As war erupts across the Middle East, many claim the Bible guarantees modern Israel’s right to the land. But does Scripture actually support that claim? A look at the covenants—from Adam to Moses—reveals a forgotten condition: God’s promises were always tied to obedience. If those conditions were broken, what became of the Promised Land?
As we write this installment of the Last Word, missiles and drones and aircraft by the thousands are streaking across the Middle East in an operation called Epic Fury by the United States and Roaring Lion by Israel. We were promised no wars, then a short war, and now only God-and Israel-know how long we will be at war. Americans are divided whether war with Iran is warranted but there are at least two groups and their supporters that are fully committed to this war: Jewish Zionists and Christian Dispensationalists.
Zionism is a political nationalistic movement that arose in the late 18th century which is committed to the exclusive possession and control of the modern state of Israel by ethnic Jews. Though a majority of these modern ethnic Jews are, in effect, atheists, they base their claims on a religious right to the land of Israel, as promised to Abraham. Dispensationalists, often evangelical, who support Zionism, heretically believe that once Jews possess Israel, this will bring about the millennial rule of Christ on Earth for 1,000 years.
A covenant is a binding agreement between God and man that includes binding promises, conditions and prescribed consequences.
The religious claims of both Jewish Zionists and Christian Dispensationalists are groundless and reveal either an ignorance of the nature of covenants, as divinely revealed in Sacred Scripture, or manipulation. Let’s do a broad summary of successive covenants in the Bible, then focus on the issue of modern Israel.
A covenant is a binding agreement between God and man that includes binding promises, conditions and prescribed consequences. Some of the biblical covenants were more formal and explicit than others but all of them constitute some form of a covenant. The first covenant was with Adam, and the promise was Paradise here on Earth with a hope for Paradise in Heaven. There was one condition imposed by God:
And God commanded him, saying: “Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.”
God was true to his promise, as He always was and always will be. Adam broke the covenant condition by eating the forbidden fruit offered to him by Eve, and both of them supernaturally died in that instant. Paradise on Earth has been lost forever and all the covenant curses have fallen upon humanity ever since.
The Tower of Babel was an act of defiance and rebellion against God. A covenant was broken and so the covenant curses kicked in: humanity was scattered and their language was confused.
The next notable covenant was with Noah, who was a type of new Adam in the sense that God started over with humanity, built upon a remnant that remained. After the flood, an explicit covenant was made:
Increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth, and fill it. Thus said God to Noe, and to his sons with him, Behold I will establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you: And with every living soul that is with you, as well in all birds as in cattle and beasts of the earth, that are come forth out of the ark, and in all the beasts of the earth.
But over time and through generations, the descendants of Noah became more and more corrupt; they gathered together in a great city, rather than multiplying across the earth, and built a tower to heaven. We know it as the Tower of Babel, an act of defiance and rebellion against God. A covenant was once again broken and so the covenant curses kicked in: humanity was scattered and their language was confused.
Once again God chose a remnant out of the midst of fallen humanity, this time with a man named Abram:
The Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3)
Moses warned the descendents of Abraham of countless curses if the covenant were to be broken… God kept His promises.
This is the main Old Testament text that Zionists and Dispensationalists cite as justification for Jews to possess modern Israel, or for that matter, most of the Middle East. But OT covenants did not end here. For four hundred years the descendants of Abraham lived in Egypt, until the next covenant was offered to Moses. This covenant was very explicit regarding conditions for either blessings or for curses. Just before entering the Promised Land, the Israelites were reminded of the blessings for keeping covenant:
Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: Yet so if thou hear his precepts.
Moses listed many of these blessings. Moses then warned of countless curses, if the covenant is broken:
But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee… the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee: And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God. And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess. The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone. Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. (Deuteronomy 28-29)
Adam forfeited Paradise on Earth and the Jews have forfeited the Land of Israel. God keeps his promises!
