Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of

Bible and Theology

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Israel, Prophecy, Politics

Benedict Janecko
Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology 1978; 8; 177
DOI: 10.1177/014610797800800405

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 Israel, Prophecy, Politics
Benedict Janecko, O.S.B. , St. Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, Pa.
The common theme of the entire Bi-
ble is the People of God called into cov-
enant with God. Both Jews and
Christians claim to be Israel. Both
draw upon their history and Scriptures
to establish this claim.
Usually it is differences, the un-
familiar, the strange, the foreign, the
alien and the unknown that make us un-
comfortable, threaten us and divide us. ple of God&dquo;, a community of faith, be
Paradoxically, in the case of our topic,
&dquo;Israel in Prophecy and Politics&dquo;, it is
the likeness and similarities of claims
and sources which make us uncomfor-
table and are the reason for dif-
ficulties. &dquo;Israel in Prophecy and
Politics&dquo; evokes emotional feelings,
memories and reactions among
Christians and Jews. So does &dquo;chosen
people&dquo; ; so does the Land which is
holy; so do the common scriptures, es-
pecially when it comes to prophecy.
Finally, to be human is to be political.
Our task will be to try to understand
the &dquo;familiar similarities&dquo; in a new
way, a poetic way, employing biblical
images and symbols to shed light on
&dquo;Israel&dquo; and the &dquo;Land&dquo; without
necessarily giving definite answers and
solutions to these perplexing issues.
Israel as People and Land:
Abraham Halkin in his Zion in Jewish
Literature has explained the unique
relationship of God, people and land in
this manner: &dquo;The very beginning of
the Jewish people is related to a call
and a land. The call presupposed a
vocation to become a people: a com-
munity of faith that achieved its really Jacob and none are Israel yet but
definite moment at Mt. Sinai with the
giving of the Law. It also meant a
promised land that Israel received as
an eternal heritage. The land was
Eretz Israel, the land of Israel. &dquo; Thus,
a &dquo;chosen people&dquo; and a &dquo;promised
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land&dquo; seem to be the main ingredients -
of Hebrew and Jewish religion. But are
the two to be identified or confused any
more than the Church is to be equated
with the &dquo;Kingdom of God?&dquo; It seems
that both Judaism and Christianity get
into turbulent waters when they stress
the &dquo;land or kingdom&dquo; motif in their
respective theologies. Might not &dquo;peo-
the more authentic stance for both?
And might not even Israel (old and new
people of God) as well as the Land be
but a symbol or &dquo;an echo of eternity&dquo;?
(Heschel)
Israel as People:
Both Jews and Christians claim to be
Israel today. But a common belief can
divide men as well as unite them.
From her very conception &dquo;Israel&dquo; is a
source of fighting, &dquo;the man who
wrestled with God&dquo; (Jacob). At a
certain point in the patriarchal
narratives, Jacob has a religious ex-
perience and is invited to change his
name, that is, his essence, his fortune,
his responsibility, and become Israel.
Commentators still disagree whether
&dquo;Israel&dquo; means &dquo;let God rule&dquo; or &dquo;the
man (Jacob) who wrestled with God&dquo;.
The reality of the true Israel today is
just as confounding as the etymology of
the word &dquo;Israel&dquo; in its original setting
and context.
In our current ecumenical dialogue,
perhaps the same question is at stake,
&dquo;Does God rule or are we simply men
who are wrestling with God?&dquo; Maybe
all the &dquo;Israel&dquo; claimants today are
called to become Israel? Just as the
Church looks forward to becoming her
true self with the second coming of
Christ, so the Hebrew Israel looks
forward to becoming her true self with
the coming of a Messiah or a Messianic
177
age. Perhaps for all of us (Hebrew
Israel, Christian Israel, State of Israel)
the true Israel exists in the future and
only in the future. The future Israel is
the true Israel (S. Sandmel The Several
Israels). Perhaps God has the final
answers - and they will surprise us.
(both Jewish and Christian but for
different reasons) as a &dquo;sign&dquo; of the
&dquo;end time&dquo; and a fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy. &dquo;Israel&dquo; con-
tinues to be a source of division among
her own people and other peoples as
well.

