It is always an immense privilege to be able to stand before you, and minister the word of God to you. And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Deuteronomy 29, where we just were. But I must say I have many passages that we will be going to. This is not going to be a typical exposition. In fact, I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with all of these things, but I have much to share with you with respect to what's going on in the world today. In fact, I'm moving away temporarily from our study of the gospel of Mark, to address the issue of Israel in Bible prophecy.

We are all stunned, at least the civilized world is stunned, with what has happened in Israel. I've been in many of those areas; I've never been to Gaza, but I've been to many of those areas. And the savagery that took place there is nothing short of satanic. And we're also stunned to see the massive protests here in the United States; people that are somehow sympathetic with things that they don't understand frankly, and some of them do understand. And many are asking the question, "Why such violent hatred of Jewish people?" "Why such antisemitism, pretty much worldwide?" "Why are the Jews and the Islamic Arabs in a perpetual state of war?" Is it because Israel is oppressing the Palestinians, as many will argue; that somehow they are an oppressive people group? And therefore, the solution to all of this is a political solution. Because ultimately, this is a land dispute. My goal over the next few weeks is to present a biblical, theological, prophetic explanation of what is happening. And I will say from the outset, that the things that I have to say that emerge from the Word of God will be utterly absurd to people who do not know Christ, and do not have a grasp of scripture. But for those of us who, by his grace, know and love him, the Spirit of God will use his word to illuminate our hearts, and bring comfort, and discernment and hope, and strengthen our faith.

Why such hatred of Jewish people? Why Hamas and Hezbollah? Why the violent protests? Well, God answers this very clearly in his word. And I'm going to present this to you very succinctly and then I'm going to spend several weeks elaborating on what I'm about to say. The reason for all of this can be summarized under two simple headings. The hatred of Jewish people and Hamas and all of these things, is number one, the result of Satan's hatred of God's chosen people. Secondly, it's because of God's judgment on his chosen people. Which I might add, will ultimately result in their spiritual salvation and national restoration.

When Christ returns and establishes His kingdom what we see happening in Israel today, dear friends, is nothing more than a manifestation of the ancient battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light; between Satan and God. Satan is doing everything he can to thwart the purposes of God. And Israel is right at the heart of that, as we will see, Christian people. But also, what we see here is the fulfillment of God's promises to judge his people for their disobedience. God made it an abundantly clear, for example, in Deuteronomy 28, that he would bless them if they would obey his law, but also he would curse them if they did not. So frankly, he predicted the bewilderment that many people have today with antisemitism. In fact, as we read just a minute ago in Deuteronomy 29, beginning in verse 24, he predicted this, he said, "All of the nations will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?'" Here's the answer, "Then men will say, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the land, to bring upon it every curse, which is written in this book; and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'" And I will elaborate much more on this in times to come. But what we see today is God allowing Satan, and his demonic and human servants, to persecute His chosen people, that he might eventually bring them to saving faith in Christ

May I remind you of Jesus' profound statement to the Samaritan woman recorded in John 4:22. And this helps under helps us understand the reason for Satan's hatred. Jesus said to her, "'You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.'" Dear friends, the implication of that last phrase is absolutely staggering and it is at the heart of what we see happening in Israel and around the world today. You see, because salvation is from the Jews, God's chosen people, they have always been and will remain, Satan's primary target. Satan and his minions are conducting to this very day, a campaign of deception and violence to prevent God's plan of redemption, by eliminating the very people from which the Savior arose once and will return. God predicted this intransigent Semitism, antisemitism that has dominated history, when he cursed Satan in the Garden of Eden, after Satan tempted Adam and Eve, you will recall in Genesis 3:15. And this is foundational to understanding all that has happened and all that is happening there. In Genesis 3:15, God said, "'And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.'" Friends, I would submit to you that you cannot understand the mystery, the problem of antisemitism and anti-Christianity unless you understand that passage of scripture and it's far-reaching implications recorded in Scripture. What we are watching today is the result of this ancient battle of two opposing spiritual kingdoms. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, combined with God's judgment upon his chosen people for their disobedience. And even to the to this day, most of them remain his beloved enemy.

But I will add this, we also know that God will one day save and restore Israel, when the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ returns and judges the nations and establishes his kingdom. In fact, in Deuteronomy, where we were earlier, beginning, in verse three of chapter 30, we read this, "Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers."

