John Piper
Founder
& Teacher, Desiring God
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Audio Transcript
A
podcast listener named Melinda writes, “Pastor John, what is the proper,
Christian response to all that is going on in Israel and Gaza? I have Christian
friends praising Israel because they are God’s people defeating their long-time
enemies, saying that all their offensives are justified and sanctioned by God
because they are defending the land he gave them. I have other Christian
friends who are outraged over Israel’s slaughter of innocent civilians and
children in Gaza, and the support they are receiving from the United States.
Which is the right response?”
Let’s start with an
overarching position on the conflict, and then I will try to put some Bible
underneath it and explain. When I say conflict, I mean the conflict between the
Jewish people — or Israel the state and Jews as a body — and the Palestinians.
Both Christ-Rejecting Rebels
There are Jewish Christians
and there are Palestinian Christians. These Christians are the meek who will
inherit the earth, including the land of Israel someday. Jesus died to make
peace between Jews and the nations. That is the point of Ephesians 2:11–22. Therefore, our prayers and
labors should be especially devoted to heralding the gospel of Messiah Jesus as
the only hope for long-term peace and justice among Jews and Palestinians. That
is the most important thing to say, I believe.
“A people in treason against her King cannot lay legitimate claim on the
King’s promises to a covenant-keeping people.”
Then I would say this: The
Bible does not teach that we should be partial to Israel or to the Palestinians
in the present Christ-rejecting rebellion that both of them participate in
against God, as if either of them have a divine right to the land of Israel in
spite of their rebellion and unbelief against their Maker and their covenant
God. This carries the implication that both sides, Palestinians and Israel,
should be treated with compassionate, public justice in the same way that
disputes are generally settled between nations, with a wise mingling of justice
and mercy. That is my overarching position. Neither Jews or Palestinians can
justify anything they do or be treated any particular way by claiming a
present-day divine right to the land while they are living in rebellion against
the One who made the land a gift of covenant-keeping.
The Specific Promises
Now here is some biblical
foundation for that. Israel was chosen by God from all the peoples of the world
to be the focus of his blessing in history, the history of redemption. This
history climaxed in the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus 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). Amen. Israel is God’s
chosen people.
Not only that, but God
promised to Israel the presently disputed land from the time of Abraham onward.
God said, “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). Statements to that effect
are repeated many times. But neither of those two facts — Israel’s election and
God’s covenant promise of the land — means that Israel has a present-day divine
right to the land.
Rebels Forfeit Rights
Why do I say that? Because a
non-covenant-keeping people does not have a divine right to hold the land of
promise which was given by covenant. Covenant-breaking forfeits covenant
privileges. 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).
“Our plea as Christians to Palestinians and Jews is this: Believe in the
Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
Today, Israel is a
covenant-breaking people. There are thousands, I know, of Messiah-trusting
Jews. They are not covenant-breaking. They enjoy God’s saving favor. But as a
whole, as an ethnic unity, as a state, they are defined by rejecting Messiah
Jesus. They don’t want to define themselves as Christian. If they embraced
Messiah Jesus as Messiah and Savior, they would be Christian. They are
self-consciously not Christian. They are in a state of treason against their
King who sent his Son to save them. A people in treason against her King cannot
lay legitimate claim on the King’s promises to a covenant-keeping people.
For example, when Israel was
driven from the land of promise under God’s judgment by the Babylonians, Daniel
prayed like this:
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).
In other words, God is
righteous. He is righteous to deny Israel her divine right to the land when she
is a treacherous, treasonous people against God.
Part of the Plan
Jesus stood looking out over
Jerusalem with tears and said, “Would that you, even 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 19:41–42, 44). They had rejected the
cornerstone. They still do.
“This hardening of Israel is not God’s last word. He has a saving
purpose for Israel.”
When they did, Jesus said,
“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing
its fruits” (Matthew
21:43). Then he explained like this: “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). For now a hardening has
come upon Israel (Romans
11:25).
These are the times of the Gentiles, the times of the nations. But this hardening of Israel is not God’s last word. He has a saving purpose for Israel. All Israel will someday turn to the Lord Christ as a group.
(Dennis: Zechariah 13:8-9 says that “all” will be one-third of the nation. Two-thirds will die under God’s judgments and not repent, while one-third will repent and come to Christ. Zechariah 12:10 seems to indicate the repentance of Israel will take place at the rapture when they see the Lord coming in the clouds for His saints. Revelation 1:7 and Matthew 24:29-31.)
(John Piper) This is my deep understanding and belief of Romans 11. The broken-off branches will be grafted in one day to the people of God, the bride of Christ, his church. I think we should pray for that day. I pray, “Lord, bring the day when the hardening will be lifted from Israel. Grant, O God, that their eyes would be opened, that they would see Jesus as their Messiah and join the church of Jesus Christ. In one great tree of covenant love, may they be grafted into salvation.”
Plea to All Peoples
We must be careful — perhaps
this is a closing qualification — not to draw false and unbiblical inferences
from anything I have said, like: Well, Israel’s present rebellion against God
means that other nations have the right to molest her. No, they don’t. She
still has human rights among nations when she has no rights before God, just
like all the nations do. We don’t think any nation, because it is a pagan and
unbelieving nation, should be treated unjustly. Neither should Israel. In the
Old Testament, the nations that gloated over her divine discipline were
punished by God (Isaiah 10).
Our plea as Christians to
Palestinians and Jews is this: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
Until that day when both Jewish and Gentile followers of King Jesus inherit the
earth — not just the land — until that day when we together inherit the earth
without lifting a sword and without lifting a gun, the rights of nations should
be decided by principles of compassionate, public justice, not claims to divine
right or divine status.
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-we-side-with-israel-or-palestine
John
Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of Desiring God and
chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, he served as
pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author
of more
than 50 books,
including Desiring God: Meditations of a
Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning:
Education in Serious Joy. Read
more about John.
To read my article called "Apostle Paul's Understanding and Vision for a New Nation - The New Jew Theology."
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