In the aftermath of the October 7th 2023 massacre.
October 7th massacre of 1,400 Israelis on Simchat Torah (the day of celebrating the Torah)/8th day of Assembly.
Who is Hamas? Sunni Muslims. Sunnis comprise about 85% of Muslims; Shia about 15%. (Arabic: Zeal or strength. Chamas means ‘violence’ in Hebrew.)
The Hamas covenant, written in 1988 states in its opening paragraph that:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”
Article 7 states: “The Day of Judgement would not come until the Muslims fight and kill the Jews”, quoting a hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari 2922).
Article 8 states: “Allah is our goal; the prophet is our model; the Qur’an is our constitution; jihad is our path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of our wishes”.
Unlike the Nazis who concealed their crimes, they are not hiding it. They went out with body cameras, and filmed their horrible crimes. In pursuit of their goals they will kill anyone who stands in their way. They don’t care about the Palestinian people; that’s why they use them as human shields, hiding their rocket launchers in the basements of schools and hospitals, knowing that when Israel attacks and when inevitably civilians get killed, that the West will believe that Israel is deliberately targeting those civilians. Israel drops leaflets in Arabic, warning people to evacuate areas. Many other nationalities were also at the concert in Southern Israel, near the border, and working in the Kibbutzim,
Hamas was formed in 1997 in Gaza by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Muslim cleric.
They published their charter in 1998, and are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which incidentally is outlawed in Egypt, which is why Egypt won’t take people from Gaza. Their military wing the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades was formed soon afterwards. In 1993, they began suicide bombings in Israel just before the Oslo accords were signed, which gave the Palestinian Authority autonomy and limited authority in the Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas is opposed to the PA because Fatah are more secular and not quite as violent as Hamas.
It was designated a terrorist organisation by the US and dozens of other countries in 1997, because of their violence, suicide bombings and kidnappings targeting Israelis.
In 2000, Hamas initiated the 2nd ‘Intifada’ or uprising.
In 2005, Israel forcibly evacuated all their troops and settlers from Gaza and built a security fence around Gaza for its own safety. In 2006, Hamas won an election in Gaza and overthrew (literally) the Fatah government of Mahmoud Abbas. They killed many Fatah members. Hamas themselves are responsible for the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. They built tunnels and purchased armaments instead of helping their own citizens. The head of the UN made a statement that the attack by Hamas. ‘didn’t occur in a vacuum’. No, it was fuelled by a demonic ideology. Some recent broadcasts taken from speeches by Hamas’ leaders include the following: Memri TV are as follows:
‘O Allah, bring annihilation upon the Jews; O Allah, enable us to get to the necks of the Jews’
‘We fight until not a single Jew or Zionist is left on the face of the earth’
‘Our doctrine in fighting you (the Jews) is that we will totally exterminate you’. We will not leave a single one of you alive’ (Imam speaking in a mosque).
The Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Al-Zahar stated: ‘The Qur’an says: Kill them wherever you find them. We will fight them wherever we can’.
I have seen a clip from Memri TV taken from a Gazan kindergarten, where 4-year-old children are asked by a man dressed up as a Sesame Street-type figure: “Which do you love better, your father or Al-Aqsa’? I will come back to Al-Aqsa a bit later.
The conscience is informed by the culture’s morality, and so you have the formation of a death-cult who see nothing wrong in the sort of horror-movie depravity we saw in Israel on October 7th.
So, why is Hamas so hell-bent on the destruction of Israel? Their implacable hatred and enmity towards Israel, is an ancient hatred and in the core is satanic and spiritual, and goes back all the way to Genesis 3:15, when God spoke to the serpent:
“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”.
God called Abram out of modern-day Iraq to form a nation, to replace the 10 nations of the Amorites (Genesis 16), but he is actually first called a Hebrew as early as Genesis 14:13.
‘And there came one who had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre (if you research this you see that this is near Hebron).
Even before his name has been changed from Abram to Abraham. God promised, in Genesis 12:3:
‘I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee’. This is repeated in Numbers 24:9 by Balaam.
That promise of enmity first stated in Genesis 3:15 began to be fulfilled in Genesis 16 when Ishmael was born and later in Genesis 21:8-13 we see it manifesting; especially verse 8:
‘And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham mocking’.
