Why Are The Jewish People and Israel Hated By So Many?

Last updated on: June 27, 2016 at 8:20 pm by Jack Wellman

Why Are The Jewish People and Israel Hated By So Many? 2016-06-27T20:20:03-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Why are the Jews so hated and despised? What’s the reason that Israel is so hated by so many?

Not because of Greatness

God did not choose Israel because they were anything special but because of His promise to Abraham that God would make of him a great nation and that did come to pass, but the nation has yet to reach its intended full potential. They failed their mission in the Old Testament but will not fail in the coming kingdom of God. Their full potential will have to wait to be fulfilled until the kingdom of God arrives. When God called Israel out of their Egyptian slavery, He told them “you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deut 7:6) but “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut 7:7-8).

Not because of Might

God did not call very many of the wise, powerful, strong or mighty, so the Apostle Paul tells us to “consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1st Cor 1:26). Why? Because “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1st Cor 1:27) and “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1st Cor 1:28) and this was done in order “that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1st Cor 1:29). If you think God called you because you were wise, powerful, clever, strong or mighty, then you have no idea what the Bible teaches about those who are called by His name.

No Reason to Boast

Israel, as we have read, was not the most powerful nation, they were not the most numerous, and they certainly weren’t the greatest. They, like we, have no reason to boast which is exactly why Paul asks the rhetorical question, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1st Cor 4:7)? Paul writes that it’s only “by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom 12:3) so “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight” (Rom 12:16).

Why the Jews are Hated

Could it be the Jews are hated because they have been the keeper of the oracles of God, meaning Scripture? Even in the New Testament, all but one of the authors was Jewish, and for the first century, Christianity was predominantly Jewish, so part of the reason people hate Israel, which of course means the Jews, is because they are God’s chosen people and God has plans for them in the kingdom of God. He has not forsaken His people Israel. He has preserved a remnant for Himself and He will still yet bring them to Himself and all Israel will finally be saved someday and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God and their Lord and their God. Perhaps Satan is behind much of this hatred of Israel because he sees the nation as God’s people and he has been focused on trying to destroy them for hundreds of years. Since the Devil hates anything and everything about God, he also hates Israel because God has identified Himself with His chosen people.

Given Reasons

Some of the reasons that the Jews are hated are because of their prosperity. It could be economic or it could be that the Jews see themselves (as the Bible describes) as God’s chosen people, but also because they are seen as always being responsible for economic troubles in the nations in which they lived and thus, they have been made the scapegoat more than once. Others believe it is because the Jews were said to have killed Jesus but this was no accident and played into the very sovereign will of God (John 3:16). Of course, it could also be a racial issue too. Other’s point to their shrewdness in business dealings but the bigger question is why do we hate anyone eat all? Jesus commanded in Matthew 5 to love one another and to pray for our enemies, love those who despise us, and do good to those who do evil to us. That command is for Jew and Gentile.

Conclusion

Perhaps much of the root of this hatred goes back in time with Jacob and Esau where “Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now” (Gen 25:29-31), but Jacob also stole Esau’s blessing from Isaac and so “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob” (Gen 27:41). This may be the origin of the hatred for Jews and the people of Israel. This hatred will not be solved until Christ returns and there shall be no more war.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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