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Our First Testament readings today (2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89) speak of the chosenness of King David and by extension of the Jewish people, the people of Israel. God affirms that he gives a place of safety to the people of Israel and that David’s throne and kingdom are forever.

Two days ago (19 July 2024), the UN’s International Court of Justice, declared Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip as illegal and called on Israel it withdraw its occupation and all settlers living there and to pay reparations for the harm done to Palestinian people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded: “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria. No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”

Netanyahu’s response harks back to these First Testament promises, though neglects several other important First Testament principles. First, a crucial First Testament theology and principle is hospitality. God is hospitable – inviting humanity to share in God’s work in the world and coming to meet with God’s people and journey with them. God expects Israel to be hospitable to other peoples. Deuteronomy is explicit that foreigners should be treated as if they were Israel’s own. There should be no discrimination.

Second, God uses other nations to discipline Israel through the First Testament. The people Israel turn away from God towards other gods; God sends enemy forces to disrupt Israel; Israel repents and turns back to God; peace between God and Israel is restored. This is a pattern repeated over and over in the historical books of the First Testament.

If Israel’s First Testament status as ‘chosen’ is still valid, surely all the other aspects of its relationship with God should be valid also.

Of course, there are many different views on Israel and Palestine. The situation is complex and feelings are hot!

And then, as we move into the Second Testament, there is a shift again. There is Jesus’ radical inclusivity, which I’ve spoken about frequently. Paul, in Ephesians 2, writes about the exclusion from Gentiles from Israel, but how Christ has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, and made us one person, through Christ’s body on the cross. There is now peace for us all. And in Galatians 3, Paul says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. For we are all one in Christ Jesus. God’s desire is for a united humanity, centred on Christ.

But the world is a messed-up place. Such conflicts all over – not just in the Middle East, but between Democrats and Republicans in the USA, ethnic groups in many countries in Africa, Muslims and Hindus in India, Europeans and refugees in Europe, and the list goes on. We are a fractured race, seriously out of step with God’s desire for humanity.

We can probably do little to nothing to solve the challenges in the Middle East and elsewhere, but there are some things we can do to contribute to a shift in the world. First, we can ensure that we are inclusive and diverse, that we treat every person as God’s creation, much loved and blessed, and ensure that racism, sexism and other -isms are wiped out of our interactions. Second, we can pray, and pray some more, because prayers for unity and harmony and mutual respect and love are fully aligned with God’s vision for humanity and so this surely must be a prayer that God will answer.

King David Playing the Harp (1622) by Gerard van Honthorst