WE BELIEVE:
CONCERNING ISRAEL
ADDENDA: ARTICLE 4:
THE TRUE ROOTS OF
ANTI-SEMITISM
Part 2: The Satanic and Human
Aspects
by Norman Manzon
And when the dragon saw that he
was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth
to the male child.
~ Revelation 12:13 ~ |
INTRODUCTION
The burden of these studies is to provide scriptural support
for the claims in our doctrinal statement and respond to contrary claims. In
that regard, our series on Israel was brought to completion several
Shofars ago. However, a few items
are being added to present a fuller picture. "The True Roots of
Anti-Semitism" will conclude this present Israel series.
In
Part 1: The Divine Aspect, we saw that the
true roots of anti-Semitism are not to be discovered in the natural realm,
but in the spiritual. Having concluded our examination of anti-Semitism from
the divine aspect, we will continue our study in this edition with an
examination of the same in its satanic and human aspects.
Inasmuch as God is in control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:6)
and all other nations (Job 12:23, Psalm 2:1-6, 108:8-9; Proverbs 21:1 and Daniel
2:21), the divine aspect is the most important one to
understand. I therefore suggest a study or review of
The Divine Aspect before proceeding on.
In the case of readers who do not believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, I
respectfully urge a careful study of it as it is impossible to understand
the suffering of Israel for the last two thousand years without grasping
what has been presented, nor would much of what will be presented herein
make much sense.
III. THE SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
B. THE SATANIC
ASPECT
12.
For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to
the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having
great wrath, knowing that he has
only
a short time." 13.
And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he
persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male
child.
~ Revelation
12:12-13 ~ |
Perhaps more than any other,
this passage reveals the hand of Satan in the persecution of
Israel. We will therefore examine its symbolism and
restate it in literal language.
We will first look at Revelation 12:1-5, which begins the
chapter:
1. A great
sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the
sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a
crown of twelve stars; 2. and she was with child;
and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to
give birth. 3. Then another sign appeared in heaven:
and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads
and ten horns, and on his heads
were
seven diadems. 4. And his tail swept away a third
of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about
to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might
devour her child. 5. And she gave birth to a son, a
male
child,
who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron;
and her child was caught up to God and to His
throne. |
Who is the
woman clothed with the
sun in verse 1? This harks back to Genesis
37:9-10, an examination of which will show that the sun
and the moon are the man Israel and Rachel, and the twelve stars
are the twelve sons of Israel, the patriarchs of the
twelve tribes. Clearly, then, the
woman represents the
nation of Israel.
Who is the male
child of verse 5? This can be none other than
Messiah Yeshua, born of the nation of Israel, ascended into Heaven
after His resurrection, and presently seated
at the right hand
of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
And who is the dragon of verses 3 and 4? Verse 9 identifies
him: And the great
dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called
the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was
thrown down to the earth . . . .
Now, to restate verse 13 in literal terms:
And when
[Satan] saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he
persecuted [Israel] who gave birth to [Messiah Yeshua].
Here we see that Satan is the spiritual source
of anti-Semitism, and that the reason for his
anti-Semitism has to do with the fact that Israel gave birth to Messiah.
Satan's anti-Semitism
is part of a much bigger "anti": He is anti-God, and
Messiah is the second Person of the Godhead. He attempted
to dethrone God even before creation (Isaiah 14:12-14). Despite his condemnation
and sentencing in verses 12 and 15, he has never ceased to
work for the overthrow of God. He seduced our first
parents away from obedience to God, and thereby
rendered the entire human race subject to his powerful
influence (Genesis 3:1-13, Romans 5:12). God immediately
informed him
that He would raise up a Descendant of the woman who would
bring him to utter defeat (Genesis 3:15). Still resisting
defeat and
longing to gain the ascendancy, as soon as God raised up
the nation of Israel to bring forth that Descendant in Messiah (Genesis
12:1-3) he began doing everything in his power to keep Messiah from
being born. Hence, the beginning of anti-Semitism.
