Webster's dictionary defines anti-Semitism as: hostility or discrimination against Jews. Many people assume it originated with Christianity because the Jews were thought to be responsible for the death of Jesus. The scriptures, however, reveal a different story. Persistent hatred and persecution of the descendants of Abraham, today known as Jews, has been raging since Israel's birth in Egypt; but its true origin goes back much further, back to the Garden of Eden. The cause for this hatred is not carnal racism as some might suppose; but it is spiritual.
G-d, as Sovereign, intended to rule the world through man to whom He gave dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 8:4-8). Spiritual beings, good or evil, only have access to the earth through mankind. Satan, who wanted to be G-d (Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:11-17) influenced Adam and Eve to rebel against the Almighty's authority in the very beginnings of the world. In this way, Satan obtained access to the earth through them and so became the ruler of the world (Luke 4:5-7; John 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19) from that point onward.
Our omniscient G-d purposed to reclaim His authority and dominion by paying man's penalty for sin Himself, thus loosing all humanity from Satan's grip. This would give mankind a choice between G-d's rule or Satan's. Then, the L-rd would destroy His enemies before returning to rule and reign in the earth. G-d even revealed His plan to Satan in the Garden of Eden: (All brackets, author's)
"And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Israel], and between your seed [demons working through men] and her Seed [Jesus]; He [Jesus] shall bruise your head [authority], and you shall bruise His heel [a minor, temporary wound]." (Genesis 3:15)
In other words, G-d would choose a nation [the woman] to bring forth a Redeemer [her Seed] who would end Satan's unchallenged authority in the world. Once Satan became aware of G-d's plan, he immediately set out to prevent its implementation.
First he tried to immediately destroy mankind by sending his rebellious angels to 'mate' with the women of the earth. They produced offspring that were very wicked and perverse (Genesis 6:2-5, 12). G-d decided to destroy them all (Genesis 6:6-7) except for Noah and his family who alone remained pure to repopulate the earth.
Then Satan influenced Noah's descendants to rebel against G-d by worshiping the stars in the heavens (Genesis 11:4). But G-d confused their language and divided the land, scattering them throughout the world (Genesis 11:7-9). Finally, G-d chose a man, Abram, from among the descendants of Noah's son Shem to begin His plan of redemption. Shem's descendants were known as Shemites or Semites. Thus began Satan's campaign of anti-Semitism.
From this point onward, Satan concentrated his attention on one man, Abram and his descendants. G-d led Abram into the land of Canaan and changed his name to Abraham. At G-d's appointed time, his wife Sarah gave birth to the promised son, Isaac. Isaac married Rebecca who gave birth to Jacob from whose loins would come the nation whose Seed would 'bruise Satan's head' as G-d had promised in the Garden of Eden. G-d changed Jacob's name to Israel. Israel's twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel, were his offspring by his two wives Leah and Rachel and his two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. The devil continued to devise one evil scheme after another against the descendants of Israel. Yet all Satan's various attempts to derail G-d's plan, failed and the Nation of Israel was born!
First, famine came upon the land of Canaan where Israel lived with his family. G-d knew of Satan's plan to destroy them and sent Israel's son, Joseph, on ahead to Egypt in order to preserve the new born Nation from famine and death (Genesis 45:5-8). Once there, G-d gave Joseph great favor with Pharaoh who made him ruler throughout all the land of Egypt, second only to himself. When the famine became unbearable, the Israelites moved to Egypt where Joseph provided food for them and a temporary home in the beautiful land of Goshen.
Still determined to eradicate the people chosen to carry out G-d's plan of redemption (John 4:22), Satan devised another evil scheme: Long after Joseph died, a Pharaoh rose to power who did not remember Joseph and his goodness towards Egypt. Satan caused this Pharaoh to become disturbed by the number of Israelites living in his midst and he began to distrust Abraham's descendants. As a result, he subjected them to forced labor and then slavery. Pharaoh even ordered the Egyptian midwives to kill all the male babies born to the Israelites to prevent their numbers from becoming greater than he could manage. But, G-d caused Pharaoh's own daughter to rescue the baby boy, Moses, who would become G-d's agent to deliver the Israelites from their Satan-orchestrated bondage in Egypt.
G-d freed His people Israel from bondage in Egypt with an out-stretched arm and with signs and wonders. Then He brought them into the wilderness to teach them the only way to maintain a close relationship with Him. He taught them the sacrificial system as well as rules and regulations that would keep them healthy and prosperous. This unique relationship was offered only to the Israelites. G-d called Israel His wife (Ezekiel 16).
In the wilderness, Satan continually influenced the Israelites to complain and rebel against G-d. He brought great fear on the leaders sent to 'spy out' Canaan, making them ineligible to enter the land promised to Abraham's descendants. But G-d kept the Israelites in the wilderness until that generation died and a new generation arose that was prepared to inherit the Promised Land.
