Debating the Bible’s Israel: covenant identity or country, or both?
Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz thrash out God's blessings on Israel
{Note: I republished this as there were some incorrect dates on the initial essay. My apologies]
This week, Senator Ted Cruz was interviewed by Tucker Carlson. The conversation was anything but boring as the two dove into some intriguing biblical conundrums, such as the meaning of Israel as a nation. It was outright fiery if not uncomfortable to watch at times. There were many moments that seemed to divide people into backing one side or the other without accepting some nuanced middle ground.
For instance, at one point, Carlson said that if Iran were trying to assassinate Donald Trump, we should be calling out for an all-out war against them. The fact that we’re not firing missiles at Iran, according to Carlson, suggests that the intelligence charging Iran with such an allegation is faulty at best. In other words, someone is making up a lot of crap to make Iran look like the bad guy.
My nuanced take is that you can have 90% evidence that Iran is trying to assassinate Donald Trump, but without the other 10% that ties all of these allegations together, you can’t start a war on that basis.
The other heated exchange – which has nothing to do with America’s dealings with Iran - was largely a red herring, albeit an entertaining one that raised a compelling biblical question: Is the covenant God made with Abraham passed on to Israel the nation or the diaspora of Jewish people, as well as gentiles who converted? For Carlson it was the latter. For Cruz it was certainly the former but most likely both though he could barely get any points across because Carlson kept splitting hairs on whether Cruz understood biblical text well enough to paraphrase it, let alone create a foundational value structure on top of it.
Personally, there are many biblical truths from the Bible that are foundational to my theology and I can’t always pinpoint the actual verses I’m referring to. Does that mean I’m a fraud?
The full interrogation… errrr interview is here and the discussion starts around 48:00 with Carlson suggesting that it’s unjust that anyone who criticizes Israel is considered anti-semitic, especially amidst the reality of an imminent war with Iran in the defense of Israel, it’s critical for those defenders to give the strongest justification. [Correction: On June 21, the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites. Trump rejects war claims.]
Clearly for Carlson, it’s not enough to say that Israel is our strongest, and maybe only, democratic ally in the Middle East with the same western values, and whose enemies are ours. It’s not enough to say that a nuclear Iran is bad for the world. It’s not enough to say that Iran’s mission since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been essentially to wipe out Israel and the US. As Carlson sees it, those reasons are insufficient, so people like Cruz must be acting as a mercenary for Israel.
Here’s some of that exchange:
50:06 Cruz: You still haven’t asked why [I support Israel], but I’m going to tell you why. The reason is twofold: Number one as a Christian, growing up in Sunday school I was taught from the bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed. And those who curse Israel will be cursed. From my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things.
Carlson: Those who bless the government of Israel?
Cruz: Those who bless Israel. It doesn’t say the government but the nation of Israel. That’s in the Bible. As a Christian, I believe it.
Carlson: Where is that?
Cruz: I don’t have the scripture off the… Pull out the phone.
Carlson: It’s in Genesis. So you’re quoting a Bible phrase you don’t have context for, and you don’t know where in the Bible it is, and that’s your theology? I’m confused. What does that even mean?
Cruz: Where does my support for Israel come from? No. 1, because biblically we’re commanded to support Israel. No. 2…
Carlson: Hold on. You’re a senator, and now you’re throwing out theology. And I am a Christian and I’m allowed to weigh in on this. We’re commanded as Christians to support the government of Israel?
Cruz: We’re commanded to support Israel.
Carlson: What does that mean? Hold on. Define Israel.
Cruz: Define Israel? Do you not know what Israel is? That would be the country you’ve just asked 49 questions about.
Carlson: So that’s what Genesis is referring to? That’s what God is talking about. Is that the current leadership and the political entity called Israel?
Cruz: He’s talking about the nation.
OK. You get the picture but best to listen to the conversation yourself and see Carlson’s seemingly disingenuous shock that only people who can name specific Bible verses are the ones who can legitimately ground their entire worldview on the Bible. Yeah. No.
Carlson then says that “most people understand that line in Genesis to be the Jewish people as the chosen people.” Therein lies the question Carlson is trying to unpack: when the Bible refers to Israel as the nation God blesses, does Israel mean the country or the people? My answer is that they’re not mutually exclusive. The Bible makes clear God made a covenant with Israel - the descendents of Jacob and a nation unto themselves who were also blessed with the promised land known as Canaan, which encompasses modern day Israel.
