“Most bigotry is an assertion of inferiority and speaks the language of oppression. Antisemitism is an assertion of impurity and speaks the language of extermination." —David Brooks
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems…And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour the child that is born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child (Revelation 12:1-9).
John sees a red dragon (Satan), standing before a pregnant woman (Israel) waiting to kill a male child (the Messiah) that is about to be born.
The Child escapes but the dragon, knowing that he has but a short time (Genesis 3:15) pursues the woman who gave birth to the child and, hell-bent on her extermination, pursues her to the ends of the earth (Revelation 12:13).
We read of horrific hate-crimes against Jews—the recent slashing of Boston Rabbi Shlomo Noginski springs to mind—but John’s vision reminds us that we're caught up in a more sinister plot than the one we see displayed in the media. There are monstrous, malign, spiritual forces at play behind the scenes—unseen, unknown, unrecognizable apart from revelation.
Antisemitism is bigotry and intolerance, but it is much, much more. It is Satan's way of avenging the birth of the Christ who came to save us, for, as Jesus reminds us, "Salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). Antisemitism is Satanic. It stands on the wrong side of redemptive history. No true follower of Jesus would ever embrace it.
David Roper
6.13.21