Israel and Judah Israel as Land:

Added to the etymological dif-
ficulties surrounding &dquo;Israel&dquo;, later
historical ones emerge in 931 B.C.E.
with the division of the Kingdom into
north and south (Israel and Judah).
The northern kingdom Israel is later
destroyed with the onslaught of the
Assyrians, early practitioners of
genocide in 722 B.C.E., giving rise to
the &dquo;10 wandering tribes&dquo; motif in pop-
ular parlance. Judah continues to exist
until 586 B.C.E. when it, too, is
destroyed, and the people are carried
off into captivity into alien and pagan
Babylon, where they remained until
their release under Cyrus, the Persian,
in 538 B.C.E., who permitted them to
return to their native land and com-
mence a restoration period which is
nothing short of a miracle story. This
restoration period led to the es-
tablishment of a second Jewish coin-
monwealth and origin of Judaism, not a
restored nor &dquo;new Israel&dquo;. This same
Judaism will continue until the time of
Jesus and early Christianity which
claimed to be the new and true Israel,
inheritors to the blessings and
promises forfeited by the &dquo;old Israel&dquo;.
Christianity claimed to &dquo;supplant&dquo; (to
Jacob) Hebrew Israel in a way similar
to Jacob’s supplanting of Esau in terms
of birthright and blessing. An
audacious claim, according to any
standards.
The Christian claim as &dquo;the new
Israel&dquo; will go unchallenged in any
significant way for almost 2000 years
until the birth of the State of Israel in
1948. Currently, the preoccupation of
Palestine is viewed by fundamentalists
178
In the Hebrew Scriptures, to talk
about Israel is to talk of the land as
well as the people. The two cannot be
easily separated in her history. But
there are some nuances and subtleties
of history and theology that are worth
noting in this section where we will
concentrate more on the &dquo;land&dquo; motif.
Clenesis 12
The proper place to begin reading
scripture is Genesis 12 where Abraham
is called out of his native land to a land
that God will show him and give him
for an inheritance. The promises,
blessings, and &dquo;gift&dquo; given to Abraham
as well as the other patriarchs centers
around progeny and land. Yet it is in-
teresting that most of his trials and
threats center around progeny and land
too. Abraham, the father of nations,
does not live to see many children and
much land. The best he can muster is a
sole male heir Isaac, whom he is later
asked to sacrifice, and a grave site for
his wife Sarah, a site bought from a
Hittite. At most, we- can say that
Abraham realized only partial
fulfillment of the promises. But God
did bring laughter (Isaac) out of a
barren, distressing situation.
The Exodus story is not much
different. While the Israelites are in
Egypt, an Egyptian king &dquo;who did not
know Joseph&dquo; regains the throne and
commits the Hebrews to enslavement
and bondage. Up to then, the Israelites
had been increasing and prospering
both in terms of progeny and land,
albeit in the alien land of Goshen. The
Pharoah’s worry, concern, and threat

