There are several anti-Jewish organisations around the world. There are even anti-Jewish nations who have declared their undying commitment to wiping the nation of Israel off the map. Iran is just one. There are also anti-Israel Muslim terrorist organisations, too. And Hamas, the terrorist organisation who violently seized control of Gaza in 2007, is by far the most hate-filled, violent terrorist group dedicated to destroying Israel. Hamas militants took many Fatah officials prisoners, summarily executed others, and exiled others who were abroad at the time. At least 161 people were killed and more than 700 were wounded. Hamas have run Gaza as a police state ever since.
Space does not permit a lengthy survey of the origins of the Hamas terrorist group. However, they do have the backing of Iran who sanction and resource their every move against Israel. To put it this way, Iran makes the bullets and Hamas fires them.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York City research centre, Hamas is “the largest, most influential political fundamentalist movement” in the Muslim world. Hamas is an Arabic acronym for “Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya,” which means “The Islamic Resistance Movement.” But “hamas” is also an Arabic word that means “fanatical zeal.” In the ancient Hebrew the word “hamas” means violence, cruelty, evil and destruction – not zeal. For Israel, however, both the Arabic meaning and the Hebrew meaning have become one. For Jews everywhere, chamas indeed means violence, in its most fanatical, terrorist form. Israel lives constantly in this evil shadow. Every day. Every moment.
No other nation on earth has to live like this. Not one.
And so when the United Nations wags their finger as if to scold or warn Israel not to overreact to this fanatical, zealous violence and evil aimed against them, and which killed 1400 of their people last week, and when I hear Australian politicians of the woke variety condescendingly urging Israel to respond with “proportionality”, they show themselves to be utter fools. What is the “proportional” response to fanatical, zealous violence and evil aimed against a nation for the sole purpose of exterminating them? What does “proportionality” even logically mean here? It’s nothing but the worst wokery that has no understanding of the issues in play.
Hamas is the manifestation in the natural realm of a principality in the spiritual realm that has been fanatically determined to destroy Israel for millennia. It has been urging and inciting “flesh and blood” to do it’s bidding from the times of the Pharaohs, the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Romans centuries before Hitler was even born, before communism was ever conceived, or Bin Laden or the Ayatollahs walked the earth. This is what is still happening to Israel in our day. Hamas is one of the latest flesh and blood manifestations of the power and influence of the prince of the kingdom of Persia (Iran); a demonic entity in the spirit realm as hellbent on destroying God’s chosen people today as it was in the prophet Daniel’s day. For millennia this demonic spirit has waged a brutal war against Israel. This spirit is not new. It is beyond time and space and it is everywhere in the world – we saw it screaming obscenities at the Sydney Opera House last week. It has been seen all throughout human history in ancient and modern times. Hamas is but one of the major manifestations of this principality. It is demonic.
Why? That is THE question! Why is the prince of the kingdom of Persia so fanatically determined to kill Jews?
The first reason is because God has chosen Israel to be a sign to the world that He exists, that God is the ultimate reality. Israel is also a sign to the world that Satan exists, too. All the hatred, fury, violence and age-old wars perpetrated on Israel are signs of the reality of the enemy of God. Israel is a (not “the”) physical manifestation of God’s kingdom on earth, which is why the prophets repeatedly called her back to righteousness and holiness. This kingdom manifestation, therefore, has to physically fight to survive, and is why Israel is still in existence today by the grace of God. If Israel doesn’t fight it disappears.
And so, woke notions of proportionality and so forth simply cannot factor in to Israel’s very survival. In saying this, of course, I in no way, shape or form condone any wrong doing by Israel. But we see a very different spiritual landscape before us when we factor in the prince of the kingdom of Persia who knows nothing of proportionality or any other kind of moral equivalence. He only knows death to the people of God. Diplomacy, treaties, ceasefires and so on will never stop this principality. He must be fought against and defeated in the spiritual realm by God’s people.
The Bible says that all those born again of God through Christ are spiritual citizens of Israel – regardless of our ethnicity (Romans 9) - and we have to fight, too! We are called to fight the good fight and not give in, or give up. But the weapons of our warfare are not “flesh weapons” but weapons of divine power as the apostle preached …
2Cor 10:4
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
The strongholds are in our minds and in the spiritual realm. They are the dwelling places and command centres of powerful principalities, powers and spiritual authorities opposed to God and His people, and they exert enormous influence on earth from there. One of these is the prince of the kingdom of Persia that rules the spiritual environment that is right beside Israel, indeed, all around it. We, the people of God, are called upon to fight against them with divine weapons that can demolish them – not watch the Israeli army do it alone on the ground with mere earth weapons! If we want to stay alive in the spiritual real, we know we have to fight. If we don’t fight, we will disappear! The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, and so we fight. The church will not make it if it does not fight. And whatever fight we put up, God will ensure that we have victory – but we do have to fight - not just accept the enemy’s attacks. And this is why Israel must fight.
Anyone on our streets celebrating these latest attacks on Israel are celebrating with the prince of the kingdom of Persia and applauding his demonic works. This was a disgrace to our nation.
Let us take up the spiritual battle and demolish strongholds and remove the command posts engineering demonic outcomes on the ground. Join is at our prayer meetings. Fight in the spiritual realm, that not only Israel will overcome, but the Palestinians would be released from the tyranny of Hamas’ oppression, too.
Think on these things.
Ps Milton
[Sources: The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle (23 Oct. 2023); Wikipedia; 50 Webs Messianic website; Strongs Hebrew Lexicon #H2555 ḥāmās]