“The UK’s Jewish community needs to know that the Archbishop of Canterbury’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not speak for all British Christians. That’s according to Dr James Patrick of the Love Never Fails alliance, who says both yesterday’s General Synod vote endorsing Kairos Palestine IIand Sarah Mullally’s pastoral letter following her visit to the Holy Land, risk deepening divisions and presenting a one-sided account of the conflict.” (Premier Christianity header in published article)
Archbishop Sarah with the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Most Revd Hosam Naoum, at St George’s Anglican Cathedral in East Jerusalem (Photo credit: Lambeth Palace)
A Loving Challenge to Archbishop Sarah Mullally
13 July 2026
Dear Archbishop Sarah,
In light of the controversial motion passed at General Synod this morning, your ‘five-day pilgrimage in the Holy Land’ just three weeks ago could appear to be a well-timed advertisement in its support. Even so, your concluding ‘pastoral letter’ wisely steered clear of the worst excesses of the Kairos Palestine II document commended in the motion. KPII accuses Israel 30 times of ‘genocide’, and claims that the State of Israel is ‘racist’ and colonialist from its origins (1.3; 2.1; 3.3; 4.2), a listed example of antisemitism in the IHRA definition adopted by the Church of England in 2018. It is no wonder that British Jewish and Christian leaders alike have expressed their deep concerns about this motion, which promotes incendiary accusations rejected by our own government.
Like you, we want to ‘hear’ the suffering community that wrote KPII, and have no desire to silence them, even though they demand to boycott dialogue with any of us who respectfully question their claims (3.4, 12). We do not recognise their caricature of Zionism (1.3) as a desire to empty Palestine of non-Jews, using apartheid as a tool of ethnic cleansing and genocide. These horrific libels are disproven by the terms of the Balfour Declaration (1917), Israel’s Declaration of Independence (1948), and the clear evidence of 2 million Arabs having full equality under the law within Israel. The Jewish Scriptures insist on equality and love for both Jews and non-Jews in the land (Leviticus 19:33-34), and Israel’s democracy is extremely diverse and multi-ethnic, with Arabs participating in every level and sector of society.
We naturally feel a deep solidarity with both indigenous groups in the land: the Jews who have shared their Scriptures and rabbi Jesus and apostles with us, and the Christians who remained after Rome exiled many Jews. So, as fellow British Christians, we followed your recent visit with interest, hoping it would continue the noble Anglican legacy since the 1820s of care for both Jews and Arabs in the land. Here in Britain, our Jewish neighbours are eight times more attacked than any other minority, and official reports about the Jewish state have a direct impact on their well-being, whatever their own opinion about Israel’s policies.
Your ‘pastoral visit’ was at the invitation of Archbishop Hosam Naoum, so it was only to be expected that its primary if not sole focus was on Palestinian Christians in the land. Their hardships and ministries certainly deserve attention and support. But following the example of the father in our Lord’s parable of the prodigal son, surely both the younger and older sons should hold a place in your affection? Sadly it seems even Christ Church Jerusalem was ignored, an Anglican congregation faithfully modelling reconciliation of Arabs and Jews.
Even among your chosen people group, your advisors failed to give you a balanced picture, suggesting that the greatest threat to Palestinian Christians is Israel and its “settler violence” (rightly condemned by most Israelis), rather than the Muslim Palestinian majority and attacks by local Muslim neighbours (with popular approval). Even Daoud Nassar whom you visited has suffered at their hands. It bears emphasising that throughout the whole Middle East, only in Israel is the Christian population growing. Your pastoral letter went further, blaming Israel’s fear of “potential danger” for the suppression of the Palestinian population, as if anti-Jewish terrorism is only imagined. You made no call upon wider Palestinian society to reject violence; on the contrary, you tacitly defended it. Others have already drawn attention to the serious lack of wisdom by your advisors, arranging visits with two young women who are both reported to have personal associations with terrorist groups.
The reality of antisemitic terror by Israel’s neighbours is undeniable in the “atrocities of 7 October”, which you witnessed at the Nova Exhibition in London shortly before your trip to the Holy Land. But if you take an extreme pacifist position, “We hold that war is never the answer”, this raises the question of how Israel might be expected to react to Hamas and other groups. Hamas always refused the “patient diplomacy” and “negotiation” you propose, so in such cases using “military force to resolve disputes” for self-defence (UN Charter, Article 51) is not “abandonment of international law”. On the contrary, Israel is now conducting “a vigorous defence of the rules-based international system” against Islamist regimes and their proxies “across the Middle East”, who are hell-bent on destroying both Israel and that system.
Your compassion for those suffering in Gaza is shared by all, and you rightly urge the international community to “relieve this agony”. Yet despite the UN Security Council Resolution 2803 agreeing a path for this, no country is willing to disarm Hamas except Israel, for the sake of Gaza’s civilians as much as for Israel’s. As long as the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas rules Gaza, a “two-state solution” will not be possible. Likewise in the former ‘West Bank’, the Palestinian Authority shows no regard for the security of Israel, continuing to incite terrorism through school textbooks and ‘pay-for-slay’ handouts. If they truly desired to live in peace alongside the Jewish state, they might already have accepted serious offers of statehood made in 2000, 2008, 2014 and 2020. You call Israel’s presence in the former ‘West Bank’ an “occupation” on the basis of an advisory opinion by a heavily biased UN court. However, this runs counter to the internationally recognised Oslo Accords that gave legal force to Israel’s full control over Area C, pending final-status negotiations. The proper term is “disputed territory”.
Coming to the heart of the political and spiritual dispute, your pastoral letter implies that only when Jerusalem becomes a “shared capital” will “the religious rights of all faiths” be “fully respected”, citing the “Hashemite custodianship of the holy sites in Jerusalem”. Religious freedom should certainly be a high priority for Christians. But this statement confuses heroes and villains. It should be recalled that the Hashemite Jordanians destroyed nearly every synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, expelling all Jews and denying them access to the Western Wall, their holiest site, for 19 years from 1948 to 1967. Only restored Israeli authority in 1967 granted complete freedom of worship to all religions in the reunited holy city, which remains the case up to the present day.
Your pastoral letter began and ended with an invocation of God’s grace and peace. The church does indeed have a responsibility to act as a peace-maker. But this will be impossible if it presumes to pass motions and make political pronouncements on the complex and religiously sensitive dispute in the Holy Land, without actively committing itself to listen to the perspectives and feel the pain of those on the other side too. Jesus, our Jewish Messiah, showed love and respect for Samaritan, Jew, and Roman alike, and refused to allow His message to be co-opted by any side, including His own. His representatives today bear a sacred duty to follow in His footsteps. May God grant the Church of England ‘wisdom from above’ as you seek His path.
