Is it important to stand with Israel and why should we do so? In a series of 10 blogs, Benjamin Kroese who lives in Israel, will share about the importance of developing a love for God’s people Israel. This week part 2: ‘God is a God Who keeps His covenant’.
The word ‘covenant’ is something that doesn’t seem to carry much weight in my generation. Take marriage as an example. Someone once said to me: “Why get married if the chance of getting divorced is so big? You might as well not get married”. The concept of a covenant is hard to find nowadays.
God confirmed His promise to give Israel the land of Canaan with a sworn covenant. In Genesis we read how God appeared to Abraham to promise him a land and descendants as innumerable as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5).
Abraham replied: “How can I know that I will gain possession of it?” God answered by coming down like a blazing torch passing through sacrificial animals to seal the promise to Abraham with a covenantal oath (Genesis 15:17-18).
Replacement theology
One of God’s main character traits is that He is a covenant keeping God. In the past, some Christians insisted that God change his mind about Israel, give them up and make a new covenant with the church—the “new Israel.”
(But that would be catastrophic news for any believer today. With all our sins, lukewarmness, or lack of commitment, should we not be afraid that God will change his mind about us too? No, because “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13) ).
If we as Church stray from such a basic concept that of God is a God of covenant, then things get really complicated. It is therefore not surprising that we increasingly hear distorted preaching from the pulpit in the church. Evil is called good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).
However, based on 2 Timothy 2:13 we can be sure that the great hope for both Israel and the church, is that God always keeps His covenant promises – forever! If God didn’t reject Israel and is still in a covenant relationship with them, it is all the more reason for us to love Israel as well!
This blog is written by Benjamin Kroese. Benjamin is married to Rebecca and together with their three sons they live in Israel. They have their own video production company ‘Frontline Media’ and are founders of ‘Until He Returns Ministries’. Benjamin and Rebecca have a passion for revival in Israel and have a desire to reach other nations to stand with Israel.
