The Tucker-Huckabee clash missed the real crisis

The aftermath of the viral Tucker Carlson-Mike Huckabee interview has, for me, included the privilege of private conversations with both men, as well as an on-air discussion with Huckabee on my show.

I want to give both men every benefit of the doubt, because I have genuine affection for each of them and respect the lifetime of contributions both have made to the cause. But whether their nearly two-and-a-half-hour clash clarified anything or merely deepened the confusion likely depends on the eye of the beholder.

God initiates covenants. We break them. Then we depend on God’s mercy to bail us out.

Still, let me offer a spiritual clarification as Christians think through the issues now in front of us. My fear is that in arguing over modern Israel, we will become so determined to win secondary battles that we lose sight of the primary truths that govern all of us.

The stakes are not small. If believers drift too far off course, the consequences are damning in the most literal sense.

So we should begin here: You cannot determine whether the current state of Israel is a reconstitution of covenant Israel merely by examining the nation’s behavior. If you have read the Old Testament and tried to compile a list of Israel’s greatest hits in covenant faithfulness, you will not end up with anything resembling a list of bangers like most of Led Zeppelin’s catalog.

From the beginning, the pattern ran the other way. Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the first words God ever wrote by hand and came down to find the chosen people in the middle of a pagan orgy. After that came the familiar cycle: disobedience, judgment, repentance, deliverance, and then disobedience again — with slavery and captivity poured in for good measure.

Carlson and Huckabee can argue Israel’s borders all they want, but it should surprise no one that the nation never fully possessed the borders outlined in Genesis 15. As with so many things, human beings are terrible at obedience. We always have been.

That is the lesson. God initiates covenants. We break them. Then we depend on God’s mercy to bail us out.

The Jews did not attain a level of holiness that compelled God to bring forth the Messiah. Quite the opposite. Israel had hit bottom, spiritually and temporally. So God initiated yet again, through Christ Jesus, reminding humanity once more that we are utterly lost without Him.

That remains true whether you believe the modern state of Israel is a prophetic extension of Old Testament Israel or not. We must not lose that point, and its implications are not remote, theoretical, or merely historical.

Many Americans, after all, love to read our own national story in providential terms. Fine. Then how are we doing with the whole “endowed by their Creator” business in the Declaration of Independence?

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Photo by Tajh Payne/US Navy via Getty Images

Do we know what a gender is? No.

Do we know what a border is? No.

Do we know what a baby is? No.

Do we know what a marriage is? No.

Do we know what a family is? No.

Do we know what a law is? No.

Do we even know our own heritage, customs, and traditions? No.

Sure, people will stand and sing “God Bless America” at the next sporting event, maybe even with tears in their eyes. Then many of them will settle back into their seats and applaud while the world burns around them, so long as someone keeps scratching their bellies.

That is idolatry.

For by grace you have been saved through the free gift of faith — and not by your own doing, lest anyone should boast.

So once again, it is revival or bust. That is why I keep saying it and why I keep praying it. There is no other road to the only promised land that finally matters.