Once in the Land, Satan stirred up anti-Semitism among the inhabitants of Canaan. But G-d brought them victory after victory as long as they obeyed and trusted Him (Numbers 23:19-24). When the Israelites rejected G-d's rule over their lives and demanded a king, He gave them Saul (1 Samuel 8:5-7) as king to rule over them. Saul, like the majority of the Israelites, rebelled against the Almighty's rule, causing G-d to reject him and to anoint a shepherd boy, David, as king in his place. As a result, Satan influenced Saul to try to take David's life twenty-one times before the Philistines finally killed Saul and his sons in battle.
The Israelites enjoyed G-d's favor during the reigns of King David and his son King Solomon. But in his later years, Solomon allowed his many foreign wives to bring their foreign gods to Israel and he worshiped them on the Mount of Olives (1 Kings 11:4-10). Because of his unfaithfulness, G-d tore Solomon's kingdom in two after his death (1 Kings 11:11-13). Ten tribes rebelled against Solomon's son, Rehoboam and formed their own 'kingdom' in the Northern region known as Ephraim or Israel. The Southern region became known as Judah.
All through the period of the kings of Israel and Judah, Satan succeeded in beguiling the Israelites with foreign gods until G-d's anger could no longer be stayed. The Northern Kingdom was exiled forever to Assyria and the Southern Kingdom of Judah was exiled for seventy years in Babylon. During their exile in Babylon, people of the kingdom of Judah became known as Jews.
| Those that became known as Jews were from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, as well as a remnant from all the other tribes that moved to the Southern kingdom to be near the Temple located there. |
During the Jewish exile in Babylon, Satan raised up a strong enemy to exterminate them once and for all. Haman deceived King Ahasuerus into signing a decree that would allow him to annihilate the entire population of Jews. But G-d used the Jewish Queen Esther to foil Satan's plan and reverse the evil mandate, bringing judgment upon Haman instead. This victory gave rise to the festival known as Purim.
Although Satan tried hard to prevent it, the Jews returned to the Land of Israel after seventy years, rebuilt the Temple of G-d and re-established the Sacrificial System. G-d promised that the glory of this latter Temple would be even greater than the former Temple of Solomon (Haggai 2:9). This was due to the fact that the Messiah would walk and teach in this Temple. The Shekinah glory of G-d would be there in the flesh!
Once the Messiah was born to a Jewish maiden, Miriam (Mary), Satan became desperate. He stirred up the madman, King Herod, to be fearful of the baby that wisemen from the East identified as King of the Jews. He sent soldiers to kill every Jewish baby two years old and younger. But G-d sent an angel to warn Miriam's husband Joseph to move his family temporarily to Egypt. They returned to Israel only after King Herod had died.
When Jesus reached the age of thirty, the age at which a man was allowed to enter the L-rd's service (Numbers 4:3), He began his ministry by being immersed in the Mikvah (Gr. Baptism-Luke 3:23). Immediately, the Spirit of G-d led Jesus into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil to abandon G-d's purpose for His life. Jesus resisted every temptation of Satan, qualifying Him to proceed with G-d's plan.
G-d actually tricked Satan into believing he had won the battle when Jesus was crucified. But to Satan's surprise, G-d raised Jesus from the dead, whereupon He descended into Hell (the place where the dead slept) to preach the gospel to those who were waiting for Him (Ephesians 4:9; 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6). This took away the sting of death which separated man from G-d not only for the living who accepted the Messiah, but also for those that trusted G-d in the past but died before having the opportunity to accept Him.
| Satan only 'bruised the heel' of Jesus in His death on the cross. Jesus' resurrection, however, was the victorious blow that crushed Satan's head which is his authority over man. Mankind could now choose his ruler: G-d or Satan. |
It would seem that once Satan failed in his mission to prevent the Messiah's birth and His victory over death, the devil would no longer be interested in destroying the Jews. Satan knew, however, that the Scriptures predict that G-d will use the Nation of Israel to bring about his ultimate ruin. This fact, coupled with the knowledge that he now had a new, powerful enemy, the Holy Spirit living in every believer, made Satan determined to destroy both Natural Israel and the newborn church consisting of mostly grafted-in branches to the cultivated olive tree (Romans 11:16-22), i.e. mostly Gentiles. He was desperately seeking to thwart G-d's plan for his final demise.
Indeed, Satan appeared to have succeeded in eliminating Natural Israel when the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple and murdered most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The name of the country was changed from Israel to Palestine and many of the Jews that escaped the Roman carnage fled to other nations being scattered throughout the world .
The first three and a half centuries of the church's history also reflected Satan's rage against the ecclesia of G-d. This period was marked by extreme persecution by the Roman Empire as well as excommunication by the Jews who rejected the Messiah and set themselves up as the authorities over Judaism after the Temple was destroyed. During this period, the Gentile proselytes to New Covenant Judaism became separated from their Jewish mentors as part of Satan's plan to divide and conquer.