Dr James E. Patrick
Chairman of Love Never Fails, an alliance of 25 British Christian ministries
V1 I call to mind my former state, far off, without Messiah No place in Israel’s commonwealth, non-Jew A stranger to the covenants of promise, without hope And without God the world was empty too But now I am brought near, the blood of Jesus set me free Adopted fellow-citizen, God’s own That I may show His love to other strangers, offering peace His household being built of living stones. (Eph 2:11-22; 1 Pet 2:5)
Chorus Lord, I don’t deserve to have You come under my roof It’s Your land, and I’m here as Your guest Don’t walk on by, I hear Your voice, come in and stay awhile Here’s the home where You may find Your rest (Matt 8:8 / Lev 25:23; Ps 24:1-2 / Gen 18:3; Rev 3:20; Luke 24:29 / Isa 66:1-2)
V2 Born of the nations, I accept salvation from the Jews It is not right to take the children’s food And throw it to the dogs, yet even we can eat the scraps; The master leaves his vineyard’s fallen fruit And He decreed one law for you and for the stranger too A permanent decree throughout the years: ‘Just as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.’ For integration, grant inheritance. (John 4:22 / Matt 15:26-27 / Lev 19:9-10 // Num 15:15 / Ezek 47:21-23)
V3 And in that day You come in glory, sitting on Your throne To gather nations, judging sheep and goats When You bestow predestined kingship on the blessed ones My King, may I be counted one of those: ‘For I was hungry, thirsty, and you gave Me food and drink; I was a stranger, you welcomed Me in; When I lacked clothes, you covered Me; you saw that I was sick And came to visit, when I was in prison.’ (Matt 25:31-40)
Bridge So I’ll love the stranger, ‘cause I was a stranger too And I’ll show them hospitality, ‘cause it might be You (Deut 10:18-19 / Heb 13:2)
[iambic rhythm, first 10 notes same as ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, minor > major shift in each verse] [painting by Jan van ‘t Hoff – “Ruth’s Choice” (Ruth 1:16-17), http://www.gospelimages.com ]
Even as praying people, our emotions and hence our priorities in prayer are often shaped by the news feeds we are listening to. Jesus taught us to pray, “Father… Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How do we know what God’s will is? If He has clearly revealed His will in Scripture, we can be confident in praying it back to Him.
Lebanon is one of those blessed countries that features regularly in the Scriptures of Israel, as one of its near neighbours. So there is much material to guide us in our prayers.
Some will object that these texts were written about events in ancient times, so how can they be applied to modern situations? That is a big topic, but a few points might help.
First, if the prophecies or poetry or stories were just of temporary historical significance, they would not have been preserved in Scripture as texts of ongoing value for God’s people (1 Cor 10:11; 2 Tim 3:16-17).
Second, prophecies that may have a partial fulfilment in the ancient past can have further stages of fulfilment in later times, as New Testament authors recognised (Matt 2:15 = Hos 11:1; Acts 13:40-41 = Hab 1:5).
Third, God has created each nation uniquely (Deut 32:8-9; Acts 17:26), so each nation carries irrevocable gifts and calling from Him, whether or not they are currently living in the good of those callings (Rom 11:28-29). In that case, what God has spoken to a nation in ancient times is part of their unending relationship with their Creator, and the words He spoke to them in the past still have power to shape their destiny when combined with faith (Acts 3:24-26; Heb 6:12).
On that basis, let us see what God has said about Lebanon.
To start with, we can turn to Psalm 29, “A psalm of David”. As was noted by James William Thirtle in 1904, psalms in biblical times could have both titles and colophons, as Habakkuk does in the first and last verses of the poem in chapter 3. Titles usually speak of authors and genres, while colophons usually contain performance instructions and suggest suitable tunes. Yet in the book of Psalms, over time one psalm’s colophon has merged with the next psalm’s title. In that case, the first half of Psalm 30’s title probably belongs to Psalm 29 instead as a colophon – “A psalm; a song at the dedication of the house”. This “house” cannot mean the temple, the ‘house of God’ which was built by Solomon, so it must refer to David’s own palace, the ‘house of the king’. Fittingly, at its dedication, David elevates the glory due to the Lord, not to him (verses 1-2), and the kingship of the Lord, not his own (verses 10-11).
2 Samuel 5:11-12 tells us that Hiram king of Tyre, a coastal Lebanese city, sent cedar trees to build David’s palace. Yet at its dedication, it was not David’s Phoenician benefactor who got the credit, but the Almighty who alone has the power to shake Lebanon with storms and earthquakes. Psalm 29 therefore speaks seven times of “the voice of the Lord”, and at the climactic mid-point in verses 5-6, the focus is on Lebanon’s cedars breaking and mountains shaking.
If the “voice of the Lord” is still speaking over Lebanon, what is He saying? It turns out that there are (at least) seven different declarations God makes about Lebanon in Scripture. These have been arranged in a logical sequence, but the Holy Spirit might lead you to pray any of them on different occasions.
1) shepherds – Jeremiah 22:20-23
(shepherds of rebellious people swept away)
King Jehoiakim’s oracle in verses 18-19 is then followed by another one in verses 20-23, addressed to a third-person feminine singular audience, presumably representing a people group. Verse 20 instructs her to “Go up to Lebanon and cry out”, but verse 23 addresses her as “You who dwell in Lebanon, nested in the cedars”. This explains why this oracle comes here, because Jehoiakim had been condemned back in verses 14-15 for interior decoration with cedar, no doubt from Lebanon. Lebanon’s regime is therefore included in judgement.
Lebanon is rebuked for prosperous disregard for God’s voice – rebellion. As a result (verse 22), “the wind will sweep away all your shepherds”, every one of their rulers (as has just happened with Nasrallah’s demise). Also, “your lovers will go into captivity”, referring to diplomatic allies who will not be spared (such as Hamas, pro-Iranian militia in Syria and Iraq, etc.). And “you will surely be ashamed and humiliated”, groaning in great pain. It is right to pray for judgement of this sort on the rebellious regime governing Lebanon, including both Hezbollah and godless rulers of other parties also.
(Lebanon will wither, be cut down, and be burned by God arising)
In the first passage, a time is described of nations in chaos and fear from broken international agreements. The God who reigns in Zion (Jerusalem) promises stability for those who fear Him alone, but He promises to arise and inflict judgement upon the peoples. Among them, “The land mourns and pines away, Lebanon is shamed and withers” (verse 9). Other fertile areas of Israel also suffer at this time, just as areas of Lebanon suffered when Israel was being disciplined with famine in the days of Elijah (see below). But our focus is on Lebanon. It is pictured as one of its great cedars, withering in shame. And there is more.
In the second passage, nestled between a warning to Jerusalem and a promise of Israel’s coming Messianic king, are two verses that describe God’s judgement. Only at the end of this extended metaphor, about the Lord as a lumberjack hacking trees to pieces, is the main tree finally identified: “Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One” [or “as a mighty one”].
And the third and final step in the national destruction is described in Zechariah 11. Here the main addressee is at the start: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, that a fire may feed on your cedars.” The great cedar first withers, then is cut down, and is finally burned – a prophetic warning that is later applied also to Israel by John the Baptist (Luke 3:9) and to us believers by Jesus (John 15:6). And in modern Lebanon’s case, one could argue that this national demise under God’s merciful hand has been in progress for some time, well before Israel’s current conflict with Hezbollah.
+ preservation – 1 Kings 17:8-24
(God provides for the needy in times of judgement)
Even so, it is encouraging to remember that God has shown mercy towards innocent civilians of southern Lebanon in the past too, when they have honoured Israel’s God by sheltering His Jewish people. Elijah took refuge from wicked King Ahab during the three-year famine with a widow in Zarephath near Sidon, in the same region under attack currently. She and her son were sustained miraculously by faith, and we pray the same for Lebanese civilians today.
3) settlers – Zechariah 10:6-10
(Jewish olim will settle in the land of Lebanon)
In a passage shortly before the one we considered earlier (about fiery destruction), we see the alternative to God’s judgement for Lebanon’s pride. This passage was written after the return of many of Judah’s exiles to the land under the Persian Empire, but it speaks of a greater future ingathering of Jewish exiles. At this time only Judah’s exiles had returned, whereas the ‘ten lost tribes’ of northern Israel, also known collectively as “Ephraim” or “Joseph”, had never come back home. Indeed, they did not start returning to the land of Israel until the 20th century, from places like Ethiopia and India.
