How Should Christ-followers Think About the Present Crisis in Israel?

How are we, as followers of Christ, to think, feel, pray, and speak concerning the present crisis in Israel?

I know many in our congregation here at Kingstree are probably asking or being asked this question right now. As your pastor, I believe it is my duty to equip you for the work of ministry by helping you toward an answer as best as I am able. 

Let me be clear up front: I do not have a definitive answer. 

However, I do have a number of Scripture-rooted principles that I believe will move us in the right direction and guard us from some of the pitfalls that always accompany issues of this magnitude in our media-saturated, highly opinionated, and morbidly polarized culture. 

That being said, let’s consider this question together.

First — We start thinking about these things in the place where all thought must start: by looking to the One True God as we know Him in Jesus Christ. I do not say that in indifference to the horrific eruption of wickedness that has been displayed in the assaults on Israel (we will address that in a moment), but rather as a way of anchoring our minds and hearts in the midst of such an overwhelming storm of atrocities.

So, first and foremost, we know that the One True God, whom we meet definitively in Jesus Christ, has not lost control of the world; the wheel, as it were, has not slipped from His hands. He is ultimately sovereign over every sneak attack and every enraged retaliation between the peoples of the world (Daniel 4:34-35; Isaiah 45:4-13; Proverbs 21:1). Nothing is a surprise to our God; nothing is outside of His control. While humans remain responsible (again, we’ll get to that in a moment), the Lord finally wields the nations and their weaponry as tools in His hand (Isaiah 10:5) to achieve His purpose (Isaiah 46:8-10; Ephesians 1:11), which is always and ultimately the lifting up of His all-satisfying excellence in Jesus Christ (Colossians.1:15-20; Philippians 2:6-11; John 17:1-5; Revelation 5:9-14). 

To say this is not cold doctrinal calculation, neither ought it to be aloof theological chest-thumping. There are times when our affirmation of God’s sovereignty is confessed through tears of pain and confusion (Job 1:21; Romans 9:1-3,18; Luke 10:21+19:41-44), but it is confessed nonetheless, because it is true. And—because it is true—it is the bedrock of our assurance in moments like these. 

Where is our God when the rockets fall and cities are burned and the toll of precious human lives rises? He is still on His throne, His purposes remain unthwarted by the upheaval of the nations, and He is invincibly, unstoppably, and sovereignly working out His design of mercy, of love, and of glory in Christ. 

More than this, the one who reigns from that throne is the very one who endured in His own flesh every horror and suffering that this broken world can inflict (Isaiah 53:3-5; Galatians 3:18; Hebrews 2:9).The ruler of reality is not an impersonal divine emperor, but the ‘Man of Sorrows’ acquainted with human grief (Isaiah 53:3), the ‘Good Shepherd,’ who is Himself the ‘Lamb of God’ (John 10:14; Revelation 7:17), and the ‘Son of Man’ who holds the scepter of sovereignty in a right hand riven by the wounds of His love (Hebrews 2:9-11; Matthew 28:18).

First, then, we stand on the assurance that all things are under the control and working to the appointed ends of God our Father, in Jesus Christ our Lord, by His Holy Spirit. 

Second — Our assurance of God’s sovereign purposes in the present conflict does not minimize the reality of human wickedness or the agony of human suffering. What Hamas has done to the people of Israel—particularly to the ‘least of these’ among them—is monstrous in the extreme and we must clearly and unequivocally condemn it as such. Genuine human agents, who are genuinely responsible before God for their genuine choices, committed diabolical acts of hatred and violence, and Christians must be crystal clear in denouncing these things as nothing less than evil (Romans 12:9).

Additionally, there are—right now—thousands of lives that have been irrevocably shattered by the loss of loved ones. Fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, cut off from this world. Young men in their prime, new mothers with hopes for their children, toddlers like my own son, unborn babies like my own daughter—slain and lost; not to mention the survivors whose minds and hearts have been flayed by experiences they can never forget. Let us as followers of the ‘Man of Sorrows’ (Isaiah 53:3) acknowledge the deep pain of such a moment. If we think genuine emotional engagement in the sorrows of the world and confident assertion of God’s sovereignty are mutually exclusive realities, then we need to learn more from the heart of our God (Luke 19:41-44; Isaiah 16:8-11). 

Second, then, affirming God’s sovereignty in this moment, we also affirm the wickedness of human sin and the agony of human suffering. 

Third — What about end-time prophecy? This is a common question for Evangelical Christians whenever a new upheaval erupts in the Middle-East. Is this fulfilling—or preparing to fulfill—some Biblical prophecy of the end? What do we need to know about how this all fits together? What does this mean for our future and the future of the world?

Let me begin by saying that how we answer questions like these (and, indeed, if we ask them at all) is a direct result of the way we read our Bibles. Specifically, it is a result of how we interpret the promises made to Israel in the Old Testament and how / when these promises are fulfilled. 

This is ultimately a ‘hermeneutical’ issue (‘hermeneutics’ just meaning: how we read and interpret passages of Scripture). Our hermeneutical approach to the text determines our reading of Old Testament promises and prophecies, which in turn determines our view of the end-times (our ‘eschatology’), which in turn determines—or greatly informs—our response to situations like the one in Israel at the moment. Put simply: how you read the Bible determines how you respond to the news. 

