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Saturday, October 4, 2025

ISRAEL: The Irony of Claiming the Biblical Promise While Practicing Modern Statehood


 


What is a State?

Before we speak of irony, we need clarity. Many people — unless they have studied politics — may not know that the idea of the “modern state” is fairly new in human history.

For most of human history, societies were organized through tribes, clans, kingdoms, empires, and religious communities. Borders were fluid, loyalties shifted, and people identified themselves by kinship, faith, or language — not by the rigid notion of a state.

This changed in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which gave birth to the modern state system. A state became defined by fixed territorial borders, centralized authority in the form of a government and bureaucracy, sovereignty free from outside interference in internal affairs, and international recognition by other states.

When the State of Israel was declared in 1948, it was created as such a modern, Westphalian state. It functions like any other: it has borders (though disputed), a parliament, a prime minister, armies, passports, and treaties. This is important to stress because the Bible never spoke of a “state” in the modern sense. It spoke of a people, a covenant, a law, and a land.

The Bible vs. The Modern State of Israel

If we take the argument of those who say the Bible promises the Jews a homeland, we must also look honestly at what that biblical vision entailed.

In the biblical model, Israel was a theocracy. God was King and the Torah served as the constitution. Leaders were prophets, judges, and later kings — but all were under divine authority, not popular elections. The laws were covenantal, mixing ritual, moral, civil, and economic commands into a single, indivisible framework. Punishments were harsh and uncompromising: stoning for adultery or Sabbath-breaking, restitution for theft, even exile for disobedience. Most importantly, the land itself was conditional on obedience; the people were to remain only if they kept the covenant, but if they broke it, they were to be exiled, as laid out in Deuteronomy 28–30.

In contrast, the modern State of Israel functions as a democracy. Authority comes from elections, not from divine mandate. Its laws are drawn largely from English Common Law and modern civil codes, not from the Torah. Punishments are modern too: prison, fines, and rehabilitation, rather than stoning or servitude. Land and sovereignty today are grounded not in covenant but in UN resolutions, wars, and diplomacy.

From my point of view, the biblical promise is not a land title deed in the modern sense. It is a symbolic, conditional covenant tied to obedience and justice. But here, I am taking their point of view for the sake of consistency.

The Irony

Here lies the irony: you cannot take the land as a biblical promise and reject the law that comes with it. You cannot take the cake and eat it too.

Take, for example, the case of stealing. Under the Torah, a thief was required to repay double, or more, and if unable to pay, could be sold into servitude to make restitution. In modern Israel, the punishment is imprisonment, usually up to three years.

Similarly, in the case of adultery, the Torah prescribes that both guilty parties be stoned to death, whereas in Israel today adultery is not even a criminal offense — it is only a civil matter considered during divorce.

Sabbath-breaking or idolatry in the Torah carried the death penalty, yet in Israel today freedom of religion is constitutionally protected, and secular lifestyles flourish.

Finally, the Torah explicitly commands, “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34), but in practice, Palestinians and other minorities often face exclusion and restrictions.

The irony is stark. The biblical covenant is a full package: land, law, justice, punishment, and ethics. To claim only the land while ignoring the law is selective, inconsistent, and, frankly, dishonest.

Consistency and Honesty

If you wish to follow man’s law — English Common Law, international law, and the Westphalian model of states — then be consistent. Respect UN resolutions and the international agreements that gave Israel legitimacy in 1948.

If you wish to follow God’s law — the Torah and the covenant — then do not pick and choose. Be prepared to also embrace the biblical punishments, the Jubilee year debt cancellations, and the full theocratic structure. One cannot take the biblical promise of land while rejecting the biblical framework of law and justice. To do so is to claim divine authority for power while ignoring divine responsibility for justice.

A Call for Integrity

This is not written to insult or to mock, but to appeal to integrity and consistency.

The modern State of Israel cannot have it both ways. It must be honest. Either it stands as a modern Westphalian state, accountable to man’s law and the international community. Or it embraces the biblical theocracy, with all its laws and punishments. To cherry-pick the land promise while ignoring the law is the deepest irony of all.

And the Torah itself warns against such double standards:

“Do not have two differing weights in your bag — one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house — one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures… For the Lord your God detests anyone who deals dishonestly.” (Deuteronomy 25:13–16)

“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey My laws and be careful to follow My decrees. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 18:3–4)

Peace.
Anas Zubedy
Penang

 

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