul didn’t make this idea up. He’s not innovating. He understands this concept because he’s read the Hebrew Bible. He knows the prophets; he knows the plan for the grief Israel will face, the role that multi-ethnic believers from the nations will play, and the restoration waiting for Israel on the other side. The question is: do we? Paul’s warning reminds us of the prophet Amos who has strong words for the complacent bystanders to Israel’s suffering:

Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
You lie on beds adorned with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

Amos 6:1,4-6

Paul even echos the Psalms, where we’re instructed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem because we recognize that it’s peace is our peace:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
“May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your walls
and security within your towers!”
For my brothers and friends’ sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.

Psalms 122:6-9

When we recite this ancient Psalm, it’s a move toward posturing our hearts in covenantal loyalty to God’s people. Like Jonathan gave up his rank and life for David, God’s anointed one; or like Ruth, who left everything she knew to cleve to a poor, Jewish refugee, those who fear God seek the good of His chosen people no matter the cost. Just like in marriage, we say, “I’m not my own person. I’m something new because I’m taking on the identity of someone other than me. Where you go, I go. Your win is my win. Your pain is my pain. I’m glued to you, and I will commit myself to the purposes God has for you.”

To stand with Israel as believers means that we commit ourselves to the purposes God has for His chosen people regardless of the current condition of their nation or hearts.

In great power, the scriptures compel us toward covenantal loyalty as we adopt a shoulder-to-shoulder stance proclaiming the suffering and the vindication of our Jewish brothers now and in the days to come. We have an opportunity to see the words of the prophet Isaiah come to fullness in our lifetime:

…in the last days the mountain of the Yahweh’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains. It will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his path’

…Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place…

In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. Yahweh Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.’

Is. 2:2-3, 14:1-2, 19:24-254

As followers of the Jewish Messiah, we stand naked in the light of revelation. And I believe we have a choice. We do not have to allow the scriptures to make us uncomfortable or challenge our current understanding of Israel.

We can continue to clothe ourselves in complacency, numb to the events in the Middle East, taking a nonchalant view of Israel. We can live happily on our lofty ivory beds, composing our worship songs, dressing up in goat hair and congratulating ourselves on theologically scheming away the blessing that rightfully belongs to our brother. We can flip past the pages and pages in our scriptures that address this issue and give us insight into the role God wants us to play in restoring His covenant people.

Or, we can humble ourselves. We can learn to sit in the tension of removing our Christian-centric lenses momentarily, and realize that we may have some learning to do. We can thank God for the message we’ve received because it’s gotten us to this point, and from here, we can take the next step and ask for Him to give us ears to hear what He is loudly bellowing at us through His word and unveiling on the world stage today, preparing us for the next chapter in the eschaton of His amazing plan.

At what will likely be great personal cost to us, we can commit to His people and step forward into the role we play in preparing the Bride. In great faith, we can say, “I’m going to join myself to you. I’m going to stand in truth and love for you when you are crumbling and burden by your mistakes. I’m going to cry out for you when you are too weak to whisper and intercede when you are too rebellious and arrogant to see the One who holds your victory. And I’m going to do this because your Messiah took compassion on a dog like me. I’m going to honor you as the greatest of all the brothers because your Brother honored me. And He has not forgotten you.”

To stand with Israel in a tightly-knit, covenantal relationship in the days ahead will be a steep learning curve on a rollercoaster of faith. And it could be a long ride. But our Lord promises that the one who endures to the end will be saved. May we have the ears to hear the Spirit, the humility to seek the truth, and the endurance to stand in the revelatory light of courageous love.

Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellion of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us…You will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers from the days of old.

Micah 7:18-20