Cruz: “Biblically, We’re Commanded to Support Israel”

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz claimed that, “Biblically, we’re commanded to support Israel.” He pointed to the promise God made to Abraham in the book of Genesis, where God vowed to give Abraham’s seed (child) a place, a people, and a blessing.

Cruz referenced Genesis 12, in particular, where God declared, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This, Cruz suggests, is a divine mandate that currently extends to the support of the modern state of Israel. 

However, while this passage is indeed significant, Cruz’s interpretation overlooks much of what the New Testament has to say about it. Specifically, the Apostle Paul, who notes that the “seed” to whom these promises were made is not a collective group of Abraham’s descendants, but a singular individual—namely, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

In Galatians 3:16, Paul writes, “The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ referring to many, but referring to one, who is Christ.” This claim by Paul underscores a crucial theological truth that is echoed throughout the New Testament: the promises God made to Abraham find their fulfilment in Christ alone, not in mere physical lineage or national entity, including the modern state of Israel.

By making this distinction, Paul ensures that the promises are not conflated with mere ethnic descent. The promise is tied to faith in Christ, the true seed of Abraham. Therefore, to claim that the blessings of Abraham automatically extend to modern Israel or to any descendant of Abraham without recognising Christ as the fulfilment of those promises would be inconsistent with the apostolic teaching.

This does not mean that Israel was irrelevant in God’s plan. Prior to the coming of Christ, the nation of Israel, as the children of Abraham, were indeed the recipients of God’s promises, but these promises were conditional upon their faith in God’s coming Messiah. They were to look forward in faith, just as we look back in faith today. The land, blessing, and inheritance were given to Israel in anticipation of the coming Messiah, the seed of Abraham, whom they were called to recognise and embrace.

However, when Israel turned away from faith in God’s Messiah, the promises were effectively forfeited, and the nation faced consequences, including exile and the loss of the land (cf. Deut. 28:15; Lev. 26:14, 31-33). This principle was articulated by Paul in Romans 9:6-8, where he states, “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring… It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

Thus, it was never physical descent alone that secured the promises, but faith in God’s promise of the Messiah. This point was especially emphasised by Jesus, who confronted the error of those who claimed Abraham as their father, but rejected Jesus as Abraham’s promised seed.

In John 8:39-40, a group of Jews claimed their Abrahamic heritage, saying, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus, however, rejected this notion, responding, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did… but you seek to kill me…” Jesus made it clear that merely being Abraham’s physical descendants did not grant them the inheritance of the promises. To be truly considered a child of Abraham—and thus an heir to the promises—one had to believe in the same way Abraham did, which for them, and us today, means placing our faith in Jesus as Abraham’s promised seed.

Jesus proclaimed that faith, not bloodline, was the true marker of being a child of Abraham. Hence, when the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus, they disqualified themselves from the promise that God made to Abraham’s seed. In A.D. 70, approximately 30 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, General Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasian, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, as Jesus prophesied.

In Matthew 21:33-46, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, where the vineyard owner (God) sends his servants (the prophets) and then his son (Jesus) to collect the fruit of the vineyard (faith and obedience). The tenants (the Pharisees and Jewish leaders) reject and kill the servants and then plot and kill the owner’s son. Jesus explains that the Kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a people who would produce its fruits.

This parable illustrates that the promises of God are not inherited through bloodline, but through faith in God and the acceptance of God’s Son. The Pharisees and religious leaders were blinded by their ethnic pride, believing they had a right to the promises simply because they were descendants of Abraham. As the events of A.D. 70 would prove, they were deadly wrong.

The promises of Abraham—people, place, and blessing—are ultimately realised in Christ alone. It is through the blood of Jesus, not any human effort or ethnic claim, that the blessings are secured, not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles (Nations). As Paul writes in Galatians 3:14, “In Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Let’s not miss that: the blessing of Abraham is intended to extend “to the Gentiles”—even those who are not descended from Abraham. It’s for this reason that Paul can say to the Celts in Galatia that “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s children, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29).

The Gospel, which is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, is the means through which the blessing of Abraham is extended to all nations. That is the meaning of the “blessing” that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12. As Paul explains, “Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gal. 3:8). That promised blessing, Paul says, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is now preached to Jew and Gentile alike.

As Peter explains to the Jews in Acts 3:25-26, “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Thus, the blessing in Genesis 12 is all about Jesus, Abraham’s promised seed, and how he would secure a people, a place, and a blessing. This blessing is the Gospel itself—the good news of forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life available through Jesus, the true Seed of Abraham.

Ted Cruz’s interpretation of Genesis 12 unfortunately overlooks the fulfilment of the Abrahamic promise in Christ. The Bible teaches that all of the promises find their fulfilment in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). He alone has fulfilled all of the requirements and promises of the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17; Lk. 24:44). Therefore, all of the promises belong to Christ. Not only because they were given to him specifically (Gal. 3:16), but because he alone has rightfully secured them. There is no promise anyone can claim by circumventing Christ. This is good news: the Gospel is the promised blessing, and it is through faith in Jesus Christ—not through ethnic identity or geopolitical status—that both Jews and Gentiles become heirs to the promises of God.

While it is certainly important to acknowledge the historical and theological significance of Israel, it is also crucial to remember that the blessings promised to Abraham’s seed are accessible only through faith in Christ. This is the message of both the Old and New Testament: the blessing of Abraham, that he would be the heir of the world (Rom. 4:13), is obtained, not through bloodline, but through the blood of Christ alone.