In Genesis 16, the angel of the Lord prophesies over Hagar that (1) her seed (through Ishmael) will ‘multiply exceedingly, and not be numbered for multitude’ (verse10). (2) ‘he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him’ (verse 12) and (3) he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. One can see how all these prophecies have come true in the case of the descendants of Ishmael. In Islam, Ishmael is venerated as a prophet. Yet, the ‘everlasting covenant’ clearly came down through Isaac, as we can see from Genesis 17:18-21.
‘And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee………but my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year’.
Genesis 25:5 records that;
‘Abraham gave all he had to Isaac’
and in verse 11: ‘And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi‘ (the well of the living one who sees me).
Clearly the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38, shows that the covenantal promises come through Isaac.
Satan and his seed have constantly tried to obstruct and overturn God’s plans working out the eternal covenant through Isaac. But it’s not just through Ishmael that trouble has come.
It’s interesting that recently Mr Netanyahu quoted the Bible saying; ‘You must remember what Amalek has done to you says our Holy Bible. And we do remember’. The Amalekites were a nation of marauding pirates or bandits who raided and plundered neighbouring tribes. We see this in Exodus 17:8-16 when the Israelites were on their way to Mount Sinai, camped at an oasis. This is where the Lord said he will ‘utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven…the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Something very significant is happening here.
The Amalekites are first mentioned in Genesis 14:7 and in Genesis 36:13 it states: ‘Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, she bore Amalek to Eliphaz’.
See also Numbers 13:29, where they are included among the tribes that the 12 spies saw when they spied out the land.
Amalek constantly attacked Israel, and King Saul was charged with the task as in 1 Samuel 15:3. He claimed to have killed them all (v20) but we see later that Haman was an Agagite. Were they hybrid Nephilim? In Numbers 24:20: Balaam mentions the Amalekites and Agag, and foretells their destruction. It appears they will be destroyed at the Second Coming of Jesus.
We have numerous examples of this in the Bible. Here are a few:
Even outside the Bible narrative, archaeology shows us that Hebrews have been living in the land over 1,800 years before there was even a Palestinian name. An Egyptian stele (stone slab), named the Merneptah Stele, dated around 1200 BC mentions this Pharoah’s apparent victory over ‘Israel’ and it has therefore been called the Israel stele.
The name ‘Syria Palestina’ instead of ‘Provincia Iudaea’ was instituted by the Roman emperor Hadrian after he had defeated the Bar Kochba rebellion in 132-136AD. This was accompanied by the massacre of Jews in Judea, and expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem. He chose the name as the ultimate insult to the Jews, because it linked back to the Philistines, Israel’s arch-enemies.
If the people of God are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6), what about those who are deceived in false religion, which as someone has said is Satan’s masterpiece or ‘doing what he does best’ (stealing, killing and destroying)? NB. You represent the God you worship!
The Muslim occupation of the land didn’t begin until about 642 AD and that Islamic hatred of the Jews and Christians goes back to Muhammad and the Qur’an.
Surah 5:51 states: ‘Don’t take Christians or Jews as friends/allies’.
Surah 8:12 states: ”I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike them upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.
Surah 9:29: states ‘Fight against those who do not believe in Allah…and who do not embrace the religion of truth, until they pay the tax (jizya), willingly submitting, and fully humbled’.
Muhammad maintained that he was commanded to kill until everyone submits to Islam, despite Sura 2: 256 says ‘there shall be no compulsion in religion’.
Sura 2 verse 65 speaks of Jews as ‘Apes and despised’.
Surah 5:60 speaks of Jews as ‘Apes and pigs’, and who ‘deserve a worse punishment from Allah’.
Battle of Khaybar in Arabia 628 AD. Chants of Khaybar resound in the pro-Palestinian marches around the world, yet Mohammed was actually poisoned by mutton served to him by a Jewish woman after that battle, whose husband Muhammed’s soldiers had killed!!
Prophetic Significance
Clearly, what happened on October 7th, being an event of such magnitude, must have huge prophetic significance. We know that Isaiah 17 foretells the destruction of Damascus and Ezekiel 38 and 39 talks of a huge invasion of Israel from the north by what many believe to be a coalition of Russia, Iran and Turkey. One can see that these events are on the horizon. Zechariah 12 talks about Jerusalem being ‘a cup of trembling’ for the nations and the bullseye of the conflict over Jerusalem is the Temple Mount where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque stand and where Solomon’s Temple once stood.
