Don't Just Love Israel, Love the Jewish People

169 Views 2 min Sep 25, 2024

Millions of Christians have traveled to Israel, frequently falling in love with the land of the Bible, but rarely, if ever, befriending any Jewish residents. Sarah Hermeling, Gateway Center for Israel Associate Pastor of Jewish Relations, describes why God desires Christians to form relationships with the Jewish people -- whether in Israel or in our hometowns.

Video Transcript

Many Christians around the world travel to Israel and fall in love with the land of the Bible. There’s nothing like experiencing the places we read in scripture. The problem is, many Christians leave Israel with a deep love in their heart for their land, but not for Jewish people. It’s understandable, given that many trips to Israel focus on the land and seldom on relationships. It’s easy to love the idea of someone, but it’s harder to have a deep love in your heart for someone that you haven’t built a relationship or don’t know. At the Center For Israel, we always try and remember that people are God’s most prized possession. When we place a love for people over a love for a place, we’re cultivating an area of life where both the land of Israel and the people of Israel are essential to us. Many of us value land over people because we don’t know many Jewish people, or maybe we choose not to invest in those relationships, whether it’s in Israel or in our own backyard.

So I encourage you to build a relationship with Jewish people. Look for ways to serve them and ways to bless them, not because they are more special to God, but because they’re uniquely special to God. God calls the Jewish people his special treasure, his portion, his firstborn, and the apple of his eye. I’ll finish with a story from one of our friends who pastors a church in the United States. After hearing us talk about God’s heart for Israel and the Jewish people, he thought, that’s great, but there are no Jewish people where I live. So one of our pastors said to him, why don’t you pray and ask God, if you want me to begin loving Israel and the Jewish people send a Jewish person into my life? He said, he’s never seen God answer a prayer so fast. Two days later, there was a knock on his door and his neighbor, who he had known for years, started having a conversation with him. During their conversation, she mentioned she was Jewish. So I encourage you today to pray for Israel, pray for the Jewish people. Pray that God would bring Jewish people into your life, or reveal Jewish people that are currently in your life, and pray for ways that you can bless them, serve them and love them.