For the people of Israel, the story of the Oct. 7 invasion by the terrorist organization Hamas was a familiar one—at least those familiar with the Torah and the Old Testament.
When thousands of rockets were launched toward Israel from Gaza by Hamas—and when multitudes celebrated the unexpected and brutal deaths of more than a thousand Israelis—the story became eerily similar to an ancient one from the Bible that saw Philistines murder and pillage Israel in the name of Palestine.
The modern world rejoiced in the spilling of Israeli blood—the blood of men, women and children—as it did many thousands of years ago. Obviously, these are not the same people, but their murder is supported by the same notion, that the land occupied by Israelis—the land given to them by Almighty God—belongs to the people of Palestine, an entity that does not legally exist, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says.
“They say the land of Israel is Palestine, that the Jews occupy it and need to be driven out of the land or murder out of the land,” Cahn says in a recent sermon. “What does that mean, ‘Palestine’? It comes from the Roman word ‘Palestina.’ The Romans destroyed the ancient nation of Israel or Judea, slaughtered countless numbers of Jewish people and took others captive into exile.
“In order to erase the name and memory of Israel, they renamed the land and renamed it after Israel’s ancient enemies, who are called the Philistines,” he explains. “The Philistines were an ancient and brutal people. Goliath was one of them. What does the word ‘Palestinian ‘mean? It actually means ‘Philistine.'”
Cahn says it’s clear that God loves all people, but it’s also clear in the Scriptures that He gave the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to their children—the children of Israel.
“The word ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestina’ is part of a war against the promise that God gave and the will of God,” Cahn says. “To use the word ‘Palestine’ to speak of the land, Israel, is to take part in a war that goes against the Word and promise and will of God.”
But what about Gaza? Is there anything behind the Gaza Strip?
“There is something ancient about the city of Gaza,” he says. “It is in the Bible, and the Philistines lived there. They particularly dwelt by the sea, the western coast of Israel, and much of their headquarters match up with the Gaza Strip and its surroundings.”
Cahn says the current war and the news we are hearing from Israel are part of an ancient war perpetrated thousands of years ago.
“In ancient times, the Philistines launched attacks on the people of Israel,” he says. “They plotted invasions, they carried out death and destruction from the Gaza Strip. So again, what is happening is the replaying of an ancient war.
“In ancient times when Israel was struck or weakened, the people of Gaza would rejoice in celebrations,” Cahn explains. “Well, they did it again. They rejoiced at what they saw as the weakening of Israel. They rejoiced over the killing of Israelis and the shedding of blood.”
The abduction of hundreds of Israelis in the current war—those kidnapped and taken into Gaza—is also a familiar scenario.
“You remember in the Bible there was an Israeli who was also wounded, abused, humiliated and taken captive into the city of Gaza,” Cahn says. “His name was Samson. The people in Gaza invaded the homes of families asleep to murder children in front of their parents, to kill their babies in their cribs to behead them.
“What is that? That is demonic. It is the fruit of an evil demonic mindset and a spirit that celebrates bloodshed and destruction of the innocent. This is the demonic seed that’s been germinating in Islamic radicalism into which children in Gaza are indoctrinated from their youth and told that’s it’s a glorious thing to kill a Jewish person. They point to a verse in the Quaran about killing Jews.”
In this latest war, members of Black Lives Matter cheered on the killing and the bloodshed, the decapitation of children. They said they were for the destruction of Israel from the beginning. Hollywood celebrities threw their enthusiastic support for BLM and, as Cahn says, “could not throw a crumb of support to the fathers and mothers and children who were slaughtered in their home.”
“Jew hatred is like an evil sickness that transcends politics,” Cahn says. “… Most of the woke of the woke-dom who would fly into a rage of condemnation of the slightest trace of what they would call ‘microaggression’ fell strangely asleep in their state of wokeness.”
Despite all of this, Cahn says, despite the ancient war playing out before our eyes, God says the Jewish people will prevail through the hatred and end the ages-old war between the two bitter enemies.
“God says that as long as the sun and stars of heaven remain in the sky, so long as the order of the cosmos is in place, the Jewish people will remain a nation before Him,” he says. “… They should not be alive. … The enemy has raged for ages to wipe them off the face of the earth. But the nation of Israel lives because the God of Israel lives. You will follow the God of Israel, and you will live.” {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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