We even read in Jeremiah chapter 30, in verse 24, "The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart. In the latter days, you will understand this." In Jeremiah 32, beginning of verse 37, we also read "'Behold, I will gather them out of all of the lands to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. They shall be My people, and I will be their God.'" Thus saith the Lord.

Well, I have an outline that I made up that I hope to follow, at least at some level, that may give you some categories to hang some of these great truths upon. And unless you're a bit OCD, I would encourage you not to even take notes, because I'm going to be going fast and furious. And all of this is going to be transcribed, and you will have them available to you, okay? But my outline is simply this. Number one, we're going to look at God's choice of Israel. Number two, we're going to look at Satan's hatred of Israel. Number three, God's judgment of Israel; and that's probably as far as we'll get today. And then, fourthly, we're going to look at God's protection of Israel, and finally, God's salvation, and restoration of Israel. And what you will see is there's much overlap in all of these categories.

So first of all, in order to understand what's going on, we need to start from the beginning. We need to understand, number one: God's choice of Israel. Let me give you the big picture overview. We know that God created the heavens and the earth, everything that is in the universe; that he allowed sin to enter into his perfect universe. And as a result of that, he cursed all that he had created with the intent of ultimately bringing blessing and restoration; to bring glory unto himself to an elect group of people. And when God made that curse, he also cursed Satan in the garden. And I read that a moment ago in Genesis 3:15. He predicted a great struggle between Satan's seed, referring to unbelievers, and Eve's offspring, referring to Christ, and all who are in him. And there we read that Satan would bruise Christ's heel, meaning that he would cause him to suffer, but Christ would bruise him on the head, meaning he would ultimately and utterly destroy him. And that happened at the cross. And the ultimate fruition of that will occur, yet future. The cancer of sin, we know from the biblical record and from history, continued to metastasize.

So God judged the entire Earth with a global flood. And after the days of Noah, God chose the descendants of Abraham to be his treasured possession. Deuteronomy seven beginning in verse six, God said, "'For you are a holy people to the LORD.'" In other words, you're separated unto me. "'You are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.'" Let me pause, and also in Deuteronomy nine and verse six, he adds, "'it is not because of your righteousness, that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.'" Back to Deuteronomy seven and verse eight and following. Here's why he set his love upon them. "Because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers,'" referring to the Abrahamic covenant. "'The LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving kindnesses to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.'"

Now, very briefly, we know that in Genesis chapter 12, God introduced a covenant, a promise to Abraham. And then he actually made that in Genesis 15, beginning in verse 18. And then he reaffirmed it later on in Genesis chapter 17. And then we also know that he renewed it with Isaac in chapter 26, and also with Jacob in chapter 28. And this covenant contains essentially four elements; number one, that he would give him a seed-- referring to Christ that would come from his loins. And this was reaffirmed again in Second Samuel seven, that secondly, that he would give Abraham's descendants a land, a specific territory, that would be set apart by God for His people; a place where he would ultimately dwell with them in a holy and an intimate union. And we can see this reaffirmed in Leviticus 26, for example, as well as Deuteronomy 27 and 28. And thirdly, he promised that from Abraham would come a great nation, where Abraham's godly reputation, and his legacy would be displayed materially, spiritually and socially; that the glory of God's grace would be put on display. And then, fourthly, he promised divine blessing and protection upon them. And this is all reaffirmed in the new covenant blessings found in Jeremiah 31. In fact, the writer of Hebrews describes the certainty of God's promise to Abraham and his descendants in chapter six, beginning in verse 13. Here's what the writer says, "For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He had not one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself saying, 'SURELY I WILL BLESS AND MULTIPLY YOU.'" And then later in verse 17, we read when God desired to show more convincingly, "to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath."

Now, God's promise to Abraham included blessings to his descendants that would come through his sons, Ishmael, and Isaac. And it is here, where Satan began to drive a great wedge in that family, in those people. And he did this by implementing a nefarious plan to thwart the purposes of God. So we move from God's choice of Israel; Secondly, to Satan's hatred of Israel. What we see in the biblical record is that here Satan caused a rivalry between Ishmael, whom most will say was the father of the Arabs, and Isaac, through whom came the Jews. And it's important for you to understand that God promised to make Ishmael a great nation, with many progenies and the father of 12 rulers. But God also said in Genesis chapter 16, and verse 12, that, "'He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of all his brothers.'"

