The Jewish people are not now, nor have they ever been, Satan's target simply because they are Jews. They are his target because they hold a pivotal place in God's plan to return Messiah Jesus to Earth. We must understand this in order to recognize and effectively fight the real spiritual battle that we are in. 

SATAN'S PLAN TO PREVENT THE RETURN OF JESUS

Satan has always tried to prevent God's plans from coming to fulfillment. He attempted to take God's throne from Him, but was cast down from heaven. He seduced Adam and Eve, but heard his end prophesied when God spoke the first Messianic prophecy. (Gen.3:15) He enslaved the Jewish people, but God sent Moses to set His people free. He sought to prevent the Jewish people from entering and conquering the Promised Land, but their enemies were defeated. God turned Balaam's attempts at cursing Israel, into a blessing. Satan tried to stop the prophet Daniel from receiving Messianic prophecies and end time revelations, but failed. He sought to prevent the birth of Jesus by slaughtering innocent children (Matt. 2:16). When Peter tried to hinder Jesus from going to the cross, Jesus identified the spirit in operation and rebuked Peter, speaking directly to satan (Matt. 16:23). 

Satan knows that he will be utterly defeated when Jesus returns. He will be bound and thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10) Because of this, he fights with all his power, and continues to use every strategy and tactic he can, to try to prevent the second coming of the Messiah. But, the Word of God cannot fail, and the coming of the KING is as "certain as the dawn." (Hosea 6:1-3) 

In Acts 3:21, Peter revealed an important part of God's plan for the return of Jesus. He proclaimed that Jesus is being kept in heaven until the time for the restoration of all things that the prophets have spoken. Satan heard this prophetic message, and conceived a plan he thought would keep Jesus in heaven forever. If he could cause the words of the prophets to fail in their fulfillment, Jesus would never be able to return, and satan's present authority over humanity would continue forever (Matt. 4:8,1 John 5:19). 

What are the promises to the Jewish people that satan seeks so desperately to prevent being fulfilled? The essential message of the Law of Moses, and then expanded upon throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, was that God had entered into a covenant with the Jewish people. He brought them, as a nation, into a relationship with Himself and He gave them His Land, the Land of Israel, as an eternal inheritance upon the condition of their obedience to His commandments. Through Moses, God told the Jewish people that their disobedience would exile them from the Land and disperse them among the Gentile nations, in which they would experience much suffering (Ley. 26, Deut,28). But the prophets also declared that God would not allow His covenant people to be destroyed (Jer.31 :35-37). At the end of the age, God will have mercy and regather the exiles back to their land and to "David" their King. (Deut. 30, Hosea 3:5, Ezek. 37:24). 

Satan has two main strategies to stop the words of the prophets from coming to pass, and prevent Jesus from returning.

THE FIRST STRATEGY HAS TWO PARTS: 

1) Kill The Jews

If satan could succeed in killing all the Jewish people, the words of the prophets fail, and Jesus has to remain in heaven. This is why throughout history, satan has sought for opportunities to kill the Jew₁sh people. This of course, is also what satan attempted to complete in the Holocaust. Hitler's rise from obscurity to absolute dictatorial power over life and death, his incredible ability to mesmerize an entire country and turn a “cultured people" into a "nation of murderers" dedicated to the systematic extermi­nation of every single Jew, can only be explained by recognizing Nazism as a manifestation of raw satanic power and deception. 

The present fanatical Islamic goal to destroy the nation of Israel and drive the Jews into the sea is simply the latest satanic attack on the words of the prophets.

2) Assimilate The Jews

Wherever the Jewish people were living, there was pressure put upon them to become like the people they lived among. There were religious pressures to “convert" to Christianity, as well as the general dynamics of assimilation, that over time simply caus­es people groups to melt into one another, as generations intermarry and adopt the various cultural norms present in every soci­ety. It is a testimony to the supernatural calling and destiny of the Jewish people that they remained separate and distinct among all the nations into which they were exiled. Of all the nations in the history of the world who have been conquered, exiled and scattered, only the Jews have survived with a distinct national identity. God put this passion to remain distinct and separate in the hearts of the Jewish people. 

If satan can succeeded in his attempts to assimilate the Jewish people, the results would have been the same as if he had man­aged to kill all the Jews. When the time came for the Lord to regather His people, there would be none who would identify themselves as Jews and the words of the prophets would fail to be fulfilled. 

THE SECOND STRATEGY

Satan uses the Church as an instrument of death and assimilation. 

Satan has another plan that is even more insidious because it uses the Church as a means to prevent the return of her own beloved Lord. This is the ultimate spiritual irony. The Church, which is called to be the very Body of Messiah in the earth, are the people who are commanded to love the Lord with all their hearts, souls and minds, and to love each other and love all peo­ple as themselves. They are the people who are called to be the representatives of Jesus; to be His very own disciples, reflecting by their love, peace, joy, character, holiness, faith, and power, the true person of Jesus the Messiah. The Church, which was intended to be the light of redemption and salvation to the Jew first and also the nations, became for the Jewish people, an instrument of hatred, persecution and death. 

In Matthew 23:39 and in Luke 13:35, Jesus told the Jewish peo­ple that they would not see Him again until they said, "BLESSED S HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD." Please pay close attention to the order of events here; the saying precedes the seeing. You (Jewish people) will not see me (Jesus) again until you say (to me) "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD." In Romans 11:15, Paul teaches us that when the Jewish people receive Jesus as their Messiah, it will be “life from the dead." I believe this is a reference to the resurrection of the dead that occurs when Jesus returns. As you can see, the Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus is the central event in ushering in the return of the Lord. This is why satan has fought it so intensely and will continue to do so. This is why anti-Semitism is such an insidious strategy. Satan has set up an enormous smoke screen for the vast majority of Christians. They fail to fol­low the trail of clues given to us, in the study of Church and Jewish history, and the Scriptures that pierces through the many layers of deception perpetrated by various nefarious doctrines of demons. They fail to understand the prophetic purposes of God and His strategy for accomplishing those purposes. 

Only when we understand what the spirit of anti-Semitism is and what it really seeks to accomplish, will we rise up in "righteous indignation" and throw out any influences it could have in the Body of Messiah. 

Most people, including believers, believe that anti-Semitism is merely a sociological, economic, or cultural phenomenon. They have no idea about the real spiritual dynamics behind anti-Semitism. They do not understand that any time they allow them­selves to harbor any anti-Semitic thoughts and feelings, they are allowing the spirit that is seeking to prevent the return of Jesus to influence their lives. When the Church acts in ways that are anti-Semitic or Judeo-phobic, she is aligning herself with her own enemy and the enemy of Jesus Himself. 

So beloved, do what the Scripture commands you to do: test the spirits to see if they are from God. In like manner, test the thoughts and feelings of your own heart. If there is anti-Semitism in your heart, now is the time to repent an6 allow the Holy Spirit to root it out and replace it with His thoughts and feelings toward the Jewish people, indeed toward all people. 

The Spirit of God puts the Love of God for all people into our hearts. This love is one of the primary fruits of the Holy Spirit. Someone who says that they are a "Christian" and does not have the Love of God in their hearts for all people is deceived about their own spiritual condition. They may be a real Christian, but they are yet carnal and spiritually immature. As you seek the Lord about His love for the Jewish people and about His plans for them, you may be surprised at what He does in your heart. He might show you where you have, for whatever reason, negative thoughts and feelings toward the Jewish people. If He does, repent, turn toward the Lord and ask Him to impart to you His heart, His thoughts, and feelings for them. If you do not yet have God's love in your heart for the Jewish people, you will!