Many American, particularly those on the political right, are in an uproar because the U.S. abstained from voting on a U.N. resolution which criticized Israel for building settlements.

The resolution didn’t even contain any sanctions. Sounds to me as though it was more like a harshly worded memo with each country checking “for” or “against” except the U.S., which checked “abstain.”

And so began the uproar.

“We should have vetoed that!”

“We’re not standing with Israel!”

“God has promised that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her. Our out-going president has just put us in a position for God to curse us!”

Newsflash:  With or without Israel, “we” are on a school bus bound for hell with no brakes.

Understand that I am no more of a foreign policy expert then I am a master of divinity. I hold no degrees that would give me some convoluted, state-approved, inside knowledge of the intricacies of international politics, nor do I discuss theory with the Holy Trinity during a weekly handball match. I try to stay out of political discussions for many different reasons. But this notion that “We gotta back Israel!” peeves me to no end, and I can keep quiet no longer.

The whole thought of the U.S. riding Israel’s coattails into heaven is absurd.

Think about it.

First of all, from everything I’ve read in the bible (and no, I haven’t read all of it yet but I’m working on it), getting into heaven is loosely like going through airport security —you strip down, lay your possessions to the side and go through the gate one at a time. The whole family doesn’t squeeze through all at once! The announcement won’t be “U.S., party of 320 million, your table is ready!”  It’ll be more like, “Maharrey, Cynthia it’s your turn to be judged.”

We came into this world individually and we’ll leave it the same way.

Second of all, salvation doesn’t occur by osmosis. Snugging up to Israel is not going to guarantee the U.S. a collective slot in heaven. The Israel described as God’s chosen people and modern-day Israel are as similar as sheep and hand grenades. God’s chosen people, the Old Testament Israelites, were people who tried intermittently to measure up to His expectation. Because they couldn’t, He sent His son, Je-sus—not to be confused with the U.-S.—to save the world – not just the chosen Hebrews, but all who would put their faith in him.

Anyone who will listen and come to the Father through Him will have life-everlasting; salvation. It’s a New Covenant and doesn’t have anything to do with your ethnic or national identity.  Salvation has zero to do with politics and everything to do with the heart of an individual. God isn’t going to bless the entire U.S. because our federal government tries to “ensure” the the political entity known as Israel has some land. If Israel would have stopped all the whining and complaining about 3500 years ago, maybe they’d have had their own land and enough blessings to hold onto it by now. But, I digress…

Government—that’s where all this gets muddied.

You could say, “But Cynthia, you can’t deny that God loved the Israelites and that’s why He called them His chosen. They’re blessed. You can’t deny that.”

You’re right. They were. That’s clear from the Old Testament.

God absolutely blessed Israel collectively as his chosen nation when it followed him as he began revealing himself to the world in Old Testament times.  He also blessed the Israelites who loved Him and kept His laws. But all of them didn’t. Many of them bastardized the law He gave them to follow.

You know who they were?

They were the government—the Sanhedrin—the leaders who sat in judgement on matters of religious law as well as criminal matters of the secular court. Jesus called them on it. And they crucified Him. Seventy years later, Jerusalem laid in ruins. Still think God blessed all the Israelites all the time?

God tried repeatedly to bless a whole nation and they threw it in His face again and again and again. If the Sanhedrin would have backed Jesus, things would have been very different. Ironically, the Jews of that time believed a Davidic messiah would reconstruct Israel’s sovereignty, gather the Jews from the four corners of the world, restore the Torah as law, and usher peace into the entire world. Apparently they also believed all this could only be accomplished with a sword.

But God’s kingdom is a different kind of kingdom, as Micheal Maharrey wrote.

“Many American Christians have substituted a quasi-religious political identity for the Kingdom of God. This earthly kingdom that many of America’s faithful embrace roots itself in violence and stands in stark contrast to the kingdom Jesus died to usher in.”

When Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, He created a new “nation” of chosen people – the church – made up of every tribe and every people. God’s chosen people aren’t comprised solely of the present-day country of Israel and its’ political hangers-on. God’s chosen people are the church. When we read the Old Testament and see God blessing and cursing the nation of Israel, we should think of it in terms of how he deals with the church today – not some political subdivision or national collection.

We would do well to expend our individual energy on the furthering of His kingdom through love and mercy rather than obsessing over political posturing and international agenda- pushing.

Photo by Zeevveez via Flickr.