Will the real Israel please stand up!

I'm not sure what artist and friend Jill Mitchell titled this work, but I call it, "I could be fifteen and walking down that road, dreaming!" Check out her amazing art at https://www.facebook.com/jillmitchelloriginalart

Are you bothered by the seemingly insurmountable problem of achieving an Israeli/Palestinian peace? I know I am. For followers of Christ, both the source and the solution are head-scratchers. Our religion can be justifiably called a Jewish sect in that our very faith grows out of the revelation of—and the record of—interaction between Jewry and YHWH, the record of those revelations and events being vital parts of our Christian scriptures. In other words, we are unable to see the State of Israel, its establishment and survival as objectively as we can, for instance, the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

The website of a Zionist organization called The Refiner’s Fire has posted 10 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in the existence of modern-day Israel. This one, for instance, in Isaiah 41:12-14, is interpreted by The Refiner’s Fire below: “‘Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”

1. Israel will prevail over its enemies

Bible passage: Isaiah 41:12-14

Written: perhaps between 701-681 BC

Fulfilled: late 1900s

In Isaiah 41:12-14, the prophet said God would help Israel during times of conflict with enemies (if the people have faith in God). Isaiah said this during a time when the northern kingdom of Israel had already been conquered by the Assyrian Empire. And the southern kingdom, Judah, was about to be conquered by Babylon. (The Bible explains that Israel and Judah lost their independence because so many of the residents had turned to false religions). But, since 1948 when Israel was re-established, Israel has been attacked by much-larger countries. And Israel has prevailed in each of those attacks. This prophecy has found partial fulfillment; Christian scholars believe that a time will come when all of Israel's enemies are destroyed.

What is obvious here is that the Israel to which Isaiah’s prophecy is addressed is assumed to be the same Israel established in the Middle East in 1948. What stands out as well is that while reference is made to Christian Scholars’ predictions of the final defeat by Israel of all it’s enemies, Christians can’t possibly find in the Gospels a justification for such a mindset. The New Testament doesn’t deal in the “chosenness,” of ethnic Jewry, nor in the triumphalism that is its ancient partner. Nevertheless, as Christians we quote Isaiah 52 every Christmas and assert it’s prophetic reaching toward the appearance of Christ; it presents a dilemma for us: might Isaiah have foreseen the 1948 Israel as well? And all this while we abhor the news of a rich nation repeatedly usurping land, subjugating or banishing Palestinians and devaluing their very citizenship, shrinking their possibilities for a fulfilled life in the interest of what is clearly meant to support the preservation of an ethnic, apartheid state.

It’s clear to me that the peoplehood Isaiah is addressing is both a faith and an ethno-cultural group, and it’s also clear that both are tied up in the worship and obedience to YHWH. Who this peoplehood is today is possibly the thing that gives rise to our uncertainty about justifying or condemning the ruthless colonization of Palestine. Wikipedia has a helpful summary of how the historic exiling of the Jews, the holocaust and Zionism have led to a new version of Jewish ethnicity and culture: “Secularism in Israel shows how matters of religion and how matters of state are related within Israel. Secularism is defined as an indifference to, rejection or exclusion of religion and religious consideration. In Israel, this applies to the entirely secular community that identifies with no religion and the secular community within the Jewish community which identifies with no particular division of the religion. When Israel was established as a new state in 1948, a new and different Jewish identity formed for the newly created Israeli population. This population was defined by the Israeli culture and Hebrew language, their experience with the Holocaust, and the need to band together against conflict with hostile neighbors in the Middle East. This is not an identity with which Jews outside of Israel can easily identify.” (emphasis mine.)

The fact is that the largest bloc of Israeli citizens (42%) would call themselves “secular Jews.” The rest are smaller groups adhering to liberal to orthodox to super-orthodox versions of the ancient precepts of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the prophets of the Old Testament. A small minority of Muslim, Christian and assorted anomalous faith adherents round out the population. The question for us is whether we should be thinking about Israel as one of hundreds of secular states around the world—like Norway, Canada, Belize, Ireland, etc.—and judging its behaviour in the same way we judge the behaviour of these others, or whether our following of the Jew, Jesus, and our sharing of a common scripture behooves us to set aside Israel as an exception under the very God we share?

It should be patently clear to us as followers of Christ’s witness that the new “kingdom” for which we long has no geographical nor political boundaries. This envisioned kingdom, in fact, sees God erasing boundaries, racial awareness, economic barriers, all history of conflict and violence, so that humankind—beginning with the church—sees itself as a family of brothers & sisters borne of creation. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, NIV) “‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem . . . Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.’” (John 4:21 & 23, NIV)

Surely, it’s in the spirit of Christ’s assurance to the Samaritan Woman at the Well that we Christians see the Palestinian dilemma. Taking sides in the stalemate presents a real danger of renewed Antisemitism, or Anti-Muslim, or Anti-Christian, or Anti-foreigner flare-up. In God’s eyes, this is surely a family quarrel and in a family, every sibling should have the expectation of justice, mercy and hope. 

Perhaps we need to scream that message until we’re hoarse!