A Salt Lake City bar recently instituted a “No Zionists Allowed” policy. The bar owner wrote on social media, “We are pleased to announce we are banning all Zionists forever from our establishments. Zionism is hate speech, it is white supremacy and has nothing to do with the beautiful Jewish faith.”
Really? So, he hates Zionists but finds the Jewish faith “beautiful.” He thinks Zionism is “unrelated” to Judaism. I have no idea what his motivations are, but his statements have become a common theme among those who want to be anti-Jewish without seeming to be anti-Semitic. Zion is part and parcel, not only of the Jewish faith, but of the Jewish soul.
Psalm 137 expresses the intense feelings of the Jewish captives taken from their homes by Babylonians. Verses 1 and 3 (NASB) say, “By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion…. Our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’”
Even the Babylonians knew that the word Zion represented something deep and precious to the Jews. The captives equated singing about Zion to singing “the Lord’s song.” In verse 4 they ask, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” This was about God.
Verses 5 and 6 say, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy.”
In Jeremiah 25:11-12, God said that Babylon would fall only seventy years later. All those who oppress Israel are eventually brought low. Someday, it will happen on a global stage for a fully redeemed Israel. Isaiah 60:14 promises to Israel, “And the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; And they will call you the city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”
The world’s hatred for Jews, Zion, God, and His Messiah are linked together in Psalm 2:1-6.
“Why are the nations in an uproar, And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed: ‘Let us tear their fetters apart, And cast away their cords from us!’ He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury: ‘But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.’”
Zionism encompasses Christians as well as Jews. To rail against Zion is to rail against God. Psalms 132:13 says, “The Lord has chosen Zion.” It is also an attack on the Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah. Psalms 48:2 calls “Zion… the city of the great King.” That’s Jesus.
I realize that even some Jews say they are against Zionism. That’s not surprising. A growing number of Americans hate America. Those people can rightly be called anti-American. In the same way, a Jew can be an anti-Zionist. It doesn’t make them less Jewish, just sad.
Israel’s army works every day to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. In the process, they increase the risk to their own lives. They did not start this war. Hamas did. Israel has responded in appropriate ways, one of which is to attack the aggressor. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continues to fund the terrorists even as those terrorists continue to hold and torture civilian hostages. Until those hostages are free and until the murderers, butchers, and rapists of October 7th are subdued, a ceasefire is not appropriate.
