“Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. – Isaiah 60:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 3, 2017): Isaiah 60

Does Israel matter? I just finished reading a military thriller about a secret American Military Intelligence force trying to chase after the tomb of Solomon. But there was one moment, just as all of the action was beginning, that grabbed hold of my imagination. The concept that the author was trying to sell was that finding the Tomb of Solomon, and maybe the Temple furnishings of the Second Temple, would cause great concern in Israel. After all, it would confirm the Jewish right to inhabit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which is currently under Muslim control. The key to the struggle that was featured in the book was that the Muslims would want to find the treasure so that they could hide it, or destroy it, thus keeping Temple Mount under their control.

To be honest, the idea was foreign to me. First, I am pretty sure that the treasure of the Temple is long gone. No one is going to stumble upon it anytime soon. But more than that, I always assumed that the struggle over Temple Mount was not because the children of Islam did not believe that the Jews have a right to Temple Mount, after all, we are in possession of the Wailing Wall, which we believe with almost certainty to be the Western Wall of Herod’s Temple. The problem is that both Islam and Judaism feel that they have a right – maybe an equal right although neither side is going to admit that – to occupy Temple Mount, and Islam is in possession of the Holy Site and do not want to give it up. Islam has built some of their holiest buildings on the top of the same mountain where Herod’s Temple stood until the Romans pulled it down.

And the Christians? We smile a lot. I have commented that I am not convinced that God ever wanted a Temple built to serve his name. He was all right in a tent (and I am not sure why a tabernacle like tent has not been built and placed in Israel to serve the God of Creation as outlined in the Torah). God told David that a son of David would build the temple, and there the wires got crossed. David thought that God meant Solomon. I am pretty sure God meant Jesus. There is no question that God accepted and blessed Solomon’s Temple, but that was after it was built. God had never asked for it to be built. And so while our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters fight over Temple Mount, As Christians, we believe that we are in possession of the Temple - Jesus.

So back to our original question – does Israel matter? And the answer is yes. As Christians, we are placeholders, protectors of what I believe is the true Jewish faith. We have built the walls for Israel. Foreign Kings and Queens have served the God of Israel. And one day, Israel will wake up and join us in worshipping their God, and their Messiah, and the true Temple intended by God when he spoke through the priest Nathan to King David. Together we will worship Jesus.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 61