[Wyatt Flicker]

Nicole, I’m so glad you mentioned the portrayal of Israel as an ancient people, that was my experience as well! In Catholic education as a child, the Israelites were always understood as a historical tribe of people who existed to eventually bear Jesus. There was hardly any engagement with Israel as a geopolitical entity or with the Jewish people as a group with continued interaction with God. This insight is greatly helpful in beginning a Christian engagement with Israel here and now, not merely as a historical or archeological phenomenon.