The Old Testament covenants and dispensational directives are for the preservation and blessing of His entire creation. God selected Abram to become a nation through whom He could bring light and redemption for the world. By connecting to Israel, we are in right covenant with YHWH. Yet, most people groups throughout time have rebelled and served their created gods. Thus, those who rejected Israel, rejected God.
Nations were blessed or cursed based on actions toward the Israelites. We read of powerful nations like Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and other, who have vanished from the face of the earth because of their brutal actions toward Israel. All that remains of them is history and buried ruins. God has often spared and blessed those who proved their loyalty to the Jewish people. In Judges 1:24-25, the Israelites captured the Hittite city of Luz but spared the man that had shown them kindness. When YHWH pronounced the Abrahamic promise in Gen. 12:3, “I will bless those that bless you,” there was yet to be a Jewish people born. There is one thing older than the Jewish people: the Jewish blessing. As spoken by Balaam when hired by a Moabite king to curse Israel:
“How can I curse that which the Lord has blessed” (Numbers 23:8, KJV).
Through it all, God’s covenant with Israel remains. Prophesy fulfilled, the nation of Israel was birthed in a day (Isaiah 66:7-8) and His people are being brought back to their land (Jeremiah 30:3). Ezekiel prophesied 2500 years before the dry bones were brought back to life. People from all over the world are aligning with God’s will to help this take place (Isaiah 49:22). These blessed ones are in covenant with God to bless—and not curse Israel.
Lets notice some ways that you can bless Israel:
1) Support the Root. Christianity exists because the Jewish people carried the original mandate. Romans 9:4-5 says, “Who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoptions as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom are the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen.” The grace extended to the Christian was first preserved by the Jews through who was born the one who sits on the throne of David—Yeshua. We must not show arrogance toward them but humility and gratitude. We are the ones grafted into the original root. Therefore, supporting means giving of our self in time and finances, and most importantly, our prayer: “And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:7).
2) Learn from Jewish wisdom. Exodus 19:6: “You shall be to me a Kingdom of Priest and a holy nation.” We must understand the Jewish people were the first that were told by God to minister the Word of God. Like all other groups, they have deviated from the purity of the Torah, adding many regulations; however, their years of study are not to be taken lightly but with must appreciation. With careful study of the history of the Jews, we have better understanding of the New Testament context, which is the Old Testament revealed.
3) Correct wrong mindsets. There are misleading “spiritual” termanologies. Such terms infer that Israel has been replaced with the church. Terms like, “New Israel,” true Israel, and the true bride. These terms are not wrong per used arbitrarily to scriptural context. Misappropriated scriptures, such as in John 1:11, “He came to his own and his own received him not,” which does not mean that His kinsmen are no longer in God’s plan. The well-meaning Christian is often misinformed and believes we have replaced the chosen people of God. As Paul has said concerning this issue, “God has not rejected his people” (Romans 11:1). Yet, thru doctrinal error, centuries of crusades and persecutions, as well as the Holocaust, has brought understandable mistrust, and even hatred, toward the Christian. Increasing numbers of organizations like CUFI, Christian Friends of Israel, Eagles Wings, Bridges for Peace, and tiny ones like ours—Zion’s Bridge—is doing their best to undo the wrong and make up for our shameful past actions toward the Jewish people. Now, we are helping to build up Zion and bringing the Jewish people back to the Promised Land.
4) Make them Jealous. “Salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous,” says Rabbi Paul (Romans 11:11). In other words, invoke them to desire their rightful place in the Messiah by our love for Yeshua, for one another, and for His Chosen. We cannot make them jealous by introducing our own set of rules. Regulations have served only to drive a wedge among the various Jewish groups. We effectively make them jealous when we respect their Jewish identities and assure them that Yeshua was a Jew and studied and lived by their Torah. The Jewish people have been told that they deserve the years of persecution from the world at large. The truth is that God has dealt with His people according to their rejection in order to bring them back to Him.(Amos 9:8; Jeremiah 12:14-17). Let’s rejoice that we are living in the time of restoration. “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15, ESV).
