Does Genesis 17:8 mean Israel as a permenant right to the land of Palestine and deserves unconditional political support from Christians and America?
Here are a few considerations:
This land promise was not unconditional. See Genesis 17:1 and the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 27-28. Later in history, God judged Israel and Judah by exiling them from their land. So even in old covenant history, they didn’t possess the land unconditionally. They had to obey to maintain the land. In the first century, they were in the land but did not “own” it since they were subject to the Roman Empire. After the return from exile, there was only a brief period in which they not under foreign rule even when they lived in the land, and many Jews continued living outside the land. So the promise of the land cannot be considered an unconditional entitlement.
Also you have to consider who are the children of Abraham. Romans 4 and Galatians 3 show us the covenant is with those who have the faith of Abraham. Unbelieving Jews are broken out – they can be grafted back in, but in the meantime, they are not part of the covenant people. They cannot claim promises made to Abraham apart from faith in the God of Abraham. Jesus is the true Israel – and only those in union with him are true Israelites. All the promises of God are yes and Amen in Jesus. Think of the children’s Sunday School song: “Father Abraham had many children, I am one of them and so are you…” Christians are children of Abraham because we share the faith of Abraham (cf. John 8, where Jesus says the Pharisees are actually children of the devil because they do not have Abraham’s faith).
That’s why the recreation of the nation-state of modern Israel is of no prophetic significance, at least not yet. Most modern Israelis living there are unbelievers. Israel is a secular state. The only way anything concerning the modern nation-state of Israel becomes “prophetic” is when they repent and believe the gospel. That’s when the broken out branches are grafted back in. In Jeremiah’s day, there were people in Israel claiming they could never be judged because they had the promise of the land and they had the temple. Jeremiah called those men false prophets, who cry out “peace,” when there is no peace. Those who want to give the modern nation of Israel unconditional support because they are “God’s people” are like those false prophets.
There is one more consideration. In the new covenant, we find that the land of Canaan itself was a type of the whole earth. For example, in Romans 4:11, Paul says Abraham was promised not just the land but the world. In Ephesians 6, the promise of long life in the land in the 5th commandment is transformed into long life in the earth. And so on. So the land of Canaan was really just a first taste of a much bigger promise – the sons of Abraham inherit not merely the land of Canaan but the whole world. Think of the nations promised to Jesus in Psalm 2, the worldwide scope of the Great Commission, etc. The whole world is to be Israelized.
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A reminder that contemporary theological confusion over the modern nation-state of Israel is caused entirely by dispensationalism. Covenant theologians have always taught that the church, inclusive of Jew and Gentile believers, is the new and true Israel. Romans and Galatians show definitively that the children of Abraham are those who are in union with Christ. The modern nation-state of Israel is of no distinct prophetic significance. Christians owe no allegiance, certainly not any kind of unconditional support, to modern Israel. Whether or not America should ally with Israel is a prudential question based on what best serves national interests, but it is safe to say that there is no good case to be made for funding Israel’s wars. The modern nation-state of Israel has been allowed to exert entirely too much influence over American politics, through both misguided theology and financial manipulation. We need to disentangle ourselves from that influence.
Covenant theologians have always held that in the new covenant age, the blessings of Genesis 12:3 are tied to the true church, not ethnic Jews. This is true even for those covenant theologians who take Romans 11 in a futurist way, pointing to a future mass conversion of Jews to Christ. The nation of Israel as she exists today is a Christ-hating secular state and unbelieving Jews are not the people of God in any way, shape, or form – though they are invited to join the people of God by repenting of their and trusting in Christ.
This is not an “anti-Semitic” view. I don’t think America owes Canada any special favors or support either, but that does not make me “anti-Canadian.” The special curse on the Jewish people for their rejection of Jesus (and other prophets leading up to Jesus, per Matthew 23:34-36) was executed in the destruction of the temple in 70AD (cf. Matthew 24:1–35), so there are no unique curses on them any longer. But they also do not have any special status as a people apart from converting to Christian faith. The Spiritual antithesis that runs through the human race is between Christian and non-Christian; dividing the world according to the Jew/Gentile distinction is no longer covenantally significant.
As a postmillennialist, I believe all ethnic groups/nations will eventually be converted and discipled, in fulfillment of the Great Commission. That includes Jews. Someday those branches that were broken out of the olive tree of Romans 11 will be grafted back in. But in the meantime, unbelieving Jews are no different than other unbelievers. Love them. Evangelize them. But don’t build your politics around giving them special treatment.
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Is the re-establishment of the nation-state of Israel a fulfillment of prophecy? No.
Any prophecies that could be applied to ethnic Israel (like Romans 11) envision her conversion to Christ, not her mere political restoration as a godless geopolitical nation. So long as most Jews reject Jesus, the prophecies are not fulfilled. Only their conversion to Christian faith can satisfy the prophesies — and it is not necessary for them to be in the land of Palestine for that to happen. Thus, our desire for the ethnic Jews should be their conversion. Nothing else really matters.
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