Later, in 2005 BC, Isaac's barren wife, conceived and gave birth to twin boys, by the name of Jacob and Esau. Esau being the father of the Edomites, the fierce enemies of Israel. And in Genesis 25, verse 23, we read that, "The LORD said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.'" Dear friends, we're seeing this played out today in Israel. Indeed, only Isaac's descendants would be the inheritors of the racial and the national promises made to Abraham. You read more about this, for example, in Romans chapter nine. And in Genesis 32 and verse 28, we read how God changed Jacob's name to "Israel." And through Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, came the 12 tribes of Israel.

Well Satan's attempt to destroy God's chosen people continued, and obviously I'm leaving out lots of history, I'm giving you the highlights. But we see this when the line of Abraham was almost eliminated by the plot against Jacob's son, Joseph, when God raised him up to be a great ruler in Egypt. And we know that God intervened. We know that he preserved many people, including his own family. We also see that Joseph is a type of Christ revealed in Scripture. And Joseph's own words reveal the glory of God's intervention and all of that. In Genesis chapter 45, verse eight, he said, "'Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.'"

Now we know that the Israelites in Egypt began to prosper greatly. The 12 tribes that came through the loins of Abraham and through Isaac, and finally Jacob, ultimately became a threat to Pharaoh. So he began to afflict them with bitter labor. But as we read in Scripture, the Israelites actually thrived and prospered, despite Satan's attempt to destroy them.

And in that day, God raised up Moses to deliver his people, Israel, from the Egyptians, and bring them into, according to Exodus 3:8, "'a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittites and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.'" It's also interesting, in Genesis 15, verse 13, Abraham was told by God, that his descendants would be aliens, that would be mistreated in a foreign land for 400 years using a figure rounded to hundreds. And as promised, According to Exodus 12:41, quote, "at the end of 430 years, to the very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt." And we know that through the ordinates of that first Passover, that pointed to Christ's saving work, God miraculously delivered his chosen people from the Egyptians. And that happened we know in 1446 BC.

And as they wandered in the wilderness, making their way, ultimately to their promised land, we see how God made that family into a nation. And he gave that nation his law through his servant Moses, to demonstrate his righteous standard, and to help them understand their need for a Savior, that would one day come. He promised to bless them for their obedience, to curse them for their disobedience as we have read. And again, this is vividly and solidly described in Deuteronomy 28. And so we know that he brings them finally into the promised land. And it's interesting in Deuteronomy seven, beginning in verse one, we read that God commanded them to, quote, "utterly destroy" the people of Canaan, when they entered the land. Which meant they were to kill every man, every woman and every child. They were to do this as an act of divine retribution for their extreme wickedness, and also to protect Israel, not only from their violence, but to protect them from the corruption of their idolatry and immorality that would ultimately cause them to sin and bring judgment upon Israel. And sadly, they violated God's commands in many different ways. And they succumb to Satan's schemes. They began to intermarry with those people, they began to worship their idols. And they suffered greatly at the hands of their enemies, as God allowed that to happen as part of his judgment upon them.

And this moves us now to the third point in our little outline, and that's God's judgment upon Israel. Again, this is promised in Deuteronomy 28, as a consequence of their disobedience; and there's many examples of how his judgment was manifested. Let me give you a few more. We know that Satan almost eliminated the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, in the potential genocide of the Jews that we read about in Esther chapter three and chapter four. He attempted to destroy the Messianic line itself, in the time of Joash. You read about that in Second Chronicles, 22, and 23. And what's interesting is always, even in the midst of all of those horrible judgments that were occurring, he would always remind them of his faithfulness to his covenant promises. And as God's plan unfolded in history, around 1000 BC, he made another promise to one of Abraham's descendants, to a man named David. The promise of an eternal kingdom, whereby David's throne would ultimately belong to a descendant of David, to a greater son of David, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know that God's judgment continued as God allowed Satan to persecute his people.

In 722 the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. In 605 BC, Judah fell to the Babylonians. And during that time, God raised up a prophet by the name of Daniel. In the prophecies of Daniel chapter seven, which parallel Daniel chapter two, I might add. In that prophecy, Daniel sees four great beasts, according to Daniel seven, verse three. They're coming, "up from the sea, different from one another." And there he describes the empires of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Greece and of Rome, and also a future revived Roman Empire that would be ruled by the most hideous of all rulers that we know to be the Antichrist, that is coming. And there we read of a successive number of Gentile empires that would dominate Jerusalem and God's covenant people until the Messiah would come and establish his kingdom. And we see Satan's role in all of this.

