When it comes to peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, it is most common for the Church to site justice, fairness, and civil rights as the basis for supporting a Palestinian State. There is a misguided theological perspective that believes Jesus always stands with the poor and afflicted. This is not the case. Jesus stands on the side of truth. The truth is that God has promised the Land to the sons of Jacob. This is not a matter of favoritism, but of calling. In other words, it is not because the Lord likes Jewish people more than Gentiles that He gave this Land to the Jewish people. Rather it is because of purpose. God is sovereign and He can choose whomever He desires to use. Likewise, He can choose whatever method He wants to accomplish His purpose of establishing His Kingdom.

In this week’s Torah portion, the Lord promises to cut off the Gentiles from the Land so that Israel may dwell there (See Deuteronomy 12:29). Is this unfair, unjust, and against the nature of a loving God? By no means! One must pay attention to the context in order to learn that those Gentiles were idol worshippers and even burned up their children in fire in observance to their “gods” (See Deuteronomy 12:31).

It must be pointed out that when Israel committed the same acts (See Jeremiah 7:30-31) what was the outcome? The results were the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile. In fact, Scripture says that the Lord punished Israel twice as much as the Gentiles for their sins (See Isaiah 40:2). Although Israel has gone into Exile several times, make no mistake that in order for the Kingdom to be established, Israel must return to the Land.

For more than twenty years there have been efforts by the world to bring peace to the Middle East by pressuring Israel to give up land. The United States has led the way in this endeavor. Personally, I strongly believe that America has not been blessed by such a course; in fact, I think a most convincing case could be made that the opposite has been the outcome.