Here Zechariah prophesies that the Lord will regather Joseph/Ephraim “together” with Judah, and “they with their children will live and come back” (verse 9). The relevant point for our study, though, is where they will settle in the land (verse 10): “I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no room can be found for them.” Gilead refers to parts of modern-day Jordan south-east of the Sea of Galilee, north of the River Yabboq known today as Zarqa. And Lebanon presumably relates especially to the hilly regions of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River. The Bible clearly invites us therefore to pray that Jewish settlements will be established in both north-west Jordan and in southern Lebanon, whether or not there are any changes to current international borders.
4) renewal – Isaiah 29:17-20
(Lebanon into a fertile field … forest, afflicted rejoice)
This beautiful passage has many parallels elsewhere in Isaiah, such as in 35:5-6 and 32:15. These help us to interpret what the first verse means when it says “Is it not yet just a little while and Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, and the fertile field will be considered as a forest?” Initially one might guess that forests and fields will trade places, and that might fit with the later elevation of the afflicted and cutting down of the ruthless in verses 19-20.
But the parallel in 32:15 has not “Lebanon” but the “wilderness” that becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is as a forest. As such, it is reasonable to read this passage in chapter 29 as relating to a time when Lebanon has been levelled through divine judgement, to the point that it represents a “wilderness” rather than a forest. In that case, “Lebanon” is better identified with “the afflicted” and “the needy of mankind” in verse 19, who are able to rejoice at God’s self-revelation once the “ruthless” and “scorner” have been eradicated.
This is certainly appropriate in Lebanon’s current predicament. We can pray that when the ruthless Islamist terrorist regime of Hezbollah is ended, the afflicted nation “will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel” (verse 19), and be able to live at peace once again with their southern neighbours as in the days of David and Solomon.
5) repentance – Isaiah 60:10-14
(glory of Lebanon will come to Israel, sons of enemies will bow)
This famous chapter pictures God’s glory rising upon Israel such that nations draw near with their wealth and with assistance to returning Jewish exiles. At that point, foreign nations and their kings will minister to Israel, and to the Lord’s chosen city of Jerusalem (verses 10, 14). The lead example, indeed, the only nation named, is Lebanon, whose “glory… will come to you”, its trees once again being used “to beautify the place of My sanctuary” as when Hiram king of Tyre supported the building of the palaces of David and Solomon and the temple. Lebanon has not just been renewed in its own national existence, but its relationship towards the God of Israel is changed too.
These Lebanese gifts for God’s sanctuary are then seen as an expression of true repentance for how they have treated the Jewish people. “The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you”, and acknowledge the Lord’s choice of Zion as His international capital city (verse 14). As such, Lebanon is presented as leading all nations in their repentant streaming towards Israel and towards Jerusalem to learn the ways of the Lord, in that glorious day to come when “nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isa 2:1-4; Mic 4:1-8). Let us pray that this repentance comes soon.
6) investment – Isaiah 35:1-2
(glory of Lebanon will be given to Israel’s desert regions – the Aravah)
Earlier in the collected prophecies of Isaiah, the same phrase “the glory of Lebanon” was used, but not in terms of cedars for temple-building. Rather, the focus is on the wilderness regions of the land of Israel, specifically “the Aravah” (verse 1) which is an arid region in the long rift-valley beside the Jordan River, approaching the Dead Sea in the south. This prophecy speaks of the desert blossoming and rejoicing.
Specifically, we are told that “the glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon”, who will also “see the glory of the Lord” (verse 2). On the one hand, this might simply be metaphorical for the lush vegetation typical of Lebanon, Mount Carmel and the Sharon plain by the Mediterranean, now being seen in formerly desert regions. But God is in the habit of fulfilling biblical promises literally, even when He doesn’t have to. Jesus knew that a king riding a donkey into Jerusalem simply symbolised humility, but He carried out the prophesied illustration of that humility to the letter (Zec 9:9-10 > Matt 21:1-7).
In that case, it would be entirely reasonable to interpret this passage as speaking of Lebanon’s repentance towards the God of Israel and His people Israel also extending to practical investment in the desert regions of their land. This will enable formerly barren territory to be settled by Jewish exiles returning home, another expression of the nations assisting with aliyah as Isaiah himself prophesied more than once (Isa 49:22; 60:8-9).
7) bride – Psalm 45:10-12; Song 4:8-11
(Lebanese bride of the Lord, honouring Israeli believers)
Finally, we reach the climax of God’s biblical promises for Lebanon. Psalm 45 is a “love song” about the marriage of Messiah to His people, and in this specific context it is implied that the King’s royal bride is specifically Israeli. The Jewish ‘bride of Messiah’ is addressed in the second person in verses 10-11, and described in the third person in verses 13-15, but between these we see another royal princess attending the wedding.
The “daughter of Tyre” refers to the people of this coastal Lebanese city, as metonymy for the people of Lebanon as a whole. They come to celebrate Israel’s marriage to her heavenly Bridegroom. As such, we might interpret this as the national Lebanese church bringing gifts to the Jewish and Arab believers in Israel – a beautiful promise to pray for.
But the Song of Solomon goes even further. This Song is traditionally interpreted as another love song about the romance and marriage of God and His people, or perhaps in Christian terms, of Messiah and the Church (made up of all nations and tribes). From this perspective, we look at the Bridegroom’s invitation to His new Bride, following the first intimacy of their wedding (3:11–4:7). Here in verse 8 we find them perhaps on honeymoon, descending “from Lebanon… from the summit of Amana, from the summit of Senir and Hermon”. The Bridegroom is captivated with His Bride’s beauty and fragrance, and He describes “the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon”. She is later also pictured as if she were “a garden spring, a well of fresh water, and streams from Lebanon” (verse 15).
Repeatedly, Lebanon is used to describe the Bride of Messiah, not only for its proverbial forest fragrance and flowing waters, but also in a direct description of where He and His Bride are to be found in the first adventures of their married life together (compare 2:8-13). The geography of Lebanon is somehow important for God’s relationship to His people, and as with Lebanon’s pioneering role among the nations in repentance towards Israel (for which see above), again we see Lebanon taking a lead in the Church’s life with her Bridegroom. Let us pray that Lebanon’s church be purified and empowered, as a beautiful example to all other nations of how Messiah intends to delight in His people and live among us again.
How to pray for Britain according to the Scriptures
Having considered the prophetic promises relating to Lebanon in Scripture, and how these might relate to current events, we ought to be aware of the biblical connection between Lebanon and Britain also. This goes back to the time of the Phoenician maritime trading empire, based out of its eastern hub in Tyre and sending huge merchant ships all the way around the Mediterranean to the far west to trade with Tarshish and beyond (see Jonah 1:3).
Whether “Tarshish” was the kingdom of Tartessos in south-west Spain, or somewhere else, there is little doubt that the “ships of Tarshish” must have traded with Britain, the only nearby source of “tin” which is listed as one of the trading goods of Tarshish in Ezekiel 27:12. As such, the “ships of Tarshish” ought to draw our attention as British believers.
