Have you ever run into someone who wonders if God’s heart for Israel and the Jewish people has changed now that Jesus came and the New Testament is in place? Or someone who believes God has set aside His plans for Israel because, for the most part, the Jewish people have rejected His promised Messiah Jesus? Or maybe you’ve been unsure how the Old and New Testaments fit together regarding God’s love for Israel.
If so, this collection of Bible verses is for you. It outlines Israel’s place in God’s heart, providing biblical evidence of His abiding love for and commitment to the Jewish people. And amid the verses, we confront the ultimate question lurking beneath all others on the matter. Let’s dive in.
God’s Love for Israel
God chose Israel on whom to set His affection.
“Yet the Lord set His affection on your ancestors and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today” (Deuteronomy 10:15).
Israel is God’s treasured possession.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Israel is precious to God.
“But now, this is what the Lord says—He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine…. Since you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you….’” (Isaiah 43:1, 4a).
“For this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘…for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye’” (Zechariah 2:8).
God’s love for Israel is unfailing.
“‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10).
“Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption” (Psalm 130:7).
God’s love for Israel is everlasting.
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness’” (Jeremiah 31:3).
God’s love for Israel shows through His favor toward those who love her.
“‘I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you’” (Genesis 12:3).
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure’” (Psalm 122:6).
Has God stopped loving Israel because of her unfaithfulness? No!
As the apostle Paul wrote, may it never be! How can God not love Israel? He IS love. He continues to love all humanity despite our unfaithfulness.
God is love.
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
Love never quits.
“Love never fails…” (1 Corinthians 13:8a).
God is faithful.
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
God will never forget or forsake Israel.
“For the Lord will not reject His people; He will never forsake His inheritance” (Psalm 94:14).
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me” (Isaiah 49:15–16).
Has God rejected Israel because many Jewish people rejected His Sent One, Messiah Jesus? No!
God still longs for Israel to come to Him.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
God has not rejected Israel.
“I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom He foreknew….” (Romans 11:1–2a).
Israel has not stumbled beyond God’s ability to redeem.
“Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!” (Romans 11:11-12).
The question that must be asked
The subject of God’s faithfulness to Israel and His ongoing love for her affects every Believer in Jesus – Jewish or Gentile. The matter sifts down to one audacious question: Is God faithful and trustworthy or not?
Either God is faithful to keep all His covenants, or He can’t be trusted to keep any of them. If God has ceased to love Israel and has broken His covenant with the people He chose for His own, how can we trust His love for those who Believe in Jesus the Messiah? If He changed His mind regarding Israel, how can we trust that He won’t change His mind regarding Believers today?
Thankfully, Scripture answers that bottom-line question with an emphatic “Yes!” The Bible reveals the Lord is eternally faithful and unfailingly loving. He is a promise-fulfilling, covenant-keeping God. Take a look at the verses below, offering this assurance.
God is trustworthy and unchanging
God is trustworthy.
“Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all He promises and faithful in all He does” (Psalm 145:13).
God does not lie or change.
“God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change his mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19).
God’s faithfulness is forever.
“For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever” (Psalm 117:2).
God’s love is forever.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).
“I will declare that Your love stands firm forever, that You have established Your faithfulness in heaven itself” (Psalm 89:2).
God keeps His covenants.
“Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth below—You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way” (1 Kings 8:23).
“He remembers His covenant forever, the promise He made, for a thousand generations” (Psalm 105:8).
Israel will always be a nation before Him.
“This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is His name: ‘Only if these decrees vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will Israel ever cease being a nation before Me’” (Jeremiah 31:35–36).
How can we know Israel is still God’s Chosen People?
Here’s one more important proof that God has not rejected Israel, has not reneged on His promises and covenants and has not stopped loving the Jewish people.
God’s callings are irrevocable.
“For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).
Scripture after Scripture, we see that God’s heart for Israel and the Jewish people has not changed and will never change. We can trust God. He is faithful and He keeps His promises.
