As anti-Semitism explodes across the Western world, it’s now commonplace to see formerly thoughtful media commentators aiming arrows of Jew-hatred in every direction. New and rabid conspiracy theories accuse Jews of all the old medieval blood-libels – and then some! From false charges of dual loyalty and treason, to allegations of world Jewish conspiracy led purportedly by the Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD – these dog-whistle smears are now fair game, coming mostly from the unhinged and unbalanced side of America’s right wing. Not to be left out of the fray, strident woke elements on the left side of America’s political aisle are increasingly embracing Hamas and Islamist talking points, leveling charges of genocide as official Israeli governmental policy.
In an unusual activist maelstrom, elements of both Left and Right in the West are paddling their canoes into the center of the political aisle, crashing onto turbulent and rocky anti-Semitic waters. This dynamic reminds one the new forms of anti-Semitism which arose during the 1800’s. They focused on supposed secret Jewish societies which (so they said) control the world, all banks and all national economies; foster the spread of all non-Christian worldviews; dictate the direction of all media and movie companies, etc. Their teachings focused on a supposed Jewish occult secret society called ‘the Illuminati’ who, according to this satanic perspective, created both capitalism and communism in order to enslave all Gentiles. Another similar branch declared that the Jewish Rothschild family secretly controls the world’s economic system, raises kings and destroys governments, starts wars and ends wars. From this perspective, any anti-Christian development in popular culture is instigated by Jews; America’s banks and entertainment industries are secretly being directed by anti-Christ Jews; any American support of the Jewish state is another example of Jewish anti-Christ control of the superpowers. Such views were popular within the Nazi hierarchy and championed by Joseph Goebbels. They are widely held in the Islamic world, and have a strong measure of popular support in the former Communist Bloc. Many of these ideas have re-appeared in anti-Zionist and anti-Israel movements. Some Evangelical groups who advocate for BDS (boycott of Jewish products from Israel) do not see the irony that their own actions and beliefs are strikingly similar to those Nazi who boycotted Jewish shops and goods in Germany of the 1930’s.
These ideas crystallized in a forgery by Pavel Krushevan, an ultra-nationalist and stridently anti-Semitic journalist active in the Black Hundreds and in the Kishinev pogrom. In 1903 he published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This booklet was a clumsy fabrication, with approximately 160 passages plagiarized from a French original that never mentioned Jews. The Protocols ostensibly reports discussions among a secret group of Jewish elders, regarding plans to subvert Christian civilization and erect a world-wide Zionist state. According to the book’s worldview, the rise of liberalism has provided Jews with the tools to destroy Christian institutions – the nobility, the church, the sanctity of marriage. Their plan is to take control of the world as revenge against Christianity. The text focuses on supposed Jewish control of banking, media and elections. It is stated that a new world order will be manipulated and directed by this cunning elite, who have purportedly schemed throughout the ages – planning to enslave humankind until the end of time. According to the authors of this anti-Semitic propaganda, the attempts to modernize Russia in the late 1800’s were actually a Jewish plot to control the world. Eventually the Protocols were used to blame Jews for the Russian Revolution. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate once said, “If ever a piece of writing could produce mass hatred, it is this one . . . This book is about lies and slander.”
The blowback of these anti-Semitic floods in the 1930’s led to state-sponsored anti-Semitism, street attacks, the rounding up and imprisonment of Jews and eventually genocide – coming from both Hitler’s Reich and Stalin’s Soviets. Though many today are blind to the lengthening shadows, the world is about to revisit those days once again.
Moses unpacks similar dynamics in his own day. A formerly friendly pro-Semitic Pharaonic Empire morphed into an anti-Semitic and genocidal dictatorship. The resulting slavery and torturous treatment of the Jewish people by Egypt jump-started the ‘blessing-cursing’ dynamic of the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed!” The evil transition in Egypt started through cold-heartedness in the heart of imperial leadership. Fear of the Jewish people opened the door to callousness, and eventually to a murderous ruthlessness on the part of the Pharaohs:
- “All the people who descended from Jacob were seventy people, but Joseph was already in Egypt. And Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land’” (Exodus 1:5-10)
- “Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage ascended to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them” (Exodus 2:23-25)
The Jewish people – the heart of the matter
When a nation’s leaders or spokesmen and women aim their verbal spears at Isaac’s progeny, the foundations of that country are at risk. YHVH is emotionally invested in what happens to Jacob’s children:
- “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9)
- “For YHVH of armies says this: ‘After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple of His eye’” (Zechariah 2:8)
God is all about the heart
The Scriptures keep driving this point home: the God of Israel spotlights the heart, and He is looking for a process which will lead to a changed heart in His followers:
- “Do not let kindness and truth leave you! Bind them around your neck! Write them on the tablet of your heart” (Proverbs 3:3)
- “Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers! Write them on the tablet of your heart!” (Proverbs 7:2-3)
- “For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares YHVH: “I will put My Teaching within them and write it on their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33)
- “Therefore say, ‘This is what ADONAI YHVH says: “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”’ When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh”’” (Ezekiel 11:17-19)
- “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)
- “For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the lands; and I will bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and bring it about that you walk in My statutes, and are careful and follow My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:24-28)
A cold heart brings about a cold result
Messiah Yeshua gave us a way to take the pulse of our nation and our planet: When men’s and women’s heart grow cold, our world is in danger:
- “And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold” (Matthew 24:12)
- “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
Taking the temperature of the world’s heart concerning the Jewish people
Many people will be shocked to discover that Messiah Yeshua will be judging the nations when He returns (according to Matthew 25) – weighing the spiritual temperature of their hearts vis-à-vis the Jewish people.
- “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me’” (Matthew 25:34-40)
Matthew refers to the Jewish people as ‘the brothers of Yeshua’ and ‘the descendants of Abraham.’ These are New Covenant conceptual terms for the Jewish people (see Hebrews 2:10-16):
- For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for this reason, He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, “I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; In the midst of the [Temple] Assembly, I will sing Your praise!” . . . Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For clearly, He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham!
A practical way to counter-act anti-Semitism in our day involves standing with and protecting the Jewish people in their hour of need. Matthew 25:31-46 can become a basis for meditation, encouragement and challenge regarding how we will stand with Yeshua’s Jewish brethren. If you are not quite sure how to go about this, here is an initial helpful idea: whatever talking heads like Tucker Carlson or Candace Owen suggest what to believe, what to think or what to do regarding the Jewish people or the Jewish state – do just the opposite!
Suppressors of the truth
“In war, truth is the first casualty,” said the Greek playwright Aeschylus. The Apostles Paul and John added some thoughts here which speak directly to our fast-morphing society:
- Therefore, Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
- Then YHVH saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually . . . Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt – for humanity had corrupted its way upon the earth . . . Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth . . . So YHVH was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart . . . But Noah found favor in the eyes of YHVH . . . Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God (Genesis 6:5-13)
- But evil people and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13)
- For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18)
- For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen! (Romans 1:23)
- For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)
How shall we then pray?
- As we pray for our country, our city, our congregation, our family and our friends, let us ask God to soften the hearts of all these people
- Let us ask the God of Jacob to have mercy on all these people
- Let us ask the God of Israel to keep our own hearts tender, and not become bitter as lawlessness increases
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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