Last year during a televised interview, Ted Cruz made the claim that, according to the Bible, “those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed, and from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things.” When pressed on where the Bible says this, however, he infamously didn’t have an answer.

Many American Christians today hold the same sentiment—that if you bless the nation of Israel, you will in turn be blessed—but they’d be surprised to learn that this verse is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures.

So, what does the Bible actually say about this? And should Christians go out of their way to bless the nation of Israel?

First, we should examine what the Bible actually says:

Now the LORD said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
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.” (Gen. 12:1-3)

These words were spoken by God, not to the nation of Israel, but to a gentile named Abram in the year 1876 BC. It’s important to note this, because the kingdom of Israel wouldn’t exist for another 470 years. In fact, the name Israel wouldn’t even make an appearance until 182 years after this blessing was given.

Over the centuries, we find that parts of this promise are passed down to the seed (Hebrew zerah) of Abraham:

“All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him…” (Gen. 18:18)
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…” (Gen. 22:18)
“And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…” (Gen. 26:4)
“And in you and your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14)

As we see this blessing repeated through the years, it’d be reasonable to assume that the “zerah” of Abraham was the eventual kingdom of Israel. But the apostle Paul teaches us to interpret this differently:

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)

Not every person who descended from Abraham is his seed (after all, Romans 9 testifies that many of Abraham’s biological descendants are excluded from the promise); God had one Seed in mind when He made these promises, and that Seed was Jesus, the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1).

The Hebrew Scriptures themselves testify to this singular reading of the promised Seed. David quotes this Abrahamic promise when singing of the coming Messiah:

His name shall endure forever;
His name shall continue as long as the sun.
And men shall be blessed in Him;
All nations shall call Him blessed. (Psalm 72:17)

The coming King who will reign forever, the righteous Son of David (Matthew 1:1)—He is the One who will be blessed, the One who will bless all others upon the earth.

Peter also quotes this blessing while preaching in Jerusalem:

“You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which Go made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” (Acts 3:25, 26)

The blessed Seed who in turn shall bless all other families is God’s Servant Jesus, who first blessed the Jews with His message of repentance and salvation. And when we read the promises made to Abraham, we should understand them how David, Peter, and Paul understood them, how God originally intended them to be understood—as testifying of Jesus.

Centering these promises upon Jesus, Paul then goes on to explain the implications of these incredible promises:

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. (Galatians 3:7-9)

Paul teaches the Galatians church that, through Jesus, the blessing of Abraham belongs to those who share the faith of Abraham—faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:8). He ends the chapter by stating,

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)

Jesus is the Seed of Abraham. And if you share Abraham’s faith in the Christ/Messiah, you are in the Christ/Messiah. And through the Christ/Messiah, you too are the seed of Abraham and an heir of that blessed promise. This becomes abundantly clear when we reread the previous passages with Paul’s/Peter’s exegesis in mind:

“All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Christ…” (Gen. 18:18)
“In Christ all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…” (Gen. 22:18)
“And in Christ all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…” (Gen. 26:4)
“And in Christ all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 28:14)
“And men shall be blessed in Christ…” (Psalm 72:17)

So then, if Jesus (and His church by extension) are the Seed of Abraham and the heirs according to that blessed promise, then shouldn’t we be focused on blessing the church rather than the nation of Israel?!

No.

This is the mistake that most American Christians make. They read the promise to Abraham as a guide to receiving a blessing: “If I want to receive God’s blessing, then I need to bless [Abraham/Israel/the church].” But reading the text in that way entirely misses the point of that promise.

Notice that, out of all the times that promise is quoted in the Old and New Testaments, it never quotes the section Ted Cruz and everyone else focuses on[1]? When God passes this promise on to generation after generation, He never says, “By the way, Isaac, I will bless those who bless you.” Why not?

Because God has already blessed Isaac! This isn’t meant to be a recipe about how to receive a blessing; it’s a commission to take the blessing you have already received from God and extend it to others: “In you the nations shall be blessed.”

Christians shouldn’t be on the hunt for random blessings from other people. After all, by faith we are already blessed with believing Abraham (Galatians 3:9), and God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3). Our job isn’t to stockpile more and more blessings—our job is to bless others! This conveniently overlooked instruction is so important that God actually says it twice to Abraham (reread Genesis 12:1-3 if you don’t believe me). And when Peter preaches this promise in Jerusalem, he emphasizes that Jesus the Blessed Seed was sent to bless others—specifically all the nations, beginning with Israel.

So no, the Bible doesn’t say, “If you bless Israel, you will be blessed.” Instead, it declares that, through faith in Jesus, you have already been blessed with every spiritual and earthly blessing—and that you now have a responsibility to bless every family and nation (including Israel) on earth. Jesus and the disciples took this command seriously, beginning with Israel (which certainly wasn’t behaving like a godly nation at the time) before extending their reach to the ends of the earth. And two thousand years later, we are blessed to be able to follow in their footsteps, blessing every lost and hopeless nation—including Israel.

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[1] Some might suggest that Numbers 24:9 quotes this passage. However, when read in the original Hebrew, the words don’t match.