“For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’ … Fill their faces with dishonor, that they may seek Your name, O LORD. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, and let them be humiliated and perish, that they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth”
(Psa 83:2-4, 16-18).
In the final Psalm of Asaph in the book of Psalms, the inspired prophet-poet highlights a theological truth that needs to be taught in every church claiming to be under the authority of Scripture. The coalition of hostile nations, inspired by unseen evil forces (see Psalm 82), seeks to completely delete the “name of Israel” from mind and memory (v. 4). Asaph, however, directly links their hostility toward the name of Israel to their hostility toward the name of the LORD, who is Most High over all the earth (vv. 16-18). In other words, what appears to be a geopolitical hatred is actually a theological rebellion. And according to Asaph, when will hatred for Israel, both the people and the land, cease? When those who are hostile come to know the LORD (v. 18).
Whenever Christians post or like antisemitic videos, they are not merely lending a hand to a battle against the Jewish people inspired by the devil. They are demonstrating a disdain for, and lack of genuine knowledge of, the LORD.
So let us be perfectly clear. Whenever Evangelical scholars use the name “Palestine” for a land Matthew explicitly calls “Israel” (Matt 2:20), they are not merely falling prey to political correctness. They are failing to honor the LORD. Whenever Christians post or like antisemitic videos, they are not merely lending a hand to a battle against the Jewish people inspired by the devil. They are demonstrating a disdain for, and lack of genuine knowledge of, the LORD.
In Psalm 83, Asaph calls a spade a spade. With Jews being murdered in Israel and around the world simply for being Jews, it is time for the church of God to emulate Asaph and stand up for truth as God defines it. Stop speaking as an accusing enemy and start praying as a brokenhearted intercessor and loving friend.
