YOU ARE ISRAEL !

“Thinking Through Outreach Evangelism” – Appendix # 3. In what way can YOU be described as “Israel”? Peter Sammons explores.

Visceral reactions

Extreme reactions at the very mention of the word ‘Israel’ vary from genuine love, to absolute and visceral hatred matched by fury. Indeed the word (and the reality behind it) seems to be a real ‘point of departure’ for most people. We either ‘get’ Israel, or we hate Israel. There’s little middle ground between these polar opposites.

Israel. As Christians we might ponder why this might be, why the extremities of reaction? Indeed we might pray through whether, in truth, there is a spiritual dynamic behind the divisiveness engendered through mention that specific name Israel, and the geopolitical-spiritual reality that it represents.

This Appendix is not a theological treatise. Rather, it is a way to think seriously – and pertinently – about that mass of humanity the Bible calls “the world”, being all those people at present outside the Kingdom of Jesus and who stand opposed to God and to His purposes. We might say, this is a way of thinking about all those not born again. In what way are THEY Israel?

Surprisingly, perhaps, mere mention of Israel amongst many church-goers engenders similar antipathetic reactions. “Christians” can hate Israel, it seems, with a passion mirroring and matching that in the world at large. This latter (and possibly less explicable) reaction is well beyond the scope of this Appendix which seeks, narrowly, to level the charge “YOU are Israel”, and then to explore the resultant implications. Repeat: all men and women (including boys and girls above the age of majority), whether nominally Christian, or agnostic, or atheist, can be defined as Israel, no matter how annoyed they may be at this spiritual analogy.

Some background

What can we say about Israel, biblically, that’s not too controversial?

God chose Abraham to be the ‘father’ of a prototype People, an ambassadorial People. In calling Abraham God initiated a covenant (Gen 12: 1-3) that promised a Land in perpetuity, accompanied by special divine favour (“those who bless you I will bless, those who curse you I will curse”). With that blessing was the promise that through Abraham all nations of the world would be blessed.

This covenant would be renewed and clarified , but it was never abrogated; God did not make a mistake, change his mind, nor break His promise. Covenantal faithfulness on the part of God is also a wonderful guarantee for the true disciple of Jesus. Just as God never withdrew His love or His covenantal faithfulness from Israel, neither will He withdraw His love nor His faithfulness from us. The serial rebellions of Biblical (and modern?) Israel against God are matched by serial rebellions against God by even those who claim to follow Jesus. We’re not so very different in practice …….

What’s in a name?

How did Israel get its name, and what does it mean? Patriarch Abraham, frustrated at not receiving the heir promised by God, accepted his wife Sarah’s suggestion that he should father a child through their domestic ‘slave’ called Hagar. Through this union (not in accord with God’s purposes) was born Ishmael who is popularly understood to be the ‘father’ (ancestor) of all Arabs. Eventually the promised Son Isaac was born naturally to Sarah and Abraham, and in turn Isaac’s son was Jacob, who has (deservedly!) gone down in theological understanding as ‘a schemer’.

Jacob, through several adventures both in and beyond the Holy Land, eventually became ‘legal’ and de-facto head of his father’s tribe. On his return to the Holy Land, Jacob physically encountered God (although most serious biblical commentators understand this to be the pre-incarnate Jesus) on the banks of the Jabbok River (Genesis 32). It is this ‘angel of the Lord’, Jesus, who changed Jacob’s name from ‘Jacob’ to ‘Israel’. Why? Because Jacob had struggled with God, and yet he had ‘prevailed’.

“Israel” can be translated “Prince with God”. More commonly it means “He contends with God” or “He prevails with God”. The name was given in Genesis 32:28 after Jacob wrestled with the ‘angel’, and the meaning reflects and underscores Jacob’s struggle with both God and with men. As regards God, it cannot truly be said that Jacob (now Israel) prevailed in the sense of ‘winning’ against God, but rather that Jacob achieved, precisely, his singular demand from God, for a blessing.

So, following his all-night struggle with a divine being, Jacob’s name became Israel. Modern English translations vary, but all emphasize this theme of struggle and, in a strictly limited sense, of ‘triumph’ in the context of relationship with God. Key Interpretations “He contends with God” or “He prevails with God” highlight the act of struggling and ultimately succeeding in contention (or fight) with the divine. “He who struggles with God” is perhaps the most natural translation in everyday English.

YOU are Israel !

Coming to faith and to a right relationship with God does not arise ‘naturally’ amongst human beings. Yes, we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26-27) and thus made for relationship with Him. Yes, His image is ‘stamped’ upon all of us, so that lack of relationship with Him inevitably causes a lack of peace, an absence of shalom.

