Why Does Satan Hate The Jews & Seek To Destroy Them?
Lesson Overview
Why Does Satan Hate the Jews and Seek to Destroy Them? with Dr. Mark Hitchcock
This standalone message asks where anti-Semitism ultimately comes from and why the Jewish people in particular have faced an age-long hatred. Dr. Hitchcock’s answer is that Scripture reveals a cosmic conflict behind it, seen most clearly in Revelation 12. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
A Stunning Surge
Hitchcock opens with the sharp rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, citing large increases in violent offenses in France and Germany and describing Jewish people as being in the center of a bullseye. He notes hostility coming from three directions at once: the far right, the progressive left, and Islam. He points to a common ideological thread underneath all three: the assumption that the world is a bad place and that the Jews are what hinders it from becoming better.
His central question follows: why the Jews? There has never been a comparable age-long hatred directed at any other people group.
The Answer: A Cosmic Conflict
Hitchcock’s answer is that Scripture describes an age-long war between God and Satan, focused especially on “the seed,” the Jewish people and ultimately the Messiah who would come from them. He turns to Revelation 12, which he calls a passage that reaches backward to Satan’s fall and forward to his final persecution of the Jewish people.
He notes that Revelation is the most symbolic book in the Bible and chapter 12 its most symbolic chapter, which makes it a useful test of anyone’s interpretive method. Whenever he evaluates a commentary on Revelation, he turns first to how the author handles the woman of chapter 12.
Who Is the Woman?
Hitchcock surveys four identifications. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, claimed she herself was the woman, which fails immediately since the woman is protected from the dragon. Some identify her as Mary, but this contradicts the claim that Mary had no birth pains, does not match the woman fleeing to the wilderness for 1,260 days, and ironically takes literally the one thing the text calls a sign. The amillennial view makes her the church, but the church did not give birth to Jesus; Jesus gave birth to the church.
His conclusion is that the woman is Israel. When a symbol is not explained in the immediate context, we look to the Old Testament, and the only place combining the sun, moon, and twelve stars is Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9-10, where the sun is Jacob, the moon is Rachel, and the stars are his brothers.
Who Is the Dragon?
Here the passage supplies what Hitchcock calls a built-in interpretation. Verse 9 identifies the dragon as the serpent of old, the devil and Satan. The seven heads and ten horns indicate his control over the nations and empires of this world.
Verse 4, where the dragon’s tail sweeps a third of the stars from heaven, he reads as a flashback to Satan’s original fall, with the stars being the angels who fell with him. He believes Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe that fall behind the human rulers they address, noting that Ezekiel 28 says “unrighteousness was found in him,” marking the origin of evil. On timing, he holds that Satan fell sometime between the end of creation week and Genesis 3:1.
Satan’s Campaign Through History
Because Satan is both anti-Christ and anti-Semitic, Hitchcock argues anti-Semitism is satanically energized. He traces it to Genesis 3:15, the first promise of a deliverer who would crush the serpent’s head (the protoevangelium, which he calls “Christmas in the Garden of Eden”).
From that point Satan tracked the messianic line, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, and David, and repeatedly tried to destroy it: Pharaoh killing the Hebrew boys, Saul pursuing David, Athaliah killing the royal heirs (with the infant Joash preserved), Haman’s plot in Esther, the slaughter under Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod’s attempt on the infant Jesus, the temptation in the wilderness, and finally the crucifixion, answered by the resurrection.
He adds a memorable observation: nearly every time Satan tried to wipe out the Jewish people, they ended up with a holiday. Pharaoh’s attempt gave Passover, Haman’s gave Purim, and Antiochus gave Hanukkah, and after Hitler’s attempt came the reestablishment of Israel on May 14, 1948.
When Satan failed to destroy the Messiah, Hitchcock says he moved to a second plan: destroy the people the Messiah is promised to rule over, so that God’s covenant promises cannot be fulfilled.
The Male Child and the Gaps
The male child who rules the nations with a rod of iron is clearly Christ. Hitchcock notes the passage gives only the bookends of His life, His birth and His ascension (using the same Greek word harpazo used of the rapture), skipping everything between. Recognizing these large gaps prepares the reader for verse 6, which leaps from the ascension to the end times and the 1,260 days, the last half of the tribulation.
