Israel Will Never Cease To Be A Nation
Pastor Leslie Chua
“Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is his name: If this fixed order were ever to cease from my presence, says the Lord, then also the offspring of Israel would cease to be a nation before me forever.
Thus says the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all they have done, says the Lord.”
God declared emphatically, through the prophet Jeremiah, that Israel would never cease to be a nation. While this can be inferred from many passages in the Bible, this passage is perhaps the clearest statement that Israel will always feature in God’s redemptive purposes.
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God declared emphatically, through the prophet Jeremiah, that Israel would never cease to be a nation.
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I am therefore puzzled by assertions that God is done with Israel and that the church has replaced it. I can understand this argument throughout much of church history, but not after God had regathered the Jews and reconstituted the state of Israel in 1948. The miraculous rebirth of Israel after 2,600 years and its modern nationhood should prompt these believers to reconsider their flawed theological stance towards Israel.
God’s Promise
Israel will never cease to be a nation. This is God’s promise to His chosen people, and He undergirds it with two impossibilities.
First, He points to the sun, moon, and stars, explains their functions, and says that if this created order ceases, Israel will cease to be a nation before Him.
Second, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, He will reject the descendants of Israel for their evil.
Neither of these 2 things is possible. The trajectories of the heavenly bodies and the times and seasons are fixed. Despite phenomenal advances in knowledge, science, and technology, we still know very little about the universe and the deep layers beneath Earth's surface.
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God’s promise of Israel’s perpetual existence is ironclad and unchangeable.
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These words are not merely poetic; they are a divine declaration of permanence, mercy, and faithfulness. God is essentially saying, “Only when the impossible becomes possible will I reject Israel for their evil.” God’s promise of Israel’s perpetual existence is ironclad and unchangeable.
Moreover, the promise of Jeremiah 31 is given in the same chapter as the promise of the New Covenant – “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
This is not incidental: the same passage that inaugurates the new covenant also reaffirms the irrevocability of God's national commitment to Israel.
The apostle Paul makes the same argument in Romans 9–11, insisting that “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2) and that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). In between, he warns Gentile believers against the pride of thinking they have replaced the natural branches of the olive tree.
Paul reaffirms the Old Covenant truth that Israel will not cease to exist under the New Covenant. God’s position on Israel remains unchanged.
An Unconditional Promise
Israel will never cease to be a nation. Notably, this unfailing covenant is not conditioned on Israel’s faithfulness but on God’s faithfulness and His redemptive purposes.
I know this truth comes as a surprise, perhaps even a shock, to many people.
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Israel will never cease to be a nation. Notably, this unfailing covenant is not conditioned on Israel’s faithfulness but on God’s faithfulness and His redemptive purposes.
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Jeremiah 31 was written at a time when the nation was in its darkest hour. Part of the Jewish people had already been taken into exile in Babylon for unfaithfulness, idolatry, and rebellion; they had broken God’s covenant and ignored His many warnings.
They were already experiencing divine judgement. The worst was still to come. Yet amid the barrage of prophetic warnings and judgement, God promised a future restoration. Jeremiah 31 offers hope amid hopelessness. The broken covenant would be replaced by a new covenant – “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).
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God’s purposes are not thwarted by human failure. Divine mercy and grace remain unaffected by Israel’s sins and transgressions. God’s faithfulness outweighs Israel’s unfaithfulness.
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What is the big idea here?
God’s purposes are not thwarted by human failure. Divine mercy and grace remain unaffected by Israel’s sins and transgressions. God’s faithfulness outweighs Israel’s unfaithfulness.
It does not make sin insignificant but magnifies God’s grace. It does not mean that God overlooked sin, but that His covenant purposes are rooted in His own character.
All this should comfort believers, though some strangely cannot accept God’s long-suffering mercy and grace towards Israel. If God broke His promise to Israel because of her unfaithfulness, He could likewise give up on the church.
A Theological and A Political Statement
Israel will never cease to be a nation. This is both a theological and a political statement.
It is a theological statement in that Israel occupies a unique place in God’s redemptive plan and purposes.
After Adam and Eve’s rebellion and the nations' rejection of God at the Tower of Babel, God initiated His plan of redemption by calling Abraham. From Abraham came Israel, through whom the Messiah Jesus came. Israel is prominently featured in the Old Testament, yet few realise it will again be so towards the end of this age. Read the book of Revelation, and you will understand what I mean.
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The statement that Israel will never cease to be a nation is also political. Israel is both a people and a state, a political entity unlike the church.
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The church’s role in God’s redemptive plan is important but limited to only 2,000 years. It will be raptured just before the final 7 years (Tribulation), when God will deal with the world through the nation of Israel. Israel will be the focal point. You cannot fail to observe this reality since Israel’s rebirth in 1948.
The statement that Israel will never cease to be a nation is also political. Israel is both a people and a state, a political entity unlike the church.