The primary objective
of Satan's anti-Semitic acts has always been the thwarting
of the ascendancy of Messiah. If Pharaoh would have been
successful in killing all newborn Israelite males for a
protracted period of time, the nation of Israel would
have been stopped dead in its tracks long before Messiah
would be born (Exodus 1:15-16, 22). If Herod would have been successful
in killing Yeshua in his slaughter of the babes in
Bethlehem, Yeshua would never have died for the
sins of the world (Matthew 2:16). And what of the massive
attack against Israel prophesied in Revelation 12, above?
According to Hosea 5:15 and Matthew 23:39, the return of
Messiah is predicated upon the return of Israel to her
Messiah on a national scale. If Satan could destroy the nation before she
turns to her Messiah, he would prevent Messiah's return, his own being bound in the abyss for a thousand
years (Revelation 20:2-3) and then being cast into the Lake of
Fire which burns forever (Revelation 20:10). Indeed,
anti-Semitism's peculiar irrationality and ferocity
(discussed in
Part 1) is driven not only by Satan's protracted effort to usurp the throne
of God, but by his desperate effort to prevent his own demise
and eternal damnation. His final
assault on Israel will be carried out with such
determination and ferocity
that God will need to intervene to bring those days to an
end
to prevent the destruction of
the entire nation:
Unless those days had been cut short, no life would
have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days
will be cut short (Matthew 24:22 and Mark 13:20 with
Zechariah 13:8). Context shows that
the elect here refers to Israel.
Visible and Behind the Scenes Persecution
Satan's persecution of
Israel is often by means of stirring up direct physical
violence. That will be the nature of the
persecution of the woman
in Revelation 12:13. We know that because of verse 15:
And the serpent
poured water like a river out of his mouth after the
woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with
the flood. When Scripture uses the figure of a
flood symbolically, it refers to a military invasion. This
is seen in Daniel 9:26, where the prophesied Roman
invasion and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. is pictured as a
flood. It is also seen in Nahum 1:8, in which
the prophesied destruction of Nineveh was prefigured as
a flood; and Nineveh
was destroyed in 612 B.C.E. by the military invasion of the
allied forces of the Medes and Babylonians.
Historians tend to date
the beginning of anti-Semitism from some such act of
massive physical violence. Some date it as far back as
Pharaoh's edict to cast all male Israelite newborns into
the Nile. Of course, visible means of persecution other
than physical violence have been employed, such as exile,
being confined to ghettos,
and being disallowed from entering certain professions or
educational institutions; but Satan's anti-Semitism often
takes forms that are very subtle, and escape the notice of
historians:
-
Sarai
(Sarah) was taken into Pharaoh's harem, an act which God
actively undid (Genesis 12:10-20). If the situation had
been allowed to
continue, Isaac would never have been born, the covenant line
would have been cut off, and Messiah would never have
been born.
-
Sarah was taken into Abimelech's
harem (Genesis 20:1-2), an act which God likewise undid.
Similarly, if the situation had been allowed to
continue, Isaac would never have been born, the covenant line
would have been cut off, and Messiah would never have
been born.
Surely, Satan was the
behind the scenes manipulator of these events which would
have
permanently separated Sarah from Abraham - six hundred
years prior to the drowning of the Israelite babes.
Can these attempts of
Satan to thwart the purposes of God through Israel truly be
considered anti-Semitic? Seeking to render the nation
impotent to fulfill the purpose for which she
was called is as anti-Semitic as any attempt to destroy her
physically.
Another tactic employed
by Satan is
to weaken Israel by bringing her into disfavor with God.
In proportion to the extent he could accomplish that, to
that proportion is God likely to bring
judgment upon Israel and less likely to accomplish His
purposes through her.
-
And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to
number Israel (1 Chronicles 21:1). What David
did here was to assess his military strength (verse 5)
either to glory in his forces or to engage in wars that
God did not authorize, or both. This sin of David brought the judgment of
God upon Israel in the form of a plague that claimed 70,000
Israelite lives (verses 7-14).
