What is all the fuss about Jerusalem anyway? Is there a solution for this tortured city?
I’m staying with friends in a very Jewish neighborhood in South Florida. A tabloid, the Jewish Journal, was dropped at the door and I took the liberty of glancing at it. Along with ads for kosher catering, fund-raisers for various Jewish charities, and an assessment of safety levels for Americans travelling in Israel, I found an article by Stuart Schoffman which first appeared in the Jerusalem Report.
His op-ed piece offers a solution to the so-called “Jewish Problem,” a few million Jews surrounded by Muslim states who wish they weren’t there, to put it mildly. The solution—for Jews to abandon their claim to Israel—is not a new one, says Schoffman, and quotes an earlier source to prove it.
Israel Zangwell (1864-1926) was a friend of the father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl. Originally Zionism was a movement to find a home for Jews in any safe country. Options included Australia, Mexico, Uganda, even Mesopotamia! But many Jews hoped for the rebirth of Israel in Palestine. This division in the movement led to the founding by Zangwell of the Jewish Territorial Organization.
The JTO wanted to rescue Jews from the anti-Semitic climate in Europe, but NOT take them to Palestine. Zangwell was afraid that moving back to the historical land of Israel would also take Jews back to the Bible. The following is taken from an essay titled “The Territorial Solution of the Jewish Problem”:
[Zionism] takes its vision and ideal from the past; Territorialism places them in the future. Zionism is not safe even from animal sacrifices.
Zangwell continues,
…Zion is not a mere place—and the evasion of all root questions in the interests of a sham unity will one day have to be paid for, and with heavy interest.
What was the payout he had in mind if the Jewish homeland was established in the ancient land promised to the patriarchs? That Jews who had “overthrown the Mosaic code” would “babble about the irreplaceability of Palestine.” He spoke of the Zionist’s Jerusalem as “a city of dreams…builded on celestial foundations by the popular imagination yearning for the Messiah.”
Zangwell, unlike millions of Jews today, made the obvious connection between the people, the land, Mosaic law, and the hope of a Messiah. He connected the dots and was highly uncomfortable with the picture he saw. No, Zion is not a mere place. And yes, it is a massive disconnect to have unbelieving Jews claim the Land on the basis of the Scriptures which they deny.
The apostle Paul “connected the dots” too in his epistle to the Galatians. What is the relationship between the law with its offerings and God’s way of salvation? Paul explains:
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness…For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith (Gal. 3:6, 10-11).
And what is the relationship between the covenant promises and the Messiah? The apostle continues:
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ (Gal. 3:16).
Modern Israelis have a law whose demands they cannot righteously meet, a land whose promise they cannot rightfully claim, and a Lord whose claim upon them they do not recognize. Jeremiah asked the question: “Who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee?” (Jer. 15:5). The Lord Jesus did—
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! (Lk. 13:34).
When you pray for the peace of Jerusalem (and we should, see Psalm 122:6) you are really praying for the return of the Prince of Peace. The City of Peace will find its shalom in no other way. Come, Messiah!