Anti-Semitism started with the devil’s hate for Jesus Christ
There has always been a lot of Anti-Semitism (hostility or prejudice against the Jews). One reason for this is because Jesus was a Jew, and the devil hates Jesus with a passion. The Jewish people were those chosen by God to bring the Law of God to mankind and to give us the Lamb of God. The Jews gave us the awareness of our sins against God through the Law, and the remedy for that sin through Jesus Christ as our perfect sacrifice to remove those sins.
Genesis 3:15, “ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
All demons tremble at the Name of Jesus Christ; and they will put up a great fight to keep from saying that Name above all other names. We see more and more hatred and attacks on Jesus and those who believe in Him today than ever before, because we are living in the last few years of time before Christ returns to rule this earth with a rod of iron. Jesus is going to return to the Mount of Olives in Israel, and establish the Nation of Israel as head of the world for a thousand years of peace. The devil has tried his best, down through the ages of time, to destroy the Jews and the nation of Israel, as well as discredit the Gentile Christians as fanatics and hypocrites. The Jews and the Gentile church are all a hindrance to Satan in his quest for world worship.
Four Miracles of the Jewish Messiah
There were miracles that could not be performed by Jewish Rabbis. The rabbis divided miracles into two categories: those which could be performed by anyone if empowered by God, and those which only the Messiah could perform.
This may explain why the Pharisees were often present when Jesus performed miracles. They wanted to see if He was the Promised Messiah or not.
When Jesus arrived, the Jews were desperately waiting for their Messiah. They had been oppressed by foreign governments from their inception as a nation. They were expecting a leader who would lead them in an uprising against the Romans, in a war of liberation. They forgot that the real purpose of the Messiah was to bring them Salvation from their sins.
Each time a miracle was performed, the Pharisees went to investigate, hoping that the one performing the miracle would be the Messiah. Each time they were disappointed, because the candidate would only perform one, or none, of the four miracles required of the Messiah.
When Jesus Christ arrived on the scene, He performed all four miracles, and they either had to endorse Him or reject Him. They had to choose between Him, and abandoning their religious way of life. They rejected Him, and had Him put to death to prevent others from following Him. They didn’t understand that death was the means of applying His Blood to wash away the sins of mankind.
There were four miracles that the Messiah had to be able to perform:
1 – healing a leper
2 – casting out a mute demon
3 – healing a man born blind
4 – raising someone from the dead after three days.
Healing a Leper
The first miracle proved Christ as the Messiah because no one was able to touch a leper without becoming unclean themselves, and because the Pharisees believed that leprosy was caused by sin in the leper’s life or in their parent’s lives. Only God can forgive sin, so only the Messiah could heal leprosy. (Mark 1:40-45) Jesus touched the leper without getting leprosy, and healed the leprosy for all to see that the man was clean and whole.
Healing the Mute Man
The second miracle proved Christ as the Messiah because the Pharisees would ask the demon to give his name, and then use that name to cast the demon out. They believed the name of the demon gave them authority over the demon, and I and others who have cast demons out, also believe this as true from personal experience. You can’t ask a mute demon its name, due to it being unable to speak through a mute person’s voice. Only the Messiah could know its name. This is exactly what Jesus did; and from this point on, His ministry showed that He was indeed a candidate for the Messiah, and many followed while others watched with skepticism. (Matthew 12:22-23)
Healing the Blind Man
The third miracle proved Christ as the Messiah because the Pharisees believed that blindness was a curse from God and that only God could remove that curse. When Jesus healed the blind man, he sent him to the Pool of Siloam to wash, where many saw him and recognized him as one who had been born blind. The Pharisees begin to question him trying to disprove the miracle. The blind man sums it up for them with: “nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind!” (John 8:12-59)
Raising the Dead after Three Days
The fourth miracle proved Christ as the Messiah because the rabbis taught that the resurrection from the dead was only possible within the first three days. It was believed that the spirit of the deceased hovered over the body for three days, and if someone was gifted by God, they could raise that person from the dead. But only the Messiah could raise the body on or after the fourth day.
If you read the story of Lazarus from this light, it seems that Jesus went out of His way to be late once He learned that Lazarus was dead. When Lazarus came forth from the grave alive and well, the Pharisees could no longer deny that He was the Messiah, and many from that time forth put their faith in Him, while others refused to give up their man-made teachings, and sought to put Him to death. (John 11:1-44)
Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He lives today in the hearts of those who believe in Him. He will return soon to reign from Jerusalem. All Israel will be saved, and all nations of the world will come to Jerusalem to worship their God and King. (Romans 11:26 & Zechariah 14:6) It is time to give up prejudice against the Jews and Israel!