Isaiah chapter 23 twice instructs the “ships of Tarshish” to “Wail” because the stronghold of Tyre is destroyed (verses 1, 14, compare also 6, 10). God’s judgement of Tyre in this chapter was intended to serve as a warning to ancient Britons, in which case, God’s current dealings with Lebanon should alert us as British Christians to the desperate plight of our own nation today. But the promises for Tyre after judgement can also give us hope for revival.
How to pray for Israel according to the Scriptures
Finally, Amir Tsarfati reported on Telegram yesterday (27 Sept, 11:27, emphasis original) that “Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Israeli population expected to top 10 million within weeks. Population now stands at 9,999,000, with 7.6 million Jews and 2 million Muslim Arabs. The rest are Druze and Christians. The terrorists might try and kill us. But we live, we grow.” This might strike us initially as just an interesting circumstantial transition, involving numbers that make little difference here or there. But Scripture itself takes great care to record the numbers of the people of Israel – whole books are named after that process (Num 1–4; 26; Gen 46:8-27; Exod 1:1-5; 2 Sam 24; etc.). Perhaps this too is a significant moment prophetically.
In fact, the number “ten million” is not found in that form in Scripture, but there is a unique biblical phrase that means effectively the same. The old-fashioned English word “myriad” literally means “ten thousand”, translating equivalent words in Hebrew (רְבָבָה, revavah) and in Greek (μυριάς, murias). And there is one particular passage in which this is used to calculate ten million, a passage that has surprising relevance for Israel’s current situation.
Numbers chapter 10 describes the procession through the wilderness of the people of Israel, arranged according to their tribal divisions as a vast army, and led by the Lord of Hosts in the pillar of cloud as their heavenly Commander. His sacred Ark is effectively His palanquin throne, as He “rides through the deserts” (Ps 68:4). In fact, the first verse of Psalm 68 quotes Numbers 10:35 directly. When the ark sets out, Moses says, “Rise up, O Lord! And let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You!” We are familiar with this invocation even from popular choruses of previous decades.
But the following verse, Numbers 10:36, gives the equivalent prayer that Moses would pray when it came to rest, when the Lord chose to encamp after having put His enemies to flight. “Return, O Lord, to the myriad thousands of Israel!” Literally, this could be translated, “to the ten-thousand thousands”, and 10,000 thousands adds up to precisely ten million people, even if the expression no doubt means to convey a vast round number. That said, larger numbers can be found by multiplying “myriads upon myriads”, as in Daniel 7:10.
In the context of modern Israel, it is surely significant that Israel is reaching the precise number given for its population in Numbers 10:36, at precisely the time when it has brought decisive defeat upon both Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has not been heard from for weeks, presumed sick or dead, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been killed yesterday in a devastating Israeli attack on his underground bunker headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
There is still further military work to do, completing the dismantling of terrorist militias and their infrastructures, but we may soon be reaching the time when the Lord, the God of Israel, has again defeated and scattered His enemies. At that point, it will be appropriate to call out to Him to “Return to the ten million of Israel!” While we pray for the Lord to return in mercy to Lebanon and to Britain, it is vital that we pray also for His promises to be fulfilled for His people Israel.
“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land… I will cleanse you… and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes… You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers…” (Ezek 36:24-28) May the Lord fulfil His gracious promises and return to His people once again.
Jesus taught that how we treat those without food, health, or clothing in this age will determine our own eternal well-being in the age to come (Matt 23:31-46). Civilians living in warzones are prime candidates for Christian aid, not least the people of Gaza suffering greatly for the sins of their elected Hamas government. But since we are also called to be peace-makers (Matt 5:9), our generosity should not inadvertently perpetuate injustice and conflict.
Last week, the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, announced the lifting of a temporary freeze on British funding to the UN Palestinian agency UNRWA. In January, Israel had provided evidence that 12 UNRWA employees took part in the horrific October 7 attack, and many countries froze funding pending a proper investigation. In April, Catherine Colonna published her audit, hardly independent and thus welcomed by UNRWA, which has restored much international confidence in and funding for the agency. But deeper systemic problems remain unaddressed, reaching the very root of this conflict. Christians who care about the Palestinian people will want to make sure our taxes are truly of benefit to them.
The history of the Jewish people and their neighbours in this land goes back millennia, and both Old and New Testaments anticipate an eventual return of Jacob/Israel’s descendants to the land promised to him (e.g., Deuteronomy 30:4-6; Amos 9:15; Luke 21:24). These promises motivated Christian Britain to lobby the Turkish Ottoman Empire for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, unsuccessfully. So, after defeating the Ottomans in the first world war, we agreed with our allies to facilitate its “reconstitution” in former colonial Ottoman lands, alongside several new Arab states. Civil and religious rights of minorities were explicitly to be protected. Yet when the State of Israel declared independence in 1948 on this understanding, it was promptly attacked by five Arab armies trying to snuff out any Jewish autonomy in the land. This war resulted in Egypt’s Gaza enclave and Jordan’s ‘West Bank’, forcibly emptied of its Jewish minority.
Later state-formation along ethnic and religious lines following the second world war often caused huge population transfers, as for example the 15 million who migrated during the India–Pakistan partition in 1947. The war in the one-quarter of ‘Palestine’ west of the River Jordan resulted in the nakhba or ‘catastrophe’ of around 750,000 Arab refugees fleeing, but also around 800,000 Jewish refugees from North African and Middle Eastern countries fleeing into Israel and being absorbed in following months. Shortly after the ceasefire in 1949, the United Nations set up its Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) for any Arab refugees who had resided in what was now Israeli territory for as little as the two years prior to war in 1948.
One year later, in 1950, the UN created its High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) with a worldwide mandate, the only exception being the Arab refugees from Western Palestine who already had a refugee agency. But there is a key difference. UNHCR endeavours to repatriate refugees if possible, or else naturalise them as citizens of a new country. UNRWA uniquely grants ‘refugee’ status also to all descendants of those who fled in 1948–49, even the 80% or so who are now full citizens of other countries. This includes voting citizens of Jordan, Gaza, or the Palestinian Authority in the ‘West Bank’. So the number of Palestinian ‘refugees’ has ballooned to 6 million and counting, all defined solely by the impossible dream of relocating to Israel proper. That is quite the opposite of a ‘two-state solution’ as most understand it.
By their own admission, “UNRWA does not have a mandate to seek durable solutions for Palestinian refugees.” On the contrary, its existence is a disincentive for neighbouring Syria and Lebanon to offer them equal rights as citizens, despite them sharing the same language and ethnicity as their Arab brothers.
Within the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the ‘West Bank’, UNRWA’s massive budget for education, health care, social services, infrastructure, and humanitarian aid, fosters an unhealthy culture of dependency and prevents the Palestinian Authority (PA) from taking responsibility for its own citizens and economy, as a prospective state must be able to.
In fact, UNRWA’s impact on the conflict with Israel has been not just unhelpful but actively harmful. UNRWA schools infect whole generations of Palestinian children with antisemitism and glorification of violence, dehumanising Jews as “Zionist occupiers” in the PA textbooks their schools use. Worse still, the summer camps they hold in the refugee camps indoctrinate children to seek martyrdom and murder Jews.
