There's probably not a one of us who didn't, as a child, want to sometimes (all the time?) eat their dessert before (or in place of) eating anything else! AW, COME'ON, don't try to make me believe you were different! Don't tell me YOU never drool over the brownies--and then wanted to cry when your mom made you eat your vegetables first!
Funny, isn't it, how some attitudes can so easily follow us into adulthood! But what does this have to do with Israel? Very simply this: many if not most of us look at the Israel "plate," zoom in to the spot on the plate that looks attractive to us, and ignore the rest of the food.
The result is an incomplete Kingdom perspective and worldview.
Many of us zoom right into the "Jewish roots" corner of the Israel "plate." Most of us reading this article have been like the Israelite army in 1 Samuel 14--involuntarily starving (that is, robbed of our inheritance as grafted-in ones) because of a wicked, man-made decree (compare Saul's decree not to eat honey--see 1 Sam. 14:3--to the decrees of anti-Semitic church leaders ordering the church to dissociate itself from her Jewish roots). When we find the real food of our long-lost spiritual ancestry, our spiritual eyes brighten much like starving Jonathan's did when he saw honey (1 Samuel 14:24). And yet even the discovering of our Jewish roots can lead to serious imbalance if that's all we focus on.
Others of us zoom right into the geopolitical corner of the plate. Any why not? After all, we need to be aware of the inter-relatedness between Israel and the rest of the world. We need to take Paul seriously and earnestly desire to know the prophetic season we're in (1 Thessalonians 5:4). We need to declare openly that if America blesses Israel, America will be blessed--and vice-versa.
But if geopolitics is our only focus, we might tend to only view Israel like we view a sports contest--namely, what's happening now "on the field" (that is, the "wars and rumors of wars"), how much "time is left on the clock" (that is, where are we in the prophetic timetable), and when do we get to the "good stuff" (that is, the "dessert"--the LORD's return).
Is it enough just to get to know our "Jewish roots?" Is it enough simply to "bless Israel" politically--or even to use geopolitics as the sole gauge of where we are on the prophetic timetable?
In a word: NO.
God promised in Ezekiel 37:12 to regather the Jewish people from exile and bring them back to their own land. But notice what the very next verse predicts as the ultimate outcome of this regathering: "Then you, My people (Israel), will know that I am the LORD" (Ezek. 37:13). The end result of this regathering is Israel returning--not just to her land, but (more importantly) to her GOD.
Psalm 102:13 prophecies that, likely at the same time as the Ezekiel 37 re-gathering, the LORD will "arise and have compassion on Zion." Now since God works on earth primarily through His called-out ones (the body of Messiah), I take this to mean that God through His church will arise and have compassion on Zion. But why? So that "the nations will fear the name of the LORD" (Psalm 102:15).
Amidst the "wars and rumors of wars," one of the greatest UN-told stories in the church today is the spread of the gospel both in Israel and amongst her neighbors. Consider these facts:
- The number of known Afghan Christians rose from 17 to over 10,000 between 1990 and 2008.
- More than 1 million Egyptians have accepted Yeshua since 2000.
- The number of known Iranian converts from Islam to Jesus has risen from 500 to over a million since the Islamic revolution(!).
Meanwhile, in Israel, the number of Messianic Jewish believers has risen from 100 or so in the 1970's to 10-15,000 today, while the number of Messianic congregations has grown from 0 to over 100.
And yet focusing only on this piece of the Israel "pie" can lead to an imbalanced diet. We can easily become "evangelastic" about the numbers of Jewish people getting saved, and can forget that there is still strong opposition to the gospel in Israel and in diaspora Judaism.
Part of why Favor of Zion exists is to equip you with a "well-balanced diet." Let's consume every portion of the meal together. Let's prophetically watch (and pray over) the political realm. Let's learn all we can about our biblical Jewish roots. And let's continue to press in for the salvation of the Jewish people.
In 2012, we can do this together!
I welcome your feedback on this.
