The Hope of Israel
Making sense of the current conflict

(This article originally appeared on the Saltshakers website)

I am a Jew. I speak as a "person of the Book". This book, the Bible, has defined us, sustained us and, because I believe it contains the very words of God, gives us hope for the future. Now if these words grate with you I ask you to sound me out, you really have nothing to lose except a few minutes of your time. Balance this against the possibility of what could be gained and this time could be well spent.

The Bible speaks of our origins, as nomads in the Land of Canaan, of promises made to our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and victories under prophets, leaders, judges and kings, that established us in the land now known as Israel. Yet the Bible is so much more, as, although written many thousands of years ago, it speaks of a future that is now, I believe, so close that we can feel its touch. The words that we read are chillingly familiar, how could the writers speak into the situation that faces us today? It is because, whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, we are still living in the age of the Bible. It's as if, by returning to the Land, we have also returned to the Book, as if the two are intertwined, linked in some mystical way. The Land, the Book and God Himself, it's all the same package!

The World has finally caught on to the fact that, for as long as Israel sits as a sovereign nation in the Middle East, there will never be peace in the region. The hatred of a resurgent Islam is such that military might is now not sufficient to provide peace for Jews in the region. The only possible solution is for a lessening of the grip that this evil spiritual power exerts on its followers. The problem is not with Arabs, or Muslims. These are all precious human beings made in the image of God. The problem is the religious bondage that has gripped their hearts. Remove that bondage and you remove the problem. Not an easy one. That's where we are at the present. There doesn't seem much hope, does there? But there is, because we have been here before.

Historians agree that the survival of Jews can't be explained by any recognised models and they are doubly confused when they admit that Jews are faced with the longest and deepest hatred of human history. It begs the question, how have the Jews managed to survive so long despite being hated by so many people? Yet we have seen them off, from the Egyptians of the Exodus, through the Canaanites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, early Muslims and Dark Age Christians, Communists, Nazis and now we are faced with the Muslims (again). We shall surely see them off, too. The President of Iran, the latest Haman of history, proudly proclaims, "Israel must be wiped off the map" and seals his own fate and that of his nation in the process.

Our God does not take prisoners. He doesn't wander around the clouds in sandals, humming hymns to Himself. He is a God of promises, He is a God of judgment. The Jewish people have lived through the promises, but they have also suffered judgments. They are back in their ancient land, the fulfillment of a 4000 year-old promise, after 2000 years of exile, living through a script taken from the pages of the Bible. But these promises and judgments are not just for the Jewish people. Christians enjoy favour through the Jewish promises of the Old Testament, but all who come against the Jewish people suffer judgment of the harshest kind. The warnings are from the Bible, the fulfillments taken from the pages of history.

We Jews have survived alienation, crusades, expulsions, pogroms, even systematic genocide. Israel has few friends in the World outside the Jewish diaspora. There are plenty more Mel Gibsons in the World, if you scratch beneath the surface (or pickle with alcohol). In fact, American support of Israel is not so much now through the Jewish lobby, but increasingly due to the "Christian Right". This is not to say that all Christians are automatic supporters of Israel and the Jewish people, if only it were that straight-forward! Not all Christians follow the full counsel the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, but, encouragingly, many are starting to wake up to Jewish issues.

So history (and the Bible) shows us that there's nothing new under the sun and that anti-Semitism is continually seeking to find new faces, new expressions, new converts. It brings us back to the question posed earlier, how have the Jews managed to survive so long despite being hated by so many people?

There is an answer, not acceptable to everyone, but surely worth considering. The reason that the Jews have survived so long is that a great power has been protecting them and that the reason that they have been hated for so long is that another great power has been attacking them. Taking this one step further …

The reason the Jews have managed to survive so long despite being hated by so many people is because the power that is protecting them is greater than the power that has been attacking them. There is an absolute good. We call Him God, the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is none other. This is the God of the Jews, the One who has protected them through history. There is also absolute evil. We call him the devil, Satan. He calls himself by many other names and is the power behind all who have attacked the Jewish people throughout history, including the "Christians" of the Dark Ages and all those who seek the destruction of the Jewish people today.

The Jews will not just continue to survive, but will eventually prevail. How do I know this? Well the Bible, that has never been wrong with all of its predictions so far, tells me so. Read the Book of Zechariah in the Old Testament and watch World events. If you concede that there's a connection then there you will find our hope, the hope of Israel. It doesn't indicate a smooth journey but promises a good ending. To save you the bother of finding a Bible for yourself, let me read from Chapter 12.

"This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness," declares the LORD. "I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

How could Zechariah, writing over 2500 years ago, see a time when Israel is opposed by all the nations in the Earth and that Jerusalem is the main obstacle to peace. Read your history books and your newspapers. There is no nation that has ever been so hated, no city that has ever been so fought over. We are truly living through the script of the Bible.

Yet the Bible also says there is nothing intrinsically holy and special about the Jews, they are just a people that God chose to carry out His purposes through history. For Jewish to seize the destiny that the passage in Zechariah offers there's something needed from them, an acknowledgement that the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the living God, the God of Olmert, Sharon and Netanyahu.

Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.' "On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a brazier in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. "The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honour of the house of David and of Jerusalem's inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them.

Can we see that day coming? It's not an easy thing to say but there are more deep valleys to endure first and one major obstacle. This obstacle has been anything but in the history of the Nation of Israel, in fact it has been the saviour and protector of the people. It has brought Israel through many wars and conflicts since 1948 and without it there would be no nation. It is the IDF, the Israel Defence Force, probably the most experienced, effective and successful army in the World. To Israelis and to most of the World it seems invincible. In fact it has been invincible in the past because, being surrounded by so many enemies all clamouring for its destruction, just one defeat would have been one defeat too many. All it takes is one defeat for an unthinkable outcome.

Yet the current crisis has shown apparent cracks in that invincibility and although, as a Jew, it pains me to have to write this, it's as if a sacred cow has been violated. If the smallest chink in their armour can be seen, then that's all it takes for their enemies to take heart and escalate their evil plans. We may be reaching that point and, rather than allow fear and uncertainty to seize our hearts, we must instead come to the same realization made by our forefathers thousands of years ago, at the time of Moses, Joshua, Gideon and King David. We must look away from our own efforts, strength and endeavours and … call upon the Name of the Lord!

So what does that entail? Do we just encourage a few more rabbis to daven at the Western Wall? No, we are not talking about a formula, a ritual, or an external religious observance. There needs to be a change in the heart of the people, a realization that despite the hard knocks of history they are still "People of the Book". In fact it's because we are "People of the Book" that there have been hard knocks. That's the mystery of being Jewish, the burden of our destiny, but the promise of a glorious future.

For that day truly to come there truly needs to be a major shift in the psyche of the Jewish Nation. Leaders, generals and politicians who have embraced a secular world view, perhaps rejected God as irrelevant and have embraced a philosophy of self-sufficiency and independence, must now rethink. It won't be easy because it doesn't come naturally to a people who have always been "us against the World", but that day will come because, at some point in the future, there will be no alternative. And when that day comes …

On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Salvation will come, but it won't come from the army, generals or politicians. God Himself will bring the victory. And when it comes, so will an awesome realization.

"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

That is our future and our destiny. That is Israel's hope.

(This article is based on material from "The People of Many Names" published by Authentic)