You will also recall in Daniel chapter 10, as well as chapter 12, where Daniel speaks of the Archangel Michael, the great prince, who stands guard over the sons of Israel, Daniel 12, verse one. Remember how, according to chapter 10, and verse 13, that he fought against a demon called the Prince of Persia, whom Satan had dispatched to thwart the purposes of God by opposing Gabriel in heavenly warfare. You may remember that from our study of Daniel.

But once again, because of his great love, and his great faithfulness to his covenant promises, God gave Abraham's descendants, a fourth promise, a new covenant of redemption, that we read about in Jeremiah, chapter 31. A covenant whereby through Israel, God's very Son would purchase their redemption, and the redemption of all who had placed their faith in him; that he would restore them to their land. And this of course, was and is an eternal and unconditional covenant, based upon God's very character. That all who know him and love him would participate in the spiritual blessings of salvation. Promises to be fulfilled and individuals, and to Israel as a nation, when they are reestablished into their land in the millennial kingdom.

Moving ahead in history, we continue to see this battle take place between Satan and Yahweh. Remember when the infant Messiah was born, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew two we read how Satan tried to kill him. He tempted Christ, to get him to abandon his mission in Matthew chapter four, and he incited the Jewish leaders and their followers to crucify the Messiah. He even went so far as to make sure that there were people that were guarding his tomb where he wouldn't rise again as he promised. Since the time of Christ, Satan has tried to exterminate God's chosen people. He has tried to thwart God's kingdom purposes; and God allows it, consistent with his promise to judge them for their disobedience.

In AD 70, the Romans came in and massacred them. And during the next six centuries, conflict grew between Jews and Gentiles. They were scattered all over the globe in the Diaspora. By the fourth century AD, we see how even the church was suddenly getting sucked into this antisemitism. We see it through the influence of Augustine, where the Christian community had become so thoroughly Gentilized, that they began to adopt, frankly, an antisemitic view. But yet they realized that the Old Testament said something different, and they couldn't accept the idea of a future national restoration of Israel, despite how clearly it says differently in the Old Testament. So they embraced the Grecianized hermeneutic of Plato and of Origin in order to expunge God's covenant people from God's plan for mankind; to get rid of them completely. And they created the hermeneutical device of allegorizing Scripture. And from that came, replacement theology, also known as supercessionism, or amillennialism, frankly, Roman Catholic eschatology.

And by the seventh century AD, we know that Satan dispatched a demon to give a series of visions to a man by the name of Muhammad, this demon's name was Gabriel, Muhammad said. And he recorded what the visions were. They are now found in the Islamic scriptures known as the Koran, the book of Islam. Islam means "surrender, or submission," "surrender to the will of Allah." And Islam would then grow to be one of the most violent haters of all people, but especially the Jews of any religion that has ever existed; more on that later.

Dave Harrell  

By AD 1096, you have the Crusades, and they attempted genocide of the Jews. In fact, if you read your history, you will see that the medieval church's vicious degradation of the Jews is one of the most heart wrenching periods in world history. The English Magna Carta of 1215 legalized persecution of the Jews. By 1492, when Columbus discovered America, prior to their expulsion by Ferdinand and Isabella, who were patrons of Columbus, the Jews in Spain endured horrible, horrible, hideous torture, even being burned alive during the Roman Catholic Spanish Inquisition. History records how at least 300,000 of them had to either convert to Roman Catholicism, or flee Spain or be killed. And we know that 1000s of them fled to Portugal, to Greece, to Turkey, to the Netherlands and so forth.

