On October 7, 2023, Israel was attacked by a group of terrorists from Gaza who indiscriminately killed about 1,400 people. The civilized world condemned the attack, but there were celebrations in many Muslim communities across the globe. And there were demonstrations in major cities around the world that included some anti-Israel rhetoric that was very Nazi-like.

Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, told me, “When they say things like ‘from the river to the sea,’ that’s a call for the genocide of the Jewish people. It’s not the ‘two-state solution.’ It’s the Final Solution.”

He continued, “A lot of people in politics don’t believe in evil. They just think that people have different points of view in the world.” But, he said, “No. There’s good, and there’s evil.”

Revelation 12 mentions a war in heaven, when Satan rebelled along with a third of the angels. The conflict centers around a woman who is about to give birth to a male child. She is described as being “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars” (v. 1).

Who is this woman? Let’s look at Genesis 37, where we learn about Joseph’s dreams in which the sun and the moon and stars bow down to him. His father Jacob interpreted it as himself, his wife, and his sons, who fathered the tribes of Israel.

So the woman in Revelation 12 is the nation of Israel, who birthed the Messiah. And the dragon is poised to devour the child because the child will crush his head, according to the first prediction of the Messiah in Genesis 3:15.

Now, why such hatred of Satan toward Israel? What if God’s plan to redeem the world required the existence and continuance of that nation? Well, if that were true—and I believe it is—if you destroyed that nation, you would thwart God’s plan.

Since the beginning of time, Satan has waged a cosmic conflict to destroy the Seed of the woman. From Cain killing his brother Abel, to the murder of the male Hebrew children by Pharaoh, to Haman’s plot to kill every Jew in Persia in the book of Esther—the Old Testament is filled with this conflict.

The conflict continues in the New Testament. When Jesus was born, Herod killed every male child under two years old in a demonic plot to destroy the Seed. During Jesus’ temptation, Satan took Him to the pinnacle of the temple and tried to get Him to throw Himself from the top. When Jesus expounded on Isaiah 61 at the synagogue in Nazareth and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21), they wanted to kill Him.

And then, when Jesus died and rose from the dead, Satan unleashed his fury on the church and continued his assault on the nation of Israel. But why would there be a continual conflict?

Remember the premise: If you destroy the nation of Israel, you keep God from fulfilling all of His promises. You keep Jesus from establishing His kingdom so that the Jews cannot receive it. And so, the battle continues.

Here’s the bottom line. Whatever God loves, Satan hates. Anti-Semitism is downright satanic.

This war that began in heaven moved to the theater of the earth. You and I are involved in it because we are objects of God’s grace—which is why every single Christian is harassed and tempted.

The dragon couldn’t stop Jesus from being born, or from rising from the dead. And the dragon cannot stop Jesus from coming again and ruling this world. And He will.

So don’t let the dragon—don’t let Satan—stop you from following Christ. Get really serious with the Lord as you see these end times events unfolding.

Skip Heitzig is an author, the host of the nationwide radio program “Connect with Skip Heitzig,” the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, and serves on several boards, including Samaritan’s Purse.