On Wednesday (12/6/17), President Trump announced a dramatic change in Middle East policy by declaring the United States would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Most Israelis were thrilled. The government of Israel declared Jerusalem to be its eternal capital in 1980. What is important to note about this declaration is that it is an expression of Jewish nationalism. The claim has little support in Jewish history or from Jewish scriptures.

Many Jews believe God gave them the city of Jerusalem. They cite passages from their scriptures to support this claim. One key passage comes from the well-known story of Jacob’s dream. Jacob and his followers were camping on land that would eventually become Jerusalem.

He had a dream: a ladder was there, standing in the ground with
its top reaching to heaven; and there were angels of God going on
it and coming down. And Yahweh was there, standing over him,
saying, I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father and the
God of Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land on
which you are lying.
Genesis 28: 12-14

In evaluating this scriptural claim, it is important to ask whether the God you believe in would become a partner in a real estate transaction. Would your God aid and abet a group of people bent on stealing land from others? What about the ladder to heaven? That must have been something!

God also spoke through the classical prophets on this matter. In 586 BCE Babylonia invaded Israel which ended in the capture of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish elite to Babylon. In chapters 54 and 55 of Isaiah, the prophet promises that Israel will return from her exile in Babylon. That does happen. God also promises, speaking through the prophet, that Jerusalem will become a city of righteousness and absolutely secure. In addition, the promise made to David that his heirs will rule in Jerusalem forever will be fulfilled.

God, this time speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, makes the same promises. In chapter 3: 14-18, Jeremiah predicts Jerusalem will again become the capital of a united Israel with all nations gathering there in Yahweh’s name. The prophet also promises that the “Branch of David” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6) will again rule in Jerusalem as true king.

It took God more than 2,500 years to work out this prophetic vision with only limited success. God made promises that really weren’t kept. As these examples suggest, the biblical claims for Jerusalem being the eternal capital of Israel are not very convincing.

The long history concerning the struggle for control of Jerusalem is an interesting one. Prior to David invading and conquering the city around 1,000 BCE, Jerusalem was settled by a wide array of peoples. David ruled a united Israel from Jerusalem until 970 BCE. His son Solomon succeeded him, and ruled to 930 BCE. Following Solomon’s death, Israel split into a Southern and a Northern kingdom. Jerusalem remained the capital of the Southern Kingdom while Shechem became the capital for the North.

The city fell out of Jewish control completely in 586 BCE following the Babylonian invasion. With the brief exception of the Hasmonean dynasty which ruled from 140 to 63 BCE, Jerusalem remained outside of Jewish control for 2,500 years. The Jews regained sovereignty over West Jerusalem at the end of the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. They gained full control of the city following the Six-Day War in 1967, which enabled the government to declare Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel thirteen years later.

The classical prophets had deep experiences of God’s goodness and love. From these experiences they made predictions about the future which were mostly in error. In the case of Jerusalem, the messages they conveyed from God couldn’t have been more wrong. Their encounters with God, however, also led to teachings about economic and social justice and world peace. These teachings have inspired me since I first read them in college more than fifty years ago.

The same point can be made about Jesus. Jesus was infused with a sense of God’s goodness and love. He also believed God’s kingdom was coming within the generation of his followers. As is well known Jesus had a passionate concern for economic and social justice. Because he believed that the kingdom of God was imminent, he urged his followers to give all their wealth to the poor and follow him. I am profoundly inspired by Jesus’s teachings on economic and social justice, and I try to be generous in my support of the poor; but I have kept a good deal of my money in reserve in the hope of a long retirement.

Sadly the Christian Bible does not provide an accurate blueprint for political theology. The authors of the Bible were human beings with very different values and political experiences from our own. The problem in attempting to use the Bible in this way is that a policy position acquires a legitimacy it does not deserve which makes compromise far more difficult to achieve. In the case of the Middle East peace process, Jews who believe that God gave them Jerusalem to be their eternal capital are reluctant to even consider placing the issue of Jerusalem’s final status on the negotiating table.

God works in the world by infusing human life with a vision of goodness and love. The classical prophets and Jesus are examples of human beings who lived their lives and acted politically in response to their internalizing this vision. Their passionate commitment to God’s vision and their courage in living the vision, which often put them at odds with their fellow citizens, continue to inspire us. As a source of inspiration, the Christian Bible can play an important role in making the world a better place. As a blueprint for action, it is at best irrelevant and at worse an impediment to achieving positive political change.