As far back as I can remember, I heard about the Middle East crisis. It seems there has been one after another, and as soon as one crisis seems to be resolved, or a peace treaty is signed, it is not long before more trouble arises and another treaty is sought for. It is incredibly amazing that one of the smallest nations on earth seems to be so front and center in the news, and warrants so much attention from the media. At the same time, there seem to be so many countries that would like to see Israel and the Jews simply pushed into the Mediterranean sea that borders them on the west. So, why is this tiny nation so important, and how have they survived so long surrounded by their enemies and hated throughout the world?
The nation of Israel has a very long history, one that goes back about 3500 years. One can read the account in the Old Testament of the Bible, but I will give a brief synopsis here for the sake of this discussion: God chose a man by the name of Abraham to leave his homeland and go to land that He would show him. Abraham trusted God and obeyed and started out on the journey, and the Lord God led him to the land of Canaan, where Israel exists today. Abraham had no children, but God promised him that he would make him the father of many nations. God promised him that he would give him the land of Canaan as a possession for he and all his descendants after him. Although Abraham and his wife were well past the child bearing years, God kept His promise and gave him a son in his old age, and through that son, Isaac, a new nation had begun. Abraham walked throughout the land that God was giving him and his descendants, but it would be quite a few years before his people would reside there as a nation.
Isaac’s son, Jacob, who would later be renamed Israel, had twelve sons, and were living in the land of Canaan when a great famine came upon the land and forced them to go to Egypt to find food. There they and their descendants dwelt for the next four hundred plus years. During this time, the descendants of Jacob became quite numerous, yet still kept their identity as a people. The Egyptians began to be threatened by them due to their great numbers, and were afraid they would take over the land of Egypt, so they made them slaves. In due season, however, God kept His promise to give the land of Canaan to the Israelites, so He raised up a man named Moses to lead them out of the land. God used Moses to confront Pharoah, the Egyptian king, and call for the release of the Israelite slaves. However, as can be expected, he was not about to let his slave labor leave the country en masse. By this time, there were about a million or so Israelites. The Bible then gives the account of the ten plagues that God sent onto the land of Egypt. So strong were these plagues, and so destructive, that the Egyptians practically begged the Israelites to leave, and so they did.
At that point, God led them through the wilderness, with Moses as their guide, and ultimately into the land He promised them, the land of Canaan. The Old Testament book of Joshua is the account of how they took possession of the land, it’s boundaries, and divisions as directed by God. It was during their trek in the wilderness, however, that God revealed to them their purpose as a nation. They were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Now one of the functions of a priest is to be the go between God and people. That, in essence, was the purpose of the nation of Israel. They were to be a nation of people that would make the one true living God, who created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, known to all the inhabitants of the world. This task they failed miserably in, in fact, they frequently walked away from serving God, and even when they were serving Him, they kept Him to themselves. God made a covenant with them, a form of contract, that He would allow them to remain in the land they were living in, what we know today as Israel, if they would love Him, obey Him, and love one another. He gave them laws to live by, and in so doing, would be allowed to continue to live in the land. They were to worship no other gods but Him. If they broke these rules, they would be warned, and if they continued to break them, the entire nation would be banished from the land. This happened the first time in 587 BC, when king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon over threw the capital of Jerusalem and took captive many of the people of Israel.
For seventy years the people of Israel were forced to live in the land of Babylon and were not allowed to return to their homeland. At the end of the seventy years, some were allowed to return and rebuild the land, the Temple, and the wall of Jerusalem. These accounts are in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Old Testament as well. But even after they returned, things were never the same. The land continued to be conquered by outside empires, and although Jews still lived in the land, they were often ruled by these greater empires.
The entire Old Testament tells of different aspects of their story, but from the beginning there was an even greater purpose for the people of Israel. They were not only to be a nation of priests who were to tell the nations of the world about the one true living God, but out of their nation would come a Messiah, a deliverer, who would restore peace to, not only the land of Israel, but also to the entire world. This Messiah would be a King who would rule the entire world. The book of Isaiah says, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called ” Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Today, the nation of Israel still awaits this coming Messiah.
