One cannot properly understand the Middle East mess apart from the insight of Scripture, particularly the book of Esther.
It’s not that the book contains prophecy; it does not. It does, however, highlight Satan’s ongoing efforts to thwart God’s redemptive plans, which continue today.
By the time of Esther and Mordecai, the devil knew that the Savior would come through Jacob’s descendants, specifically the tribe of Judah. In order to stop the birth of the promised Messiah, he prompted Haman to initiate the killing of all the Jews. His plan backfired, but it did not stop Satan’s efforts to hinder God’s prophetic purposes.
Fast forward to today, and we see the same violent hatred for the Jewish people. And just as it was in the days of Esther, the root of the antisemitism that’s raging in our world is spiritual. There’s no sane reason for the attacks against Israel to continue in the light of repeated failures, but they do. All the ceasefires and peace initiatives eventually fail because they ignore the demonic element that drives the hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.
Veiled, But Antisemitism Just the Same
Last week, Barack Obama addressed the Middle East crisis during an interview with Irish journalist and author Susan McKay. In it, the former president resorted to his worn-out moral-equivalence argument. This time he applied it to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, suggesting both sides are equally at fault in the ongoing conflict.
Although he attempted to sound intellectual and bipartisan, he clearly blamed Israel for the continuing strife. While he acknowledged the oppression of the Jewish people during the past two thousand years, the gist of his argument was that it was no excuse for stealing the land from the Palestinians. He put it this way: “That is undeniable. What is also undeniable is that they took land off people, and they were excessive. And those people understandably said: ‘This is injustice, and I want my land back.'”
His Muslim roots were clearly evident in his remarks, as was his ignorance of Scripture and a willful oversight of the events that led to the UN’s recognition of Israel in 1948. He chose to ignore the fact that there was never a Palestinian State in the land that Israel possesses. The “Palestinians” today are a blend of Arabs from the surrounding nations (prior to 1948, Jewish people living in the land were also referred to as “Palestinians”). It was sleight-of-hand antisemitism designed to appear reasonable and fair.
Even more egregious were Obama’s remarks concerning Gaza, in which he described the conflict as reflective of a “cycle of historical grievances.” Really? Someone needs to remind him that Israel gave Gaza back to the Palestinians in 2005, and their self-rule led directly to the demonic and barbaric slaughter of 1,200 Jews eighteen years later. His abhorrent comments regarding Gaza reflect a willing and total disconnect from reality.
An All Israel News article precisely sums the former president’s failure to disguise his hatred of all things Jewish: “You really have to hand it to Obama, though, because he didn’t just drop the bombshell statement in a willy-nilly manner. He adeptly sought to couch it in the cleverest way possible, which attempted to sound conciliatory but, at the same time, became a forceful condemnation of Israel’s right to defense.“
What we see today is a not-so-secret all-out blitz, waged by “the spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:11), against Israel and its people. But why now? Why the overt and covert hatred?
Why Oppress Israel Now?
So just as in the days of Queen Esther, the devil’s strategy remains the same: eliminate the people instrumental to God’s plan of redemption for humanity and thus thwart the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. He recognizes that the seventieth week of Daniel awaits a future fulfillment (9:24-27): “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place” (Daniel 9:24).
According to this verse, the Jewish people and Jerusalem will play a key part in fully realizing all the Lord’s redemptive purposes. They will be instrumental in bringing Jesus’ reign of peace to the entire world.
Israel’s miraculous birth as a nation in 1948 signaled the nearness of Jesus’ return to Zion and His reign over the nations from there. Satan not only knows this, but he also recognizes the great number of signs pointing to the nearness of the Tribulation period and thus to the Lord’s return to a repentant remnant of Jews at its conclusion.
The devil is again seeking to eliminate the Jewish people as he continues his age-long agenda of thwarting God’s rescue of humanity. Jesus’ triumphant return to a repentant Jewish remnant will inaugurate His glorious and righteous thousand-year reign over the nations (and Satan’s long imprisonment in the bottomless pit).
It’s Spiritual
The raging antisemitism of our day, along with the hatred for all things Israel, is rooted in Satan’s hatred for God and his attempt to stop His redemptive purposes for humanity. In short, it’s a spiritual conflict that will not and cannot be fully resolved until the Price of Peace returns to the earth.
We see this hostility played out in the continuous warfare and threats of war against Israel. It’s behind the antisemitism that results in violence against the Jewish people throughout the world.
More subtly, the animosity also manifests itself in intellectual verbiage that seeks to veil the hatred while vainly assigning blame to both sides, while naively regarding Islam as a “religion of peace.”
It’s spiritual. As such, we should expect both overt and veiled hostility to continue and, sadly, also gain traction, as it’s doing in America. Little do they know, they are fulfilling Bible prophecy themselves. Not only that, it will not end well for them.