-
And [an angel] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before
the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right
hand to be his adversary (Zechariah 3:1).
Whereas in 1 Chronicles 21 Satan brought
Israel's king into disfavor with God, here we see him
attempting to bring Israel's spiritual leader into
disfavor with the preincarnate Son of God.
All of Israel's idolatry and
disobedience in the wilderness and in the Promised Land,
and all of her rejections of Messiah right up to the
present time have their origin in Satan's efforts
to bring Israel into disfavor with God (1
Samuel 15:23; John 8:44, 17:12; Revelation 12:9).
Indeed, in Exodus 32:1-14, after Israel worshiped the golden calf
at Sinai, God bid Moses,
let Me alone,
that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy
them (verse 10); and verse 14
emphasizes that He would have done it had not Moses
interceded.
The great volume of
visible attacks that the church has launched against the
Jews through the centuries, whether physical, theological
or social, have a satanic aspect to them that is hidden. A major call of the church is to provoke [Israel]
to jealousy (Romans 11:11) by demonstrating the
blessings of knowing Israel's Messiah. Instead, the
church's horrific persecution of the Jews for
nearly the entire Church Age has instead provoked Israel
to revulsion at the thought of the church's Jesus
being their Messiah! So, from Satan's point of view, if he could not destroy the Jews
physically, then the
least he could do is use the church's repugnant anti-Semitic
record to keep Israel from being saved, and thereby prevent
Messiah's return and his own demise.
IV. THE HUMAN ASPECT
I included "The Divine Aspect" and "The
Satanic Aspect" under "The Spiritual Aspects of
Anti-Semitism," but assigned a separate heading for "The Human Aspect"
for two reasons:
1. The purposes and influences of God and Satan are invisible, but
anti-Semitism in its human aspect is visible (though not always recognizable
as anti-Semitic at its root, as with Pharaoh and Abimelech).
2. God and Satan have their agendas concerning the Jews and exert their
influence accordingly; but realize it or not, each person and nation is in
the pivotal position of deciding whether they will choose between the ways of God and
the ways of Satan in their treatment of the Jews. God desires for them to
bless, and Satan desires for them to curse. (Genesis 12:1-3; Matthew
25:31-46) The human
aspect of anti-Semitism will be addressed in two categories: "Individuals" and
"Nations."
A.
INDIVIDUALS
1. The Vulnerability of Mankind to Sin
in General
Even before they became corrupted by sin, Adam and Eve proved vulnerable to the temptations
of Satan. Mankind is now even more vulnerable because, in addition to having
a free will as did our first parents, he now has an inner propensity toward
sin, which traditional Judaism calls the
yetzer hara (Hebrew), the evil inclination,
and which believers in Yeshua call the sin nature (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 7:23; Ephesians 2:3; Galatians
5:19-21).
2. The
Vulnerability of Mankind to the
Sin of Anti-Semitism
Many people succumb to anti-Semitic temptation because they, having
the sin nature, are opposed to God, and it is the Jews who have been raised up
by God to
deliver His Word and Messiah to the world. I again bring this quote
to your attention:
It was Judaism that brought the concept
of a God-given universal moral law into the world... the Jew
carries the burden of God in history and for this he has never
been forgiven.1 |
Even so, as uncanny as it is, there are anti-Semites among Jews and true believers as well.2
How can this be? They, too, have the sin
nature and are tempted by the Devil. They, too, are subject to being
weakened or deceived by unhealthy sociological, psychological and
physiological influences. As concerns believers, much anti-Semitism could
have been, and could be, preempted by means of proper biblical instruction
and study concerning Israel - let alone the more fundamental principle of loving your
neighbor, and even your enemies (Matthew 5:44; 22:39,
etc.)!
B. THE NATIONS IN GENERAL
Nations, of course, are made up of individuals, and are
therefore likewise vulnerable to anti-Semitic attitudes and acts, but on a
national scale, whether they be by informal grassroots agreement or by authoritative
encouragement, edict, or military organization and attack.
