From the Pastor’s Study – 11/11/2023
Although it has been over thirty years since I visited the nation of Israel, my memories of the experience remain vivid. In addition to touring many cites significant to the events in the Bible, I also visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Visitors walk through numerous rooms displaying photographs, videos, and artifacts chronicling Nazi Germany’s systematic effort to exterminate the Jewish race. Before we entered the final room the guide leading my tour excused himself from the group. His departure made me a little apprehensive as to what to expect. I entered a dark room with a single, small glass case in the center with a beam of light shining down upon it. Inside the case was a tiny child’s shoe. There was nothing else. This was a somber reminder that of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, one and a half million were children.
Many may have concluded that with the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the exposure of the horrors of the Holocaust, antisemitism would be irradicated. But it has not been. Antisemitism predated the Nazis, and it persists today.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists unleashed a coordinated surprise attack on Jewish people in Israel, killing over 1400, included children and babies. Additional atrocities such as kidnapping and rape were carried out, motivated by hatred of the Jewish people.
The global response has not been universal condemnation. On the contrary, from Muslim countries to civil rights groups supposedly opposed to racism, to students on American college campuses, and even some elected representatives in in the U.S. Congress, people have defended the acts of terrorists and have protested Israel’s efforts to defend itself.
While this is all sad and troubling, for students of the Bible this should not be surprising. In Revelation 12, the Apostle John sees a vision of a dragon. There is no need to speculate about who this dragon represents. He is identified as the devil. (v. 9) In this vision the dragon endeavors to devour a child a woman is about to birth. Again, there is no question about the identity of this child. It is Jesus Christ, Who after dying for the sins of the world and being raised from the dead, “was caught up unto God and to his throne.” (v. 5) But Satan’s hostility is not over. Verse 13 says the devil persecutes the woman. The woman that brought forth the child in Revelation 12 is the nation of Israel. The man Christ Jesus sprang from the Jewish race, and is the King of the Jews. (Rom. 9:5; Mt. 2:2) Satan is anti-Christ and anti-Israel. Antisemitism comes from the devil himself.
God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), and He loves the world (Jn. 3:16). Yet at the same time, the Bible makes plain that one race has been chosen of God, blessed, and made to be a blessing to the world. (Gen. 12:2, 3) It was through the nation of Israel that the word of God came (Rom. 3:2), and even more importantly, the Son of God, the Savior Jesus Christ. And so, the devil hates Israel. From wicked Haman in the book of Esther, to Adolf Hitler, to modern day Islamic terrorists, those seeking the destruction of Israel are doing the work of Satan. And those who sympathize with them – those who hate the Jewish race – share the sentiment of the devil.
The Jewish people need the prayers of Christian people. They also need the gospel. The Bible teaches us that someday the Jewish Messiah will come again to deliver His chosen people. When He does, He will “pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced…” (Zech. 12:10) When Christ returns “all Israel shall be saved.” (Rom. 11:26) The fiercest efforts of the devil and his followers will never succeed in eliminating Israel, nor stop that great day from coming.