Devotions in war time – 20 October 2023

“‘For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.’ And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child” (Rev 12:12-13). The book of Revelation is admittedly not an easy book to understand, and we must always be cautious when trying to interpret its symbolism. Who is the woman in the last days whom the devil seeks to destroy? No doubt, Satan hates the church and seeks to destroy her testimony, but the Messiah gave birth to the church; the church didn’t give birth to the Messiah. The woman, therefore, must be Israel. There has always been antisemitism, and it expresses itself in a variety of ways, at different times and for different reasons. Antisemitism finds excuses to hate Jews for religious, geo-political, social, and ethnic reasons. But all antisemitism has one father, the serpent. The serpent, in his effort to thwart the purposes of God, has been trying to crush the woman and her children since time immemorial. And because the serpent hates God, he particularly hates the people whom God particularly loves. One of the signs of the last days will be a surge in antisemitism because the serpent will understand his time his very short. I do not know how close we are to the final trumpet, but I can say that the cancer of antisemitism seems to have spread throughout the entire body of this world. So if ever there was a time to get our lives right with God, it is now. If ever there was a time to love the people whom God loves, it is now. Why? Because from all appearances, it looks to me like Satan is living on very borrowed time. “Behold, I have received a command to bless; when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it. He has not observed misfortune in Jacob; nor has He seen trouble in Israel; the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them” (Num 23:20-21).