C. THE ARABS IN PARTICULAR
Among nations, the Arabs must be given special focus in
the context of anti-Semitism as Scripture reveals relevant specifics about them. The chief
patriarchs of the Arabs are Ishmael and Esau. We'll address them in
chronological order: first Ishmael, then Esau, and then we'll make a few
comments about the Arabs overall.
1. Ishmael
The origins and nature of the Ishmaelites and their attitude towards
Israel are detailed in Genesis 16:1-16; 21:20-21; 25:12-18.
The salient points concerning Ishmael are:
a. Abram had been promised a covenant son by God in Genesis 15:1-4, but
after perhaps only a year, he took the
fulfillment of the Lord's promise into his own hands by having relations
with Sarai's Egyptian
handmaid Hagar, and Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:1-4,11). We know that
Ishmael was not the covenant son because God promised that the covenant son would be born through
Sarah (17:15-19). b. Ishmael, then, may be considered
the son of Abram's unbelief or impatience - and the Jews live with the consequences
of Abram's lack of trust to this very day. (Let that be a lesson to all of us!)
c. Ishmael's conception in Hagar immediately caused animosity in Sarai's
heart toward Hagar:
4. [Abram] went in to
Hagar, and she conceived; and when [Sarai]
saw that [Hagar] had conceived, her mistress [Hagar] was
despised in her sight. . . . 6.
So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.
~ Genesis 16:4,6 ~ |
According to the custom of the day, Sarai, being barren,
gave her handmaid to her husband so that an heir might be born through her.
However, as the passage makes clear, her despisement of Hagar rose up because of Hagar's
becoming pregnant, the direct result of the relationship to which Sarai
had been matchmaker. Therefore, Sarai
cannot be held guiltless in her treatment of Hagar. Having said that, it is
almost certain that anti-Semitism already resided in the heart of Hagar: "It is known from
Egyptian records of this period that Egyptians were all full haters of
anyone of Semitic origin."3 Note the
absolutes "all" and "full." If that was the case with Hagar - and it
almost certainly was - it is likely
that her anti-Semitism had already primed Sarai's despisement of her.
d. The Angel of Jehovah intercepted Hagar in the midst of
her flight, and
promised,
10. I will greatly multiply
your descendants so that they will be too many to count. . . .
12. [Ishmael] will be a wild donkey
[wanderer] of a man, his hand will
be against everyone, and everyone's hand
will be
against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers.
~ In Genesis 16:10,12 ~ |
Indeed, these things are the case today:
-
The Arabs are a very numerous people,
numbering about 300 million. (Also Genesis 25:16.)
-
Though more so in the past, many Arabs
are still nomadic.
-
There is continual military conflict
within their own ranks and with Israel. One example in Scripture of protracted Ishmaelite harassment of Israel is seen in Judges 6:1 -
8:28, especially 6:1-6, 7:7-8 and 8:24. (Genesis 37:27-28 and Judges
8:24 identify the Midianites as Ishmaelites.)
-
Keil and Delitzsch maintain that the
translation, to the east of all
his brothers, is
accurate4, but also
indicates
the Ishmaelites' independence of all other descendants of Abraham. As
the passage prophesied, they live to the east of Israel for the most
part, and are independent of them to the point where they are in a state
of "incessant feud" with them, as Keil and Delitzsch put it, as well as
among themselves. The phrase is translated
over against all his brethren
in the ASV, and this comment of Dr. Fruchtenbaum corroborates the extent
of the Arabs' independence of Israel: "The expression
to dwell over against is a Hebrew idiom meaning, to dwell
in a state of hostility.”5
e. When Ishmael was a teenager he mocked Isaac at
the celebration of Isaac's weaning, which again caused Hagar to be driven
out from Sarah's presence, this time with her teenage son. (Genesis 21:8-12; Galatians 4:29)
f. Hagar ultimately took an Egyptian wife for
Ishmael (Genesis 21:21). Whatever anti-Semitism was instilled in Ishmael
by his Egyptian mother was almost certainly reinforced by the same in his
Egyptian wife.