Over the last two decades of reading, studying, praying over, and becoming—I pray—increasingly shaped by the text of Scripture, I have come to the bone-deep conviction that the Crucified and Risen Jesus, in whom alone we know the One True God, is the ‘hermeneutical key’ to the entire Bible. It is a book, from beginning to end, about Him. Over and over again, we find New Testament authors citing, interpreting, and applying the Old Testament in light of its radical fulfillment in Christ. We just spent 9 weeks on this topic here at Kingstree and were not able to even scratch the surface of its depth…so, I won’t try to get into it all here. Suffice to say, all of Scripture—and every actor within Scripture, including Israel—is about the crucified and risen Jesus (Luke 24:45-46; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 3:16; Revelation 22:13).

Now, even among Bible-believing, Christ-loving, exegetically-careful Christians, there are disagreements concerning the precise manner in which the end of present history will unfold and what, if any, role the modern political state of Israel has in that unfolding. I would be glad to discuss my own understanding of this subject with you at any time. For now, I just note that there are differing views held within the one Body of Christ (and, note also that neither the Kingstree Membership Affirmation, nor the Elder Affirmation, dictate a specific eschatological position). However, there are—I believe—two affirmations on which all can agree, regardless of  specific eschatologies: 1) There is a final hope for the Jewish people, and 2) Our supreme allegiance is to the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ. 

Let me address both of these as our final two points.

Fourth — It seems clear to me that Scripture calls us to joyfully confess that there does remain a specific future hope for the ethnic Jewish people. We see this most clearly in Romans 11. 

There we read that ethnic Jews still remain under a season of hardness of heart toward God in Christ (11:7-10). This spiritual blindness led to their rejection of the Messiah and persists to the present day, such that—regarding the truth of the Gospel—they remain ‘enemies’ of God and His people (11:28). 

However, the blindness that presently severs the Jewish people from their Messiah will not remain. By the mercy of God, a time is coming when the veil will be removed (see 2 Corinthians 3:15-16) and a miraculous majority of the Jewish people will waken to the reality that their Lord and God and Messiah is the very Jesus whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead (11:26-27). They will be grafted back into the ‘Olive Tree’ of God’s covenant promises in Jesus Christ (11:23-24). 

There is a final hope for the Jewish people…And what does Paul tell us that hope is? Nothing other than—and, indeed, nothing less than—Jesus Christ Himself and their graciously granted, by-faith union to Him as blood-bought members of the One Flock (John 10:16), One People (Colossians 3:11), and One Bride of Christ (Revelation 5:9-10, 7:9-17, 21:1-4).

And so, while genuine Christians (even in our own congregations and families) will differ regarding the role and future of the modern political state of Israel (and so of their evaluation of the precise significance of our present moment), we can all agree that there is a glorious hope and certain future set before the Jewish people themselves, namely, their re-gathering into the fold of the One True Shepherd, Jesus the Messiah. As Paul tells us, though they are presently enemies of the Gospel, they are beloved (by God, and so, by His People in Christ) and will be brought Home (Romans 11:28-36).

We ought, therefore, to pray that the present conflict causes all those involved—Palestinian and Israeli, Gentile and Jew—to waken to the reality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to bow their knee to Him. And specifically for the Jewish people, we have a unique confidence that—in God’s time—this will be so. 

Fifth — Finally, whenever there are conflicts that draw up regional / national / political lines, it is critical for the Christian to remember that our primary and controlling allegiance is to Jesus Christ. No political entity—be it the United States, Israel, or any other—commands or receives the Christian’s supreme allegiance, that belongs to the King who presently rules over every nation with all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:5). Further, and as an implication of this, before we are citizens or supporters of any modern nation-state, we are brothers and sisters to every believer in Jesus as Lord. 

The upshot of this is that a Christian living in the United States is more closely knit and more truly bound to a Christ-following man in Pakistan than to a Mormon, or Jewish, or Atheist American. And that means we view conflicts on the world stage with different eyes and different hearts than our non-Christian friends or family. We do not primarily see lines on maps or colors on flags…rather, we see the One Bride of Christ, ransomed from all peoples and nations and languages, and the One Lamb, reigning from the throne, working all things according to the will of the Father. 

So, while practical and responsible engagement with this world necessitates that we acknowledge, interact with, value, and defend particular geo-political nation-states over and against others, none of these allegiances supersede our supreme and defining allegiance to the crucified and risen Jesus as Lord, and to His people as our brothers and sisters—no matter which lines on the map they live within or which colors are on their flag.

How are we to respond to the present crisis in Israel? As I said at the beginning, I am not writing to give a definitive answer. I’ve tried rather to share five scripturally-rooted principles with you that, if applied, should equip you to begin to provide that answer for yourself. This is, of course, merely preliminary…there is much more that could be said. If you have any particularly pressing questions, or would like to discuss these things further, please reach out to me or to Pastor Sean; we would love to talk, study, pray, and learn together with you. 

Until then, may our Father grant each of us and all of us to more fully know and live out the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit who lives within us,

Pastor Christopher