12 Reasons to Love Israel

by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.

Summary:  As I write this in May 2024, Israel is in a war triggered by an unforeseen massacre of 1,200 of its people by terrorists bent on the destruction of Israel. In this article I’m going to avoid discussing that, either militarily or politically. Rather, I want to take this opportunity — this current world focus on the land of Israel — to look beyond and above the events happening on the ground. Instead, I hope to point us toward 12 reasons, all with heavenly connections, why we should love Israel.

1. God Himself loves Israel

Jeremiah 31:3-4  The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God spoke to the nation of Israel His “everlasting love” for them. Did the nation serve God? Yes, at times. And at other times they failed God and even sometimes drifted off into idolatry. Yet through all their ups and downs, God has continued to love Israel “with an everlasting love.” How can we who profess to love and serve God do any less than to love Israel as He does?

2. God promised Abraham that He would make Israel a “great nation”

Genesis 12:1-7  The Lord had said to Abram [later called Abraham], “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” … [5] they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there… [7] The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”

Some 4,000 years ago God promised to make the patriarch Abraham “into a great nation.” God’s covenant promise to Abraham began to come to pass through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. For four millennia God’s plan for Israel has been that they shall be “a great nation.”

3. Israel was a “special people” to God out of all nations

Deuteronomy 10:12-15  And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.. [14] To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

Deuteronomy 7:6, KJV  For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Out of all the nations then on earth, God chose Israel to be His “special people,” or as many say from this verse: His “Chosen People.” Did God choose and call them because they were perfect? By no means. Neither did he call you or me to serve Him because of anything good we had done. Of His own sovereign choice God “set His love upon” Israel (Deuteronomy 7:7, KJV).

But don’t feel left out, all you non-Israelites. God’s love for you and me is also clear in the Scriptures: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16, KJV). Yes, God singled out Israel for a “special” calling. But His love is broad enough to send Jesus to redeem the entire world!

4. God gave the land to Israel with an “everlasting” promise

Genesis 15:18-21  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi [river] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

Genesis 17:7-8, 19  “ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God” … [19] Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”

About 4,000 years ago, in an “everlasting covenant,” God gave the land of Canaan — roughly equivalent to modern-day Israel — to Abraham and his descendants through the line of his son Isaac and his descendants. Of great importance is the clearly recorded fact that God gave the land to Israel through the line of Abraham’s son Isaac, not through the line of Abraham’s older son (Ishmael) by the slave girl.

It’s not universally agreed upon, but large segments of both Judaism and Islam believe Ishmael to be the forefather of the Arabs. Whether or not that is true, God’s covenant with Abraham clearly in scripture came down the generations through Isaac and then Isaac's son Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. And it is to be an “everlasting covenant,” making God’s covenant gift of the land to Israel valid down to this day.

5. God promised to regather scattered Israel to their promised land and has done that

Isaiah 43:1, 5-6  But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel … [5] Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

This prophecy of Isaiah, and others like it by other prophets, is believed by many to speak of God gathering his people Israel back to their ancestral land. Despite many centuries of domination, captivity, and sometimes deportation by oppressing empires — Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, to name some — God had promised to regather the “scattered people of Judah” back to Israel (see Isaiah 11:12). God has done that, and today we recognize it as the nation of Israel.

6. God used Israel to bring unique blessings to the whole world

Romans 9:4-5   …the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!

God singled Israel out long ago to receive unique blessings — the Law, the covenants with God, the priesthood, the tabernacle and temple worship, the Promised Land, many glorious promises from God, and above all the blessing of the promised Messiah (Jesus Christ) coming from their lineage as to His human birth (more on that below).

7. God inspired Israelite authors to write almost the entire Bible

Through Israel God gave to the world the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament. Along with the 27 books of the New Testament, the total comprises the holy book known worldwide as “the Bible.” And scholars say that most, some say all, of the New Testament books were given to us by God-inspired Israelite writers. There are a few of the Bible’s individual books whose human writer is uncertain or unknown. But in nearly all (possibly all) identifiable authorships, God presented His Word the Bible to the world through Israel and its God-inspired writers.

8. God promised Israel a Ruler, to be born in Bethlehem

Micah 5:2, KJV  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

God through Micah the prophet foretold that His chosen Ruler of Israel would come forth from Bethlehem. From the New Testament we know this chosen, Bethlehem-born Ruler to be Jesus Christ. Having been with God the Father from all eternity past — “from old, from everlasting”; see also John 1:1 — the heavenly Son of God became incarnate in the womb of a virgin woman named Mary. Concerning her, an angel declared to Joseph: “‘She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.’ Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,’ which being interpreted is, God with us.”