The nation of Israel was once again removed from their land in AD 70, under the Roman Empire, and forced to flee among the nations of the world, but have kept their identity all these years. God promised, however, that He would bring them back, for the book of Jeremiah declares (written over 600 years BC), “‘But the time is coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when people who are taking an oath will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.’ Instead, they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north, and from all the countries to which he had exiled them.’ For I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors.'” This prophecy was fulfilled in 1948, just after WWII, when Israel once again was declared a nation, and Jews from all over the world returned again to their homeland. In 1989, when the iron curtain of the USSR fell, great numbers of Jews came from “the land of the north.” To this day, Jews are moving back to Israel from all over thew world.
No other nation on earth has such a divine history, nor such divine guidance, protection, and purpose. Many do not understand the nation of Israel, nor why they fight to stay in their land, because they do not understand, or perhaps do not believe, the Old Testament account, but history speaks for itself. We have only to look back in history and compare it to the accounts in the Old Testament to know that there is a special purpose for the nation of Israel, and God, himself, has His mighty hand on them. It is not because they are a perfect nation that God protects them and chooses to use them, but because God made a promise to Abraham, and God always keeps His promises.
The nation of Israel exists in the world today in preparation for the coming Messiah, the deliverer, who will finally bring peace to the entire world. In a day when peace is becoming increasingly hard to find anywhere, it seems that the world would be ready to hear of a world ruler who will bring peace, fairness, justice, etc. This Messiah, as we read earlier, would be sent from God, and would rule as God. In essence, He would be God in human form. But not everyone sees this as Good News, and, in fact, most either ignore it or choose not to believe it. Now, since time began, humans have been running from God, in order to run their own lives. But God has been running toward humans in order to call them back to a relationship with himself, and to beckon all who would, to join Him in His new Kingdom that is coming soon.
Christians believe also in this Messiah, but they believe He has already come once, and will come back again. They believe that Jesus of Nazareth, who came to Israel, is the Messiah, and He came the first time to declare the arrival of the Kingdom of God, demonstrate the love and power of God, and to die a sacrificial death in order to buy back the souls of mankind from the evil that they had followed for so long. Consequently, He rose from the dead, three days later, showing His deity, and the defeat of all evil, including man’s greatest enemy–death itself. The Jews rejected Jesus of Nazareth as a Messiah. In fact, some Christians throughout history held the Jews personally responsible for his death, blaming them and consequently rejecting them as being rejected by God himself. Today, however, most Christians embrace Israel, and understand their role in the bigger picture, and wait expectantly for them to realize that Jesus is the Messiah they have been waiting for, and together look forward to his coming again.
The Jews rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, because when He came the first time, He didn’t come to rule the world, but to redeem it from evil. They were looking for a King who would save them from the tyrannical Roman empire that was ruling over them at the time. When He didn’t accomplish this, they did not understand, and rejected him as a fake. Though He did many miraculous things, He did not accomplish the one main thing that they wanted the most.
In conclusion, then, we see that Israel’s roots and history are deeply grounded in the purpose of God to redeem the world, and to return it to peace as he originally intended. If one looks around today, one might think that God has failed, or forgotten, or simply has not kept His promise, but nothing can be further from the truth. God has set a day, which He alone knows, when He will send the Messiah again. Jesus declared that as the time got closer there would be signs that it was near. Those signs were recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. Christians and Jews alike are waiting with great anticipation for that coming day. It seems that the closer it gets, the more evil the days become, but the Bible declared that it would be that way, because God’s enemies, even the devil himself, knows that his time is short, and that when Messiah returns, his time will be up.
If you are not a person of faith, much of this may seem a bit overwhelming, even like a fairy tale, but one only has to give a serious study of history and the events of today, and compare it to the biblical accounts to see that these “stories” are not make believe. The coming of a Messiah brings hope to the world because it means peace and justice will be established.
The purpose of this article was simply to explain the purpose of Israel, and why they continue to be the center of attention, and will continue to be so. If you never before understood their place in the world, perhaps this has shed some light. And though their story and purpose is so much greater than this small account given here, perhaps your curiosity was stirred enough to look deeper for yourself into this tiny, yet significant nation, or the Messiah they wait for so expectantly.
Categories: Kingdom of God, Messiah
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