Having led more than thirty study tours to the Holy Land, I am watching this week’s elections in Israel with extreme personal interest. Some of my best friends live in the country, and people and places that are dear to me are likely to be affected by what happens this week.
In his Friday Daily Article, Dr. Ryan Denison explained how the Israeli elections work and discussed their implications for the country’s future in the Middle East. Whatever happens with regard to Israel’s governance, however, some extremely worrying facts will remain:
- Antisemitic assaults in the US last year were twice as high as before October 7.
- 24 percent of American Jews were targets of antisemitic incidents over the past year.
- More than three-quarters of surveyed teachers in the European Union have encountered antisemitic incidents in their classrooms.
- Following Hamas’s horrific October 7 invasion of Israel, antisemitic incidents rose 600 percent in Argentina, 738 percent in Australia, 961 percent in Brazil, and 1,000 percent in France.
- A survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that 26 percent of the adults surveyed were “deeply infected with antisemitic attitudes.” This figure represents more than a billion people.
What explains this persistent animosity toward a people who comprise approximately 0.2 percent of the world’s population? The State of Israel is roughly the size of New Jersey and is surrounded by adversaries who have historically sought its annihilation. And yet, when Hamas launched its horrific invasion on October 7, antisemitic rallies broke out across the US on college campuses and elsewhere.
Their purported claim is that Israel is the “colonizer” of the land and oppressor of the Palestinian people, who must now be oppressed themselves. But prior to Critical Theory and other Marxist constructs, there were two factors at work that still explain much of the antisemitism growing around the world today.
“We will not worship your gods”
The narrative of the three Jews and the fiery furnace is one of the best-known stories in all of Scripture. But the story behind the story is just as relevant to us as the divine deliverance the text describes.
Daniel 3 begins with the idolatry of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, who made an “image of gold” ninety feet tall and commanded that every one of his subjects worship it (vv. 1–6). And they did: “All the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar set up” (v. 7).
All but one: “At that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews” (v. 8). They specifically accused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: “These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (v. 12).
When the three were brought before the king, they confirmed the charges, testifying that no matter what the king did, “we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (v. 18). Perhaps you remember what happened next (though the story is worth reading again either way).
The threats of “otherness” and prosperity
Here’s the point I wanted to emphasize: hatred of the Jews has historically centered on their “otherness.”
Wherever the Jewish people have lived in community across the centuries, they have done what these three did in Babylon, refusing to compromise their beliefs for the sake of cultural acceptance. Examples range from Sandy Koufax, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who refused to pitch on Yom Kippur even in the World Series, to the Maccabean Revolt against Greece, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed idolatry on them.
Add the fact that Jewish communities have typically been prosperous over the centuries, due largely to their literacy as “people of the Book” and the fact that they have often been driven by their oppressors from agriculture into cities, where they used that literacy to become successful bankers, businesspeople, and physicians.
Such success has bred jealousy among those envious of their success. We see this in Daniel 3, where the accusers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego describe them to the king as “certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of Babylon” (v. 12). We see it again in Daniel 6, when King Darius planned to set Daniel “over the whole kingdom” (v. 3) and “the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom” (v. 4).
As an example today, Jews have never been more than 3.7 percent of the American population, but they have been awarded 36 percent of our Nobel prizes. Some of the most significant leaders in American business and industry are Jewish.
Accordingly, antisemitic conspiracy theories “explaining” such success have been used to justify the Holocaust and hatred of the Jewish people across the centuries.
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb”
As Israel’s elections continue to make headlines, let’s use them as an invitation to obey God’s command to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6). Specifically, let’s pray that:
- The elections provide clarity for Israel and its leadership.
- Solutions can be found that provide a peaceful homeland both for Israel and for the Palestinians.
- Peaceful relations between Israel and its neighbors can be forged.
- Antisemitism lessens in the Middle East and around the world.
And let’s pray that the continuing conflicts in the Middle East will draw Jews and Muslims alike to the only Messiah who can change their hearts and resolve their conflicts. Jesus is the only One who can bring such peace that one day “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb” and “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lᴏʀᴅ as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:6, 9).
May this day hasten that day, to the glory of God.
