“But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
(Gal 4:26, NKJV)
Whilst this specific teaching was written a full-scale war between Israel and the resistance movement of Palestine was raging, and the entire world were divided into two camps – for or against Israel. At the core of the conflict between the two groups is Israel’s claim on land which the Palestinians believe rightly belongs to them. In the light of all the arguments which the last few teachings have mapped out, an entirely different way of approaching the matter is called for – a new covenant perspective on the current situation. Misunderstanding the role of Israel during the end times (as is the case with teachings set forth by John Hagee, Grant R Jeffreys, or locally prof Johan Malan, among others) has serious consequences through which the Bride of Christ is deceived.
Christians are encouraged to actively take part in the support of Israel’s unlawful claims and anti-Christian conduct, and through that, I believe, we unwittingly play into the hands of the kingdom of darkness. (And with this statement I am not politically siding myself with either of the groups – I think that Hamas is equally wrong in its constant teasing of Israel by firing its long-distance missiles on civilian targets, through their cowardly terrorist suicide bombings, and their unethical use of women and children as protective shields, but this is a debate which we are not engaging in now. Our focus is to try and figure out what God says about the root of the problem and how this will direct the final stretch toward the end times.)
In the newspaper Beeld of 12 January, 2009, for instance, there is an article with the heading PW’s widow stands up for Israel. Ex-president Botha’s widow plans to initiate a protest action against the violence in Israel. “As a Christian I am dedicated in my support of Israel,” she says, basing her argument on Gen 12:3 – “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.” She considers Israel to have “a God-given right to defend itself, and that criticism of Israel is uninformed.”
In the light of the previous teaching readers should see that this type of statement does not concur with the Biblical facts.
A letter from a reader, Rene Rossouw, which was published in Beeld of 6 January 2009, spells out the larger context from a Biblical and historical perspective – “The Jews may perhaps consider themselves be God’s people, but the last time I checked Jesus Christ was born and things had changed substantially. The Jews had already lost their right to the land in the Old Testament, and had after World War Two simply gone back to Palestine, claimed the land for themselves with the help of the UN and the USA, and took the land from the Palestinians.”
In contrast with the insurgent focus on contemporary Christian-orientated Judaism, coupled with a great focus on Israel and the Old Testament feasts and dates and customs, and the defending of Israel at all costs, it is important to understand how Paul compares Jerusalem (in Gal 4:20-31) and thus Israel, with the slave wife Hagar and her slave children, in contrast with the heathens, who had been freed in Jesus as the free woman of promise.
All that should matter to us is the Jerusalem/Israel (Rom 9:6; Gal 6:16) above (Gal 4:26), and the New Jerusalem, the Bride (Rev 21:2).
- Sela: Contemplate Gal 4:20-31.
- Read: Deut 8; Amos 5; Ezek 34.
- Memorize: Deut 8:18.
- For a deeper understanding: Read James Caroll’s Constantine’s sword: the Church and the Jews.
