I recently returned from my first trip to Israel. That I am even able to write that is confounding to me. As I was there, map scales and boundaries became real, and became really small. While in Israel, I was able to see into Lebanon ("yeah, it's right over there"; "huh."), Syria ("and those ridges there have several missiles pointing here", "huh."), Jordan ("yep, remember, just across the Dead Sea"; "oh yeah! huh."), the West Bank ("seriously?! there, RIGHT there?!"; "yes, that's it"; "huh.") And, though we weren't close enough to see into the Gaza Strip, there were enough IDF choppers and fighter jets in the air as they were again launching rockets into Israel, I got the point.
The fact that Israel exists, that an obscure people-group that were scattered across the globe nearly 2000 years ago after the Romans sacked Jerusalem and chased them down to the point of worrying about the 960 that made it to Masada, the same obscure group that was nearly wiped out in the Holocaust directed at them, that this group still exists and is in their own homeland, is just bizarre. There, of course, is no logical explanation that, though surrounded by enemies on all sides and beyond, this tiny strip of land is a national home for the Jewish people. As a student of history, this would be enough to convince me that something more is in the works: the fact their existence is so befuddling would have me considering a supernatural phenomenon. But dare not take my word, nor anyone else's. God's Word stands true and uncorrectable. Bizarre? Illogical? No, God.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
This is God's covenant to His people Israel, descendants of Abraham. Earlier in Genesis 12:2, God promised to make a great nation through Abraham. In Galatians 3, Paul explains that, as Jesus is the "new covenant", those of faith...are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'In you shall all the nations be blesses.' So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith (Galatians 3:7-9). Some would use this passage to deny the Jews their covenantal homeland.
BUT, God's covenant in Genesis 15, written above, was a covenant He made with Himself. Though He made it TO Abraham, Abraham did not make it WITH him. Abraham, who is representative of the Jewish nation, does not have to hold up any end of the bargain, so to speak. God holds both sides. God makes this covenant unconditional, backed by God Himself. And, of course, God cannot go back on His own Word. The land of Israel-- though not yet fully experienced in modern-day lines-- is a homeland for God's chosen people, the Jews. (The focus here is the land of Israel, for more on the misconstrue-ings of replacement theology, perhaps a study in Romans 11 could get you started).
So, the confounding nation of Israel is a testament to God's faithfulness and His faithful Word. As the borders seem small and enemy nations foreboding, God is bigger. God is real and still connected to His people Israel, remaining faithful even in their unfaithfulness, not because they are holier than the rest of us, but because God is holy. So, as I have experienced tiny Israel, I have experienced a big, Holy, Faithful God.