To review the origins of anti-Semitism in Ishmael:
-
His
mother and wife were almost certainly "fully" anti-Semitic.
-
His mother
was driven out twice by Sarah, and so was he: once as a preborn and once
as a teenager.
-
Isaac was the covenant son, not he.
Significantly, the ongoing anti-Semitism of the nations
proceeding from him was prophesied (Genesis 16:12, above), indicating that
an unbroken thread of anti-Semitism was to pass from Ishmael to his
descendants throughout his generations; and other passages show that it
will last until great revivals take place among some of the Arab nations
at or near the beginning of the Millennium (e.g., Isaiah 19:22:25;
Jeremiah 48:47; 49:6).
2. Esau
Esau (that is, Edom), who
became the father of the Edomites
(Genesis 36:1,9), was born the fraternal twin of Jacob (Genesis
25:19-26). As the firstborn, the birthright, which consisted of a double portion of Isaac's
physical estate, would normally go to him (Deuteronomy 21:17). Nevertheless, on an occasion in which he was particularly hungry, Esau
despised his birthright and sold it to
Jacob for a pittance: some bread and lentil stew
(Genesis 25:34). To what degree did he despise his birthright? His
father, Isaac, was a wealthy man (Genesis 12:16; 20:14; 24:1; Genesis
25:5). He could easily have gone to a neighboring tent in Isaac's well to
do camp, gotten something to eat there, and retained his birthright, but
it wasn't worth it to him to make the effort. (The Chronological Bible 6
places this event thirty-seven years prior to the famine spoken of in
Genesis 26:1.) To put a matter in perspective, Jacob did not take
advantage of a brother under duress. If he did, then the text would not
say that Esau despised his birthright.
Jacob took advantage of a brother who despised his birthright,
which is far different. Esau did not have to sell, but he did. The sale
was above board, and the purchase by Jacob was legitimate.
The birthright was now Jacob's, but it still remained for Isaac to
pronounce the patriarchal blessing upon the son of his choice. Whereas the
birthright consisted of a double portion of the physical estate, the
blessing conferred the leadership of the family upon the son so blessed;
and in Isaac's case, it also determined the son through whom the
covenantal blessings of Abraham would be conveyed.
As in the case of the
birthright, the blessing would normally go to the firstborn, but that was not
always the case. Jumping ahead a generation, we see that Israel (Jacob) conferred the
birthright upon his seventh son, Joseph - I give you one portion
more than your brothers (Genesis 48:21-22) - and the
patriarchal blessing upon his fourth son, Judah (Genesis 49:9-10).
Reuben, the first of Jacob's twelve sons,
would normally have received the blessing, but Jacob did not confer it upon him because
you went up to your father's bed; Then
you defiled it (Genesis 49:4). Similarly with
Simeon and Levi, the second and third in line, because
their
swords are implements of violence (49:5). With the first
three sons passed over, it was the fourth in line, Judah, who received the
patriarchal blessing (49:9-10); and indeed, Yeshua was born of Judah's
line (Hebrews 7:14).
Before the twins were born of Rebekah, the LORD said to her,
the older shall serve the younger
(Genesis 25:23), indicating that it was foreordained that the
blessing would be Jacob's, the younger. Nevertheless, when Isaac was about to
die, he intended to confer it upon firstborn Esau; but Jacob, through
deception, got his father to confer it upon him
(Genesis 27:1-29).
What shall we say about this? Jacob's deception was unnecessary. God
had already determined that the blessing would be his, and He would have
arranged for it to be so. Therefore, despite Jacob's machinations, God
honored Isaac's blessing of Jacob - and He dealt with Jacob's deceptive tendencies
later (Genesis 27:41 - 33:30, esp. chap. 32)!
