I. Intro & Synopsis.
A. A Cup of Staggering and a Heavy Stone.
1. As far back as I can remember, Israel has been a hot topic in the media. usually everything that we hear in regards to Israel involves some controversy over land and policy. There are many voices and strong opinions and people seem to be for Israel or against her.
2. This polarization over Israel is a sign of the times and was prophesied 2500 years ago.
a. Zechariah 12:2-3
2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.
b. “…a cup of drunkenness…” the nations are intoxicated & unsteady by their passions, offenses, doctrines of demons and philosophies of men over Israel.
c. “…a very heavy stone…” the nations will only hurt themselves trying to exalt man’s will over God’s will for Jerusalem and His people.
3. We are seeing both of these conditions manifested now around the world. People intoxicated by emotions, philosophies of men and doctrines of demons. Trying to lift the heavy stone by devising human solutions to bring peace in the Middle East.
a. The problem is that all of these attempts try to make Jerusalem fit into man’s vision for Jerusalem, Israel and the Jews rather than God’s vision for them.
4. As Christians, we must refuse to this intoxication and refuse any worldly solution that opposes God’s will and purposes for Israel.
5. Even if we agree with a podcaster, politician or influencer, we must be careful of agreeing with any position towards Israel that is unbiblical and contrary to God’s will for them.
6. Today I want to look into the scriptures to understand God’s heart for Israel, His covenant promises to them and His end time plan of redemption for them.
7. This is necessary if we are to have a biblical perspective on Israel and align ourselves with God’s eternal plan rather than the plans of the nations.
B. The Story of Israel is a Story of God’s Faithfulness.
1. If we jump into the controversy of nations against Israel we miss one of the most beautiful and encouraging works of God through the Jews and the nation of Israel: His faithfulness.
2. The history of the Jews is a demonstration of the faithfulness of God and His steadfast love for His people. The evil one is trying to paint the Jewish people as not worthy to have a voice, to be a nation or even to live.
3. But as Christians, what we should see in Israel is a testament to God’s faithfulness even to people who struggle to obey Him.
4. We should understand the history of the Jews and be encouraged and inspired by it. Because if God is faithful to fulfill His covenant promises to a people who have seen His supernatural acts and yet fell away to worship idols, then He will be faithful to us as well, even when we fail to live up to His righteousness.
C. The God of the OT is the same God of the NT.
1. God’s faithfulness declared in the OT.
a. Ps 98:3 “He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”
b. Ps 119:90 “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.”
2. God’s faithfulness declared in the NT.
a. He will be faithful to keep us to the end. (1 Thes 5:23&24; 2 Tim 2:13)
b. He will be faithful to complete the good work that He began in us. (Phil 1:6)
3. If God kept His word to Abraham after 4,000 years of turmoil, imagine how God will keep His word to you.
4. The Jewish people are a living testimony that God keeps His promises even when everything seems impossible.
5. God doesn’t forget His covenant people, He remains faithful until the end.
6. So as we look into the scriptures today, try to keep God’s faithfulness in mind. Try to silence the accusations of the evil one against the Jews and consider the faithfulness of God.
II. We need to see the Jews as a people, not as their government or military.
A. God has a plan to redeem humanity, not our institutions.
1. We need to be careful to see from God’s perspective, not man’s. When God looks at the nations, He sees the people that He created. God’s heart is for His people, not for the institutions that they created. (Jesus came to redeem people, not their governments.)
a. We see this in Daniel 7 and Revelation 7.
2. Daniel 7:14
“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.”
a. peoples: ‘am- kindred
b. nations: ‘umma- tribes
c. languages: lissan- tongues
3. Revelation 7:9&10
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
a. nations: ethnos- ethnicity
b. tribes: phyle- a tribe
c. peoples: a people group (tribes that make up a nation)
d. tongues: glossa- language or dialect distinct to a particular group of people
4. Do you notice that God’s plan of redemption only includes people and not their institutions? Do you notice that the scriptures reveal that the kingdom of God is the only government mentioned when the Lord completes His work in the earth?
a. Why is this?
b. Because no human is capable of governing their peers in righteousness and justice except one- the Lord Jesus Christ.
B. Separating the Jews from the Israeli government.
1. We need to remember this when we think of Israel because if we disagree with the policies of the Israeli government, we can be tempted to develop an ungodly attitude towards the Jewish people themselves.
2. And… even when it comes to the Israeli government, we must be careful of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Even if we disagree with the Israeli governments policies, the Jewish people still have a right to their homeland, to self-govern and to defend themselves.
3. Supporting Israel doesn’t mean unconditionally supporting what the government and military of Israel do. It means unconditionally supporting the the right of the Jewish people to live and self-govern in their God-given homeland and unconditional opposition to anyone who wants to see them dead.
C. A common lie of the enemy.
1. Over the last 2,000 years and even recently at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, people have been saying ‘The Jews killed Jesus’ and used that reasoning to justify anti-Semitism.
2. Yes, religious Jews who were in collusion with the Romans to remain in power conspired to have Jesus killed. But Jesus also had Jewish followers who supported Him and carried His work on.
a. That’s like saying “The Americans killed Abraham Lincoln.”
