God’s everlasting covenant with Israel will be fully realized when Jesus returns to deliver and restore the faithful remnant of God's elect nation. At God’s appointed time, the nation will be gathered and restored to her land to rest in perfect peace under the reign of God’s anointed King of righteousness. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. Through Christ, all of God’s promises to the nation will be fulfilled.

One of God's covenant promises to Abraham was that through one of His descendants, blessing would come to families of every nation (Gen 12:3). In 4 BC, the promised Seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David was born. The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son, came into the world in the flesh to take away the sins of the world and to provide redemption to all who believe in Him for salvation.

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came in the flesh to provide the perfect sacrifice that would remove the sins of God’s people. Jesus willingly laid down His own life on the cross, bearing the sin of the world in order that we might become the righteousness of God. When a sinner turns to Christ believing that He is the Son of God whose death on the cross, burial and resurrection from the dead provides the only way of salvation, the sinner is forgiven by God’s grace and receives the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

To the praise of God’s glorious grace, He reconciles sinners to Himself through faith alone in the Person and work of His Eternal Son, Jesus Christ. By the power of Christ’s blood, the sin of the redeemed is removed completely and eternally. On the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness, God justifies sinners, declaring them to be in right standing before His holy throne. Justified by God’s grace through faith in the Gospel, sanctified by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and imputed with His perfect righteousness by faith, sinners are reborn by the Spirit of God and given new life.

Jesus is the prophesied Messiah who will also redeem and restore the elect of Israel. During this age of the Gentiles, the majority of Israel remains hardened in unbelief. But when Jesus returns at the end of this age, He will regather the faithful remnant of Israel. All who repent and believe in Jesus as God’s Son, anointed Messiah and Lord, will be restored in the land promised to Abraham and his seed.

Satan waged war against Jesus when He came in the flesh to redeem sinners and destroy the work of the devil. Satan worked evil through Herod when he ordered all the infant boys in Bethlehem to be killed in an attempt to kill the Savior and Lord of God’s people. However, God’s sovereign power and purposes cannot be thwarted. Jesus triumphed over sin through His death on the cross, and He conquered the grave when He was resurrected from the dead. All who believe in Jesus are saved and become God's children of light.

Satan lost the battle against Jesus, but he continues to wage war against God’s covenant nation. Presently, many Jews are gathering in Israel according to God’s promises to the covenant nation. Satan has stirred anti-Semitism in the world since the ascension of Christ. The prejudice against the Jewish people continues, but God’s covenant promises to the nation remain forever. At God’s appointed time, the elect remnant of Israel will turn to Jesus for salvation, and He will deliver, save, restore and glorify the elect nation of God.

God’s covenant promises to Abraham and his seed are recorded: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:1-3).

Abraham believed and journeyed to the land of Canaan. In this foreign land, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great" (Gen 15:1). God promised Abraham that his son would be his heir.

Because Abraham was old and childless, he struggled to understand how God could create from his seed a great nation. The Lord God took Abraham outside and said, "'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be" (Gen 15:5). Abraham believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6).

On the day that the Lord ratified his covenant with Abraham, He also promised, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates" (Gen 15:18). The land was included in God's covenant with Abraham and his seed.

The Lord opened Sarah's barren womb, and she gave birth to Isaac, who became Abraham's heir of the covenant promises. Through Isaac, the covenant promises were conveyed to Jacob, who became the father of twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Israel has been the source of blessing to families from every nation, just as God promised. From the seed of David of the tribe of Judah, the Messiah was born in the flesh, just as it was prophesied through Jacob to his son, Judah, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gen 49:10).

God later made an eternal covenant with King David, Israel’s first monarch from the tribe of Judah. The Davidic Covenant further clarified the eternal throne of the Messiah, the King of Israel:
“Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:8-16).

When the eternal Son of God became the Son of Man, He descended in the flesh from the seed of David to establish God’s kingdom. The throne of Jesus Christ has been established forever. Jesus, God's anointed King of Israel, came in the flesh, and will return as the Lion of Judah to deliver the covenant nation from her enemies. All nations will bow before His throne, and He will rule over God’s kingdom on earth with a rod of iron, securing God’s people through His reign of perfect wisdom, righteousness, peace, and justice.

The Church is the living body of Christ, called to serve as Christ’s ambassadors in the world. Through Christ, we have direct access to the throne of God Almighty. In light of God’s heart for Israel, the apple of His eye, Christians should pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for her heart to respond in faith to the Gospel. Glorify and honor God by blessing Israel through your prayers. Pray that her eyes will be opened and her mind enlightened to the truth of Jesus Christ, and that through Christ, God will gather His beloved under the shadow of His wing to rejoice and sing His praise once again.