Since 99.2% of UNRWA staff are recruited from the local population, its principle of political neutrality can hardly be maintained when the de facto government of Gaza are terrorists. UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog, has since October 7 accumulated dozens of pieces of evidence that UNRWA in Gaza has been fully infiltrated by Hamas. These range from UNRWA’s inability to prevent Hamas using their buildings to launch rocket attacks on Israel and stealing their aid, fuel, vehicles and machines; to supplying premises and electricity for Hamas terrorists, command centres and data centres, along with tunnel entrances; to turning a blind eye (at best) to their employees being terror operatives for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who participated in October 7 or supported it on social media or even held Israeli hostages personally. Victims of October 7 are therefore suing UNRWA for $1 billion, and the Israeli Knesset is currently advancing a bill labelling UNRWA as a terrorist organisation.
The ultimate defence of UNRWA to these serious criticisms by UN Watch and others, is that they are an “irreplaceable lifeline” for the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere, due to their size and local knowledge. Yet this is precisely what keeps the Palestinians dependent upon outside aid instead of self-government. And the UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has admitted that the real reason for preserving UNRWA is ideological. The supposed ‘right of return’, their raison d’être, rejects Israel’s ‘both/and’ approach to ethnic coexistence in the land, in favour of an ‘either/or’ that would supplant God’s age-old promise to bring the Jewish people home.
If we care for the Palestinian people and for lasting peace with Israel, it is time for UNRWA to go.
In an unexpected coincidence, the Christian community of Oxford chose to commemorate for the first time the Jewish day of Holocaust remembrance known as ‘Yom HaShoah’, 6th May 2024, on the same day that Oxford Action For Palestine established an anti-Israel encampment on the lawn of the Pitt Rivers Museum. The first annual Oxford ‘March of Life’, part of a worldwide movement in more than 25 nations and over 500 cities, was inaugurated almost exactly two years after the Anglican repentance service for mediaeval antisemitism in Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral on 8 May 2022.
According to the organiser, Dr James E. Patrick, who had also written the research paper that set the ball rolling for the Synod of Oxford 800th repentance service, “It is not enough to express sorrow for indifference or hostility towards the Jewish people in the past. Today it is more urgent than ever that Christians produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” He continued, “Antisemitism is at its highest levels in the UK since the time of the Holocaust, having been triggered not by Israeli military action but already on 7 October itself, the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
When asked about the claims of the student encampment set up earlier that morning, March of Life coordinator Dr James E. Patrick responded, “The accusation of Israeli genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza is absolutely false and groundless, despite the tragedy of every innocent civilian caught up accidentally in this war.” He continued, “England invented the blood libel against the Jews in 1144, but now our brightest students are regurgitating the same malicious antisemitic lies, that Jews deliberately target innocent children.” He asked, “Have we learned nothing from the tragedy of the Holocaust, that even the most educated elites are not immune from propaganda and deception and scapegoating?” He concluded, “The Jewish people have adorned Oxford with cultural creativity and academic excellence, and we will not turn a deaf ear to the slander and misrepresentation of our Jewish friends and their remarkable nation of Israel.”
Speaking generally of the situation in the UK, Pastor Phil Herklots of Cornerstone Church in Headington, Oxford, observed during his introductory speech that “For Christians to stay silent and inactive when the diabolical evil of antisemitism has reared its ugly head – again – and with a vengeance, is more than shameful – it’s deplorable!” He continued, “How can we remain silent in the face of such obscene double standards and unmitigated injustice?” Speaking to the Jewish community, he said, “I, personally, and on behalf of Christians in Oxford, am deeply sorry for when we have done nothing and remained silent. I renounce such callous indifference, willful blindness and cowardice!” And in conclusion, he declared, “We commit ourselves today, to support and stand with our senior brother, the Jewish people, to whom we owe so much.”
The ’March of Life’ set off at 3:00pm from the Memorial Rose Garden outside Oxford Botanic Garden, the site of the mediaeval Jewish cemetery. The choice of the starting point was particularly poignant, as it signified the loss of the entire mediaeval Jewish community of Oxford and of England in 1290, after seventy years of Christian-led discrimination and vilification. As Dr James E. Patrick explained to those assembled, “That cemetery is a memorial to a lost Jewish community, and we will not let that happen again.”
Participants of the march made a colourful and multi-ethnic procession along the High Street and Queen’s Street on a damp bank holiday Monday afternoon. They carried flags of more than two dozen nations, at least half of them represented by those involved in the march, and were led by a banner reading “Am Yisrael Chai / The people of Israel live”. The diverse flags of many countries flew together in solidarity with the Jewish people against modern-day antisemitism, discrimination, and racism in all its forms.
The ‘March of Life’ featured a Holocaust memorial event held in Bonn Square from 3:30 to 5:00pm. Holocaust survivor John Fieldsend told his story of brutal school bullying in Dresden, escape to Czechoslovakia, and eventually finding refuge in England via Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport trains. He read out the last letter from his parents, written just before they followed the rest of their families to Auschwitz, and also read out the names of his relatives who had been murdered. Two young German women from Tübingen, who had flown over specially for this event, spoke tearfully of their shame and remorse over the actions of their Nazi grandparents, and their white roses were received with a warm hug by John Fieldsend, who recently had his German citizenship reinstated at the German Consulate.
Six memorial candles, representing the six million Jews who lost their lives in the Shoah, were then lit by a member of the Oxford Jewish community who had been bereaved of fifteen of her relatives in Hungary during the War. However, Britain’s own guilt in the Holocaust was also remembered, with the reading of the names of just a few of the 147 children and teenagers who drowned at the sinking of the Struma in February 1942. This shipload of nearly 800 Romanian Jewish refugees was left stranded in the Black Sea by Britain’s refusal to issue permits of entry to the British Mandate, until a Soviet torpedo ended the lives of all but one of the passengers.
Dr James E. Patrick reminded the audience of Britain’s passive complicity in the Holocaust by refusing to admit desperate Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria at the Évian Conference before the War in July 1938. He then noted, “Even worse was our 1939 White Paper, which illegally and severely restricted Jewish immigration to the British Mandate in their hour of greatest need, effectively cutting off the last legal escape route for the Jews from Nazi-controlled Europe.”
By way of background, Dr Patrick explained the idealistic anti-colonialist motivation of the League of Nations who enshrined Britain’s 1917 Balfour Declaration into international law in 1922. He noted that, “In the preamble to the British Mandate for Palestine, the League of Nations – the United Nations of its day – unanimously recognised, quote, ‘the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine’ and ‘the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country’.” He went on to say, “The Jewish people were acknowledged to be truly indigenous to that land, while at the same time protecting the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. This task of protecting minorities is one that the vibrant Israeli democracy has arguably achieved more successfully than any other country in the Middle East.”
Marcus Roberts, local Jewish historian, reported about Britain’s failure to arrest and prosecute Nazi war criminals and subsequent cover-up of the true horrors of the Nazi slave-labour camps on British soil, in the Channel Islands and especially Alderney. He said, “I am pleased to take part in this event that seeks to ‘break the veil of silence’ about the Holocaust and specifically Britain’s role at that time.” He urged the British government to “educate the next generation about the bad as well as the good in our history”, and asked whether the long-awaited Alderney Review due out on 19 May will be another “whitewash” or actually acknowledge the true numbers of those Jews and prisoners from 27 countries who were worked to death on British soil.
Len Grates, of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, emphasized the brutality and indiscriminate nature of the 7 October attack by Hamas on dozens of unsuspecting farming communities in southern Israel – mutilating and raping and burning infants and mothers and grandparents alike. Having personally watched the horrifying and gruesome footage recorded by the militants as they perpetrated the massacre, he also spoke of the trauma being relived by the last remaining Holocaust survivors living in Israel and elsewhere. He pointed out, “As we speak, there are still over 130 Israeli hostages – who knows how many of them still alive – being held captive in terror tunnels beneath Gaza more than 200 days later.” He called on Hamas to “Let them go!”, and urged Oxford to speak out against the evil Islamist regime of Hamas, which has brought such comprehensive misery and indoctrination of hatred upon the suffering people of Gaza.