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again center around the fruit of the
original promises, children and land.
Only after Moses’ liberating efforts
and Joshua does the Promised Land
become a reality, and even this
possession is a gradual one and a par-
tial fulfillment, for Canaanites and
others still continued to live in the
Land. Throughout the rest of Israel’s
history, that of the confederation of
tribes as well as later, the Land always
remains in jeopardy and under new
threats, first Canaanites, then
Assyrians and Egyptians, and lastly,
the Babylonians, until the exile from
the Land in 586 B.C.E. when the real
crisis occurs.
The Exile
period of &dquo;exile from the Land&dquo;
This
is an important one. Jerusalem is
sacked, people carried off into cap-
tivity, the Temple destroyed. All the
symbols of Hebrew religion
temple, ark, sacrifice, priesthood and
land - seem to have died at once. God
himself seemed to have died. &dquo;Death of
God&dquo; theology is not a novelty. Yet this
time in Israel’s history, in the far off
land of Babylon and separated from the
Land, is one of her most creative
moments. Absence truly makes the
heart grow fonder, for at this time her
&dquo;unemployed priests&dquo; gather her most
memorable traditions, compose new
books, re-edit former books, and work
toward the final formation of the Pen-
tateuch or Torah.
During the exile, Israel learns many
valuable lessons about her God,
herself, and the Land. She learns not to
absolutize the relative. Yet their God
does care for them, even in far off
Babylon. Her God is no longer a God to
be localized, but one who is present to
her wherever she is. Israel learns that
the future which is unknown belongs to
her God who is full of surprises,
miracles and mystery. God has the
final answers!
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Nation and Religion
Prophets up to the exile deal with a
nation and a religion that are linked;
the experience of the exile reveals that
the two can be separated. One can live
Yahwism in a foreign Land. It may not
be the ideal, but is possible. &dquo;Land&dquo;
and &dquo;people of God&dquo;, &dquo;chosen people&dquo;
are symbols of a greater reality, God’s
presence in particular, which can no
longer be localized. A Jew need not feel
inferior in religion if he doesn’t live in
Jerusalem nor a Christian if he doesn’t
reside in Rome. God resides within us,
he is God-with-us. Israel of the Spirit is
born in unexpected fashion.
Restoration
Ezechiel begins to tell us of the
&dquo;restoration period&dquo; (538 B.C.E.)
which is an Old Testament miracle and
&dquo;resurrection story&dquo;. Judaism rises
from the ashes of the Temple. The
city,
-
return of the Land is part and parcel of
that story. But some Jews remained in
Babylon, some Jews chose to live in
Diaspora, just as some American Jews
remained in America after the
founding of the State of Israel in 1948.
Those who returned to the Land es-
tablished the second Jewish com-
monwealth and laid the foundations of
Judaism, not necessarily a restored
nor &dquo;new Israel&dquo;. For those who did
not return, the Land remained a sym-
bol of &dquo;home, haven, heaven, an echo
of eternity&dquo;. Some did not deem it im-
portant to literally and physically
return to the Land. In sum, Old
Testament history of Israel and the
Land is a tensive situation, Israel at
times in the Land, and at times without
the Land, in Diaspora.
Christianity never established the
same attachment to the Land as
Judaism. In fact, a certain detachment
from the Land is more prevalent in her
tradition. At the same time, it must be
admitted and even stressed that the
Jesus of a particular land, the Jesus of
179
history, runs together for the New Christ. Many view Russia as the enemy
Testament reader and the Holy Land and World War III in the Middle East
pilgrim. But one is no less a Christian as the setting and plan which would
for not having visited or lived in the usher in the thousand-year reign of
Holy Land. Jesus. The same group would like to
Early Christian theological under- evangelize the Jew as Jew, since they
standing of Israel is spelled out in see Judaism as an unfulfilled faith,
Romans 9-11. Under Paul’s influence, made complete only with Jesus and the
the early church moved to a New Testament. This group’s support
&dquo;spiritual&dquo; interpretation of familiar of Israel is closely linked with their
Jewish attitudes toward the land, and hope of evangelizing the Jew. This is
eventually moved from Jerusalem, its not sympathy, but exploitation of the
cradle, to Rome. Nevertheless, Land, Jew and of religion. Unfortunately,
Temple and Jerusalem still retain im- power, money, and numbers lie with
portance in Christianity today, albeit this group supporting Israel, even
symbolic. though it denies the integrity of the
faith of Israel, and is over evangelistic,
Prophecy, The Land, and and is eager to explain and exploit
Fundamentalism: Israel as a broken covenant (M. Mar-
Gerard Sloyan warns that biblical ty). The fundamentalists seem to be
literalism is dangerous and destruc- over eager and ready for the Second

tive ; instead he encourages us to con- Coming but are not ready for the delay
serve the poetic imagery from which of the Lord.
biblical meaning flows, and healing Israel should take note and not fall
emerges. We cannot look for prey to a premillennial biblical plot,
for her &dquo;best friends&dquo; politically may
&dquo;scapegoats&dquo; in the scriptures. We
should not use The Bible to prove our be her theological enemies in disguise.
own idealogy and superiority. As we
near the year 2000, many self- Promises
proclaimed seers, gurus and in- Biblical Promises : These fundamen-
terpreters of &dquo;biblical prophecy&dquo; will talists often refer to Geneis 17 and 35 to
attempt to scare us into believing. The support Israel’s claim to the Land and
apocalyptic scare seems to be om- to Deut. 2 to show where the Arabs
nipresent ; Exorcist I and II, ought to live. Should Old Testament
Earthquake, Towering Inferno, The religious scriptures be used to justify
Omen, The Poseidan Adventure and 20th century political claims? Would
Jaws are symbols of an era and an at- the Israelis honor boundaries
titude. The prophet attempts to instill designated in the Koran? A proof text
hope at times like this. He continues to approach to scripture is always
spell God ... HOPE. dangerous, regardless of the issue at
hand.
Fundamentalists The term everlasting for the cov-
The fundamentalists (premillen- enant (Genesis 17) was certainly not
nialists) are guilty of most of the
fulfilled in the case of any Jewish
above. Their argumentation runs thus: national homeland between the Roman
Israel must be restored before the Conquest and 1948. Is it being fulfilled
second coming of Jesus. A literal battle today, right now, as the fundamen-
of Armageddon will be fought on talists claim?
Israel’s soil between Antichrist and Isolated passages like Genesis 17 and
180

