Many Christians hold a deep conviction that supporting the modern state of Israel is a religious imperative, viewing it as the direct continuation of the biblical nation. But this belief is rooted in a fundamental confusion. The Israel you read about in the Bible—a covenant, a people, a spiritual identity—is completely distinct from the modern political nation created in 1948.
Advertisement
This confusion affects how millions of Christians pray, vote, and interpret scripture. In this series, we must do what many have avoided: separate the Bible from modern geopolitics and understand what Israel truly means.
Israel: A Covenant and a Family, Not a Country
The story of Israel in scripture doesn’t start with a flag or a prime minister; it starts with a family and a covenant.
-
The Promise to Abraham
In Genesis 12, God makes Abraham three foundational promises:
Land: A place for his descendants.
Descendants: To be made into a great nation.
Blessing: That through him, “all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Crucially, the promise is sealed with a covenant in Genesis 15 and 17, a permanent, binding agreement from God. At this stage, Israel is an identity tied to a relationship with God, not a territory.
-
The Name Change: Jacob to Israel
The promise passed from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Jacob. In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles through the night with a divine figure and is given a new name: Israel, meaning “he who strives with God.”
This is the moment the name first appears: not as a country, but as the new identity of one man whose life was reshaped by the divine. Jacob (now Israel) had 12 sons, who became the heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel. They became “the children of Israel” because of their lineage and shared covenant, not because of a political state.
-
A Kingdom of Priests
Even after the Exodus from Egypt, when God brings the people to Mount Sinai, the identity remains spiritual. God tells them in Exodus 19: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This was a spiritual assignment, not a political mandate. The land was divided by tribal lineage and led by Judges and Priests, a patchwork of regions linked by covenant, not a centralized political state.
The Shift: From Covenant to Kingdom (and Collapse)
The turning point came when the people, feeling insecure, looked at the nations around them and insisted on having a human king to lead them “like all the other nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).
The Monarchy: This request, which God allowed despite Samuel’s warnings, transformed Israel from a covenant family under God’s direct leadership into a human kingdom. This system lasted through Saul, David, and Solomon.
The Division: After Solomon’s death, the unity shattered. Ten tribes broke away to form the northern Kingdom of Israel (capital: Samaria), and two tribes remained loyal as the southern Kingdom of Judah (capital: Jerusalem).
The Exile: Both kingdoms eventually collapsed under larger empires. The Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria, and the Southern Kingdom fell to Babylon, resulting in the destruction of the First Temple and the exile of the people.
Crucially, the political structure collapsed, but the identity did not. In exile, they learned that their identity was tied to the covenant, not to the land or a king.
The Expectations: Why Jews Didn’t See Jesus as Messiah
When the Jewish people eventually returned home, they did so under the authority of foreign empires (Persia, Greece, Rome). By the time Jesus was born, Israel was not a sovereign state, but a covenant people living under foreign rule.
Advertisement
Centuries of domination—by the Persians, Greeks, and particularly the Romans—shaped their expectation of a Messiah:
They expected a political king/liberator: A warrior like David who would defeat Rome, restore the throne of David, bring national independence, and gather all exiles home. They sought a solution to their physical, national crisis.
When Jesus arrived, he preached about a “Kingdom of God” that was not of this world. He focused on spiritual transformation, forgiveness, and the heart, not on organizing an uprising or overthrowing the Roman Empire.
The conflict was not about stubbornness; it was about two different kingdoms.
Jesus offered: Spiritual redemption, a kingdom for all people, a new covenant.
Most Jews expected: Political liberation, national restoration, a victorious king.
This profound difference in expectations was amplified by a devastating historical event: the destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 AD.
For the Jewish world, the temple’s collapse destroyed the heart of their religious and national life. This led to the rise of Rabbinic Judaism, built on synagogues, prayer, and study instead of the temple, sacrifices, and a king.
For the followers of Jesus, the temple’s collapse reinforced their belief that a new spiritual covenant, centered on Christ, had begun.
This event forced the two communities onto entirely separate paths, one centered on the preservation of the law in exile, the other centered on a global spiritual message.
The Great Divide: Christian Power and Jewish Survival
As the Jesus movement grew into the Roman Empire’s state religion, the relationship was shaped not just by theology, but by historical trauma.
For over a millennium, Jewish communities in Christian-majority nations endured persecution, including:
Decide: Being accused of killing Jesus, fueling centuries of violence.
Crusades: Mob attacks (pogroms) and forced conversions.
Inquisitions: Torture and expulsion (e.g., from Spain in 1492).
Restrictions: Banned from owning land, holding positions, and forced into segregated quarters (ghettos).
This history created a defensive posture in Judaism. For many Jews, Christianity came to represent dominance and danger, not dialogue. Survival depended on strict adherence to law and community boundaries.
The Modern Misunderstanding
This history explains the critical difference in how Christians and Jews view the 1948 establishment of the modern state of Israel:
| Perspective | Christian (Evangelical/Pentecostal) | Jewish (Diverse Views) |
|—|—|—|
| View of 1948 | Prophecy Fulfilled: A direct, spiritual miracle and end-times sign from God (Ezekiel, Isaiah). | Political Necessity: A safe, physical refuge after centuries of trauma and the Holocaust. |
| Central Focus | Theological Symbol/Land: Connecting global events to scripture. | Survival/People: Law, tradition, and preserving the covenant in exile. |
| Hope | That God has fulfilled the prophecy; the return has begun. | That the true Messiah (not the state) is still to come to fully restore the nation. |
Christians look at modern Israel and see God’s hand in history; many Jews look and see the result of human survival. This massive misunderstanding is why Christian support for Israel often confuses Jewish communities—one group is speaking from a prophetic imagination, the other from a historical reality.
The Israel of Scripture—the covenant, the man, the scattered people—is where this chapter pauses. Our next conversation will pick up here, examining how the modern state of Israel was established, why Uganda was once considered a location, and why so many Christians, particularly in Africa, are now standing with the Palestinian people.