It is interesting that the Hamas attack was titled the ‘Al Aqsa Flood’ by those who carried it out. Why? Because there is the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which was entered into by Ariel Sharon leading to the 2nd Intifada, from 2000-2005. They believe that Jews and Christians are unclean and have no right being there. They also believe they have ownership of that site, since Islam claims that Mohammed took his night journey from Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, to Jerusalem on a flying donkey, called a BURAQ; tied this animal to the Western Wall on the Temple Mount and ascended to Heaven from the site of the Dome of the Rock, from where he later descended and brought back the 5 daily prayers that Muslims recite. Sura 17:1 of the Qur’an covers this story.
It is believed that the caliph Abd Al Malik, two generations down from Muhammed, built the Dome of the Rock Mosque (as a sign of domination) on that site around 692, and therefore in their view that place becomes theirs, even though the site had belonged to the Jews for over 1500 years at that point, since it was where the First and Second Temple stood. It’s also ironic that Muhammed claimed there was a temple there when he visited, yet history records that it had been destroyed over 500 years earlier in AD 70. Mohammed used the same play-book with the Kaaba in Mecca, which had been a place of worship for Polytheists before the advent of Islam. President Erdogan caused Hagia-Sophia in Istanbul to become a mosque, whereas it was once a Byzantine cathedral.
There are no synagogues in Gaza or the West Bank. The lie is put out in the Muslim world that Israel is digging under the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to build the 3rd Temple. The Islamic call to prayer is played in Jerusalem and the Jews called pigs and apes. Al-Aqsa is a rallying cry for Muslims. Hamas are Sunni and Hezbollah are Shia, but they can unite around Al-Aqsa.
Hamas has a logo with Al-Aqsa on it; there’s the Al-Aqsa brigades; satellite TV is Al-Aqsa; radio station is called Al-Aqsa. ‘These pigs and apes’ are trying to take over our holy site, the second most important mosque. The reason is to get widespread support; to encourage Jihad. Hamas came in 1987. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, with all the oil money flowing in, the religious tags came in. ‘Soon we will pray in Al-Aqsa’. In actual fact, Muslims in Israel are able to pray in Al-Aqsa; Muslims control the mosque, but they vilify Israel nonetheless.
Jesus was reminded of bloodshed and grief in Luke 13 verses 1-5, but he didn’t get into the politics of the Roman occupation of Israel and the resulting cruelty or the ‘health and safety’ issues of the tower in Siloam collapsing which had killed 18. Rather he brought the issue back to the importance of personal salvation; saying twice ‘except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish‘.
In Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 we have:
‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee. That thou shalt be no priest (cohen) to me, and since thou hast forgotten the Law of they God, I will also reject your children’
and in the next chapter of Hosea Chapter 5 verses 14-15 we have:
‘For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in THEIR AFFLICTION they will seek me early’,
Psalm 2 verse 12 states: ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way’.
Though we mourn the horrific cruelty of Hamas leading to so many dead and injured in Israel and the loss of life of civilians in Gaza, we should also see
that God is using these tragedies to warn the world of Jesus’ soon-coming, and his wrath, which is going to be poured out on the whole unbelieving world, Jewish, Islamic and Gentile.
It is regularly stated that Iran is Israel’s biggest enemy and naturally-speaking this is true and that they always use proxies, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthies in Yemen to carry out their plot to destroy the Jews and by extension Israel, but the spiritual reality is that Iran is actually the proxy for Satan; just as Haman, Simon Bar Kochba, Mohammed and Hitler were.
Psalm 11 comments on the fate of the wicked and violent and those who support them. Verse 5 states that the Lord tries the righteous, but the wicked and him that loves violence (chamas) his soul hates.
Psalm 140 has 3 mentions of ‘Ish Chamasim’ (violent man) in verses 1, 4 and 11.
Some Good Things to have come out of it all:
Worldwide anti-antisemitism and ‘holocaust denial’ happening within a few days; a watershed for the Christian Church in terms of its attitude to Israel; the narrowing-down process.
Israel more and more realises that their true and lasting friends are Evangelical Christians.
Israel as a nation, much more united after being greatly divided between secular (75%) and religious (25%); many more are seeking God again. Messianic believers, especially soldiers, having witnessing opportunities.
God using persecution of Jews to increase Aliya to Israel.
The real face of militant Islam being exposed for the public to see. Expanding Muslim Evangelism opportunities…..tracts available. Somali TV You Tube clip.
We realise that we are quite a way along the prophetic timeline towards the end.
Before the flood,
Jesus said, “As in the days of Noah, so will it be in the day of the coming of the Son of Man.”