Israel the person and the people
Firstly, let’s recognize that the first time Israel appears in the Bible, it is in reference to Jacob in Genesis 32, when Jacob is given the name “yisra’el” or Israel, which means struggle and God combined. The inference to be someone or those who struggle with God. Jacob is Isaac’s son and Abraham’s grandson.
Then in Exodus 1:1, the name Israel is passed on to Jacob’s descendants as they’re known as the “sons of Israel” or the “children of Israel.” In Exodus 19:1, the people are referred to as Israelites. And in 19:6, God tells Moses that “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” In this context, Israel becomes a nation of people with no location. In this context, the word Israel refers to Jacob’s progeny.
Israel is never mentioned in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. But the idea of a nation of people who will later be called Israel is established. In Genesis 12:1-3, God tells Abraham that He will make him “into a great nation” and bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. This is what Ted Cruz was referencing.
Genesis 12:1-3 - “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
The same sentiment is expressed by Moses in Numbers 24:9 when he says, “May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed.”
In these texts, God is referring to the nation of Israel as a group of people with a shared culture, not a geographic location. Back to Tucker Carlson’s question and his rationale: why are we defending the country Israel so vehemently? The geopolitical entity does not have a covenant with God. We are not told to bless the geopolitical entity but rather the people with the shared culture, including gentiles.
It is true that God is blessing Israel, the nation of people - Jews and gentiles - who believe in God. The question is: why does the Bible speak so explicitly about a geopolitical place with homes, buildings and food, if not to also imply that when God refers to the nation of Israel, He is also referring to the physical land He promised them?
Israel the geopolitical entity that is the promised land
Let’s start with the beginning of how we learn of this promised land.
God tells Abraham to leave Haran (which is modern day southeastern Turkey) and go to Canaan (which encompasses modern day Israel). And tells him that Canaan will be given to him and his descendants, and He will be their God.
Genesis 12:4-5 - “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.” In Genesis 17:8 - “The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” While in Canaan, God tells Abraham in Genesis 12:7 - “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Unfortunately, a famine struck Canaan during the time of Jacob - Abraham’s grandson. It occurred circa 1700 B.C., prompting Jacob to take his people and migrate to Egypt. The Israelites lived there for more than 400 years until Moses helped them escape, and journey back to their land - Canaan. In Deuteronomy, we learn through Moses that the people of Israel will have their own physical land, with “flourishing” cities and homes and food.
In Deuteronomy 6:10-11, Moses writes “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you – a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did no dig, an vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, of of the land of slavery.”
We also learn that the land is Canaan. In Deuteronomy 32:48, God tells Moses to go up Mount Nebo in Moab and “view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.”
But God tells Moses that since he was unfaithful, he will not be able to get to this physical land. In Deuteronomy 32:52, God said, “Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
In the end, that land Moses leads the Israelites to is the northeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula, right next to today’s modern day Israel.
Joshua is the one who brings the Israelites to Canaan and divides up the land among the 12 tribes. One can see from a map of ancient Canaan that it is essentially modern day Israel. Canaan encompasses Israel, Palestine (which consists of the West Bank, Gaza), and some parts of Lebanon and western parts of Jordan and Syria.
(source: reddit)
From Joshua’s time, which is around the 14th century BC, until the mid-20th century AD (that’s about three thousand years), Israel was never officially a country. That occurred on May 14, 1948. My history is a bit fuzzy about what goes on throughout those three thousand years. But that’s not the point of this essay.
The point is whether God blessed Israel, the nation of people and the land He promised them, regardless of whether man officially registered Israel as a geopolitical entity. If God did bless the promised land, is the promised land upon which Israelites live, worthy of protecting? Are we blessing the Jewish people, if we protect their land? I believe we are. And we are called to bless the Jewish people as Ted Cruz said (and it’s no less true even though he forgot where that actual verse is).
These laws also don’t go out the door because Jesus entered the picture. We’re reminded by Paul in Romans 3:11 to uphold the laws in the Old Testament. “Do we then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”
Just because Tucker doesn’t like the politics of the prime minister of Israel doesn’t mean the promised land is not worth protecting for the people whom God has a sacred covenant with.