Opposition To Israel vs Biblical Zionism: Are We On God’s Side?
In my over four decades as a follower of Yeshua, I have heard it said often from a variety of people, “God is on our side!” Such a statement is used to validate one’s position as being in line with God’s will and thus, totally justifying their words or actions. There is even a movie about the Palestinian anti-Jewish narrative that came out in 2010, titled “With God on Our Side!” That phrase is popular in the mouth of anyone who desires to play the “God card”, but whenever we claim that God is on our side, we run the risk of bringing Him down to our level; a place He doesn’t belong to!
In all fairness, the Bible does speak of God being on our side in several places, such as Psalm 56:9, Psalm 124:1-2, Isaiah 41:10, and Romans 8:31, but these truths are often hijacked and abused to serve flawed human agendas. No matter how spiritual we make ourselves believe we are, bringing God down reduces Him to something or someone He is not and will never be.
Instead, we would be better off humbly claiming “I am on God’s side!” This is obviously a claim that requires humility, obedience, and service to the Lord. We are not automatically on God’s side, but we can strive to be, which is a really healthy attitude for a modern-day follower of Yeshua. So, what happens when we are on God’s side? What are the benefits of lining up with God’s word in obedience? While there are many blessings coming with this position, let’s concentrate on the benefits of being on God’s side as they pertain to the Land of Israel, the Jewish people, and the Middle East.
Being on God’s side means that we are biblical Zionists, and this has several important implications. At this point, it is important to understand the meaning of Zionism. Zionism is not occupation, colonization, or genocide. These claims are false narratives only aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish people’s rights to the land. They are not founded on truth, but on the desire to destroy Israel and all Jews.
According to Israeli diplomat and politician Abba Eban, Zionism is the “Jewish people’s sense of origin and destination in the Land linked eternally with its name.” I would add that Zionism is “The Jewish people’s right to exist in their biblical, ancestral and historical land of Israel.”
We must understand that God Himself was the first Zionist, simply because He is the creator of all things, including the land of Israel and the children of Israel. Many believers will call themselves Christian Zionists, but what if we called ourselves biblical Zionists instead, because after all, God was a Zionist way before Christianity was born. As biblical Zionists, we adhere to several biblical truths.
The Land Belongs to God
The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me (Leviticus 25:23). It has been called by many names from the Land of Canaan (Genesis 11:31, 17:8) to the Land of your sojournings (Genesis 28:4) to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 9:28; Joshua 23:5), not to forget “a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 6:3).
Emperor Hadrian, changing its name to Palestine during the Roman revolt of 135 AD, succeeded in humiliating the Jewish people. Eventually, the name was repurposed after Israel was reborn as a modern nation, and it became politically charged and negatively motivated against the Jews. That doesn’t change the biblical record.
God gifted the Land to Abraham and his descendants in a very specific way
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you‘” (Genesis 12:1). “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him’” (Genesis 12:7).
There is a clear order followed by God on how the land is given and to whom. It is based on an unconditional covenant (Genesis 17:7-8). It was passed down from Abraham to his son Isaac (Genesis 26:3) and then to Jacob (Genesis 28:3-4, 10-17, 35:9-15). The gifting of the Land is never based on Israel’s performance, but only on God’s character (Deuteronomy 7:7-9).
The boundaries are precise and strict
The Bible is very specific about the boundaries of the land in two ways.
First, we are given a list of land masses belonging to various people groups in Genesis 15:18-20, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
These people groups were deposed of their land, and most of them don’t even exist anymore today. The reason was idolatry! That compounded land mass is about twice the size of the state of Texas and will be fulfilled during the Millennial Kingdom of the Messiah.
Second, the God-given boundaries are not to be exceeded by the Children of Israel in any way, at any time in history, which, contrary to the ideology of perpetual Islamic territorial expansion, makes biblical Israel’s land mass precise and strictly regulated by the Almighty. God is clear in Deuteronomy when He warns Israel about not stealing one foot of land not given to the Jewish people, “and command the people, saying, ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.’” (Deuteronomy 2:4-5, also 2:18-19).
A Biblical Zionist is not anti-Palestinian
Being a biblical Zionist, contrary to what the media feeds us, doesn’t make one anti-Palestinian. It makes one pro-Bible, pro-God, and pro-Israel, but these three virtues do not negate the Palestinians’ (read “Arabs”) right to exist. This being said, why are pro-Palestinian almost always consistently anti-Zionist and antisemitic? Why does it have to be a one-way street?
Being on God’s side is reassuring. It is based on our obedience, service, and humility. We know our place in God’s family, and we would never pretend to have God on our side in a subservient position. There really is a difference between the two approaches. Being on God’s side is the same as being in God’s will, and there is no better place to be to understand His Word and His specific plan for the believers, for Israel, and for the Jewish people.
