The Everlasting Hatred

by Hal Lindsey

  Much more will be said about this important subject later.

  PROMISE OF MANKIND’S SALVATION

  The final line of this prophesy in Genesis 12:1–3 is the most important: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abraham and his descendents will be the vessels through which all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. The literal translation is, “And in you I will bless all the families of the earth.”

  This promise reveals the main purpose for which Abraham and his descendents were chosen. They were to be the vessels through which God would reach out to the world with His plan of salvation.

  In embryonic form, this promise predicts the provision of salvation for the whole world through one of Abraham’s seed. It reveals that the ultimate purpose of God through Abraham and his seed is redemptive.

  As the Bible unfolds this promise of blessing, four reasons for why God chose and created Israel are discernable. These are the purposes for which He chose them:

  First, they are to receive, write, and preserve the Word of God. As the Apostle Paul testified, “They were entrusted with the oracles of God.”7

  Second, the way God deals with Israel in response to their faith or lack of faith is a living historical lesson about God’s character. The way God dealt with Israel as a nation teaches principles of how He deals with the individual who believes in Him.8

  Third, the Jews are to be the physical race through which the Messiah the Savior of the world would be born. Isaiah predicted the mission of this Messiah, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light to the Gentiles so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”9

  Fourth, Israel is called to spread the message of the true God and His salvation to the world.10

  THE ONLY LAND-DEED GOD EVER GAVE

  God expanded upon the original covenant with another essential covenant. It concerns the land on which He would establish the nation given to Abraham and his descendents. There are several promises regarding this land that together carefully spell out: (1) to whom it is given (2) its borders (3) the conditions of ownership, and (4) the duration of its ownership. God foreknew the great troubles that Israel would encounter concerning the rights to their land throughout history—especially during the “Last Days.” So He stated the terms of their “Title Deed” to the land in a comprehensive covenant, backed by His own oath.

  As mentioned above, the one condition Abraham had to fulfill was to leave his country and relatives and go to the land that God would show him. Apart from that requirement, which Abraham met, all of the promises that followed were unconditional.

  This is what God promised Abraham shortly after He gave him the first covenant:

  And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” God also promised: “For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”11 (emphasis added)

  It is very important to note the features of this covenant God made with Abraham. They have a direct bearing on the controversy raging in the Middle East today. Note first that it is given not only to Abraham but also to his descendents. Second, it is an unconditional covenant. God swore, “I will” do this—without attaching any conditions upon the recipients. Third, this covenant is “forever,” thus the behavior of Abraham or his descen-dents cannot prevent its ultimate everlasting fulfillment.

  BOUNDARIES OF THE DEEDED LAND

  The border of the land to be possessed ultimately by Abraham’s descendants is spelled out very specifically in the next expansion of the land covenant. Something else is added that is unique in God’s dealing with mankind.

  Despite his advanced age, Abraham believed the Lord concerning a promised son who would come from Abraham’s own body, and offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven. But Abraham still wanted more assurance regarding possessing of the promised land. So he asked, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it [i.e., the land]?”12

  God’s response is one of the greatest demonstrations of how patient and gracious He is with mankind. God chose to accommodate Abraham’s continuing need for strong reassurance. He did this by performing a covenant-making ritual that was the most solemn and binding known to man in the culture of that time. Here is the account of how God reconfirmed to Abraham the title deed to the land and its boundaries. It is so important that I am quoting the ceremony in its entirety:

  So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

  Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

  As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

  When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”13

  This passage gives important details concerning the irrevocable nature of the covenant. This strange ritual gets at the heart of the meaning of the Hebrew word for covenant. It comes from the verb barath, which means “to cut.” In Hebrew, the expression for making a covenant is “to cut a covenant.” The Hebrew scholar Franz Delitzsch writes concerning this ritual:

  The proceeding corresponded rather to the custom, prevalent in many ancient nations, of slaughtering animals when concluding a covenant, and after dividing them into pieces, of laying the pieces opposite to one another, that the persons making the covenant might pass between them… . God condescended to follow the custom of the Chaldeans, that He might in the most solemn manner confirm His oath to Abram the Chaldeans.14

  This reveals much about the character of God. Certainly it shows that He is gracious and considerate of our human limitations. It demonstrates that He takes into account our degree of maturity and knowledge of Him in His treatment of us.

  AN OATH THAT CAN NEVER BE BROKEN

  As the custom dictated, Abram laid the sacrifice halves opposite each other, making a path in the middle for those making the covenant to walk. The parties would then hold hands and walk together between the sacrifices, taking an oath on the terms of the covenant. They would then swear an oath that the one that breaks the covenant is to be hewn in pieces as the sacrifices had been. We are talking serious covenant making here.

  But in this case, a most unusual thing happened. Abraham was put into a deep sleep and shown a vision of God alone walking between the sacrifices and swearing an oath by Himself that He would give the land with its specific borders to Abraham and his descendents as an everlasting possession.

  For God to give His Word in a promise is enough to make it unbreakable. But God swore an oath by Himself that He would fulfill this promise concerning the land. Thus by two immutable things, His Word and His oath, it is made certain beyond all things. So let all who contest Israel’s right to that land today bew
are.