After the reading of some names of the October 7th hostages, the assembled crowd observed a minute’s silence, specifically “to remember all who are suffering unjustly in the current conflict, Jew and Arab alike, and to pray silently for a rapid end to the war to establish justice and peace”. The longing of this memorial event was aptly summed up by an emotional “Prayer for Peace in Israel” written by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks in 2003, which concludes with the words “And may He who makes peace in high places teach us and all humanity to make peace on earth.” For more background on the March of Life, see http://www.marchoflife.org. To contact the organiser, Dr James Patrick, email oxfordmarchoflife@gmail.com.
Christians today are asking serious questions in response to the 7 October attack by Hamas, to Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza, and to the huge anti-Israel protests around the world:
Why are the Jewish people and their state hated so much? Why is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict so long-lasting and traumatic? How does modern Israel relate to biblical Israel? Are we witnessing fulfilment of biblical prophecy in any way? How should we relate to the Jewish people now, given that our Saviour is for ever Jewish (Luke 1:32-33; Rev 22:16)?
Simplistic Bible-based responses by some church leaders treat this conflict as if it were just a personal disagreement – ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matt 5:9); ‘Never take your own revenge’ (Rom 12:19); ‘Love your enemies’ (Luke 6:35). Of course these principles are godly, and modelled by Jesus Himself. But until we have forgiven a neighbour for torturing, raping and then slaughtering our own little sister or grandmother, we Christians have no right to lecture the grieving citizens of Israel.
Even if we were to treat this like any other international war, the Bible has far more to teach us. God has entrusted governments with ‘the sword’ to avenge evil and enforce justice (Rom 13:1-7; Luke 14:31-32), and although individuals should not resort to violence (Matt 26:52), soldiers serving their government can use force justly (Luke 3:14; Matt 5:41). ‘Just war theory’ is a robust Christian concept based on biblical patterns found throughout the history and laws of Israel. At the same time, the Bible recognises the tragic justice of collective punishment for the offences of leaders (Luke 19:41-44; 20:15-19; 23:27-31), provided there is due warning given (Luke 11:49-51) and opportunity for innocent individuals to escape (Luke 21:20-22). If Jesus decreed this for His own beloved nation, others cannot expect different standards of justice.
Applied to the current war in Gaza, Israel has taken pains to conduct its warfare against Hamas (not a war against Palestinians) strictly according to international law, as it always does. After all, the idea of human rights originated in Israel’s own teaching that every human is equally made in the image of God (Gen 1:27; Amos 9:7). Israel fully recognises its unique ‘chosen’ status as a nation is not because they are better than any other people (Deut 7:7-8; 9:4-7). This is why Israel has consistently welcomed Gazans for urgent medical treatment, even Hamas leaders and their families, and feel they must justify any change of policy even during wartime. Israel’s efforts to spare Palestinian civilian lives during war surpass any other army in the world. So it is utterly immoral to equate Israel’s collateral damage of civilian deaths in Gaza with Hamas’ sadistic targeting of defenceless civilians in southern Israel.
However, we must not treat this conflict as if it were ‘any other war’. Regardless of Israel’s response to Messiah Yeshua/Jesus, they remain chosen and loved by God, with irrevocable ‘gifts and calling’ (Rom 11:28-29). The entire Bible is centred around this one ethnic group, so how can we ignore their ongoing identification with God as a major factor in this war? I propose to explore this significance in three areas: the underlying excuse for attacking Israel at home and abroad, the tactics of Israel’s enemy, and the proper reaction of Christians toward the Jewish people.
First, the Bible speaks clearly about the ‘gift’ of the land. When pro-Palestinians echo the demands of Hamas that ‘… Palestine will be free’, they are tacitly approving the designation of Israel as an illegitimate coloniser of indigenous Palestinian land. So Christians need to become better informed about modern international law. In 1922, the community of nations unanimously recognised Jews to be indigenous alongside Arabs. They legally granted the land ‘from the river to the sea’ to the Jewish people as a national home in 1922, next door to an Arab state in (Trans)Jordan, implementing Churchill’s original two-state solution for all ‘Palestine’. Neither was expected to expel its ethnic minorities, however sadly from 1948 onwards there were equivalent numbers of Arabs and Jews who did flee, as often happens.
The history and legality of the State of Israel did not begin in 1948. But neither did it begin in 1922 or 1917. The Bible records that Israel inherited from father Abraham God’s ‘gift’ of the land as an eternal covenant (Gen 15:17-21; 17:7-8; etc.; Exod 6:5-8; 32:13). Even within their future ‘new covenant’, God again promised to ‘plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul’ (Jer 31:31-37; 32:36-42). The condition of possessing this inherited land that was ‘given for all time’ was that Israel keep God’s commandments (Deut 4:40), hence Israel’s repeated exiles from the land. But as Paul affirmed, Israel’s ‘gifts’ are not revoked despite sin or exile (Rom 9:4; 11:28-29). We also note that the land was never Israel’s exclusive possession. The law repeatedly affirms that ethnic minorities have equal legal status (Exod 12:43-49; Lev 24:10-22; Num 15:11-16, 29-31), provided they too worship Israel’s God (Jer 12:14-17).
Surprisingly, the prophet Ezekiel discerned that God would regather the Jewish people to the land even before their repentance and spiritual transformation, to prove His own unmerited faithfulness (Ezek 20:39-44; 36:16-32). And the prophet Isaiah made Israel’s hope dependent upon the nations. When nations have been drawn to Israel’s Messiah, they will then assist the Jewish people to return to their ancestral land (Isa 11:10-12; 49:5-7, 22-23; 60:4-9).
Therefore, Jesus Himself testified to an ongoing longing to regather Jerusalem’s exiled ‘children’ from the Diaspora (Matt 23:37-39; see Isa 49:14-22), such as Greek-speaking Jewish pilgrims (John 7:35-36; 12:20-32). He understood His mission as being the son of David who would gather both Judah and the ‘lost’ northern tribes of Israel, to be one flock with one shepherd (John 10:15; 11:51-52; echoing Ezek 37:21-24, also Isa 56:6-8). He also prophesied that at some point after the Roman exile, when salvation has been offered to all nations, Jerusalem would again be restored to Jewish sovereignty or ‘kingship’ (Luke 21:24; Acts 1:6-8). When He returns to reign on earth, His Jewish apostles will then govern the twelve tribes of Israel, and likewise His servants from the nations will inherit ‘kingship’ over their nations (Matt 19:28; 25:31-40; Rev 2:26-27; 7:3-10).
The entire Bible, from beginning to end, testifies that God will surely bring His Jewish people back into their land from the ends of the earth. And this promise will be accomplished only by Israel’s Messiah Jesus (Rom 15:8; 2Cor 1:20), through those nations who rally to His standard. This clear biblical teaching was celebrated and pursued by mainstream evangelical Christianity in Britain for 300 years, recognised by scholars as a primary influence on our 1917 Balfour Declaration. This included some of our greatest spiritual forebears such as Watts and the Wesleys, Simeon and Spurgeon, Müller and M’Cheyne, and even leading intellects like Milton, Locke and Newton.
