There really is a lot of bad information going around about Israel which leads a lot of people to misread this situation.  There is the one camp of American Evangelicals who are convinced that our mission is to hasten the return of Jesus by rebuilding the temple in Israel, so he can blow up this world and we can barely escape.  Then there is the other camp reacting to this silliness with everything from anti-Semitic jihad to some form of Ron Paul Constitution worshiping isolationism.

I heard Glenn Beck today make the claim that those who don’t stand with Israel are doomed to destruction, or some such.  And then he wanted to quote some passages and refer to some generic history, which supposedly happened.  I wonder if he would have sided with Babylon when God gave Israel into their hands.

“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath” -Jeremiah 21:4,5

Hmm, God actually says he is fighting against Israel.  This wasn’t an isolated incident, God gave Israel into the hands of their enemies countless times for keeping forbidden booty, or not obeying him or general idol worship.  On the other hand there were many times when the Lord gave the people of Israel the victory over their enemies. He gave them victory over Egypt, he gave David and Joshua countless victories.  He gave them the land, then he took it away then the gave it back.  This is all very complicated and a simple “stand with Israel, because it’s God’s will”  is foolish.  You don’t know what God’s will is and trying to decode prophecies that already happened just makes you look silly.  In the Old Testament God often spoke through his prophets, today we don’t have that, we have the Old Testament record of how God worked in those situations , we have the Church, and we have brains–well some of us.  These are complicated things we are supposed to sort them out and judge rightly.  We will judge the angels, don’t you know?

Which side was God on when it was the Jews against the Christians?  From the beginning of the Church, Jews were hunting down Christians and killing them.  This was the apostle Paul’s job.  What about when Rome destroyed Jerusalem, whose side was God on then?  Based on the words of the last prophet, Jesus, I am inclined to think God was with the Romans.  “But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” ” -Matthew 24:2  “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains” vss. 15,16.  And so it happened the Romans leveled Jerusalem and the only ones who survived were the Christians who listened and fled across the Jordan.  Every Jew who lived by the sword died by the sword and they have been chased all over the globe ever since.

Later Christians came into power in Europe, and Russia and they killed many Jews.  I wonder whose side God was on then?  Much strife arose between Christians bound by the Catholic church not to be moneylenders (another oversimplification of that proverb) and Jews who became wealthy in their midst as moneylenders.  A jealous Christian population kicked out the Jews in almost every kingdom of Europe and Russia.  There are lots of details and lots of blame.  There were lots of Christians who thought very differently than you do.  I believe they were smarter and better judges than we are today.  We really don’t know much about the Bible or history.

So we come the events today.  Should we side with Israel because it is God’s will?  I don’t think so.  I think we should side with them because we made them promises as a political ally, and because they are fighting TERRORISTS.  I don’t get what is so hard to understand.  It’s not about some innovative misinterpretation of the Bible masquerading as prophecy.  It’s about the application of judgement in a very old, very simple conflict. If you can’t figure out the events happening right in front of your face how are you going to understand the events that took place thousands of years ago?  How do you think you are equipped to predicts the future?

It’s not hard to figure out that there is something unique about both the Church and the Jewish people.  Both have been persecuted the world over and both are the most prosperous of all peoples.  Despite all the genocides and all the cleansings the Jews still have all the money wherever they are.  They run Hollywood and most of the media. They make money off of most of the diamonds and electronics in the world.  Despite all the persecutions Christianity has taken over the world.  This of course leads to envy.  It led to the narrative of Hitler, that the Jews were the cause of all the problems.  Even this was the same motivation for kicking the Jews out many time in many lands.  It leads to the narrative today of Big Bad Israel vs. Poor Little Innocent Gaza.  It leads to all the anti-Americanism taught by elite professors and our President.  But we Christians should know better.  God did destroy the world, when he destroyed the temple.  He put a new creation in place, the Church.  And it has recreated the entire planet in a way no one would have guessed 2000 years ago.  It is so thorough, that people think their view of reality, which is actually Christianity is normal.  Appreciating romantic love as the highest love.  Appreciating self sacrifice.  Appreciating martyrdom. Building hospitals to minister to everyone, with every ailment.  Peace and security apart from war.  No slavery.  These things were unheard of before the Church.  But now we take them for granted.  The temple was destroyed.  The presence of God that used to strike down even the High Priest from time to time, for entering the Holy Place, left the building.  The Emperor Titus walked in there and took the ark and all the furniture from the temple and marched away.  Now the presence of God dwells in the hearts of every believer.  We don’t nee to help Israel rebuild the temple, we need to do the work of the Church.  We need to go about baptizing then in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We need to be about remaking this world, bringing his will on earth as it is in heaven.  It’s not just a simplistic platitude to stand with Israel.  It’s a lot of hard work, and we need to let history guide us, instead of silly prophecies.