Between the years of 1346 and 1353, the Jews were blamed for the Black Death. Remember that? The bubonic plague that caused the deaths of they say anywhere from 78 to 200 million people. And many of the reformers were even vicious anti Semites like Martin Luther of the 15th century, who accused the Jews of poisoning wells and ritual murder. You ought to read his diatribes in his work entitled "The Jews and Their Lies." But by the 19th century, the volcano of antisemitism was erupting in Poland, and in Russia, resulting in many pogroms, that is by the way, "p" "o" "g" "r" "o" "m" "s." In Russian it means it means "massacre." Basically, the Russian Tsar Alexander the First used the infamous protocols of the "Learned Elders of Zion," to distract the Russian people from the political problems that he had caused, that was occurring in Russia. And according to the Shoah Resource Center of Yad Vashem; "shoah" by the way in Hebrew means "Holocaust." And this is referring to the world Holocaust Remembrance center in Jerusalem; I've been there on several occasions, if you've never been there, I hope you can go, you will never be the same when you see what the Nazis did to the Jews. But in the Shoah Resource Center, they speak about the protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. And folks, this is just one example of many, of how Satan uses his lies to deceive millions. They say quote, "It was a forged document that claims to reveal a Jewish plot to take over the world. The protocols were based on a satire of the French regime by Maurice Joly, that had been published in Belgium in 1864. The adaptation was first distributed in Russia. Eventually, the protocols were used by the Nazis," as quote, "proof of the Jews wickedness and greed. Groups still publish the protocols today with the intention of hurting the Jews and denying the Holocaust." They went on to say, "the protocol state that the Jews will use weapons to achieve control over the world. It claims that the Jews brought about the French Revolution, liberalism, socialism, communism, and anarchy, in order to weaken European society." That Jews, "also control the price of gold and have the power to evoke economic crises, rule the media, create religious and tribal feuds and destroy cities if the need arises. Once they gain world power, they would demand total obedience to a Jewish king." Finally, they say, "the Freemasons would act as their collaborators in these conspiracies."

So again, you see Satan at the very core of these things. You see God allowing these things to happen, as he promised, as a judgment on their disobedience. And of course, what I just read led to Hitler's, quote, "final solution" of the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were murdered; an evil that is without parallel, an evil that Satan orchestrated to destroy all Jews and Jewish civilization in Europe.

Now, I have just given you a mere sampling of biblical, theological, historical truths. And of course, after hearing that, you can see that the reason why there is a battle in Israel is because Israel is oppressing Hamas. I mean, folks, if that's what you think, I don't know what else I can say. I mean, that is a level of stupidity and naivety that begs language. And yet, that's what you're hearing by so many; that Israel is oppressing the Arab Muslim Palestinians, because they are occupying their land. And of course, the answer is a two-state solution. You just give them their land, give them what they want, and everybody's gonna get along fine. Staggering stupidity: people that live in a fool's paradise.

You know, Jesus said of Satan in John 8:44, that he is the "father of lies." And folks is a great example of that. He is the "ruler of this world," Jesus said in John 12:31. In Second Corinthians four, four, he describes him as "the god of this world," who "blinds the minds of the unbelieving, so that they won't see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." And this is the blinding that we are seeing happening today in our world, in our country. And this is the blinding that's being perpetuated in our elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools and universities...and in the halls of Congress.

You see Satan causes people to believe things that appeal to their fleshly lusts, to their depraved nature; things that are idiotic; things that are irrational and inconceivably evil. All you have to look at this whole LGBTQ transgender insanity. And you can see that we've got military leaders today that are more concerned about personal pronouns, and soldiers more concerned about makeup kits than protecting our country. Absolute insanity. Beloved, what I have just said to you, what I'm just touching on here, are the great truths of history, and theology, and the Bible, that needs to be taught to our Ivy League students. And when they understand these things, they'll put down their banners and they'll stop foaming at the mouth with all of this hate that they do not understand. Please understand, the brainwashed world of Islamic Jihad and the Marxist revolutionaries of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, and university professors; all of this is a result of the father of lies. And that's why they are elated with what Hamas has done. I mean, folks, this is as predictable as a Hallmark movie. All right? Bear in mind liberal, woke, Marxists align themselves with radical jihadist because they all hate Jews. But they do so for different reasons.

Maybe I can explain this briefly. The woke social justice Marxist see them as privileged, white, that are oppressing brown people. And you know, when they look at the worldwide success of Jewish people in every field, and the enormous wealth that the Jewish people have worldwide, that causes them to see them as the oppressor group; the white privileged class. And therefore they must be scorned and censored and eliminated.