This, of course, has been God’s idea since its inception. After its deliverance from slavery in Egypt, Israel functioned as a nation-state, albeit without any land for the first 40 years.
God gave the Law to Israel. The Law has three categories – moral, ceremonial (religious), and civil. The implication is clear: Israel is a nation-state, that is, a political entity.
Moreover, Israel was called to defend itself against other nations and to fight for possession of the Promised Land (Canaan). It had a military force, and Joshua was its first commander.
Later, Israel had kings, as other kingdoms and empires did. It was organised into 12 tribes, each with distinct boundaries, just as countries have states and provinces.
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Israel is both a people group and a nation-state. The Israel referenced in the Bible must be understood as a whole, encompassing its racial, cultural, spiritual, and political dimensions. You cannot separate them.
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For 2,600 years, following its Babylonian exile, Israel was a nation without a land. After its rebirth in 1948, it became a nation-state once more, with its own sovereign government, borders, and military forces.
What is the big idea here?
Israel is both a people group and a nation-state. The Israel referenced in the Bible must be understood as a whole, encompassing its racial, cultural, spiritual, and political dimensions. You cannot separate them.
In the Old Testament, you notice that God, who dealt with Israel spiritually, was also involved in Israel’s politics and warfare against the surrounding kingdoms and empires.
I mention this because an increasing number of Christians like to separate spiritual Israel from political Israel. They do so to argue that God does not favour Israel today because it is constantly at war.
Implications
Given all that, what are the implications of God’s promise that Israel will never cease to be a nation?
First, Replacement Theology, which argues that the church has replaced Israel and that God is done with Israel, is not merely flawed but bad theology.
Reading all God’s promises to Israel as now going to the church is misleading. It confuses believers studying eschatology (End-Time Bible prophecies) and alters their attitudes towards Israel. It can position them against God and His will. You do not want to become God’s enemies inadvertently.
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Replacement Theology, which argues that the church has replaced Israel and that God is done with Israel, is not merely flawed but bad theology.
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Second, many Christians have adopted an anti-Israel and anti-Zionist stance in recent years, following Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and Israel’s subsequent conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.
These Christians believe in conspiracy theories, including the claim that almost all Jews in Israel today are not biologically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that Zionism is evil because the leaders of the movement were secular Jews.
If these claims were true, God would have been mistaken to rebirth Israel in 1948, since He had brought pseudo-Jews back to the Promised Land.
These Christians should pause to reflect: The regathering of the Jews over the past 2 centuries and the reconstitution of Israel as a sovereign state are a greater miracle than the Exodus story. Or has God made a mistake?
Regarding Zionism, it is the belief and movement that Jewish people have the right to live and self-determine in their ancestral homeland. Just because the pioneers of Zionism and most Jews living in Israel today are not followers of Christ does not negate the fact that Israel today is the true Israel.
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Israel’s unbelief and unfaithfulness do not hinder the progress of God’s redemptive plan.
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When God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites did not know Him. Yahweh had to make a miraculous appearance to Moses at the burning bush to reveal Himself. That generation was also stiff-necked and rebellious. Yet God delivered them.
Most of the Jews at the time of Jesus rejected Him as their Messiah, yet their unbelief did not prevent His death on the cross for sin.
Israel’s unbelief and unfaithfulness do not hinder the progress of God’s redemptive plan.
In fact, Ezekiel 36-37 makes it clear that Israel’s physical restoration will precede its spiritual restoration. For example: “I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). After that, “ I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
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Here is the third implication of Israel not ceasing to exist: God will protect and defend Israel from its enemies, as He did in Old Testament times. The LORD will fight on its behalf.
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Israel will never cease to be a nation. Criticising Zionism and Israel’s spiritual state will not erase Israel from God’s redemptive purposes.
Here is the third implication of Israel not ceasing to exist: God will protect and defend Israel from its enemies, as He did in Old Testament times. The LORD will fight on its behalf.
The world witnessed this during the wars following its 1948 independence. With a smaller army and air force, Israel always fought back from the brink of defeat to crush its enemies. It happened in the War of Independence in 1948, the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Commanders and soldiers testified to divine intervention at crucial moments.
God will continue to fight for Israel in the current conflicts with Iran and Hezbollah, despite public opinion against Israel and its political leaders. That does not mean that everything its political leaders and citizens do is right in the eyes of God.
God will also continue to fight for Israel in future conflicts. Biblical prophecies point to 2 future wars – the war described in Ezekiel 38-39 and the final world war, commonly referred to as Armageddon. In both wars, God will intervene to rescue Israel from total annihilation.
Therefore, please don't criticise Israel unnecessarily unless there are legitimate grounds, or you risk opposing God and His will. You don’t want to be God’s enemies.
Increasingly, Christians are openly criticising and condemning Israel, often relying on news reports from both mainstream and social media, which may or may not be accurate. Be careful how you consume news, as it is largely biased against Israel. Israel’s conflicts with its enemies are also complex. So, know the facts and biblical truths before you place the blame on Israel.