Do Jews Have a Divine Right in the Promised Land?

Posted by AJ on October 2nd, 2009

If the conditions of God’s covenant with Israel mean anything, then the answer to this question must be “no, not now”. The reason for this is simple. Israel is currently under God’s curse (see Deut 27-28), outside of the covenant because of her disobedience. In the words of Yahweh in Hosea 1, Israel is currently “not my people” and therefore not entitled to the privileges of the covenant–including the land. John Piper explains it well in this 2002 article:

How should Bible-believing Christians align themselves in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict? There are Biblical reasons for treating both sides with compassionate public justice in the same way that disputes should be settled between nations generally. In other words, the Bible does not teach us to be partial to Israel or to the Palestinians because either has a special divine status.

I do not deny that Israel was chosen by God from all the peoples of the world to be the focus of special blessing in the history of redemption which climaxed in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. “The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Nor do I deny that God promised to Israel the presently disputed land from the time of Abraham onward. God said to Moses, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring’” (Deuteronomy 34:4).

But neither of these Biblical facts leads necessarily to the endorsement of present-day Israel as the rightful possessor of all the disputed land. Israel may have such a right. And she may not. But that decision is not based on divine privilege. Why?

First, a non-covenant-keeping people does not have a divine right to hold the land of promise. Both the blessed status of the people and the privileged right to the land are conditional on Israel’s keeping the covenant God made with her. Thus God said to Israel, “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples” (Exodus 19:5). Israel has no warrant to a present experience of divine privilege when she is not keeping covenant with God.

More than once Israel was denied the experience of her divine right to the land when she broke covenant with God. For example, when Israel languished in captivity in Babylon, Daniel prayed, “O Lord . . .we have sinned and done wrong . . . To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame . . . to all Israel . . . in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you” (Daniel 9:4-7; see Psalm 78:54-61). Israel has no divine right to be in the land of promise when she is breaking the covenant of promise.

This does not mean that other nations have the right to molest her. She still has human rights among nations when she has no divine right. Nations that gloated over her divine discipline were punished by God (Isaiah 10:5-13).

Secondly, Israel as a whole today rejects her Messiah, Jesus Christ, God’s Son. This is the ultimate act of covenant-breaking with God. God promised that to Israel “a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6-7). But with tears this Prince of Peace looked out over Jerusalem and said, “Would that you . . . had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. . . . You did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:42-44).

When the builders rejected the beautiful Cornerstone, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). He explained, “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness” (Matthew 8:11-12)

God has saving purposes for ethnic Israel (Romans 11:25-26). But for now the people are at enmity with God in rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ, their Messiah (Romans 11:28). God has expanded his saving work to embrace all peoples (including Palestinians) who will trust his Son and depend on his death and resurrection for salvation. “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Romans 3:29-30).

The Christian plea in the Middle East to Palestinians and Jews is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). And until that great day when both Jewish and Gentile followers of King Jesus inherit the earth (not just the land), without lifting sword or gun, the rights of nations should be decided by the principles of compassionate and public justice, not claims to national divine right or status.

Jeremy M

October 6, 2009 at 8:45 am

AJ,

I would disagree with this conclusion. Here is a summary of my reasons and I would enjoy hearing your response:
1. The original covenant made to Abraham included the land, but it was unconditional.
2. The promise of the land has not been revoked, but the privilege of living on the land was conditional. God promised they would be scattered from the land if they did not obey and observe his commands, but that promise was almost always, if not always countered by the statement that when they repent God will gather them, even from the four corners of the earth, back to their land.
3. If Israel is back living in their land, it must be by the direct providence of God and therefore they have a right to be there.

October 6, 2009 at 10:47 am

Hi Jeremy! I’m glad that at least one of the three readers of this blog decided to comment on this post.

I agree with several things you said and would like to add some nuance to them. In addition, I’d like to explain a little bit further where I’m coming from on this.