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Romans 9 should not be used as proof who fail to be empathetic toward Israel
texts. Fundamentalists on both sides as a common human concern or by
(pro and anti-Israel) are wrong in their those who refuse to help in a human
use of scripture. &dquo;Divine Right to the
way simply because they are anti-
Land&dquo; cannot be proved from scrip- Semitic. The Land is important but the
ture. Land is not an &dquo;absolute&dquo; according to
the Scriptures. Scripture supports no
Prophecies absolutes, not even the Exodus or
Biblical Prophecies : The year 2000 and Covenant. The only &dquo;absolute&dquo; in
end time is near if not here, say the Scripture is that God is God, and man
fundamentalists. A rash of dangerous, is man.
fundamentalistic books on the market The entire question of and under-
today like Hal Lindsey’s &dquo;The Late standing of biblical prophecy surfaces
Great Planet Earth&dquo; see Israeli reoc- in such a discussion. Biblical prophecy
cupation of Palestine as a direct has nothing to do with prediction of the
fulfillment of biblical prophecy. These future, a la Jean Dixon, Jimmie the
well-meaning Christians rush to the Greek, von Daniken’s Chariots of the
support of Israel so that the kingdom Gods or Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great
may be ushered in all the sooner with Planet Earth. Ezechiel is not writing of
the second coming of Christ. &dquo;Help UFO’s or astronauts visiting earth
Christ return sooner. Support Israel. from outer space, as von Daniken
Please God.&dquo; The danger here is that suggests, nor does the book of Daniel
these fundamentalists are viewed as foresee in any way the formation of the
&dquo;Israel’s best friends&dquo;, while in fact, European Common Market when it
they deny the integrity of Israel’s faith. speaks of &dquo;4 kings and 10 horns&dquo;. Nor is
These fundamentalists constantly mis- Ezechial speaking of an American
use the books of Ezechiel, Daniel, and political scandal of the 1970’s when he
Revelation (apocalyptic literature, a writes that in Jerusalem there is an
unique literary form that is highly sym- East gate, a West gate and a &dquo;Water
bolic in nature). Many passages in gate&dquo; .
these books should not be read in literal
or concordistic fashion, as fulfillment Meaning of the Bible’s Author
for our generation. I would imagine One must always ask oneself what
that fundamentalists and premillen- the biblical author intended. The
nialists in previous generations got biblical prophets were men who &dquo;spoke
quite excited when the year 666 or 1000 out&dquo;, who &dquo;spoke forth&dquo;, who &dquo;told
came along, much akin to the prophetic forth&dquo;, but did not &dquo;fortell or predict&dquo;
enthusiasts today as we approach the things of the distant future. They were
year 2000. men who addressed the faith com-
I cannot agree with those who read munities of their own day and age,
the Bible literally and in fundamen- addressing the concerns of history and
talistic fashion, with those who view man’s relationship with God then. They
Israel’s return to the Land as a &dquo;sign&dquo; were not predicting things for the
of the second coming and the ushering 1970’s. This is not to say their message
in of the Kingdom, and thus we must is irrelevant for us today, but rather
rush to the aid of the State of Israel, that their writings of the relationship
since this is a fulfillment of Old of God and man serves as a model or
Testament prophecy in which the paradigm for our own dwellings with
Christian should rejoice. This is as God, who remains constant and faithful
dangerous a view as one held by those through the ages.
181

