1S11-6: Why Anti-Semitism Is Both Irrational And SATANIC

“Then Nachash the ‘Amoni came up and set up camp to fight Yavesh-Gil‘ad. All the men of Yavesh said to Nachash, ‘If you will make a treaty with us, we will be your subjects.’  Nachash the ‘Amoni replied, ‘I’ll do it on this condition: that all your right eyes be gouged out and thus bring disgrace on all of Israel.'”-1 Samuel 11:1-2

The character of Nachash and his intent to inflict meaningless harm on Israel brings to light an ugly problem that has existed since the very beginning of the Hebrew people.

I’m talking about irrational anti-Semitism.

The reason why Nachash wanted to gouge out the right eye of every Israelite in Jabesh-Gilead is that he hated their guts, pure and simple.

There’s no special explanation given for his hatred.

Probably, the seeds of animosity were born when Moses and Joshua drove his Ammonite ancestors out of the land centuries earlier.

But this is a common thing.

Wars over land that changed hands have been going on since time immemorial.

In fact, it’s happening in Israel today with the West Bank and the Palestinians.

My point is that Nachash’s hatred towards Israel was supernaturally evil.

Sure, there may have been your normal tribal disputes that typically arise…

But we see nothing to suggest that the Israelites of Gad or Reuben were unusually provocative towards Ammon.

So why was Nachash so intent on humiliating Israel?

Again, this is the kind of irrational hate we’ve seen for hundreds of years against the Jewish people, and now against the modern state of Israel.

When a foreign king forced a treaty (the cutting of a covenant) with the leaders of the people he had just conquered, he was basically establishing a vassal agreement whereby the defeated nation would pay tribute to him.

On top of that, the conquering king was usually fine to allow the current leaders of the nation he had just defeated to remain in their positions of power as long as they bowed down to him, kept the peace, and paid him taxes and tribute.

He didn’t want to unnecessarily humiliate the nation he had defeated.

Ya feel me here.

But what Nachash was requesting was totally unreasonable, impractical, and as I’ve been saying IRRATIONAL.

By cutting out the eyes of every Israelite male, he would only be decreasing the amount of tribute that would be paid to him.

We’ve seen this destructive hatred in the Pharoah of Egypt and in modern times we saw it with the rise of Hitler.

And speaking of modern times, guess where else we see irrational anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head left and right all over the world?

If you said the religion of Islam, you nailed it.

Radical groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Fatah are perfect examples of irrational hatred blown up to gargantuan proportions.

Israel has done everything short of outright handing over their entire nation to the Palestinians to achieve peace and every one of their proposals has been spit on.

Recall when Israel handed over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians.

What was the first thing the Palestinians did?

They went on a rampage and destroyed the greenhouses that Israel had built.

But that was just the beginning.

They then went on to destroy all of the already-built infrastructure such as schools and other public buildings.

The irony is they already owned that infrastructure because Israel gave it to them.

I dunno about you but if I had all of a sudden been gifted a juicy piece of real estate that already had homes and other buildings constructed and ready for immediate use, I sure as hell wouldn’t be destroying them.

And you know what else is funny?

After the Palestinians went on a rampage and destroyed all of the infrastructure that would’ve enabled them to have a productive economy, guess what they do next?

They go and complain to the media that they’re starving and have no work because Israel is persecuting them.

Gimme a freakin’ break man!!!

I still remember the media footage showing Palestinians jumping up and down and cheering with glee when the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York came toppling down on 9/11.

Heck, what those Islamic jihadists did was just another form of irrational hatred.

And that’s your takeaway for today.

The truth is in some areas of your life, you too may hold irrational hatred in your heart toward other people.

It could be racist thoughts against folks who are of a different skin color than you.

Or it could be hatred you hold against some person at your school or workplace for no special reason other than you just don’t like the person.

Whenever our hatred towards others becomes so stubborn and unmanageable that we’re literally willing to destroy ourselves as long as our target is also destroyed, I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say satan has completely taken us over at that point.

The bottom line, irrational hatred is satanic hatred.

And that’s the kind of hatred that Nachash was harboring towards Israel.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“Whoever hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know
that no murderer has eternal
life abiding in him.”
-1 John 3:15

“‘You have heard that it
was said to those of old,
‘You shall not murder,
and whoever murders
will be in danger
of the judgment.’
But I say to you that
whoever is angry with
his brother without a cause
shall be in danger of the
judgment. And whoever
says to his brother, ‘Raca!’
shall be in danger of the council.
But whoever says, ‘You fool!’
shall be in danger of hell fire.'”
-Matthew 5:21-22