Biblical literacy has plummeted in the British church during the last century, so it is little wonder that the convictions of our esteemed ancestors are so rarely reflected today. Had they been alive now, they would be eagerly awaiting and interceding for the imminent spiritual outpouring upon the regathered Jewish nation, prophesied in Ezekiel 36 and 37.
Second, the Bible alerts us to the tactics of Israel’s enemy. Israel’s primary opponent throughout history has been Satan, the Father of Lies (John 8:44) and the Accuser of the Brethren (Rev 12:7-12; Luke 10:17-20), whose greatest challenger is Israel’s angelic prince Michael (Dan 10:20-21; 12:1). Satan hates the Messiah who will destroy him, and therefore he hates the nation of Israel who gave birth to Messiah (Rev 12:1-6, 13-17; Gen 37:9-10).
Antisemitism is the most persistent racial hatred in humanity’s history. It arises not only from the unjustified jealousy of nations towards the one chosen to bless them (Gen 18:17-33; 27:29; Isa 19:24-25), but also simply because darkness hates and fears the light (Isa 60:1-3, 14). The Jewish people still carry God’s special revelation and glory (Rom 3:1-2; 9:4-5), so Satan is determined to slander and slaughter the nation who mediates God’s blessing on earth (Est 3:8-9; Rom 11:12, 15; 15:8-12).
All of Scripture bears witness to the common human failures of the Jewish people, but Satan goes further, stirring up the world he controls in unending false accusations out of all proportion to Israel’s faults. In the current war, Israel is unfairly blamed for every death in Gaza, whether combatants, human shields of Hamas, or victims of Gazan terror rockets, even for simply retaliating to Hamas’ sickening aggression. And on our streets and social media, selective sympathy for only these specific Palestinians (abused for decades by their own people) often masks violent spiritual hatred of the one and only Jewish state.
Sometimes criticism is justified, yet when Satan prosecuted the leader of the Jewish nation in Zechariah 3:1-7, the pre-incarnate Angel of the LORD rebuked the accuser by interceding for the guilty on the basis of God’s election. He still does the same for us (Rom 8:34), so let us not be found imitating Satan’s work when it comes to Israel.
Third, the Bible defines right attitudes and actions towards Jewish people. Just as children are to honour their parents and wives their husbands for God’s sake (Eph 6:1-4; 5:22-33), without necessarily implying that the authority figure is morally superior (1Pet 3:5-6), so also the nations should honour the Jewish people as God’s chosen leader nation (Rom 1:16; 2:9-11; 11:28-29).
The centurions and the Canaanite woman who demonstrated proper humility as non-Jews, received blessings associated with ‘salvation’ which Jesus said ‘is from the Jews’ (Luke 7:2-10; Acts 10:1-6; Matt 15:21-28; John 4:22; see Isa 35:4-6). He also taught that He will judge nations based on how we have treated ‘the least of these brothers of Mine’ (Matt 25:40), which must at least include Jesus’ ethnic kinsmen.
So Paul warned non-Jewish believers against arrogance and ignorance about God’s ongoing and especially end-time purposes for His ‘beloved’ Israel, even in their unbelief (Rom 11:17-28). Instead, he taught that we who have shared in their spiritual blessings ought to minister to them in practical ways (Rom 15:26-27).
In these troubled times for Jewish people worldwide, the least we can do is stand up publicly against all who hate and slander them, for Jesus’ sake.
In the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the primary motivation for Hamas’ hatred is Islamic doctrine that rejects any restored independence for Jews in the land of Israel. So if we truly want to seek peace, Christians must first address our own traditional ‘replacement theology’ that rejects any ongoing divine purpose for the land or people of Israel. Session One of the seminar goes into more detail, and further recommended reading is listed at the bottom of this post.
Other recommended reading, on the topic of Session One:
Beginners level: David Evans, Christians & Israel: The Heart of the Matter – A concise guide (Eastbourne: Tahilla Press, 2010). 127pp. + appendices. Short chapters on ‘The “Either/Or” Mentality of the Church’, ‘Has God Finished with Israel?’, ‘The Rejection of Jesus’, ‘Exile and Return’, ‘Israel and Palestine’, ‘Britain and Israel’, and ‘Not Israel For Israel’s Sake’.
Intermediate level: David W. Torrance & George Taylor, Israel, God’s Servant: God’s Key to the Redemption of the World (Edinburgh: Handsel Press / London: Paternoster, 2007). Back cover: ‘What is the place of the nation of Israel within God’s ongoing purpose to redeem all creation? How should we understand the theological relationship between Israel, humanity, Christ and the Church? What are the reasons for Anti-Semitism? How can we make sense of the political turmoil that has centered [sic] round the State of Israel since its foundation in 1948? This book aims to present an informed and Reformed, Christ-centred answer to these questions. It seeks to acknowledge Israel’s faults whilst at the same time affirming her essential place in God’s eternal covenant of grace.’
Advanced level: Stanley E. Porter & Alan E. Kurschner (eds.), The Future Restoration of Israel: A Response to Supersessionism (McMaster Biblical Studies Series, 10; Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2023). Back cover: ‘This volume is the most extensive of its kind as a major set of collected essays from a wide range of scholars on the question of the promises of God to Israel. These essays put forward the position that unconditional promises were given to Israel, which have not been fulfilled in the church or any other entity. At the consummation, there will be a continuing role for the Jews, realized through their national and territorial hope of a restored-redeemed Israel. This volume contains an eclectic group of contributors who have reached this position from various approaches to interpretation. The essays exhibit both positive argumentation and engagement with supersessionist literature.’
The trauma inflicted by hand in Israel and by bombs in Gaza naturally stirs sorrow in us. Scripture tells us to ‘Weep with those who weep’ (Rom 12:15), and Jesus modelled this for us. He wept with the grieving sisters of His friend Lazarus, but also as He looked ahead to the terrible destruction the Romans would wreak upon Jerusalem (John 11:35; Luke 19:41-44; 23:27-31). He wept over the inevitable suffering incurred by the city’s leaders who chose to be His enemies.
Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel during the surprise Yom Kippur War exactly 50 years ago, expressed similar sentiments: ‘When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.’
Solomon taught that ‘A poor man who oppresses the lowly is a driving rain which leaves no food’ (Prov 28:3). Indeed, since they were elected in 2007, Hamas has taken the millions of euros given in aid to their people, and spent it not on food but on weapons and terror tunnels, and on palatial homes in the prestigious Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza. Keeping Palestinians in poverty appeals more to the pity of the foreign press, and local critics of their corruption are quickly silenced.
Even worse, Hamas has remade Gaza into a giant human shield. It deliberately stores weapons caches beneath UNRWA schools and mosques, transports them in ambulances, and fires rockets at Israeli villages from rooftops of civilian apartment blocks, so that Israel’s necessary counter-attacks will appear inexcusable. In fact, Israel cares more for the Palestinian people than their own leaders do, warning them by text message and other means to get out of harm’s way, every time a strike is planned.
But why does Hamas hate Israel so much? Israeli villages near Gaza witnessed their extreme brutality and inhumanity inflicted on babies and mothers, festival-goers and elderly women waiting at bus-stops, not to mention the torture of hostages. Is all of this just a natural reaction to their (great-)grandparents losing their homes during Israel’s (defensive) war of independence 75 years ago? Or perhaps to being strait-jacketed inside Gaza for 17 years to limit terrorist attacks, in what they call ‘the world’s largest open-air prison’? In fact, in 2019 Israel re-opened entry for migrant workers, up to 45,000 a day since Covid.