Scripture is emphatic that all alike have sinned (that is, rebelled against God’s right to be God in our lives – Romans 3: 23). Jesus states that in order to ‘see’, let alone to enter, into the Kingdom of God, a man (and this includes women) MUST be born again (John 3: 3 and 7). Jesus gives no room for manoeuvre on this. We are told we must receive Jesus as Lord and as Saviour (Colossians 2: 6, and Romans 10: 9-10) in order to have true life and to escape the eternal consequences of our rebellions (John 3: 16).

It was Jacob who wrestled with God, and it was Jacob who had a past that he’d rather have forgotten (we can feel certain) and would have air-brushed out of his personal story were this possible! It took Jacob (Israel) half a lifetime to reach a measure of peace with God, as God allowed Israel and his family finally to enter-into the promised land and, in a sense, to enter into his own destiny. No longer a self-centred rebel, always advancing his own interests, but a man transformed by his struggle with God. Jacob got more than he bargained for, however. Not only did he receive a blessing, in addition he received a new name and a name that persists right down to this day, and then on into eternity. Israel.

Struggle

ALL OF US, without exception, have struggled against God. Yes, we have all sinned. Yes, we have all told God that we don’t want Him – we have pushed Him away. Yes, we have all made light (in one way or another) of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross, and of our part in that evil outcome – Jesus’ death with His words “It is finished”.  We were there at Golgotha! Some might respond, no I have not sinned. But we have only to look at the ten commandments (Exodus 20: 1 – 17) as a summary of God’s holy requirements for all of us, to recognise that we ARE guilty, as not one of us has kept faithfully those ten demands.

If there was no God then there could not be any ‘sin’. But of course God is, and He self-identifies first and foremost as ‘the God of Jacob’ (Psalm 46, Matthew 22: 32). “The fool has said in his heart there is no God” (Psalm 14: 1, Psalm 53: 1). People may think they are being clever in denying the God of Jacob, but Scripture itself accurately summarises such a person in a single word: fool. What a terrible echo to go down through eternity for the Christ-rejecter. What a terrible personal epitaph: ‘fool’.

That word …..

If we have a name that can best describe us in this world – all of us – then it must be “Israel”, as we too have struggled against God. As with Jacob, our situation is not irremediable. Protracted and unresolved struggle against God has life-changing consequences, and can levy a life-changing “cost” (it is better to come to God early in life, as much pain can often be avoided thereby, in and through that early decision). Once we recognise we are not going to prevail against God and that He desires relationship with us, then like Jacob we can make a demand.

It is not an impertinent demand, nor is it an unreasonable demand. It is the demand that as we truly seek to follow Jesus on Jesus’ terms, so God will, in return, adopt us as His children (Ephesians 1: 5, Galatians 4: 5). Then, and only then, can we truly be called “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5: 20), a role that demands we live faithfully for Him, in and through His power in our lives. Too many of us contend against God. In that sense, we are all Israel.

Why all this hatred?

Eretz Israel is fast becoming a global litmus test on a range of questions. This Appendix is not the place to rehearse all the arguments and counter arguments about Israel and about God’s ongoing purposes. I will make one final point: all those who breathe murderously against Israel and point their index finger at its supposed crimes, and accusingly at Israel’s (globally persecuted) people, should remember one thing; when someone points their index finger accusingly, there are at least three fingers pointing back in the other direction, at the pointer! In blaming Israel they act as judge and jury against themselves, and haul down God’s righteous attention as He has promised that those who curse, ultimately He – in turn – will curse. That is no idle threat !

This is not so much the truth that opposition to God’s Chosen People must always pit one against God’s clearly revealed purposes. The point is much closer to home; every human being on planet Earth has – to a greater or lesser extent – wrestled against God, determined to avoid Him, to blame Him, to ignore Him. Within this there is always the risk (likelihood?) of ultimate and eternal self – rejection of the God of Jacob, of Messiah Jesus, and of God’s one and only (and perfect) plan of redemption.

Visceral hatred of Israel is, ultimately, visceral hatred of self. We are all ‘Israel’ and we all need rescue from the ultimate consequence of our rebellions against God. The Counties Connect leaflet (see link below) is a helpful resource explaining this rescue plan at a very basic level. In the context of evangelism, especially if the subject of Israel emerges, the gentle rejoinder that the accuser (or even the zealous supporter of Eretz Israel) is in themselves a “type” of Israel in their refusal to live as God intended, and in their rejection of the Resurrection of Jesus with all this implies, can be creative and helpful. Whether they like it or not, they too are Israel.

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Peter Sammons is commissioning editor at Christian Comment. His book “Last Days and End Times – Making the Connection” speaks into the question of Israel.

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