And then of course, there's the jealousy factor because of their towering intellect. They are a brilliant, a very highly successful people. You realize that they make up only 0.2% of the 8 billion people that inhabit this globe. And yet, from 1901 to 2023, 22% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews. My friend, David Larsen, who spoke here a number of years ago; he's now with the Lord, he's written, by the way, a book called "Jews, Gentiles and the Church." It's one of the best books I've ever read, you simply must have that, you must read it, you must learn it. But he said this, quote, "Jews are twice as likely to go to college than Gentiles, reflecting the religious obligation of study, and are five times more likely than Gentiles to be admitted to an Ivy League school." Let me pause for a second, he wrote this in 1995, so some of these figures may be a little bit different now. But he went on to say, "Jews are overrepresented in the field of science by 231%, in psychiatry by 47%, in law by 265%, and dentistry by 299%. And in mathematics by 283%. The very terms of their apartness have fostered scholarship and achievement in order to survive, but these have made them susceptible to jealous resentment, and the other prices," of quote, "otherness. Thus, some people have spoken of the Jews as the pariahs of privilege." And my how much greater that is today than it was in 1995.

Additionally, I might add that the appeal of Islam, among many in the black community, is rooted in their shared hatred of white Christianity. But with respect to the Arab Islamic jihadist, they also hate them because they believe God's covenant with Abraham was a promise between Abraham and Ishmael, not Abraham, and Isaac. In fact, the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast commemorates Abraham's offering of Ishmael. They believe it was Ishmael who was to be offered on Mount Moriah, not Isaac. And thus the blessings of the land and all of the promises that God gave to Abraham's descendants through Isaac, really is supposed to be theirs through Ishmael.

They also believe Moses was referring to Muhammad in Deuteronomy 18:15, where we read, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him." So you must also understand that the Arab Islamic jihadist also hate Israel because they believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East contradicts the teachings of the Qur’an. Jewish presence in that region is perceived to be a wicked reality that undermines the validity of Islam. Because what it does in their minds is it elevates Yahweh over Allah, the supreme insult. You see, Muhammad hated both Jews and Christians because they refused to accept him as the only prophet. We read about this, for example, in the Qur’an in 586, "you will surely find that the most hostile to the believers are the Jews and the idolaters, while those who have the greatest affection to them are the ones who say 'we are Christians.'" Historically, we know that after Muhammad's death, and who supposedly ascended to heaven from on his horse, from the site known as the Dome of the Rock there in Jerusalem, at his death, the Muslims became a world power, and that spread from northern Spain to India. And during that time, their hatred of Jews and Christians increased, and much of that hatred was justified, in their mind, by the words of the Qur’an in chapter nine, in verse 29. It says, "fight against those who do not believe in God, or in the last day who do not forbid what God and his Prophet have forbidden or practiced the true religion."

Again, David Larsen says, quote, "The influence of the PLO among Arabs living in Israel and the occupied territory, seems to be receding and the influence of the Islamic movement, or Hamas, seems to be growing." Again, this is 1995, okay? "The radicalization of Islam in Israel bodes no good. A recent international conference to support the Islamic Revolution in Palestine held in Tehran included 400 delegates from 60 Islamic countries." The conference called for quote, "the elimination of the Zionist existence and total opposition to any peace process involving Israel." He went on to add, "escalation of the activities of Hezbollah, the Shiite extremist organization, demonstrates the implacable and irrational nature of this hatred for everything Jewish. The history of Islamic terrorism has involved the use of every vicious means and tactic conceivable."

I might also add that both the woke Marxists in our country, and the Islamic jihadist, despise Western civilization. The social justice Marxists like BLM and Antifa, etc. and all of the, you know, the hysterical feminazis that you see spewing out all of their vengeance with all of the protests and so forth and all of the diversity, equity and inclusion people, they all hate Western civilization, and they want to eradicate everything that is white, everything that smacks of Judeo Christian ethics and influence. Down with colonization, which by the way, is their code word for capitalism. The destruction of the West, that's what drives so many of these people. And the Islamic jihadist, which are really nothing more than religious Nazis agree with them, but they have a little different twist with all of the colonization resentment, because you must understand that these people are tribalists. They're from tribalism, not nationalism, they do not want a Jeffersonian democracy. They do not think and act in the best interest of a nation, but only in terms of their tribe. So again, these are some of the symptoms of what's really at the core of all of these problems, at its most fundamental level. I would submit to you that antisemitism is the result of those two things: number one, Satan's hatred of God's chosen people, and his attempt to thwart the kingdom purposes of God; as I have demonstrated. Satan is the temporary god of this world; he is bent on destroying God's covenantal people. And only then can he thwart the covenant promises of a messianic kingdom and retain his own coveted status. So that's what drives him and Satan's hatred of the Jewish people hatred of Israel, is because they were to be, according to Exodus 19, six, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." And when Christ returns that will be fully realized. When according to Zechariah's prophecy and chapter eight and verse three, the Lord says, "'I will return to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.'"

