Anti-Semitism! Is it the spirit of antichrist or is it just hating Jewish people? What is the origin of Anti-Semitism and how deceptive can that spirit be among believers?
To uncover the deception and understand the danger of this spirit, we must go back to Noah, in the book of Genesis 9:18-27,
18 And the sons of Noah that went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These are the three sons of Noah, and the whole earth was overspread from them.
20 And Noah began to be a husbandman. And he planted a vineyard.
21 And he drank of the wine and was drunk. And he was uncovered inside his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders. And they went backwards and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were backwards, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and came to know what his younger son had done to him.
25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan. He shall be a servant of servants to his brothers.
26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. And Canaan shall be their servant.
Noah, by the Spirit of the Lord God, had prophesied the end result of Canaan’s wickedness. He was destined to be a servant of servants to his brothers, especially to Shem, verse 26. "And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant". According to the prophecies of the Bible, we have a table of nations descending from the sons of Noah: Shem - the Hebrews, Ham - Canaanites and Japheth - are the nations that lived on the East as Gomer, Magog, Tubal, and Mesheh.
This curse was not left alone. The devil planned to use it against God and mankind. Friends! The ugly spirit of Anti-Semitism has it’s origin right here. When studying this subject, you should keep in mind that we are not talking about people but the devil and his deceiving schemes towards the nations. Quite frankly, it is a war between God and the devil. God had a wonderful plan for the nations but the devil’s plan was destruction.
According to the Scriptures, the Jewish people are at the center of God’s plan. We know this to be true because of Prophecy. God’s plan of redemption for the world involves the Jewish nation directly and the devil knows this very well. According to history, everything that has happened to the Jewish people is part of the plan of God, except their rebellion against Him. God has chosen and blessed this nation and until today, His hand continues to lead Israel even though they themselves may not realize it.
God gave, according to His prophesies, the land of Canaan to the Jewish people, again because of His plan. He promised that land to Abraham, saying, And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein
Thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Gen. 17:8.
Interestingly enough, after possessing Canaan around 1440 BC, and dwelling on the land for 1500 years, Rome overtook Israel and renamed the land Palestine.
Let’s now look at the history of the Bible to find out more about Anti-Semitism and how this spirit came to posses the world.
Anti-Semitism is an evil spirit that fights God through His chosen people Israel. The devil has found the way to pursue the plan and the people of God. Some people think that God is punishing the Jewish people for their disobedience through Anti Semitism. That is simply not true because Anti-Semitism is designed to attack not only the people of God but also the plan of God. And this tactic is of the devil!
Different forms of Anti-Semitism have developed throughout the ages. As we read in Genesis 9:18-27 we realize that it started right there. Pharaoh was one of the first to oppose the Jewish people when he refused to allow them to go and worship the Lord in the wilderness. The devil tried to stop God’s promise from fulfilling to Abraham,
And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Ammonites is not yet full. Gen. 15:13-16.
The next move was by Haman in 500 BC. His idea was to totally destroy the Jewish people once and for all, without understanding that they were chosen by God. This event took place in ancient Persia (Iran). The end of this scheme of the devil was that Haman himself died publicly by being hanged on the gallows, the same ones he had made to hang Mordecai.
The next attempt of the devil to ignite Anti-Semitism happened in 167 BC through Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek-Syrian general. He forbid us to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Festivals, outlawed circumcision and defiled the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar. God raised Judas Maccabes and his brothers to withstand the evil Antiochus and the Lord gave victory to Maccabees over the Greco-Syrian Empire. Today this story is celebrated by the Jewish people. It is Hanukkah, The Feast of Lights.
There was another man in the history of Anti-Semitism. His name was King Herod. Just as the time when the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent His own Son to redeem the world, the devil came up with the plan to attempt to stop Him. The result was: all two year old babies died mercilessly through the hand of Herod.
After this monumental failure, the devil continued to target God’s chosen people Israel. Passing the dark ages (I will be talking about them in my next news letter) we come to another horrible event of Anti-Semitism - the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler was another puppet, who was a part of the devil’s evil plan to destroy God’s chosen people, the Jewish people. After trying to destroy the Jewish people wherever they were in the world throughout the dark ages and not succeeding, the devil thought of another plan - to burn the Jewish people of Europe by raising Hitler to do so. O yes, many of the Jews went in to chambers, but God spared the remnant because of His everlasting Covenant with Abraham.
Yet May 1948, was a great victory for the plan of God. God had given the Jewish people back their land! Isaiah 66:8, Who has heard such a thing? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? Another prophecy has been fulfilled and the devil couldn’t stop it!
Do you think that after so many attempts to stop God’s plan and to destroy God’s people, the devil has quit pursuing his goal? Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), is the "father" of modern terrorism. He is personally responsible for the invention of such acts of terror as air craft highjackings, and aircraft being blown up on the ground and in the air. Since the signing of the Oslo peace agreement in 1993, and the Camp David Accord
In 1995, Arafat has been the ultimate authority behind dozens of bus and restaurant bombings in Israel, costing the lives of hundreds of innocent Israeli citizens. In turning down PM Ehud Barak’s offer of 98% of the disputed territories, Arafat brought war on the Israelis and the Palestinians, and confirmed his place in this list.
And of course, at the end is the Anti-Christ. So friends, what has Anti-Semitism accomplished?
"I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."Gen.12:3. Anti-Semitism is the very enemy of God and it brings a curse upon those who walk in it.
...to be continued
Some quotations were taken from the book A Slow Train Coming by David Silver. |
