John Ecob
“Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee” (Ezek. 35:5-6).
ANTISEMITISM will always bring judgment. It has been so ever since Abram and his seed were chosen by God to be His witness to the Truth on earth.
Abraham was “called the friend of God” (James 2:23), and it doesn’t pay to attack God’s friends. Satan hates God’s friends therefore Abraham and all his family are targetted by Satan. Also, he hates the Truth so anyone who is a witness for the Truth is targetted. God has said to Israel:
“Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange God among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God” (Isa.43:10-12).
Satan has been a liar from the beginning. He has deceived millions to believe there are many gods so that when Israel’s prophets declare in the Bible that “the Lord our God” is the Creator of the universe who alone knows the end from the beginning, Satan seeks to destroy God’s witnesses.
Antisemitism began when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob (Israel) and then tried to recover the covenant blessing of Abraham. From the moment the blessing of God was conferred on Jacob he became a target for persecution and Esau sought to kill him.
Throughout history the decendants of Esau, the Edomites, have held a perpetual hatred for the Jews and Satan has spread that hatred among all the nations of the earth. The survival of the Jewish race is a marvel of history and a testimony to the only True God.
Today we see the secular world expressing hatred for the Jews. Within Christendom Replacement Theology has wiped Israel out of its thinking. Many in Christendom even align with the opponents of the Jews and join in protests against Israel.
A Price to Pay
History records how nations that despised the Jew paid a very heavy price for their hatred. Even when Israel was being punished by God for her disobedience and idolatry the very fact that her enemies rejoiced that she was being punished brought judgment on her adversaries.
When God sent the Babylonians against Judah, burned Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple of the Lord and took the people away captive for 70 years those nations that rejoiced at Israel’s calamity sealed their own doom.
The promise to Abram was unconditional. Those who blessed Abram would be blessed and those who cursed Abram and his seed would be cursed as Ezekiel confirmed when he prophesied concerning Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre and Egypt. These neighbouring nations were delighted to see Israel desolated and even thought to gain from Israel’s calamity. However God in heaven viewed their hatred and caused the Babylonians to turn on those nations leaving them desolate.
Ezekiel wrote concerning Tyre:
“Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste” (Ezek.26:2).
God said:
“And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more.”
Alexander the Great did just that about 332BC.
Ezekiel wrote concerning Ammon: “Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites,… Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity; Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee” (Ezek.25:2-4).
Ezekiel wrote concerning Edom “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword” (Ezek.25:12-13)
Ezekiel wrote concerning Philistia: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast” (Ezek.25:15-16).
Ezekiel wrote concerning Moab: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen; Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities… Unto the men of the east … And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezek.25:8-11).
Ezekiel wrote concerning Egypt “All the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will bring a sword upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee. And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste” (Ezek.29:6-9).
All of these prophecies were fulfilled about 568BC to 570BC when Nebuchadnezzar swept through those countries leaving them desolate.
Future Prophecies Soon to be Fulfilled
Ezekiel prophesied of the last days in chapters 34 to 48 of his prophecy and he described the final conflicts that will be used by God to bring Israel to repentance during the Tribulation.
In chapter 34 he described how the “shepherds” of Israel would be judged before the Lord will make a “covenant of peace” (Ezek.34:25) with the nation. The evil rulers will be replaced by the Lord and David will again rule over them in Christ’s kingdom.
In chapter 35 he describes how the land of Israel will be contested by the Edomites in the last days. They will say;
“These two nations and these two countries (Judah and Samaria) shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there”
(Ezek.35:10) … Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Because the enemy hath said against you (Israel), Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession” (Ezek. 36:2).
The ancient high places are Hebron, Jerusalem and Samaria in the West Bank claimed by the Palestinians today!
Then in Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 5 the Edomites are identified as dwellers in the land of Idumea. We read:
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, tocast it out for a prey.”
The slogan “from the river to the sea” is a definite claim by the Palestinians and their supporters of not just the high places but of the whole land!
Who are the Edomites?
The Edomites therefore must have a part to play in the last days as they are to contest the land of Israel and especially the “ancient high places”.
We know that the Edomites came to Jerusalem in 586BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and they helped to plunder the city. Psalm137:7 was written during the Babylonian captivity and recorded:
“Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof”.
However in fulfilment of Ezekiel’s prophecy the Babylonians conquered the Edomites after 586BC and then the Nabataeans, an Arabian desert people, drove the Edomites out of Bozrah which was their capital, and they resettled in the south of Judah which had been left vacant after the Babylonians took the Jews captive to Babylon.
So the south of Judah became known as “the land of Idumea” and the Edomites were referred to by Greek and Roman historians as Idumeans.
Herod the Great was an Idumean and was made king over Judaea by the Romans in 37BC.
During the time of the Maccabees the Idumeans had converted to Judaism and Josephus the Jewish historian, tells how 20,000 Edomites (Idumeans) in AD70 entered Jerusalem for a season to support one of the robbers. After killing many Jews they left.
Historians generally believe that after the fall of Jerusalem in AD70 the Idumeans disappeared from history but that seems strange in view of the fact that they had been established in southern Judah for 638 years and in AD 70 could raise an army of 20,000 men. Jerome who translated the Latin Vulgate makes mention of the Idumeans about AD400 so they may have ceased to be significant but they didn’t just disappear into thin air!
In the absence of written records after the 5th century we can only assume that the Idumeans continued to live in southern Judah and that they intermarried with the Arabs after the Muslim invasions beginning about AD636.
If this is the case then there is good reason to believe that the people we know as Palestinians today are a mixture of Idumeans (Edomites) and Arabs. They would have to survive because scripture indicates that in the last days the Edomites (Idumeans) would contest the “ancient high places” in the land of Israel. There can be no doubt that we are in the last days and the Palestinians are claiming that these ancient high places belong to them.
We therefore come to the conclusion that todays Palestinians are the remnants of the Idumeans or Edomites and this explains their “perpetual hatred” for Israel.
The “perpetual hatred” (Ezek.35:5) of the Edomites (Palestinians) for Israel has certainly been demonstrated in Gaza, the West Bank and in Lebanon in recent days.
In 2022 there were 5,000 terrorist attacks on Jews and the future of the Palestinians therefore looks very bleak. They have cursed and afflicted the Jews. They have slaughtered 1,400 Jews in Gaza and have thereby placed themselves under the curse of Almighty God. The suffering they are enduring in Gaza today is nothing compared with what they will endure in the Tribulation.
Other prophecies by Ezekiel indicate that Israel would become a nation again which it did in 1948, and it is their presence in the land that now creates the prophesied conflict with the Palestinians (Edomites) over the “ancient high places”.
Antisemitic Protestors
And what shall we say about the protestors around the world who have taken to the streets to support these Edomite murderers? All of those antisemitic protestors can expect the judgment of Almighty God to fall upon them.
The Dec.2023 Israel365 News reported that Hasan Bitmez, a 53-year-old parliamentarian delivered an address at the General Assembly of the Turkish parliament and he concluded by threatening Israel. As he finished his speech he had a heart attack and died. It does not pay to curse Israel even when Israel is rejecting Messiah. The nation of Israel is still God’s witness to the world even while being chastened of the Lord. After Christ returns to a redeemed nation in the millennial kingdom,
“ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech.8:23).
and,
“the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (Israel) shall perish” (Isa.60:12).
All antisemitism will cease when Christ is reigning on the throne of David.