Israel Matters – Covenant keeping God

Editor’s Note: As we continue this series exploring the place of Israel in the heart and purposes of God – not only in the past, but in the present and the future. We do so as Israel is at war with Iran. We pray for the people of Israel and for all those caught up in this conflict, we pray for peace and for justice.

In our last session, we addressed the question, “Is modern Israel connected to the Israel of the Bible, a fulfillment of prophecy?” We saw that the Holy Spirit, speaking through the prophets, had much more in mind than simply the return from Babylon in 536 BC. God was promising to regather the Jewish people from the four corners of the earth – and He is doing that right before our eyes.

Summer 2025, Bridges for Peace sponsored a planeload of Jewish people who chose to leave France and resettle in Israel. They could no longer endure the growing levels of hatred and violence being directed against Jews in that European nation.

To further dispel the idea that these prophecies refer only to Babylon, consider Jeremiah 30, verse 3. There God says, “Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers.” Israel had been divided under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, into two kingdoms – Judah in the south and Israel in the north. It was Judah that was exiled to Babylon. The ten northern tribes of Israel had already been scattered by the Assyrians in 722 BC. They were the first to be exiled, and they are only now being re-gathered. As I have mentioned before, the tribe of Dan is returning from Ethiopia, and the tribe of Manasseh is coming home from northeast India. They are no longer lost.

Another factor that prevents some believers from recognizing modern Israel as the Israel of the Bible is the fact that many Israelis are not religious, almost none are Christian – about 30,000 Jewish Israelis out of a population of eight million – and there is much ungodliness in the land. Tel Aviv proudly promotes itself as the gay vacation capital of the world, and abortion is widespread. This is an important concern and a legitimate question. After all, the Israelites were exiled because of their idolatry and unrighteousness. In Deuteronomy 30, God says that He will bring them back when they call His laws to mind, return to the LORD, and obey His voice in all that He commands.

And yet… in Ezekiel and in Zechariah we discover that God does not necessarily maintain this requirement. In Ezekiel 36:22, God clearly states that He will not bring them home for their own sake or because of their righteousness, but for the sake of His holy name. His name has been profaned among the nations where they have been scattered, and He intends to sanctify His name – to demonstrate that He alone is the true God, fully capable of keeping His promise of the land. Does this mean righteousness is set aside? By no means. Ezekiel prophesies that when Israel returns to the mountains of Israel, God will sprinkle her with clean water, cleanse her from all uncleanness, give her a new heart and a new spirit, and cause her to walk in His statutes and carefully obey His rules.

God has not broken His everlasting covenant with Abraham’s family. Although He scattered them to the four corners of the earth two thousand years ago, in our generation He is regathering them. Read Ezekiel 36 for an amazing picture of God’s mercy toward Israel in our own lifetimes. He is faithfully keeping His promises – restoring them physically to the land and spiritually to Himself.

God covenants with Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those covenants are unbreakable and permanent. In Jeremiah 31, the LORD declares that only if the sun and the moon cease to be lights in the sky will Israel cease to be a nation before Him. We also saw that these covenants include the land of Canaan, given as a permanent possession to the Jewish people, though with the possibility of temporary exile.

This brings us to the question of whether the Israel of today – reborn as a nation in 1948 – is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. This is a hotly contested issue. At one time, I thought that all the prophecies concerning return from exile referred only to the 70-year Babylonian exile, long before the time of Jesus. I wasn’t even curious about the return of eight million Jews to that tiny land in our time, after it had been almost empty of Jews for nearly two thousand years since the Romans drove them out in 135 CE.

Yet by one count, there are 176 references in Scripture to God regathering the Jewish people from exile. As I became more familiar with these prophecies, it became clear that they must point to something more than the return from Babylon in 536 BC. Isaiah 11 speaks of the LORD reaching out His hand a second time. Isaiah 43 describes Him bringing His people home from the east, the west, the north, and the south. Amos declares that they will never again be uprooted. Jeremiah 30 refers to both Judah and Israel being brought back, and Ezekiel 36 speaks of a profound spiritual renewal once they have returned to the land.

This brings us to Zechariah, which presents another powerful picture of God first regathering the Jewish people and then transforming them spiritually. One common argument against modern Israel being a work of God is that the nation is not characterized by widespread righteousness. But what if God’s plan is to bring them back first – and then transform their hearts?

In Zechariah, we see the same order as in Ezekiel: return to the land, followed by repentance. In chapter 1, the LORD declares that the cities of Israel will again overflow with prosperity, that He will again comfort Zion, and that He will again choose Jerusalem. In Zechariah 12, with the Jewish people back in the land, we read that all the nations of the earth will gather against it. This is the well-known passage where Jerusalem becomes a cup of staggering to the surrounding peoples, and a heavy stone for all who would lift it. Into that moment steps the LORD Himself – striking the horses of Israel’s enemies with panic and bringing salvation to the tents of Judah. “On that day,” we read, “the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them shall be like David.” It is a powerful deliverance in which the LORD destroys all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

What follows next, in Zechariah 12, verse 10, is truly remarkable. God declares, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, so that when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child.”

Heaven’s response to this repentance – an awesome and gracious response – is revealed in chapter 13, verse 1: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”

The parallel with Ezekiel 36 is unmistakable: return to the land, followed by cleansing from sin. The LORD is demonstrating His patience and His forbearance. Our God is an awesome God – awesome in power, and awesome in love and mercy – toward you and me, and toward Israel.

To be continued…..