The Mystery of Anti-Semitism

"I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them."--Jeremiah 24:9

One of the great mysteries throughout history has been the world's relentless hatred of the Jews wherever they've existed.

Going all the way back to the ancient time of the Philistines, (1100 B.C.) the Jews have been scorned and mocked as perpetrators of evil; arrogant, schemers, lovers of lucre, hopelessly corrupt etc.

During the time of the ancient Seleucids, Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) desecrated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on its altar. Epiphanes also commanded his soldiers to slaughter as many Jews as they could and ordered those they spared to worship the false god Zeus.

The Romans, who succeeded the Seleucids, hated the Jews just as much as their predecessors. They invaded Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and ransacked the Temple while slaughtering many Jews and taking many others into captivity. 

In 130 A.D., by the order of Emperor Hadrian, the Romans returned to Jerusalem to quash the Bar Kochba rebellion that had sought to liberate Israel from Rome. After Hadrian succeeded in putting down that uprising, he rededicated the Temple Mount to the Roman god Jupiter and renamed Israel Syria Philistinia or Palestine.

Nearly 1,000 years later, the Jews became the targets of wrath once again when the Crusaders, under the authority of the Holy Roman Church, invaded Jerusalem in 1099 A.D. and massacred thousands of Jews. 

In the late 15th century, the Jews were persecuted and driven out of Spain during the infamous Spanish Inquisition that was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church. Many Jews that were driven from Spain settled in Portugal. Unfortunately, the Inquisition followed them there and many Jews were tortured and massacred in that nation by the order of Pope Leo X.

And in the 1930s and early 40s, Adolf Hitler's Final Solution resulted in the mass murder of six million European Jews.

After Hitler's Holocaust, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine in 1948 and declare Israel a sovereign world nation once again after 1800 years. And as soon as that happened, the Arab-Islamic world declared war on the tiny Jewish state and vowed to complete Hitler's Final Solution. Since 1948, only the hand of God has protected Israel from certain annihilation at the hands of her hostile neighbors.

Of course, after Hitler's Holocaust, the nations of the world promised that they would never again tolerate anti-Semitism and allow the Jews to become the helpless victims of mass murderers such as Adolf Hitler.

For over 50 years, the world chose to keep that promise to the Jews. But not anymore. Anti-Semitism is once again on the rise throughout much of the world. According to ynetnews.com, anti-Semitism has gotten so bad again in Europe that many Jews living in nations such as France, Belgium and Hungary no longer feel safe in those countries and are considering emigrating.

In fact, according to the Jewish People Policy Institute's Annual Assessment Report, many Jewish families are leaving Europe for Canada and the United States because of the increasing attacks against Jews and their property in Europe.

And in the United States, once Israel's most trusted friend in the world, anti-Semitism is on the increase as well. On many American college campuses that are supposed to be bastions of freedom from hatred and bigotry, Israel is condemned as a racist illegitimate state that has no right to exist. And the Jews are maligned as wicked, crooked and hopelessly corrupt.

What's truly behind the historic and relentless anti-Semitism? It's God judgment that he ordered against His people in the ancient times because of their chronic rebellion against Him. For many centuries, the Lord sent His prophets to warn the Jews to stop perverting his laws and violating his covenant that he established with them through Moses.

But they not only ignored his prophets, they persecuted them. And finally, the Lord had enough. To the prophet Jeremiah, who lived during the Sixth Century B.C., the Lord said this: "I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them."(Jeremiah 29:18)

And since that time, God has kept his word. The Jews have indeed been pursued by the sword all over the world. They have indeed been scorned by all the nations of the world. And that's still going on today, even here in America.

But that's about to end. The Bible reveals that after the punishment of the Jews, the Lord is going to turn His wrath against all the nations of the world that persecuted the Jews. (Ezekial 38-39, Zechariah 14) 

In the end, the lesson of the world's historical persecution of the Jews teaches us that rebellion against a sovereign Holy God comes with a very heavy price.

The Jews have paid that price. And now the world is about to pay that price as well.