Hamas’ Head of Political and International Relations, Dr Basem Naim, told Sky News on 9 October that ‘We didn’t kill any civilians.’ He justified this bizarre denial by redefining all occupants of the villages and towns around Gaza, young and old alike, as ‘settlers’ guilty of ‘occupation’ and of ‘humiliation and insulting Muslims around the world’ by entering Muslim holy places. He said that their attack was on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza, the ‘West Bank’ and Jerusalem (whose greatest mosque is Al-Aqsa), which explains why they proudly named it ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’. All of these details point unmistakably to religious motives, to a spiritual root of this conflict.
Hamas is a branch of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic movement that has imposed strict sharia law and Islamist education throughout Gaza during its 16 years in power. Its official charter defines its goal as ‘to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine’ (Article 6) by ‘obliterating’ Israel (Preamble). Fully in accord with conservative Islamic theology, Article 11 explains that ‘the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [holy possession] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. No one [i.e. moderate Palestinian leaders] can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.’ Thus all two-state negotiation is futile and contrary to Islam, because ‘There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except through Jihad’ (Article 13). Explaining what this entails, their charter quotes a widespread Hadith attributed to Muhammed: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. When the Jew will hide behind rocks and trees, the rocks and trees will cry out: “O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him”’ (Article 7).
In essence, Muslim theology divides the world into ‘Dar al-Islam’ (Muslim territory) and ‘Dar al-Harb’ (literally, territory of war). Once a territory is conquered by Islam, it cannot revert. So Israel’s existence will never be acceptable to orthodox Islam, regardless of the equally legitimate right of Jews to indigenous self-rule within their ancestral homeland, approved unanimously by the League of Nations in the British Mandate of 1922 and affirmed by the United Nations in 1947. Instead, every Jew must be expelled or subjugated to Muslim rule, which is ‘an individual duty for every Muslim’ (Hamas Charter, Article 14).
This vicious attack was designed to terrorise Jewish Israelis, and mobilise all Muslims in the land to rise up in wholesale ethnic cleansing. The ultimate conflict rages over which ‘God’ reigns over Jerusalem, enthroned on the ‘Temple Mount’ or ‘Al-Aqsa’ respectively.
From the opposing perspective, the gift of the land to Israel’s patriarchs in Genesis (13:15; 17:8; 26:4; 28:13) was reinforced by all the biblical prophets, who promised an end-time Jewish return from worldwide exile (e.g. Isa 53–54; Ezek 36–37). Jesus Himself ‘longed’ to accomplish this (Matt 23:37-39; Luke 21:24; John 10:16; 11:51-52), and the promised ‘land of Israel’ is among the ‘gifts’ Paul defines as ‘irrevocable’ (Matt 2:20; Rom 9:4; 11:28-29).
Neither the Jewish nor the Muslim attachment to the land can be severed theologically, either by politics or by war, however brutal and devastating. If so, the only hope for peace is the message of the Jewish Messiah, the weeping King of Jerusalem (Matt 5:35), whose self-sacrificial leadership will break down every dividing wall of hostility (Eph 2:14-18) and heal the land.
Elizabeth, Thy Servant, is dead Your glorious lily has faded as grass Most reproduced likeness, her head Anointed like kings for a thousand years past Held up the world’s weightiest crown As mother of nations with Commonwealth gleam By casting its pinnacle down Before Your throne to whom all nations shall stream Confessing Your Name before men In broadcasts worldwide at the gate of the year She fought the good fight to the end Her fifteenth Prime Minister given her ear When coming of age, she declared Her life, be it long or short, devoted to serve Full seventy years she was spared The ‘reign of one monarch’ we didn’t deserve In Scotland her family mourn A half-Jubilee since Diana had flowers Will they light the fires of Your dawn And joy fill our countries to witness Your powers? A woman of valour You found A gracious and noble queen saved for Your use Three rainbows above her homes honoured sad news This year ancient thresholds resound! – – – – – – –
James Earle Patrick, 8/9/22
1. 8 Sept 2022; Josh 1:2; Chris Wickland prophecy, 31 July
2. Matt 6:28-30; Ps 90:5-6; favourite flower; nickname Lilibet
3. Royal Mail; Royal Mint; Matt 22:19-20
4. Edward Confessor spoon; sole anointed European monarch
5. greatest empire in human history; epitome of monarchy
6. Gen 17:16; head of state in 15 countries; 56 in Commonwealth
7. Rev 4:10-11; Mt Everest news on coronation day, 2 June 1953
8. Micah 4:1-8; Matt 25:31-32; Matt 28:18-20
9. Matt 10:32; Rev 3:5; e.g. Easter message 2020
10. Christmas; both parents loved Haskins’ poem (read in 1939)
11. 2Tim 4:6-8; Matt 24:13; WW2 experience
12. Churchill > Liz Truss, given audience two days before death
13. 21 April 1947, 21st birthday ‘knightly dedication’, South Africa
Today as I walked along the street, I passed a typical student house, and on the paving outside the front window lay a shattered mirror, carefully deposited to be taken away with the household rubbish. In the bottom left corner of the mirror in big pink letters was a phrase, mostly legible: “________ Girls are the Prettiest”. The glass shard on which the first word had been written was no longer in its position. From the edges of the word, it might have read something like “Confident Girls are the Prettiest”, or “Happy Girls are the Prettiest”, or something else entirely. Evidently, that was where the owner of the mirror had directed their anger, and the spider-web of brokenness radiated out from that offending word.
I reflected on what God might be speaking to His people through this painful picture. So often we are fixing our gaze on earthly things, the empty promises others have written on our lives, our all-too-honest assessment of our appearance, or how we imagine others might be viewing us. But we are told in Colossians 3:2 to “Be intent on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” That might sound overly simplistic and trite; are we being told we must somehow look through the mirror, beyond our own depressing reflection, to some sort of vague spiritual image of what we ought to aspire to? More failure.
Then I realised something. While many of us will have had distant or disapproving or even abusive parents, when it comes to a happy, loving family working as it should, the only mirror that matters for any child is the face of their parent. A little girl (or boy) is meant to grow up secure in the knowledge that when she looks into her father’s face, she will see a look of deep affection, admiration, delight, even wonder, that this gorgeous one is his own special treasure. By gazing on her father’s face, she can see mirrored there the image of who she truly is and what she will become, the person he knows she will grow into, as she matures in grace and beauty. After all, she is her father’s daughter.
Sadly, this sort of safe and nurturing environment is far from the experience of so many in our society, and as we keep searching for that protective look of joy and unearned approval, we try to find it in the face of others who only want to take beauty from us for their own greed. But no matter how much we have been wounded, there will for ever be a true father waiting for us, to whom we can always turn, one who will give to us out of his own limitless store of love, clothing our shame in his dignity.
When we look at the cross, we see the extent to which Our Father loved us and longed for our full redemption. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us” (Romans 5:8). He loves us not because we are loveable, but because He is lovely. God is love, and we are the objects of His unearned delight, His self-giving determination to defend us and deliver us from every blemish and accusation.
Jesus tore His knuckles, shed His blood, to break the lying mirrors of condemnation that captivate and control us. So let us now take our eyes off ourselves, and put them back onto the face of Our Father. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2Corinthians 3:18) “See how great a love the Father has lavished on us, that we would be called children of God; and that is what we are … Beloved, now we are children of God” (1John 3:1-2).
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