Does Israel still have a special covenant position as God's favored nation?

Les teaches that Israel's covenant position as the favored nation of God is to be respected, and they are where they are only because of it. Yet he stresses that this does not give a Jew today special privilege in personal salvation; Jews and Gentiles are on the same level playing field, both sinners needing salvation. In the larger prophetic scheme, Israel must be in the Land of Israel for the culmination of the prophetic Scriptures. Les illustrates this with a young Jewish listener who noted that if all Jews were saved, they would leave at the rapture and no one would be left to fulfill prophecy. Israel must be in the Land for the final seven years, because all prophecy is directed to that; removing them would make God's Word fall apart, which God will not allow.