How worthy was Esau to become the covenant son? Hebrews 12:16 tells us
that Esau was
an immoral and godless person. He
married two Hittite women
who brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah
(Genesis 26:35), no doubt because they rejected the God who covenanted with Abraham and Isaac, and worshiped false gods, instead. What
Esau did was exactly what Isaac told Jacob not to do after he blessed him:
You shall not take a wife from the
daughters of Canaan (Genesis 28:1).
Though Esau had despised his birthright
and sold it to Jacob, and was unworthy to become the covenant son, yet, after Isaac had blessed Jacob, he
cried out with an exceedingly great and
bitter cry (27:34) and lifted his
voice and wept (27:38) at not having received either the
birthright or the blessing. Being
an immoral and godless person, his grief
over not having received the blessing had nothing to do with his not
becoming the covenant son: It had everything to do with his not becoming
leader of the clan.
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing
wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The
days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
~ Genesis 27:41 ~
|
Now, Esau was Ishmael's nephew, his father Isaac being Ishmael's
half-brother. Although Ishmael had been cast out of the camp the second
and final time long before Esau was born, and
lived in the wilderness of Paran (Genesis 21:21)
deep in the Sinai at least several days journey from Isaac's camp, it
is possible that Esau had some contact with his uncle or, at the least, had heard the
story of his banishment. If either or both were the case, then Ishmael's
anti-Semitism and/or the story of his banishment may have had a negative
influence on Esau concerning the covenant line of Abraham, his father
Isaac, and after Jacob was blessed, Jacob. We cannot be dogmatic about
this as Scripture is silent.
Nevertheless, whatever influence Ishmael or the story of his banishment
may have had on Esau, subsequent to Esau's resolve to kill Jacob he married Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son (Genesis 28:9).
Thus, the enmity that he already bore toward Jacob was exacerbated by his wife, who was raised in the household
of her anti-Semitic father.
About twenty years after his resolve to kill Jacob, a great and
emotional reconciliation took place between the two, and Esau exhibited
great kindness toward his brother. Yet, we can be certain that latent
animosity still existed in Esau's heart toward Jacob because Ezekiel 35:5 says that
the Edomites bore everlasting enmity
toward Israel. If it's everlasting,
then it had to have had no complete respite, even in the heart of Esau
during his reconciliation with Jacob.
Thus we see that the animosity in Esau's heart toward Jacob passed in an
unbroken manner to his descendants from generation to generation; and
though it may have been latent for some periods as it was in Esau, it was
always there, ready to erupt at any time in violent acts.
Edom
demonstrated this readiness for violence against Israel when Moses sought
permission for Israel to pass through Edom (presently southern Jordan) on their way
to Canaan (Numbers
20:14-21; Judges 11:17), and Edom refused them passage on pain of
attack. Numbers 20:18: You shall not
pass through us, or I will come out with the sword against you;
and they backed up their refusal with a show of
force: And Edom came out against [Moses] with a
heavy force and with a strong hand (verse 20). Other passages demonstrate
actual, ongoing attacks, such as 1 Kings 11:14, in which Edom was
adversary to Solomon, and 2 Chronicles 28:17:
again the Edomites had come and attacked
Judah and carried away captives.
1.
By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down
and wept, when we remembered Zion. . . . 7. Remember, O LORD,
against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, "Raze it,
raze it to its very foundation."
~ Psalm 137:1,7 ~ |
When did Edom say, "Raze [Jerusalem],
raze it to its very foundation"? In 586
B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of
Judah, and carried most of her population captive into Babylon. The plea
for the LORD to remember Edom was made by those very captives. As
Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, Edom cheered him on. This is
corroborated in Obadiah 1:11-12; and verses 13 and 14 indicate that they
may have actively supported Nebuchadnezzar by attacking escapees and
imprisoning survivors.
The captivity of the southern Kingdom of Judah into
Babylon followed the captivity of the
northern Kingdom of Israel into the Assyrian Empire by 135 years. Edom rejoiced over the
devastation of the two kingdoms because they desired the entire Land for themselves:
These two nations and these two lands will be
mine, and we will possess them (Ezekiel 35:10).