  WHY THE CANAANITES WOULD BE DESTROYED

  A prophecy was also given to Abraham as to when his descendents would first take possession of the land. It would be after they spent four hundred years in the land of Egypt. The reason for the delay was two-fold. First, it was because Abraham’s descendents had to grow in sufficient numbers to be able to take over the land.

  And second, because the sin of the present inhabitants had not yet reached the full measure of iniquity worthy of their destruction. God graciously gave them four hundred more years to repent, which they never did. They only got worse, burning their own children alive as a sacrifice to demon idols. When God later brought the Israelites back from Egypt, the minds of all the residents of Canaan had become utterly perverted beyond reformation. They were like a cancer that had to be exorcised before their perversion infected the rest of society.

  ABRAHAM’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE COVENANT

  How Abraham understood this covenant is revealed in a later statement he made to his steward upon sending him to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac:

  The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, “To your offspring I will give this land”—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.15

  In the light of the previous Scripture, to say, as some teachers within Christendom do, that there was no unconditional covenant made with Abraham’s descendents is to accuse God of willfully deceiving Abraham. And it would be even more ludicrous to suppose that the LORD would record Abraham’s wrong understanding of this covenant if in fact it was wrong. God warned that He would discipline the Israelites, but never disown them. [Note: Translators use all caps “LORD” to indicate that the original is “Yahweh,” God’s most solemn name which means “I AM.”]

  HOW ANTI-SEMITISM BEGAN

  There are false teachers within the church today who would deny that the Israelites have a right to the land of their forefathers. They are known by such titles as “Dominionists,” “Preterists,” “Amillennialists,” or “Postmillennialists.”

  What is common to all of these theological systems is that they allegorize all unfulfilled Bible prophecies and covenants—especially those that apply to the future of the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They say that the covenants were “conditional,” and therefore were canceled by Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, Jesus. They teach that Israel has no future in God’s plan as a distinct people and nation. They teach that the church inherited all of these covenants and promises when Israel rejected their Messiah, Jesus.

  In other words, they believe that the church has now become “Israel” in place of the literal physical descendents to whom the promises were exclusively made. This is called “Replacement Theology.” Augustine laid the groundwork for this teaching in the fifth century A.D. He taught that the church had become Israel and was now God’s kingdom on earth. This became the rationale for the “conquistadors” to conquer and pillage the Americas in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. It also was the philosophy that set up the “Holy Roman Empire” over Europe.

  This resulted in such shameful atrocities as the Crusades and the inquisitions in “the name of Jesus.” These actions violated the most basic teachings of Jesus Christ. The knights of Europe under the orders of the popes slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people, particularly the Jews.

  THE NEW TESTAMENT CONFIRMS THIS TITLE DEED

  In the first-century Roman Church, some Christians were inclined to turn against the Jews and think they had permanently replaced them in God’s plan. This is God’s answer to that error:

  For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness [full number] of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” And, “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.16

  The Apostle Paul reveals that the present rejection of Israel is not total, nor is it final. It is only temporary until the full number of Gentiles is saved. Then he quotes specific promises of God that guarantee that “all Israel will be saved when the Deliverer, the Messiah Jesus, comes from Zion in the Second Coming.”

  The Epistle to the Romans in chapter nine carefully defines “true Israel” as the physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who also believe in God’s provision of salvation. They are called “the believing remnant.” As it is written, “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.’”17

  The practice of allegorizing these specific promises, which started with the fifth-century theologian Augustine, became the foundation of anti-Semitism in the church. Sadly, anti-Semitism spread from the church to the rest of the world.

  IF THE CURSES ARE LITERAL, THE PROMISES ARE, TOO

  Moses predicted two destructions of Israel and two dispersions from their land. It is amazing that he predicted this just before they first took possession of the land.

  The reason for their national destruction is given: “All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.”18 Moses then predicted the first destruction: “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.”19 This was fulfilled by the Babylonian destruction led by Nebuchadnezzar at the end of the seventh century B.C.

  Moses also predicted the second, more severe destruction and dispersion:

  Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.20

  This terrible catastrophe took place in A.D. 70 when Titus and the Roman Tenth Legion destroyed Judah and Jerusalem and drove the survivors into exile. This dispersion lasted until it began to be reversed with the rebirth of the state of Israel in June 1948.

  PREDICTIONS OF ISRAEL’S SECOND AND FINAL RESTORATION

  These predictions cut to the heart of the current Arab-Israeli Conflict. They show that the “Title Deed to the land of Israel” was never revoked. It is still binding on the basis of the divine oath by which it was originally given. The Muslims absolutely reject this. So their current attempts to drive Israel out of the Holy Land are in direct defiance of God.

  Moses predicts the following at the end of the same message that he made the above predictions:

  When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul accordin
g to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.21

  It is important to note that God does not say “if” but “when” throughout this prediction. This is because God views the repentance as certain, since He will cause it to happen. It is also very clear that God addresses this promise to the believing remnant of the physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—not to some allegorical offsprings in the church.

  The prophet Ezekiel also speaks of this final restoration from the worldwide Roman dispersion:

  This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.22

  Note that God anticipated that Israel would despise His oath and break the Mosaic covenant. He warns that He will discipline them, as they deserve. Yet despite all they will do, He still promises that He will fulfill to them the covenant made with their fathers.