In Galatians, Paul spends a lot of time explaining
specifically how that promise to Abraham was fulfilled in the Church, not in
the physical descendants of those of the ethnic nation.
Paul says, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and
to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather
to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ." (Gal. 3:16)
Here, Paul is specifically referring to the OT promise
made to Abraham in Genesis 12:7 - "And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and
said, Unto thy seed will I give this land."
Then Paul concludes chapter 3 of Galatians by saying this:
"And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's
offspring, heirs according to promise." (Gal. 3:28)
So, clearly, Paul makes the case that this promise made
to Abraham was made to Jesus, not to every single Jewish person alive.
Therefore, only those who are "in Christ" are the "offspring of
Abraham and heirs according to the promise."
Secondly, the specific promise is also from
Genesis 12, and in the same way, Paul's teaching clarifies to whom this promise
is valid. It is not valid for those Jews who claim Abraham as their Father but
do not do the works of Abraham (have faith in God and obey).
The nation of Israel was judged for rejecting Christ.
Just as Christ prophesied it would be in the Olivet Discourse (see Mark 13,
Matthew 24, Luke 21).
For thousands of years God continued to give the Jews
opportunities to keep the conditional Covenant he made with them. Their final
opportunity came when He sent His son and as Jesus warned them, their
punishment for killing the Son would be that God would take the Kingdom from
them and give it to others. (See Mt. 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-19)
When Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, that was the final
straw for every Jew who rejected God and His Messiah. This was also in
fulfillment of the 70 Weeks prophecy in Daniel. Jesus, the Prince, was cut off
in the middle of the week (His ministry was 3 and a half years long) and when
Christ was crucified "he put an end to the daily sacrifice".
When the city of Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, this
was the end of their Temple, their Priesthood and their Daily Sacrifice. All 3
of these are now realized in the Church of Jesus. (We are the living Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Priesthood of Believers and the daily living sacrifice to God).
The secular Jewish nation that we have now in the Middle
East is a godless one. They are not religious Jews. There is no difference
between a secular Jewish nation that persecutes Christians in Palestine and
rejects Jesus as Messiah and the Pharisees of Jesus' day who rejected Christ
and persecuted Christians in Palestine. No difference.
So, as far as I can see, there is no reason to
"Bless Israel" unless you're understanding that "Israel" is
actually everyone who is found in Christ, because the Christian community is
now the "true circumcision" (Phil. 3:3)
As Paul clearly teaches:
"For they are not all Israel who are descended from
Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but:
“through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children
of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are
regarded as descendants." (Romans 9:6-7)
And:
"Know then that it is those of faith who are the
sons of Abraham." (Gal. 3:7)
And:
"...the mystery of Christ, which in other
generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed
to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the
Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers
of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." (Eph. 3:4-6)
So, there's one Body - the Church - which is made up of
"all the nations of the earth" who are blessed by the Seed of Abraham
(that is Christ) by faith in Him alone.
If you're curious, the teaching that we should bless
Israel, etc. is relatively new and came through a guy named John Nelson Darby
in 1830. When he introduced his teachings (which became Dispensationalism) he
admitted that this was "new revelation" and that the Church did not
ever believe or teach these things (which is confirmed by reading Church
History).
So, you are free, of course, to continue to believe that God still has a special plan for the ethnic Jews of the Earth that currently reject Christ, but I believe the NT is clear that the only hope for the Jews (and the rest of the planet) is to receive Jesus as Messiah and follow Him. God does not have any other special plan for the Jewish people apart from His Son.