Folks, Satan is doing everything he can to prevent that. And that's why the Temple Mount is the most disputed piece of real estate on the planet. But also, this antisemitism is a result, as I say, of Israel's disobedience, God made that so clear in Deuteronomy 28. In fact, I would add that the last seven chapters of Deuteronomy, chapters 28, to 34, really provide a prophetic summary of God's dealing with Israel. It describes her afflictions; it describes God's judgments against them. It describes their salvation, their regathering, her restoration. And frankly, we have witnessed the beginning of this regathering to Israel in our lifetime. Do you realize what a miracle it is for Israel to have its own state, its own land, its own country, after the Holocaust? That which was established by the UN in 1948. Something that Hitler's "final solution" could not prevent. I'm reminded of Amos's prophecy and chapter three, verse two where the Lord says to Israel, "'You only have I chosen among all of the families of the earth.'" "Chosen" by the way is also the word "known." It carries the idea of an intimate, loving relationship. God predetermined that he would know Israel as the intimate object of his love, making them his chosen people. People whom he would never permanently cast away.

But today, God's hand of judgment is on his beloved enemy Israel, even though he continues to protect them. They have been temporarily put aside as we read in Romans 11, verse 25, "a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Then in verse 26, we go on to read, "all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB, THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.'"

Well, in conclusion this morning, I know some of you are asking, Okay, so, all right, a lot of history, I see some of this, but prophetically what's going to happen next? Well, a little preview of where we will ultimately be going; we know biblically that God's focus will once again return to Israel after the snatching away of the church in the rapture. And then God will pour out his final judgment on Israel as he promised and Daniel 9:27, Daniel's 70th week--judgment; we're waiting. The 69 weeks has already happened, we're waiting for one more week of years to occur. And that's a distinctly Jewish context pertaining to God's covenants with Israel. It will be the time when according to Jeremiah 30, and verse seven, when Israel enters quote, "the time of Jacob's trouble." And we see the details of that delineated in Revelation chapter six through chapter 19; a period of unprecedented oppression for Israel, but also, the context describes her future and final salvation and restoration, when the Messiah returns in power and great glory to establish His kingdom. And then the focus will remain upon Israel during the millennial reign of Christ when all God's remaining covenant promises will be fulfilled to them literally, including the promises of earthly blessings, and an earthly messianic kingdom that will last for 1000 years. And that millennial kingdom will be the consummating bridge between human history and the eternal state.

In the meantime, Satan is going to continue to do all he can to thwart the purposes of God. But both Jews and Gentiles can take comfort in what God has promised. Zechariah chapter 12, beginning in verse eight, "'In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. And in that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son. And they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn."

And finally, I know some of you are saying, "well, what about this Hamas war? Where does all that fit in?" I don't have time to get into it, by any means today, I will next week. But I will simply say that I believe that what we are seeing right now is God establishing, orchestrating, what he promised in Ezekiel 38 and 39. In Ezekiel chapter 38, and 39, we read about a Russian Arab alliance of nations that will descend upon the northern mountains of Israel to try to destroy them, the great battle of Gog and Magog. We know that they will be supernaturally defeated on the mountains of Israel. I believe that that battle is going to occur before the tribulation. I believe that what we're seeing now is God, beginning to set the stage for when that will happen. Don't know when it will happen, but I can tell you this, it is going to happen. And when it does happen, Israel will know that Yahweh is indeed the Lord, the God of Israel. And it will set into motion the final pre kingdom judgments that will lead up to the second coming of our Savior and King.

And I also believe that before that happens, the church is going to be snatched away. So if you do not know and love Christ, I would plead with you as a minister of the gospel, do business with God today before it's too late. And for those of you who know and love Christ, let's celebrate the glory of his person, his faithfulness, and to know that we as Gentiles, have been grafted into the root of the Abrahamic Covenantal blessings. And so our hope is also in Christ, amen? Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the glorious truths of your word, for the power of your Spirit. Speak to every heart that cry Christ will be exalted, that your name will be praised. We commit it all to you, in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen..