freeeric
The Gentile blind-spot over the divine strategy for Israel.
That there has long been a Jewish blind-spot over their Messiah’s identity is no secret, but at the same time there is a widespread Gentile blind-spot over Israel’s true purpose under God.
So it was sadly predictable to hear that the UK’s religious leaders – (Anglican) Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and his Catholic counterpart Cardinal Vincent Nichols – have urged British Prime Minister Liz Truss to drop her plan for moving our Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The new leader has clearly indicated her intention of doing so, but the archbishops have warned that it will damage hopes of peace in the Middle East in view of the Palestinian claim on Jerusalem.
It’s highly significant, I believe, that this fresh controversy coincides with Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, celebrating God living amongst his people as they are about to inherit the land he promised them.
With Justin Welby in mind, I feel it’s such a shame that the man who got it right at the Queen’s funeral (with her help, of course, since she had planned it) by giving a clear gospel message seems unable to translate that into an understanding of God’s overall plan for Israel and the nations.
Christians, of all people, should be able to grasp the divine strategy for the land God calls his own. It’s the place where he has chosen to dwell (Psalm 132:13f). And at the end of the age, at the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, he will still live there – ruling and reigning from the New Jerusalem.
Opposition to Israel’s existence is growing daily, and will inevitably climax when an alliance of unfriendly nations attack her from the north. According to Zechariah, it will be a terrible time for Jerusalem’s inhabitants, but the Lord himself will then go out and fight against those nations.
