Being a Jew who is very much supportive of Israel it is really touching when Christians express a pro Israel love and support.
But honestly, I would prefer if you came to that support not from some Biblical admonition but because you looked at all the objective history and facts and current news and clearly determined that Israel is in the right, on the side of justice and righteousness, and her enemies are wrong and barbaric.
And when the US does Israel an injustice, and sides with her enemies- who are also our enemies- you don’t wait for some retribution from God, but express your retribution in the American way, politically.
I’m one of those rabidly pro-Israel Christians that have come to support her for both the reasons you cite in your post.
My problem with Israel has been the same as the one that God has had, frankly - it forgets who its friends and protectors are. It sells military technology to the wrong folks. It can’t seem to educate its expatriots in the US to stop voting for the same people that are legitimizing the Palestinians.
I’m left here, as an Irish Christian, being more ‘zionist’ than the average American Jew, and I for the life of me don’t get it. I realize there’s an element of self-loathing that’s is the Jewish way, if you will, but it doesn’t completely explain it.
Do you realize that at Christmas and Easter, the Jews here in the Seattle area are actually afraid of some act of retribution here? I’ve heard that expressed by some Rabbis here. The average person never hears about those annual death threats that are apparently part of the Christmas and Easter season (Christmas especially).
One of my best memories was not being able to go home on Christmas, and spending Christmas at a friend of mine’s house in Brooklyn. They knew I was coming, so they got a cross, and put up a little tree, and I got to be a part of their extended family coming over that night and having Chinese food - massive feast! They had some presents and we sang Christmas carols, which blew me away. I ended up crying a little bit because they had gone to such lengths to accommodate a Christian in their home on Christmas.
The Jews are our big brothers in every respect, as Christians. I feel the same way about our historical relationship with England - they are our fathers, and we’re the kids that moved out. I know it is way more complicated than that, but at its base, these relationships have resonance with me. This is especially true culturally, regardless of our differences theologically.
God chose his ‘stiff-necked’ people for reason - and personally one can suffer many guesses as to why. As Christians, we are the adopted children of God. We share the Pentateuch. We are your little brothers, who were adopted well after the fact. We obtained our heritage, our courage, our obstinance, and our very blood from Abraham himself.
I wish we could take our cue on how to behave toward Israel more from American Jews living here in the US, than having to come by our objectivity on Israel on our own. Most Christians, as I said, are more pro-Israel than American Jews. At times, I’d say this true even of Jews living in Tel Aviv, for example.