THE “APPLE OF GOD’S EYE” HAS A SECURE AND BRIGHT FUTURE; WHICH ONLY GOES TO PROVE THAT WE DO TOO.

“And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).

The question came up over and over again at the Junior High/Middle School camp at which I just spoke: “How do you know there is a God?” As if the wonders of creation are not enough to convince us.

My stock answer consists of but one word: Israel. Apart from the existence of God, there is no other logical explanation for the birth of the modern Jewish State. None.

To see what I mean, let’s start back at the beginning. One of the most history-defining statements in all of the Bible pops up right at the start of Scripture. As early as Genesis 12 we read, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 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.’” Those words constitute what has come appropriately to be called the Abrahamic Covenant, a sacred and solemn promise that God made to Abraham and to his descendants through Isaac and Jacob ; a divine pledge, a heavenly guarantee between God and “the apple of His eye” – our friends, the Jewish people – and the Jewish State, Israel.

Indeed, to say that God has always had a special place in His rather sizeable heart for Israel would be the height of understatement. That being said, the relationship between God and His chosen people has been a rocky one to say the least. It’s not mere coincidence that the name Israel means to wrestle with, struggle with, or fight with God. Through the ebb and flow of the history of the Jewish people, God has at times blessed them, and at other times disciplined them – severely so. But He has never abandoned them; He never will.

You might remember the time when Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem as He looked through the long lens of prophecy and viewed a heart-rending scene: “Now as (Jesus) drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” The fulfillment of that prophecy took place in AD 70 when the Romans leveled the Temple and burned the city. The final embers of the Jewish revolt against the Romans were snuffed out three years later when nearly a thousand Jews took their own lives high atop the hilltop fortress called Masada rather than submit to the brutalities of the Romans. With the last breath of the last Jew, the Jewish state ceased to exist.

Until the unthinkable happened. Throughout the turbulent history of people on this troubled planet, empires have been born only eventually to die. Nations have come and gone. Case in point: Even the mighty, invincible, unbeatable Roman Empire is today history (pun intended). Fact is, no civilization, once obliterated from the map, ever rises out of the ashes of its annihilation to live again. None, that is, save Israel.

On Friday, May 14, 1948, an event of biblical significance took place in a nondescript building in the heart of Tel Aviv. On that momentous afternoon it was as if the earth stopped spinning and the angels in Heaven held their breath as David Ben Gurion proclaimed the once-unimaginable words: “Accordingly we, the members of the National Council representing the Jewish people in Palestine and the World Zionist Movement, are met together in solemn assembly today, the day of termination of the British Mandate for Palestine; and by virtue of the natural and historic right of the Jewish People and of the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations. We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be call Medinath Yisrael (The State of Israel).” With that statement, a modern miracle was realized; after nearly 2000 years the Jewish State had been reborn.

Today, much of the Jewish population of Israel, and indeed of the world, are secular. Many Jews readily admit that they do not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they certainly do not acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. At least not yet. One day the final chapter of Israel’s storied history will soon be written. And her last chapter will be her brightest. For one day, sooner rather than later I think, “all of Israel will be saved.”

No doubt about it: Pull out a map, find the Middle East, and set your gaze upon that remarkable word, Israel. That’s all you need to know to know that God is alive and well and keeps His promises – to Israel and to us.