This divine Savior Jesus lived for about 33 years on earth, ministered to thousands, then died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the 3rd day, having redeemed us and provided for us eternal salvation (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The risen Christ ascended back to heaven, where even to this day He sits at the right hand of God, having been given by the Father “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Truly Israel and all nations must acknowledge Him: “Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

9. The Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly birth came from Israel’s tribe of Judah

Romans 9:4-5  …the people of Israel… [5] from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!

Hebrews 7:14  For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah…

The Lord Jesus Christ in His earthly birth came from Israel’s tribe of Judah. Christians worldwide acknowledge that the earthly birth (the “incarnation”) of the Son of God was from the line of Israel’s tribe of Judah. This is an everlasting debt of gratitude we all owe to Israel as God’s choice to bring forth the heaven-sent Christ, the “Messiah,” Jesus Christ in His humanity.

10. Mary, whom God used by a virgin birth to bear His Son Jesus in His humanity, was an Israelite

The Gospels clearly indicate that Jesus’ mother Mary (as to his human birth) was an observant Jew. She was married to Joseph, a “descendant of [King] David” (Luke 1:27), of the tribe of Judah. She and Joseph had the baby Jesus circumcised according the the Jewish Law (Luke 2:21). Mary observed the post-birth purification rites of the Law of Moses (Luke 2:22). Mary and her family regularly went to Jerusalem to observe the Jewish feast of Passover (Luke 2:41). Mary’s relative Elizabeth’s husband was a priest of Israel (Luke 1:5, 36).

By all accounts it is clear that God chose an Israelite virgin, Mary, to be the human vessel to bear the Christ child, who would be the Savior of the entire world, Jew and Gentile alike.

11. The early Christian Church was almost entirely Jewish

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

This is a startling thought to most 21st-century Christians. But the record of the Book of Acts is very clear that Jesus used Israelites (His 12 apostles, then others) to be the founders and leaders of the early Christian Church. For example, the great apostle Paul, who wrote about half the books of the New Testament, was from Israel’s tribe of Benjamin. And for a substantial period of time the Christian Church continued to be almost entirely Jewish. Many of those earliest Jewish Christians had a hard time believing that a Gentile could even be a Christian. Thankfully, we see in the Book of Acts the gradual progression of the Gospel into Gentile lands and the welcoming of Gentile believers as well as Jewish believers in Jesus.

I have written on this in some detail at Jews Started Christianity. It would be well worth your while to take a few minutes to read that, and by it to see and honor the historical fact that all Christians owe a debt of gratitude to the early Church’s Jewish founders.

12. God has promised to bless and prosper those who love Jerusalem

Psalm 122:6, NKJV  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you."

God promised to bless (to “prosper”) those who love Jerusalem, Israel’s ancient capital. This psalm’s author, King David, about 3,000 years ago had established Jerusalem as Israel’s center of national worship. David had moved the ark of God there from its temporary Mosaic tabernacle in preparation for the glorious temple his son, the future king Solomon, would be building in Jerusalem. To this very day, Jerusalem is the heart and soul of Jews worldwide. And God has promised to prosper those who love Jerusalem.

Summary: 12 Reasons to Love Israel

1. God Himself loves Israel.

2. God promised Israel He would make them a great nation.

3. Israel was a “special people” to God out of all nations.

4. God gave the land to Israel with an “everlasting” promise.

5. God has fulfilled His promise to regather Israel to her God-given land.

6. God has used Israel to bring unique blessings to the world.

7. God inspired Israelite authors to write almost the entire Bible.

8. God long ago promised Israel a Ruler, to be born in Bethlehem.

9. Jesus Christ in His earthly birth came from Israel’s tribe of Judah.

10. Jesus’ mother by earthly birth was an Israelite.

11. The very early Christian Church was almost entirely Jewish.

12. God blesses and prospers those who love Jerusalem.

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A Heartfelt Appeal:

Do you personally know the eternal Son of God, the only Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth 2,000 years ago, ministering first to the Jewish nation, and then to all the world through His Church? Mankind’s sins had separated all of us from a holy God. Jesus, the holy Son of God, came from heaven to earth, took upon Himself a human nature in a human body, lived, ministered, then died in agony on a cross taking upon Himself your sins and mine. Then He rose from the dead in triumph over sin, sickness, and death. He now freely gives eternal life to all who come to Him in sincere faith and in repentance for sins (Acts 20:21). That eternal life with Him can include you! If Jesus is tugging at your heart right now to come to Him, please allow a brief presentation by the late, respected evangelist Billy Graham to lead you to new birth as a son or daughter of God, inheriting eternal blessedness with Him after this life. Please click here: How To Be Saved and Have Peace with God and Eternal Life. You'll be eternally glad you did!

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©2024, James H. Feeney.
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