Why Israel and the Jews matter

Why is Israel so hated and vilified? Why is the world so focused on this tiny strip of land the size of New Jersey? Why are the Jews so hated and vilified? Why are they the most persecuted people in history? Why is the world so focused on this tiny ethnic minority? The answers to these questions will tell us why modern Israel and the Jews matter (regardless of what anyone says). 

We must start at the beginning. After the snake in the garden (Satan) deceived Eve and caused the downfall of humanity, God said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Gen 3:15). That was the shot across the bow that heralded the coming of the Messiah who would ultimately defeat Satan once and for all (Rev 19-20). From that moment on, Satan launched a campaign to stop the Messiah from coming.

God prophesied that the Messiah would come through humanity, and that became Satan's first target. His plan was to corrupt humanity, both spiritually and physically. That culminated in a global flood (Gen 6) that nearly succeeded in destroying humanity, save for eight people.

Sometime later, God chose a people for Himself through Abraham and his descendants and made a covenant with them. By doing so, God revealed the Messiah would come out of them: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a star shall come out of Jacob; a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. (Num 24:17). Satan narrowed his next line of attack to the twelve tribes of Israel.

During the Hebrews' exodus in Egypt, Satan used Pharaoh to oppress them and kill all the male babies born to the Hebrews. When that wasn't enough, he came against them at the Red Sea to annihilate them. Pharaoh's and Satan's plans were foiled when God parted the Red Sea, saved His people, and destroyed the Pharaoh and his army instead (a foreshadowing of things to come). That, however, was far from his last attempt. He employed other strategies to destroy Israel, including getting them to turn away from God. That strategy was semi-successful and did ultimately result in the fall of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

The prophesies became more specific and hinted that the Messiah would not only come from the tribe of Judah, specifically King David's line (Gen 49:10, 2Sa 7:12-13, Isa 9:7). This narrowed Satan's focus even more. Haman petitioned King Xerxes to kill all the Jews in the Babylonian empire, which encompassed the entire middle-east. Such a decree would have meant a Jewish genocide. Instead, God used Mordecai and Queen Ester to deliver the Jews and Haman was killed instead.

Two more prophecies were revealed that told the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isa 7:14) and in the town of Bethlehem (Mic 5:2). This broadly told Satan who and where, but not when. That was not until the wise men came to Jerusalem to worship the newborn King of the Jews. Satan then used Herod to kill all male babies in Bethlehem, two years and younger, to preempt the Messiah. When that failed, Satan later tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world if He worshiped him (Luk 4:5-7), which Christ refused. When that too failed, Satan worked through men to have Jesus crucified, but he played directly into God's hands, and it became his greatest defeat up to that point (1Co 2:8).

Satan failed to stop Christ's first coming, but now he's intent on stopping Christ's second coming. Scriptures indicate that the second coming is, in fact, conditional, and the Jews still have a part to play in it:

Hos 5:15 I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

Zec 12:10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

Mat 23:39 “for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ ”

The “offense” mentioned by Hosea is outlined in the Book of Daniel 9:24 in order to “finish the transgression”. What is Jew's greatest transgression? It is their corporate rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus specifically alludes to this in Matthew 23:29. That will happen at the culmination of the Great Tribulation.

Satan also knows this, which is why the Jews have been one of the most persecuted people in history. From all the pogroms, persecutions, blood libels, the Holocaust, and the antisemitism we still see today. It's all directed toward the Jews because it's spiritual in nature. Satan knows that if he can stop the Jews, then he can stop the second coming. He has done this by turning the hearts of men against them until they believe they're doing a good thing in persecuting and slandering them. This is why the Jews still matter.

Now, we will establish why the state of Israel matters. There are many scriptures that talk of God regathering Israel in the latter days (see Eze 36:24, 37:21–22, Jer 23:3–8, 31:8–10, just to name a few.) If they are going to be regathered, they need a place to be regathered to. Isaiah 66:8 foresaw that necessity and posed a rhetorical question: Can a nation be born in one day? The answer to that question is yes. So, it can't be argued that Israel hasn't been regathered (or is in the process of being regathered) or that the state of Israel wasn't born in a single day. Those things have happened. That alone makes Israel prophetically important.

But why a state? Well, we shouldn't expect Israel to be regathered in this day and age and not become a nation-state. But it's important because it sets the stage for two major end-time events. One is the spiritual restoration of Israel. The enemies of Israel will come against her, and God will defend her, revealing Himself in the process. As Israel's enemies push them toward God, God will be pulling them toward Him. They will first come to acknowledge God again and then at last acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. In the end, all Israel will be saved (Rom 11:26). But here's the important point: there has to be a physical restoration before there is a spiritual restoration. The nation-state of Israel is a means to that end.

The second reason ties in with the first. God will put Israel in a position where they will have to turn to him, like at the Red Sea, and he will use Israel's enemies to do it. Zechariah 12:3 talks about Jerusalem becoming a burdensome stone and all the nations gathering against her in the latter days. Jerusalem did not become a focal point of the world until Israel captured it in 1967. Prior to the time, it had very little relevance. In fact, when Mark Twain visited the Holy Land in 1867, he said, "Jerusalem is mournful, and dreary, and lifeless. I would not desire to live here." In the end, all the armies will be gathered at Armageddon to destroy Israel once and for, but that is when God steps in and destroys them instead. Thus, the state of Israel exists as both a lure, to destroy Israel's enemies, and as a life preserver, to save Israel both physically and spiritually in order to bring them back into the fold. And that is why Israel is important.

To go a bit deeper into this subject, see my article The Eschatological Case for Israel.