Why Such Hatred for Israel?

Happy Sunday. I hope you are able to watch or listen to last week's message. You can find all of my sermons on my website, david.com. Last week I talked about Israel. We looked at the Old Testament and saw clearly that the land of Israel is for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob, the Jewish people.

The Jews are not the occupiers of the land; they have been given the land by God himself. Today I'm going to answer the questions: Who are the Palestinians? What is Hamas? And why is there such hatred of the Jews?

So first, who are the Palestinians? In AD. 135, the Roman Emperor Hadrien renamed the land of Israel to Palestina. It's a madeup name that is really a slur against the Jews. The name Palestina is really paying homage to the Philistines, an enemy of the Jews in biblical days.

So from 135 until 1947, the land of Israel was called Palestine. Everyone who lived there, uh, was considered Palestinian, Arabs and Jews alike. If you were born in the land in 1947, even if you were a Jew, your birth certificate would say Palestinian. This is the same land that God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants. Biblically, it is Israel.

So what is Hamas? Hamas is a terrorist organization made up of Muslims. It's an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The name is an an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement. The word Hamas in Arabic means zeal, um, strength. The word Hamas in Hebrew means violence.

In their charter, they are clear as to what they want to do. They want to kill Jews. They want to wipe Israel off of the map. You hear people chanting on the news almost every night, "From the river to the sea." What they are saying is that they want Israel gone from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, they, their boundaries east and west. So they want everything gone. It is hateful rhetoric.

Muslims claim Jerusalem as their own. The Jews were there around 1900 before Christ. The Muslim religion was formed in 610 AD, 2500 years after the Jews were in Israel.

Sadly, Hamas became the leading political party of the Palestinians in 2005. They received an 82% vote. It is clear that Hamas does not care about the Palestinians. They use them as human shields and pawn, pawns on a horrible game. The money that they have as a government has been used for weapons and to build elaborate systems of tunnels, not for the people.

Israel has provided electricity, water, food, and supplies to the Palestinians for years. After the attacks of October 7th, Israel has dropped leaflets in Arabic over Gaza to tell the people to get out. What has Hamas done? They've blocked the exits of the Palestinians. Let me be clear: there are some innocent Palestinians, and we should pray for them.

I spoke with a Jewish neighbor a week or so ago, and she mentioned this. I've been amazed at the support in this world for Hamas and the Palestinians. Some college campuses are battlegrounds against Israel. Some political leaders in our country are pro-Hamas and anti-Israel. The United Nations is clearly against Israel.

That leads to the next question: why is there such hatred of the Jews? Thomas So, an American eon economist and a great thinker, said it's because the Jews are so successful. "It is jealousy," he says. I think it's so much deeper than that. This is spiritual. This is good versus evil.

I used to think that the Jews were hated because they killed Jesus. Many today still think this is so. I would argue that all of us killed Jesus. He died to forgive sin, and we are all sinners. I'm as guilty as anyone and his death.

Sadly, history does show that many Christians have been horrible to the Jewish people. Martin Luther wrote a treaties in 1543 titled On the Jews and Their Lies, and I'll read the first three points. He said, "First, set fire to their synagogues or schools. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians." Can you believe that thinking? "Second," he said, "I advise that their houses be raised and destroyed." Third, he wrote, "I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them." This is a sad part of history.

On the right side of history, Cory Tin Boom said this. She said, "You can't love God without loving the Jewish people." I agree. I truly believe that anti-Semitism is satanic. Jesus was Jewish. All the writers of our Bible were Jewish.

In the future, during the tri, time of tribulation, God will use 144,000 Jews as witnesses for Jesus in leading the greatest revival in history. That's in Revelation 7. Jerusalem is a place where God intends to rule this world during the thousand-year Millennium. That's in Isaiah chapter 2.

It's interesting: if we picked a city that end times would revolve around, wouldn't the world pick Washington DC or New York or London or Paris or Moscow or Beijing? But Jerusalem, and God picked it long ago in his word. The hatred of the Jews is a hatred of God. Satan wants to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth to thwart God's plan.

You remember he tried to have all the baby boys killed under the age of two when Jesus was born. Matthew 21:16 tells us, "When Herod saw that he'd been tricked by the Magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were 2 years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the Magi." He also, Satan tried to stop Moses the same way. Remember Exodus 15:22: "Pharaoh commanded all of his people, 'Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.'"

Satan tried to use Saul to kill King David to stop God's plan through him. Satan rejoiced at the crucifixion of Jesus for three days. Satan is against Israel, and he has done all that he can to destroy the land and its people, and he's doing all that he can today to stir up people that don't love God. There's no doubt in my mind that the hatred of the Jews comes straight from hell.

Join me next week as we continue our timely look at the world through the lens of God's word. Let me close with these words about Israel from Genesis 12:3: "I, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all the people on Earth will be blessed through you."

Pray with me. Lord, it's a messed up world, and it's a world where everyone needs Jesus: Christians, Jews, Muslims, all of this world needs you. And Father, I pray that those that listen, those that watch, will draw closer to you, and that we would be people of prayer, that we would be prepared, and Lord, that we would, uh, be praying for the peace of Israel. Father, thank you for the gift of this day. In Jesus' name, amen.

God bless. Thanks for joining me.