Josef Schuster, leader of Germany’s largest Jewish organization, recently urged Jews not to wear kippas in Berlin’s public spaces. He suggested, instead, to wear baseball caps. “It’s become just too dangerous,” he explained (Associated Press).
“Today, entering a synagogue anywhere in Sweden requires airport-like security checks. Children at the Jewish kindergarten in Malmo play behind bulletproof glass” (New York Times).
England soccer fans were filmed performing Nazi salutes and singing anti-Semitic songs at a bar in Russia during a celebration of their lastgasp win over Tunisia during World Cup 2018 (UK Mirror).
The reports are far from anecdotal. Last year, according to the AP:
- The U.K. logged a record 1,382 hate crimes against Jews, an increase of 34 percent.
- In the U.S., anti-Semitic incidents rose 57 percent, the largest increase ever recorded. Historians and scholars who write about anti- Semitism often state that it is “an illogical hatred of the Jewish people.”
I completely disagree.
Anti-Semitism is totally logical, deliberate and calculated. When we understand that at its source is Satan himself, we can easily comprehend why. A vicious, bloody war is raging. Satan and his hordes of demonic forces are fighting to retain control of this world. We are caught in the midst of the battle.
It’s important to realize that a major part of Satan’s strategy has long been to breed anti-Semitism specifically among Christians, for the purpose of completely annihilating the Jewish people.
The infamous Adolf Eichmann, sometimes referred to as “the architect of the Holocaust,” once said, “Throughout history men have dreamed of destroying the children of Abraham.” It’s true. But why?
Satan Battles a Death Sentence
In order to understand this, we must go all the way back to the beginning of the world, when God pronounced a curse upon Satan.
God created the heavens and the earth. Then He created Adam and Eve and told him to subdue the earth and have control over it (Genesis 1:28). There was no sin or evil. No disease had access to the earth, so there was no death.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they turned over the title deed of this earth to the serpent (Satan).
Man’s act of disobedience brought a complete reversal to earth’s balance. The fruit of man’s disobedience was sin and ultimately death for all life on earth.
But then God provided a glimmer of hope: “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15 NIV).
This is the Bible’s very first prophecy of the Messiah’s triumph over Satan. God said that the woman’s seed (Messiah) would crush the serpent’s (Satan’s) head, dealing him his final death blow. This is the “seed promise.”
Meanwhile, since the moment God pronounced the curse has continued to do everything within his power to keep that sentence from being carried out.
So what does all this have to do with the Jews and Satan’s efforts to destroy them?
The Continuation of the Seed
The Fall of Man led to Cain’s murder of Abel, and eventually the world was so evil that: “The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth” (Genesis 6:6 NIV).
God destroyed the earth with a flood, preserving only Noah, a descendant of Adam and grandson of Methuselah, and his family. After the flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, saying, “And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you” (Genesis 9:9 KJV). The seed continued because God declared it would.
Six chapters later, we are introduced to a man named Abram. God told him to go to a land unknown to Abram that “I will show you.” Among those promises, he said:
“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3 NIV).
History shows that God has faithfully delivered those blessings and curses. But this is also God’s promise of blessing to the world. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is the Messiah, the Savior for all mankind.
Satan understood that the seed of the woman would ultimately bring about his destruction through the descendants of Abram, whom God renamed Abraham. So, naturally, they became his primary target to eliminate!
Anti-Semitism and attempts to destroy the Jewish people throughout history have been nothing more than Satan’s attempts at self-preservation. He believes that if he can destroy the descendants of Abraham, he can then keep Genesis 3:15 – his own destruction – from happening.
Satan is the great deceiver. So it is not surprising that he has deceived himself into believing he can do this. His number one priority has been – and remains – to destroy the people of the seed.
Satan Raises Up Minions
Satanic efforts to destroy the Jewish people predate the history of the Church.
One of the clearest early examples is found in Exodus. Some 430 years after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, the Lord was about to raise up a deliverer to bring his descendants back to their Promised Land.
Satan raised up Pharaoh, a type of antichrist, and implanted in him a hatred of the Hebrews. God raised up Moses, the hero who would redeem the Hebrew nation. Upon hearing that a deliverer would be raised up from among the Hebrews, Pharaoh ordered:
“ ‘Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live’ ” (Exodus 1:22 NIV).
You know the rest of the story.
Moses was floated in a basket on the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him in the palace. Indeed, the very person who sought Moses’s destruction became his protector. God sent his redemption and ultimately used Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
In this sixth edition in the Confessing the Hebrew Scriptures series: El Shaddai, God Almighty, you’ll meditate on inspiring verses describing our sustaining Almighty God. This encouraging volume contains Old and New Covenant verses written in English, Hebrew and the transliteration from Hebrew.
A Continuing Redemption Plan
Haman plotted to murder all the Jews. Risking her own life, Esther appealed to the king and rescued the Jews from annihilation, which is celebrated as the Feast of Purim.
Assyria attempted to destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century B.C., followed by the Babylonian captivity in 586. God’s redemptive promise brought the people back.
Israel continued to cry out for her Messiah later under Roman tyranny. Satan knew that a redemptive act was about to take place, so he used another antichrist figure, King Herod.
Hearing about a long-awaited king, Herod summoned the wise men to learn where the Jewish Messiah would be born. They revealed an ancient prophecy:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2 NIV).
Herod responded by sending his army to destroy all male children under the age of two. Matthew 2:13- 14 reveals that an angel warned Joseph in a dream. By the time Herod’s troops reached Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph, with Jesus, were well on their way to Egypt.
Satan later convinced Roman and Jewish leaders to condemn Yeshua (Jesus) to death. But with His death and resurrection, Yeshua publicly defeated Satan and those working for him:
“Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15 NIV).
It was the ultimate act of redemption.
Genesis 3:15— A Two-Part Fulfillment
I really do not think Satan understood how God’s plan was going to work. Otherwise, he would have focused all his efforts on stopping the crucifixion.
If Jesus succeeded in fulfilling Genesis 3:15 fully at Calvary, however, why does the history of intense anti-Semitism continue at the hands of those who call themselves Christians?
I can only conclude that Genesis 3:15 has not been completely fulfilled. Calvary was the down payment.
The first time, the Lamb of God came to take away the sins of the world. When He returns, He will come as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah in victory, power and judgment to destroy the enemies of God.
Satan’s Surprising Weapon
Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the Seed Promise. And, for so many reasons, he has used the Church to fight his battle.
Satan’s plan is to misuse the very people who must bring God’s message of redemption to the Jewish people. Christians, therefore, instead of provoking the Jews to jealousy (Romans 11: 11), have been used as a weapon against Jewish people, in the name of Christianity.
But followers of Jesus have a biblical mandate to share their faith with Jewish people first (Romans 1:16).
Knowing This, What Must We Do?
- Lead the battle against anti-Semitism with full knowledge of its source. This is full-scale spiritual warfare against Satan, ultimately not any worldly enemy or people group.
- Reach Jewish people throughout the earth with the Good News of Yeshua, their long-awaited Jewish Messiah – from young people in the Israeli military to elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel to members of the “Lost Tribes of Israel,” scattered from India to Africa, South America and beyond! Does it sound overwhelming? It should sound familiar!
Our mission at JVMI is razor focused on these mandates from the Lord.
“We Exist to Transform Lives and See All Israel Saved.”
“We Proclaim the Gospel and Grow the Messianic Jewish Community.”
“We Engage the Church Concerning Israel and the Jewish People.”
Your partnership with Jewish Voice puts you on the front lines of this battle, right where God wants you to be.