It is worthy of note that whereas only one of Ishmael's parents was a
member of the covenant nation, both of Esau's parents were, and he and
Jacob were twins. Obadiah 1:10 makes it clear that the national closeness
of Edom to Israel will work against her in the day of her national
judgment: Because of violence to your
brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off
forever.
Edom's offenses
against Israel were so odious to God that He declared that, while
virtually the rest of the planet would be restored to pristine beauty in
the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom, Edom would remain a desolation (Isaiah 34:8-15, Jeremiah 49:17-18, Ezekiel 35:10-15, Joel 3:19). At least
two specific reasons were given: their everlasting enmity toward Israel, and their desire to possess
the Land that God had given to His people and which they lost in such
a grievous, calamitous manner (Ezekiel 35:10-14).
Herod the Great, the cruel Roman puppet king of Judah who slaughtered
the Bethlehem babes in a mad attempt to kill Messiah (Matthew 2:16-18),
was a full-blooded Idumean (Edomite).
Esau became a great nation (Genesis 36:8-43), and the
land which they originally occupied (Seir, Genesis 32:3; 36:8)
before their geographical expansion is, today, southern Jordan, solidly
within the Arab camp.
3. The Arabs Overall
To sum up, the deepest taproots of anti-Semitism in the Arabic
peoples are found in Ishmael and Esau, and we know that their
anti-Semitism was perpetuated from them throughout their generations
because of predictive prophecy, and has, to this day, been demonstrated
by repeated acts of hostility.
Other ethnicities besides Ishmaelites and Edomites also became part of that mix of peoples
known today as the Arabs, such as the Ammonites and Moabites
(origins: Genesis 19:35-38). According to Nehemiah 2:19, three Arabs (as
we would call them all today)
opposed Nehemiah in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem:
Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the
Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab. (Also Nehemiah
6:1-2.) As
for Sanballat's nationality, Horonaim
was a city in Moab.
In Psalm 83:1-8, the Psalmist Asaph laments the ongoing
animosity of neighboring nations toward Israel. Note how closely verse
6 juxtaposes the Ishmaelites and the Edomites:
The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites.
They are also the first ones mentioned of the nations
named in verses 6-8, several of which are Arabic. Verse four is worthy of note:
They have said, "Come, and let us wipe
them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more"
- a refrain repeated daily today within those
very nations! Also Ezekiel 35:1-5 and Obadiah 10-14.
In 1941, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem met with Hitler,
Himmler and Von Ribbentrop "to persuade them to extend the Nazis’
anti-Jewish program to the Arab world".7
4. Arab Anti-Semitism and
Islam Islam was founded on the visions of an Arab, Mohammed,
and were written down and eventually compiled into the Islamic holy
book, the Qur'an. In light of the prophecies that
[Ishmael's] hand shall be against
every man, . . . and he shall dwell over against all his brethren
(Genesis 16:12, ASV), and that the enmity of
the Edomites toward Israel is an everlasting enmity
(Ezekiel 35:5), it flows naturally that
the Qur'an encourages anti-Semitic sentiment and violence. Some
examples:
The first clause of the statement is consistent with the
fact that most Arabs believe that Ishmael was the covenant son of
Abraham, not Isaac.
-
[The Jews] are the heirs of Hell.... They will spare no pains
to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is
clear from what they say ... When evil befalls you they rejoice.9
-
Fight against such of
those [Jews and Christians] ... until they pay for the tribute
readily, being brought low.10
"This Hadith11 of the Prophet
Mohammad appeared in Egyptian
publications in the 1930s and 1940s:
The resurrection of the
dead will not come until the Muslims will war with the Jews and the
Muslims will kill them; ... the trees and rocks will say, 'O Muslim, O
Abdullah12, here is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"13 |
5. Caveat
Without a doubt, what Scripture prophesied of the Arabs as a whole
in regards to anti-Semitism has been borne out over thousands of years
of history. However, as in our relations with any people, judgment of
intent and character of individuals must be carried out on an individual
basis. Indeed, there are Arab individuals and groups today who, at the
risk of life and limb, openly support the State of Israel and the fair
treatment of Jewish people. Links to some of their websites may be found
in the Modern Israel and World Jewry section of our
Resources page.
