These last few weeks, as Israel has been receiving nearly universal condemnation for searching a potentially terrorist convoy, it may seem that Israel is more trouble than they’re worth.  After all, the entire world is watching their every move, and sometimes it can seem that the United States is placing itself in a perilous position by giving its support to the Jewish nation.

But the purpose of this article isn’t to convince you that Israel is perfect, or that people in Gaza have been living in comfortable conditions, or even that Helen Thomas is a scoundrel for saying the things she said.  This article is to show you what Israel is, why it deserves your respect, why you need to be on its side in terms of national defense, and what blessings the world has received through it.  This is a celebration of the miracle of Israel.

To start a quick history of Israel, the country began when a herdsman named Abraham lived about  four thousand years ago.  The Bible records that Abraham found favor in the eyes of the Lord of the universe, Yahweh, who approached Abraham personally and [1] told Abraham that he would be the father of nations, that God would bless the entire world through his descendants, and give his children the land known today as Palestine.  In case you didn’t notice, Christianity–an offshoot of Biblical Abraham’s Judaism–is the world’s most practiced religion, and although practiced imperfectly, has its strongest hold in the most prosperous, safe, and egalitarian portions of the globe: the West.

Now, Judaism wasn’t entirely formed when Abraham walked the earth, as Abe’s Judaism had more to do with faith and following the directions of Yahweh than any form of law (as the Apostle Paul explains in the book of Galatians).  So when Abraham’s descendant Moses appeared a few hundred years after him, Yahweh decided to give His people a system of government which reflected His perfect character, his [2] application of fairness in the economy and judicial system, and the type of familial love He required.

This form of law wasn’t just so that the Israelites could live in His presence, however.  It was also so that the world could know Israel belonged to the Lord, and because of this very purpose it contained a series of cultural rules which kept Israelites from assimilating into the cultures around them, no matter what happened to the nation of Israel itself.  This is incredibly important, because God’s promise to Abraham wouldn’t be visible thousands of years later if humans couldn’t tell whose descendants were Abraham’s, or whether or not they followed this claimed God of the universe.

Of course, now God had His people and has His law to keep their genetic lines definable and His promise visible, but there’s still one part missing.  Their land.  Thousands of years ago, before Palestine was inhabited by Palestinians–and while it was occupied by Canaanites–God had promised to Israel the piece of land Israel now almost entirely occupies.  As a nomadic group, Abraham’s seed wouldn’t be able to flourish to the extent God had promised, becoming as “the stars in number.”  Now, with these three national traits, a culture/law, land, and a promise, the tiny shepherding people of Israel were ready to bless the world.

But the Law, while containing a series of blessings for those who followed it, also contained a downside.  God had placed a curse upon the Law, so that when the nation of Israel were to  stray from His word, opting instead to throw His promise aside, turn their faces away from His, and begin to follow other religions and “gods,” He would personally see to their destruction.  He would not have His name sullied by an evil people.

Of course, we all know Israel couldn’t keep any law system which actually reflects God’s character, as nobody is capable of being God at any particular moment.  Further, we know that God knew this, which is why He told Israel–on multiple occasions–that they were stubborn and rotten, and that He was only giving His blessings to them because He keeps His word.  [3] Not because they are special, or particularly righteous, or particularly smart, or handsome, or powerful, or even nice.  It was because He had a mission of blessing the world to accomplish, and He was determined to use them to do it.

So, in accordance with His understanding that Israel would absolutely fail, He made a promise: that when Israel strayed and made Him angry, He would have their nation utterly obliterated, the land would spew them out, and they would be taken as captives into foreign lands.  But then He promised something no human could: that when their cry went out to Him, when their hearts were ready to accept Him as their master again, that they would be brought back into their land, and reestablished under His providence, no matter where they were or who had conquered them.  And this has already happened… a [4] couple of [5] times.  Israel was dragged off into captivity several times after the Babylonians conquered them in 460 BC, and Israel returned to reestablish their temple, which was destroyed twice.  Finally, in 70 AD, a Jewish revolt was put down by the Romans, scattering them all over the world.  These acts began what is known as the [6] Jewish Diaspora, Israel’s official dissolution into temporary global “irrelevance.”

From the world’s point of view during that time, the Jewish people were over.  But God’s word is always kept, and after almost two thousand years of hiding–culturally intact–in every nation around the globe, the children of Israel were called home on a single day in 1948.

Now, aside from the fact that this kind of reestablishment hasn’t happened to any other group of people in the world, all of these conquerings and disasters and reestablishments had been predicted in the Bible.  Since the Dead Sea Scrolls date about 100 years before Christ’s birth, Jews couldn’t have forged anything concerning the Jewish dispersion in 70AD or their reestablishment in 1948.  Consider these curses and promises/prophecies.

“However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:…Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.” -[7] Deuteronomy 28

“Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?

“And the answer will be: ‘It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.  Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.  In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”-[8] Deuteronomy 29

“When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.  Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back.  He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.” -[9] Deuteronomy 30

“I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.  Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.  All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.  As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.  They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.  You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.”  -[10] Leviticus 26

And this isn’t even considering all the other prophets after Moses who predicted how cities [11] would fall, when captivity would happen, [12] how long they would last, what [13] would happen to [14] Israel’s enemies, and how Yahweh would once again [15] restore His nation and [16] bless the nations of the world through them.  In short, the nation of Israel is built and upheld on a promise and multiple prophecies.  Even in its darkest hours, when the temple was destroyed and the blood of Israeli youths ran in its courts, and when the Romans sent Israel into every country in an attempt to destroy them forever, and when Hitler was trying to personally exterminate every single Jew with the full power of modern industry and military genius, God had His eye on His Israel.  When the world thought Israel was gone, Israel existed, in the darkest corners of the globe, waiting for Yahweh to restore them according to His plan.

And in 1948, in a single day, it happened.

The miracles and blessings haven’t stopped with Israel’s reestablishment, however.  Upon the formation of Israel, not one, but five surrounding nations [17] invaded Israel… and were driven back by Israel alone.  Since then, the nations surrounding Israel have attempted to destroy Yahweh’s nation, but ended up forfeiting their own land, including Jerusalem.

Today, Israel is blessing the world with what seems to be an excess of innovation, fueled by His blessings through a free-market (which is very close in some aspects to how He personally wanted [18] their government in the Old Testament).  Between 1980 and 2000, Egyptians and Saudis registered 77 and 171 patents in the United States, respectively.  Israel [19] registered 7,652.

David Brooks [20] reports in The New York Times: “Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.  Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.”

When the Lord said He would bless Israel and restore her to wealth she’d never seen before, guarding her with His own hand, He wasn’t kidding.  So as the world contemplates revoking Israel’s right to search cargo ships owned by terrorist-funding organizations, which may contain weapons for bombing Israeli children, let us remember Yahweh’s promise to Abraham:

“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.” [21] -Genesis 12:2-3

So I want you to consider this: you may not agree morally with everything Israel does, and you don’t have to.  We all know from God’s punishment of Israel that He doesn’t appreciate everything they do.  But it’s important that you recognize what Israel is, why Israel’s enemies will lose, and why–even if we have no other allies–Israel must have our total commitment to their survival.   It seems Helen Thomas and Barack Obama have already chosen the wrong team.  Let’s not be numbered with them.