3. This is just one example of how the evil one tries to bring accusations against the Jewish people and intoxicate the world with contempt for them. We need to guard our hearts against this by understanding God’s heart for them.
4. We can read the scriptures and see that Israel failed over and over again with idolatry and unbelief, but we should also see that God’s covenant with them prevailed.
5. In the end, we will see that God’s covenant is greater than our sin. If God remained faithful to Israel when they wandered, He will remain faithful to us when we stumble.
III. The Land and the People.
A. God called Abraham to a Land.
1. Genesis 12:1-3
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
2. The promise of a nation was tied to a land. God gave Abraham a family that grew into a nation AND God gave them a place to live. (Can you imagine if God blessed you with a large extended family, told you that He was going to use you and your family to bless the world but then left you on your own to find a place to live?)
3. God promised that all the earth would be blessed through Abraham and his family. That blessing came to the world through…
a. The Mosaic Covenant, the Israelites were a sign to the whole earth,
b. The New Covenant in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, through Israel.
c. Descendants like the sand on the seashore: the Jewish people
d. Descendants like the stars in the heavens: the saints
4. The land of Israel has always been the place that God has chosen to place His people and Jerusalem is the city where God has chosen to put His name. (1 Kings 14:21)
B. The land of Israel through the ages.
1. We have already seen that God called Abraham out of Ur and led him to Israel.
2. Follow the history of the people in the land.
a. In Egypt for 400 years until God sent Moses to bring them back to Israel.
b. Took possession of the land and established the worship of God in the land and in Jerusalem. (Islam did not even exist yet.)
c. Because of their idolatry, God led them into captivity and Assyria and Babylon, but He brought them back to Israel to rebuild.
d. After the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, God scattered the Jews among the nations, but after WWII, God brought them back to Israel again.
3. How do we know that God established them in the land in 1948?
a. Deut 30:3-5
3 “…the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
b. Ezekiel 36:24-28
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
c. Ezekiel 37:21-22
21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel;
d. Amos 9:14&15
14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them. 15 I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.
4. It’s abundantly clear that God has given the land of Israel to the Jewish people. (Acts 17:26 applies here as well.) Anyone who works against this is working against God.
5. We see two things in these prophecies, only one of which has been fulfilled:
a. The Jews being gathered from the nations resettled in Israel and
b. a harvest of Jewish believers in Yeshua the Messiah in the last days.
6. Prophecy is history written before it happens. Every Jewish person who returns to the land of Israel is God underlining His faithfulness in bold letters.
C. Israel is also God’s land.
1. Joel 3:1&2
1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.”
2. There are many voices right now calling for a separate Palestinian state as a solution to the war in Gaza. As of Sept 2025, 157 of the 193 nations in the UN have recognized Palestine as a sovereign nation. Although there is no consensus on the borders of Palestine.
3. What the world doesn’t understand is that in the OT God chose the Jews and the land of Israel to be a people and a place where God would dwell with us on the earth. (He started with a garden in the beginning, then a nation during the OT.)
4. In the same way, God’s plan for the last days is to bring the Jews back to Israel and come to us a second time to establish His throne in Israel so that once again God will dwell with man on the earth.
5. In the Lord’s great plan of redemption, the Lord Jesus, a Jewish man, the true Son of David and the rightful heir to the throne of David, will return to Israel, judge the nations there and establish His throne in Jerusalem, ruling the earth for 1,000 years.
6. As gentile Christians, almost 2,000 years removed from the Lord establishing the early church, we usually think that God’s plan of redemption began and ended at the cross and the tomb. The atonement was complete the and the work is finished. But we have yet to see the “time of the restoration of all things” at the return of the Lord.
a. We should be mindful of the Lord’s intentions for the land and His people.
b. We should remember His faithfulness.
c. And in fear and trembling look for the return of the Lord.
IV. God’s faithfulness to Israel.
A. We’ve seen that Israel is the land that God has chosen for Himself and the Jews. But what does the bible say about God’s heart for Israel? For the Jewish people?
1. Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.”
B. God’s faithfulness.
1. Hosea 2:16&16
16 “And it shall be, in that day,” says the Lord, “That you will call Me‘My Husband,’ and no longer call
Me ‘My Master,’ 17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be
remembered by their name no more.
2. Vs 19-23
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.
21 “It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer,” says the Lord; “I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth. 22 The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ and they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
C. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
1. We should remember that God’s plan of redemption that includes Israel and the Jews and be mindful of God’s faithfulness, both to us and to the Jewish people.
2. And we should pray for their salvation, pray for His will to be done and His kingdom to come on earth, just as it is in heaven.
3. We should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you.”
4. When we pray for a city, we are aligning our hearts with the faithfulness of God.
D. Take God’s faithfulness to heart.
1. Every time you see a Jewish person, you are witnessing the faithfulness of God.
2. Don’t fall for the evil one’s tactics of antisemitism, conspiracy theories and accusations.
3. Stand with Israel in prayer and be encouraged by God’s faithfulness to them. Believe that God will show you the same faithfulness.
4. God brought them back from exile and established them in their land, He can certainly gather your broken heart, your broken family and anything in your life that needs redemption and restoration.
5. See them as a sign of God’s faithfulness and ask God to show that to you. God doesn’t forget His covenant people, and He won’t forget you.