*
We have just concluded the heart
of "The Spiritual Roots of Anti-Semitism." In our next Shofar, we will
add an examination of key accusations against the Jew
to which the Bible speaks, a Bible based examination of the futility of
anti-Semitism, a fuller look at the attitude of God concerning those who
bless or curse the Jews, an examination of the consequences of the same
in biblical and postbiblical times, and what can be done within biblical
limits to battle anti-Semitism. We may also address the common claim that the New
Testament promotes anti-Semitism, and refute a handful of contemporary
accusations made against the Jews.
Please continue to
Anti-Semitism, Part 3: Refutation of Accusations
against Jews and Israel.
Shalom.
ENDNOTES
1. Flannery, Edward H. Judaism-now Blogspot,
http://judaism-now.blogspot.com/2010/12/pagan-influance-of-christmas.html.
Judaism-now.
2. Lest anyone doubt that a true believer could be
anti-Semitic, let him read Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies.
Caution: Strong stomach required. Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies,
1543, from
Luther’s Works Volume 47, translated by Martin H. Bertram, (Fortress Press & Augsburg Fortress,
1971). Also online at
http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm.
3.
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum,
Dr., Messianic Bible Study 008: Arab States in Prophecy, pdf, p. 7.
4. C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Keil and
Delitzsch Commentary of the Old Testament (Hendrickson
Publishers, 1996).
5.
Fruchtenbaum,
op. cit., p. 7.
6. Smith, F. LaGard, The Chronological Bible (Nashville,
E.E. Gaddy & Associates, Inc., 1977).
7. Richard Bard, "The Mufti and the Fuhrer."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/muftihit.html.
8. Sura
II, v. 71-85.
9. Sura CXI, v.
117-120.
10. Sura
IX, v. 29.
11. "The Hadith is
the record of the sayings of Prophet Mohammad. . . . The Hadith has come to
supplement the Holy Quran as a source of the Islamic religious law. The Hadith
is the second pillar after the Quran upon which every Muslim rests his faith."
(http://www.al-islam.org/short/alhadith/Pages/Page1.html.)
12. The name Abdullah means Servant of Allah.
13.
http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/koran.html.
ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum,
Dr., Messianic Bible Study 005: How to Destroy the Jews.**
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum,
Dr., Messianic Bible Study 041:
The Dispensations of God.**
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Dr., The Footsteps of
the Messiah.**
Flannery, Edward H. The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of
Antisemitism, first published 1965, latest edition: (Mahwah, Paulist
Press, 2004).
Leventhal, Barry, Dr. "Can a Christian Be an Anti-Semite?" Association of
Messianic Congregations,
http://www.messianicassociation.org/a-bl-antisem.htm.
Zuckerman, Mortimer B.. "Graffiti On History's Walls," October 29, 2003,
Jewish World Review,
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/mort/zuckerman_new_anti_sem.php3.
* For general facts on anti-Semitism and daily news updates from an Israeli
point of view, the author recommends sources in the "Modern Israel and World
Jewry" and "News of Israel and World Jewry" sections of our
Resources
page.
**Dr.
Fruchtenbaum's materials are available
for purchase at
Ariel
Ministries
in various formats. Many of his Messianic Bible Studies
are also available for free online
reading at Ariel's
Come and See.
Other select materials and resources
are also available at Ariel. |
|
*
For a continuous exegesis of every doctrinal point in our Statement covered thus far, see the "We Believe" compendium *
© Norman Manzon, 2011.
Norman Manzon is a Bible teacher in Hawaii and may be reached at BibleStudyProject@hawaiiantel.net.
More of Norm's studies may be accessed at www.BibleStudyProject.org. *
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