Jewish Survival as Evidence
Hitchcock pauses to argue that the survival and flourishing of the Jewish people is itself a powerful apologetic. Scattered among the nations for two thousand years, they were never absorbed or erased, and today millions live in the reborn state of Israel with their ancient language revived. He quotes J.C. Ryle, who marveled that this people alone, unlike the Saxons, Danes, Normans, and others, remains distinct after eighteen centuries, and called the Jew the one witness to the truth of Scripture who keeps standing up and living before the eyes of mankind.
War in Heaven
Verses 7 to 12 describe a future war in heaven, in which Michael and the unfallen angels expel Satan and his angels. Hitchcock notes that Satan is not in hell today, has never been, and will not be until the end of Revelation, and that even now he retains some limited access to heaven as the accuser, as seen in Job 1. He places this war at the midpoint of the tribulation, since the woman’s persecution afterward lasts 1,260 days. As for how angels fight, he candidly says he has no idea.
The result is that Satan is permanently evicted from heaven. Verse 12 announces both rejoicing in heaven and woe on the earth, because the devil comes down in great wrath, knowing his time is short.
War on Earth and the Place of Refuge
Cast down, Satan returns to his old target and persecutes the woman. Hitchcock makes a striking point: Satan does not believe replacement theology. If he thought God were finished with the Jewish people, he would have no reason for this vendetta. His relentless assault is itself evidence that God still has a purpose for Israel.
In verse 14 the woman is given two wings of a great eagle. Hitchcock rejects the popular claim that this is the United States Air Force, pointing instead to Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11, where eagle’s wings picture God’s own protection. He believes the place of refuge is likely Petra, in ancient Edom, offering three reasons: Micah 2:12-13 uses a word for sheepfold connected with Bozrah in that region; Isaiah 34 and 63 picture the returning Messiah coming from Edom with bloodstained garments, apparently delivering a remnant there; and Daniel 11:41 says Moab, Edom, and Ammon escape the Antichrist’s control.
The flood that the serpent pours out he takes as an invading army, which the earth swallows, much as the Egyptians were swallowed at the Red Sea. Satan then makes war on “the rest of her children,” possibly the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14, and chapter 13 introduces his two human instruments, the beast from the sea and the beast from the earth.
The Closing Encouragement
Hitchcock concludes that today’s surge in anti-Semitism is not accidental but a faint foreshadow of the final assault, and that believers should recognize who is behind it. Yet he ends on victory: Satan is a defeated foe. Recalling his father killing a copperhead in the backyard when he was a boy, and how the headless snake thrashed for a long time afterward, he quotes the line that Satan’s head was crushed at the cross but we live in the thrashing time. Believers need not fear him, but should stand strong in the Lord, confident that God’s purposes for Israel, and for each of His people, will be fulfilled.
Key Terms
Protoevangelium: the first announcement of the gospel in Genesis 3:15, promising one who would crush the serpent’s head.
Built-in interpretation: when Revelation explains its own symbol within the context, as it does by naming the dragon as Satan.
Harpazo: the Greek word for “caught up,” used both of Christ’s ascension in Revelation 12 and of the rapture.
Replacement theology: the belief that the church has replaced Israel, which Hitchcock argues Satan’s own behavior contradicts.
Time, times, and half a time: one of three equivalent expressions (with 42 months and 1,260 days) for the last half of the tribulation.
The thrashing time: the present age, in which a mortally defeated Satan still does damage.
Verses to Know
Revelation 12:1-5, the woman, the dragon, and the male child. Genesis 3:15, the promised seed who crushes the serpent’s head. Genesis 37:9-10, Joseph’s dream of the sun, moon, and eleven stars. Revelation 12:9, the dragon identified as the devil and Satan. Revelation 12:12, the devil comes down in great wrath, knowing his time is short. Daniel 11:41, Moab, Edom, and Ammon escape the Antichrist. Micah 2:12-13, the remnant gathered like a flock in its fold.
Takeaway
Anti-Semitism is not merely political or social but the visible edge of a cosmic conflict, as Satan attacks the people through whom the Messiah came and through whom God’s promises will be fulfilled, and yet his head was crushed at the cross, so believers can watch these things without fear.