I have recently opined on these pages regarding Israel. In earlier studies, I have contended that the Revelation is for Israel. In fact, the vast majority of scripture is about Israel (including the Synoptic Gospels, The Acts, the 14 Acts-Age epistles). Israel was chosen as the channel of God's blessings to the Nations after the Nations failed to heed his warnings.
Israel is the subject of many prophecies yet to be fulfilled (including her New Covenant). We have no right to claim their future blessings or promises.
We have looked at a number of scriptures, but I wanted to pull out just a section of Zechariah's prophecy. Jews (as a race) have certainly been a blessing in many ways. Scientific and Medical advances; art, literature, music, have all befitted from the contributions of the Jewish people. But as we have seen in previous studies, they are currently set aside as God deals with all people apart from Israel in this Dispensation of the Mystery of God.
Israel, just before the resumption of her central place in God's Plan, will be both a blessing and a cursing to all people. All of Zechariah 8 can be read HERE, but I will pull out the central idea.
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
‘Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east
And from the land of the west;
I will bring them back,
And they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
They shall be My people
And I will be their God,
In truth and righteousness.’
“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
‘Let your hands be strong,
You who have been hearing in these days
These words by the mouth of the prophets,
Who spoke in the day the foundation was laid
For the house of the Lord of hosts,
That the temple might be built.
For before these days
There were no wages for man nor any hire for beast;
There was no peace from the enemy for whoever went out or came in;
For I set all men, everyone, against his neighbor.
But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘For the seed shall be prosperous,
The vine shall give its fruit,
The ground shall give her increase,
And the heavens shall give their dew—
I will cause the remnant of this people
To possess all these.
And it shall come to pass
That just as you were a curse among the nations,
O house of Judah and house of Israel,
So I will save you, and you shall be a blessing.
Do not fear,
Let your hands be strong.’
-Zech 8:7-13
We have noted in previous studies that the current nation of Israel, while most likely being assisted by God so the stage may be set, cannot be said to have been miraculously brought back to the land by the hand of God. Be that as it may, we see here that currently the house of Judah and the house of Israel (all the tribes) are both a blessing and a cursing.
For every Benjamin Disraeli there is a George Soros. I don't want to start naming Jewish heroes and villains of the last two centuries lest we exhaust the bandwidth of the blog. Suffice it to say, not every Jewish person is a blessing and not everyone is a cursing.
Surely, as Christians, we are to be a blessing to all men (primarily by introducing them to Christ), so we are to be a blessing to the Jew. We can also see the current nation of Israel as a beacon of human rights in a sea of misogyny and discrimination in the Middle East.
But that is not to say Israel is without fault or that every Arab is to be opposed. Remember, Israel is both a blessing and a cursing. We just need to be careful on both ends. The physical seed of Abraham have earthly promises from God. There is a remnant that will believe and be rescued by the hand of God from her time of testing.
For Abraham's sake, we should honor his seed, but we are under no obligation to honor them above all else if they prove to be a cursing.