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 Prophets -
Kings
To say that the prophets were not
predicting the future does not mean
that they were not concerned with the
future. In fact, the prophet is a man of
the future, a future oriented person,
open to the unknown, change and
mystery, long sighted, a man of vision,
trustful of plurality and variety; in
short, trustful of God, our common
future. In this way, the biblical prophet
differs radically from his most com-
mon biblical adversary, the king, who
so often is depicted as one upholding
the status quo, as well as law and
order, short sighted, a practitioner of
Realpolitik, a person who tires of
waiting for the future, for God, who
wants instant salvation here and now,
in his own way, on his own terms,
neglecting the long and arduous road to
freedom.
A contemporary example from the
American political arena may il-
lustrate the above biblical contrast
between prophet and king. A current
issue is the keeping or giving up of the
Panama Canal. The office of &dquo;king&dquo;,
the establishment, many elected
government officials, react in short-
sighted fashion, thinking only of the
past benefits of the canal, and of the
present and instant gains. They think
they are patriotic. They fear the worst
and fear the future if the canal should
be turned over to the Panamanians. On
the other hand, the more &dquo;prophetic&dquo;
members of government are not just
thinking of today, but with imagination
and long-sightedness, see the broader
picture of an entire continent of South
America at stake, the possibility of
more friendly relationships, a benefit
to our children’s children and theirs,
and are open to mutual benefits that
are unheard of and mysterious now, but
hopeful for the future. This latter view
often involves the sharing, even a giv-
ing up, of something &dquo;rightfully and
legally&dquo; ours. This view does not cling
182
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to a &dquo;gift&dquo; as a possession or a &dquo;Divine
Right&dquo; but a thing to be shared by all.
One moves from a narrow par-
ticularistic concern of &dquo;now&dquo; to the
more universalistic concern of the
&dquo;future&dquo;.
Conclusion:
The recent showing and viewing of
the NBC special on the &dquo;Holocaust&dquo;
has stirred up some controversy as to
whether this was a religious or political
ploy. Catholics, Jews, and Germans
were angered for different reasons.
Was &dquo;Holocaust&dquo; intended to arouse
and stir religious feelings and
memories during Passover week or
was it a Zionist ploy to muster Israeli
support at this crucial time in Middle
East politics? Can faith, religion, and
politics be totally separated? Faulty
conclusions can and will be drawn.
Interpretation is always a factor as
well as preconditioning and pre-
understanding that everyone brings to
a text or to a film.
After the &dquo;Holocaust&dquo; showing, my
suggestions may sound strange and un-
acceptable to many Jews and Christian
ears. I am not asking Israel to become
passive and non-resistant, but I asking
her to be biblical and imbue her politics
with faith. I am asking her to be
prophetic, to be concerned with
righteousness and justice. To be
prophetic, one must constantly re-
evaluate one’s relationship to God,
people, and Land. Perhaps the Land is
modern Israel’s &dquo;Isaac&dquo;.
I would again ask Israel to jeopardize
the promise, to sacrifice, to offer up as
a &dquo;holocaust&dquo; portions of the Land so
that a lasting peace may emerge. I
would ask her not to &dquo;absolutize the
relative&dquo;. I would ask her to treat the
Land as a &dquo;gift&dquo; rather than as a
possession by &dquo;Divine Right&dquo;, to treat
the Land delicately as if it were an
&dquo;Isaac&dquo;. Hopefully, laughter and joy
will emerge. I would ask her to look
beyond the &dquo;gift&dquo; and cling to the bearer of the promises and of the
Giver. This sharing the land does not future to a world that is &dquo;in exile from
exclude and destroy the future, but in- itself.&dquo; and Israel can be a &dquo;light to the
cludes and enhances the future. Just as nations&dquo; as she was biblically intended
the Panama Canal issue extends to be, a people of God in the midst of
beyond Panama to include an entire other peoples.
continent, so the question of Israel ex-
tends beyond its own borders to include SOURCE MATERIAL
the entire Middle East and even the
world at large. The Land question with Lindsey, H., 1970. The Late Great
the Arabs of Israel is a great oppor- Planet Earth. Grand Rapids.
tunity for the test of Jewishness. Maier, P., 1978. "Israel and the
Assimilation and emigration of the Arabs: Peace at Last", The
Arab is not the solution. &dquo;Remember, Christian Century 95: 153-156.
Israel, you were strangers in the land Marty, M., 1978. ’’Which
of Egypt&dquo;; be mindful of the strangers Christians Can Israel Count On? A
in your midst. Embrace both Jew and Ladder of Sympathies, The
Arab. One nation, one person, can still Christian Century 95: 233-236.
make a difference. The many are still Sandmel, S., 1971. The Several
saved in and through the one; the uni- Israels. New York.
versal is included and realized in the Sloyan, G., 1976. "The Religious
particular. That particular, peculiar Shape of the Twenty-First Cen-
one still is Israel. Israel is still the tury", Face to Face: Spring: 15f.

183

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