Many believers today are asking sincere questions about the place of Israel in God’s purposes. They read the New Testament and see its focus on Christ and salvation by faith, and they wonder what significance remains for the physical land promised to Abraham and his descendants. Some ask if that promise was meant only for a time, now transformed into a spiritual inheritance for the Church. Others wonder why the apostles seem to speak so little about the land if it still carries prophetic meaning. These are not irreverent questions but reflections of a desire to see how all Scripture fits together under the lordship of Christ.

The biblical answer is not found by separating the Old Testament from the New, but by seeing how God’s covenant faithfulness threads through both. The land of Israel was never an end in itself. It was the setting where God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob took visible shape. It was the ground where God revealed His presence, established His law, and demonstrated His grace. That same faithfulness continues to speak, even in the age of the Gospel.

The Covenant Promise

When God called Abram out of Ur, He promised him a land, a people, and a blessing that would reach the nations. “To your descendants I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). Later, the covenant was confirmed in solemn terms: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). The covenant was unilateral. God passed between the divided pieces Himself, signifying that its fulfillment depended on His faithfulness rather than Abraham’s performance.

The land, therefore, was a visible sign of a greater reality. It represented God’s intention to redeem not only a people but the creation itself. Israel’s occupation of the land was to mirror God’s rule in heaven. Their loss of it through exile reflected covenant breaking, but even in judgment God promised restoration. “I will bring you into your own land,” He said through Ezekiel, “and I will put My Spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

The physical and spiritual promises were never meant to be divorced from each other.

The Fulfillment in Christ

When Jesus came, He fulfilled the covenant promises, but fulfillment does not mean cancellation. The coming of the Messiah confirmed every word God had spoken before. The Gospel begins not with a new idea but with the announcement that the Word became flesh in the land God had chosen. The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus took place in that covenant space, linking redemption to history and geography.

Paul writes that all the promises of God find their “Yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). This statement means that every promise finds its meaning and guarantee in Him, not that previous promises are erased. The faithfulness that secures our salvation also secures God’s word to Israel. That is why Paul insists that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). God’s covenant with Israel still stands, and His dealings with the Jewish people continue to unfold within His redemptive plan.

Why the New Testament Emphasizes the Person Rather than the Place

It is true that the apostles rarely discuss the land directly, but that silence should not be misunderstood. They were Jews who took God’s promises as given. Their mission was to announce the arrival of the Messiah, through whom those promises would reach their goal.

The focus on Christ does not make the land irrelevant but shows that its deepest purpose has always been to point to God’s dwelling with His people.

The New Testament writers look beyond exile and restoration to the final renewal of creation. Peter speaks of “the restoration of all things” that God spoke through the prophets (Acts 3:21). John’s Revelation ends not with an escape from the earth but with a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven. The vision unites heaven and earth, confirming that God’s plan for a people and a place will reach completion when His presence fills the world. The earthly land becomes the firstfruits of that greater restoration.

The Return of the Jewish People and the Faithfulness of God

The Scriptures speak repeatedly of Israel’s dispersion and regathering. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah describe a future in which God brings His people back to their land, not for their righteousness but for His name’s sake. “Then the nations will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:23). The return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland in modern times, though not the end of the story, bears witness to this continuing faithfulness. It reminds the world that the God of Abraham still acts in history.

Christians need not make every event in the Middle East a prophecy fulfilled to recognize that God keeps His word. The same Lord who redeemed Israel from Egypt and raised Jesus from the dead remains faithful to every covenant He has made. The existence of the Jewish people and their survival as a nation speak to that reality.

What the Land Teaches the Church

For followers of Christ, the land of Israel is not a rival to the Gospel but a teacher of it. It reminds us that God’s salvation is not abstract. He redeems in time, in place, and in flesh. The land tells us that faith is not a flight from creation but the renewal of it. The inheritance promised to Abraham anticipates the day when the meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).

The blessings once tied to the land, including freedom from bondage, daily provision, security from enemies, and the nearness of God, are now experienced spiritually in Christ, but they will also be realized physically when He returns. In that sense, the covenant with Israel serves as a prophecy of the Kingdom of God, when righteousness will dwell upon the earth and the presence of God will fill every corner of creation.

The Character of God at Stake

At the heart of this discussion is not politics, but the character of God. If His word to Israel could fail, what confidence could the Church have in His promises of salvation? Yet Scripture insists that His faithfulness does not change. “If His covenant with day and night could be broken,” Jeremiah writes, “then also My covenant with David My servant may be broken” (Jeremiah 33:20-21).

The permanence of God’s word to Israel is the foundation of hope for all believers.

For Christians, supporting the right of the Jewish people to live securely in their ancestral land is not about taking sides in a worldly dispute. It is about honoring the God who remembers His covenants. The Church’s relationship to Israel is one of humility and gratitude, for we have been grafted into their story, not planted apart from it.

Conclusion

The promise of the land was never an end in itself. It was a sign of God’s desire to dwell with His people and to reveal His glory in the world. In Christ, that desire reaches its fullness, yet the sign remains, pointing to the day when all creation will be renewed. The land of Israel continues to bear witness that the God who began His work in history will finish it in glory.

To see the faithfulness of God toward Israel is to find assurance for the Church. The same promise keeping Lord who gave Abraham a home and restored his descendants from exile will one day make His dwelling with all who belong to Him. In that day, every promise will find its perfect fulfillment, and both Israel and the nations will rejoice in the God who keeps His word forever.

Selected Sources

• The Holy Bible (NKJV, ESV)
• Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Promise-Plan of God (Zondervan, 2008)
• Darrell L. Bock and Mitch Glaser, eds., Israel, the Church, and the Middle East (Kregel, 2018)
• R. Kendall Soulen, The God of Israel and Christian Theology (Fortress Press, 1996)
• Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith (Seabury Press, 1983)
• Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (IVP Academic, 1992)