Robert Rothwell – original source: https://www.ligonier.org/blog/it-true-god-blesses-those-who-bless-israel-and-curses-those-who-curse-israel/

One of the first promises in the Bible is given to Abram, whom God appointed to be a blessing to the whole earth. Not only did God tell this patriarch that he would receive a good land and have many children, but He also promised Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (Gen. 12:1–3). That’s an incredible promise, isn’t it? God will favor those who favor Abram and set Himself against those who oppose Abram.

Like me, you probably want God’s blessing and favor on your life. This verse gives us the secret to obtaining that blessing. We just need to bless Abram. Abram, later renamed Abraham, died some four thousand years ago. So, one might think that it is no longer possible to bless him. That is not the case. The promise to Abraham was passed down through his son Isaac to his grandson Jacob (Gen. 27:1–29). Jacob, of course, was renamed Israel, his sons being the founding fathers of the tribes of Israel. So, the promise of Abraham passed on to Israel as well (Num. 24:1–9).

So, God is going to bless those who bless Abraham, which means He is going to bless those who bless Israel. And this promise was never withdrawn. It must come to pass, which means it is still in force today. But does the Israel of God exist today?

From a biblical perspective, the Israel of God does still exist. But here is where things get perhaps a little tricky, for in today’s world there is a nation-state named Israel that is occupying much of the geography that the Old Testament refers to as the promised land. So, this must mean that if we want God’s blessing, we have to do good to the modern nation of Israel by supporting everything that nation does, right?

Not exactly. You see, the Bible is also clear that the Israel of God is not any modern nation-state and that it is not made up of one people group. The Israel of God is Jesus Christ and all those who are united to Him by faith alone. Referring to the young Jesus’ return to the promised land after the death of Herod the Great, Matthew quotes the prophet Hosea, who said “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matt. 2:15). This quote comes from Hosea 11:1, where Hosea is referring to the nation of Israel. Essentially, Matthew is saying that the true son of God named Israel is none other than Jesus the Messiah. Similarly, in John 15:1, Jesus says, “I am the true vine.” Every Jew who heard Him would have remembered the many places in the Old Testament where Israel is referred to as God’s vine or God’s vineyard (e.g., Isa. 5:1–7; Jer. 6:9; Hos. 10:1). Jesus’ point is clear: because He is the true vine, He is the true Israel of God.

But the Israel of God is not Jesus alone. It’s also all those who trust in Him alone for salvation. Turning to Romans 11, we find the Apostle Paul explaining why so many Jews—Israel according to the flesh—do not believe Jesus is the Messiah while so many gentiles do. Paul likens Israel, the people of God, to an olive tree and notes that those who are part of the tree by birth—the natural branches, the Jews—can be broken off by their unbelief in Christ, and those who were not part of the tree by birth—wild branches of a different tree, the gentiles—can be grafted in to the olive tree of Israel and become part of that tree. Faith in Christ, then, is what makes a person a member of the Israel of God, not mere ethnic descent. Paul confirms this elsewhere in Galatians 6:16, where he calls the Galatian church—made up predominantly of gentiles who believed in Jesus—as “the Israel of God.” The true Israel of God, then, consists of Christ and all the Jews and gentiles who believe in Him.

Blessing the Israel of God, therefore, does not mean supporting every policy of the modern nation-state of Israel. There may be good political reasons to support many of the modern nation-state’s policies, but Genesis 12:3 does not provide a theological reason to do so. And of course, Christians are called to do good to all people and to take the gospel to both Jews and gentiles (Rom. 1:16; Gal. 6:10). But blessing the Israel of God means, in this new covenant era, blessing the church of Christ—supporting its work, doing good to its people, striving for its peace and purity, and so forth. God will bless those who bless His people, the church.

Jr:

Is It True That God Blesses Those Who Bless Israel and Curses Those Who Curse Israel? (original source here)

It must be true, because this is what God says, isn’t it? Well, actually God says this, “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

When God makes a promise we can know that it is certain, and that He will not change. The problem is, however, when we hear Him saying what He did not say. This text does say that God will bless those who bless Israel, but rather those who bless Abraham, to whom God is speaking. Later, however, in Numbers 24, it gets a little more clear. There Balaam, clearly speaking about the nation of Israel says, “Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you.”

That should settle the matter, should it not? The difficulty is still, however, answering about whom this promise is made. Does not Paul himself say, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Romans 9:6). Here it is all too easy to get confused. What could it mean that not all Israel is of Israel?

If there are some who are Israel that are called Israel, and some that are not Israel that are called Israel, which of these are the ones that fit the promise? My dispensational friends suggest that the Israel to whom this promise is made matches up with the nation of Israel founded in 1948 in the Middle East. They hear in this promise that those who bless that nation of Israel will be blessed and those who curse that same nation will be cursed. This, in part, informs the politics of American foreign policy. As long as America sees this Israel as a friend, the reasoning seems to go, God will bless America. When America turns its back on that nation, God will curse this nation.

The Reformed perspective takes a different tack. It affirms that that Israel which is actually Israel, just as with the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, applies to those who are in Christ, who trust in His finished work. Though we deny the moniker, this is what our dispensational friends call “replacement theology.” The Reformed, however, see this is as the outworking of the truth of Galatians 3:7- “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” We who are Reformed do not believe God replaced Israel with the church. We believe instead that there has always been only one people of God, those who believe.

Israel is the sons of Abraham. Those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Those who are of faith are therefore Israel. And in turn, those who bless those who are of faith will be blessed, and those who curse those who are of faith will be cursed. It is how we treat the church that matters. What of ethnic Israel? What of that country in the Middle East? Many in the Reformed camp hold out hope that there will be one day a mass conversion of those who are not today the sons of Abraham, that virtually all of Israel will once again become Israel. That said, many of these likewise hold out hope that there will be a mass conversion of Arabs, and Persians, of every tongue and every tribe. All of the promises of God belong to the children of Abraham, those who are of faith, including the promise that through Abraham, all the world will be blessed.