1. God’s covenant with Abraham included the promise that his seed would finally dwell in the land and the final fulfillment of that promise is unconditional. That means that someday Abraham’s seed—those who inherit the promises—will inherit the land. No doubt about that.

2. The promise of the land has not been revoked. That is, God’s promise that Abraham’s seed will someday inherit the land still stands.

3. The Old (Mosaic) Covenant was an administrative covenant that administered God’s relationship with Abraham’s seed. Israel’s enjoyment of the benefits of the covenant was dependent upon her obedience of the conditions of the covenant, namely the law. In other words, possession of the land at any given point in time was dependent upon her status as covenant people. Yahweh said as much when he made the covenant: “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples” (Ex 19:5). Built into the Old Covenant was a set of harsh sanctions that, when enacted, would remove Israel from her covenant status. In Deuteronomy 27-28 these sanctions are called “the curse.” When Israel fails to obey the covenant they would fall under his curse, rendering them as a nation just like all the other cursed nations of the earth. The curse included, among many other things, losing the privilege to dwell in the presence of Yahwah, the land (just as happened to Adam and Even when they broke the covenant). The prophets frequently reflect upon Israel’s status as a cursed people. God inspired Hosea to tell Israel “you are not my people, and I am not your God” (1:9). This was not some kind of reckless hyperbole. Nor are they the words of a modern anti-Semite. They’re God’s words. As I said in my original post “if the conditions of God’s covenant with Israel mean anything”—that is, if we really take seriously the sanctions and curse proclaimed in the law, then we must conclude that Israel is currently in the same condition in which she found herself in Hosea: “not my people.” So it’s vitally important to understand that the right to possess the land is conditioned upon Israel’s status within the covenant. Under the curse of Deuteronomy, Israel has been driven out of the Promised Land by God himself (Dan 9:7). They are under the sanctions of the law. They are being divinely punished for their sin and currently hold no Divine claim to the land. As Paul says in Romans 11, they have been “cut off” from the olive tree of God’s covenant people.

4. God, because of his faithfulness to his promises to Abraham, always held out the offer to Israel to return to covenant status. That offer, as you point out, was conditioned upon Israel’s repentance and obedience. The problem was (and continues to be) that Israel never has and never will be able to meet the conditions of the Old Covenant. The law can, finally, only bring a curse. That’s where the New Covenant comes in. Under the New Covenant God promises to do an internal work in the hearts of Israel so that they can obey him and live before him in covenant faithfulness. So Old Testament New Covenant passages like Jer 31 and Ezek 36-37 make it clear that it will not be under the Old, Mosaic Covenant that Israel is restored to covenant status, but under the New Covenant. Both in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36-37 Israel is promised a return to land when they are restored as God’s covenant people under the New Covenant. It is then, and only then that “I will be their God and they shall be my people” (Ezek 37:23, 27). It is then that, to use Hosea’s words, “in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’” It is only as children that Israel will inherit the promises made to Abraham’s seed.

5. Now what about Israel’s present occupation of Palestine? As a theologically informed observer, I can see God working now in Israel in preparation to fulfill his promise to someday save all of Israel. I believe that Israel as a nation will someday turn to the Messiah, repent of her sins, and participate in the blessings of the New Covenant (cf. Rom 11). And God’s ongoing work in the nation of Israel confirms my belief that someday Israel will be grafted back with us into the covenant people of God and thus inherit the promised rest—i.e., the land (Heb 4). But they still don’t own it in a New Covenant sense. Our support for Israel should be on the grounds of fairness and human justice and we should treat the Palestinians with the same fairness and justice. To argue (on emotional grounds) that Israel has a Divine right to own the whole land at this time and that we should drive the Palestinians out after they’ve lived there for hundreds of years we are not understanding Israel’s current condition, I think. Jesus Christ will settle this at his coming when Israel turns to him and once again enters the covenant (when, to use Romans 11, they’re grafted back into the tree of God’s covenant people).