“A war is being waged against the Jewish diaspora. It is being waged with bombs, shootings, harassment and intimidation,” says a writer on a blog called UnHerd. “The attacks, and the fear of them, are a small side plot in a great Middle Eastern War. Those two men charged in London had a plan to attack a sister synagogue I sporadically attend. I feel this myself, as I push my son’s pram past the policemen at the temple gate. Yet more than fear, I feel disappointment. For if ever me and my son, or any of us who pray here, were butchered by a gunman shouting “Free Palestine”, many Western activists would equivocate, contextualize, or even say it served us right. Never mind that us diaspora Jews have no single agreed view on Gaza, the West Bank, or Benjamin Netanyahu, let alone Iran.”

We have broached this topic before.

Cautious?

This one certainly has to be, for we all know of the various persecutions of Jews through history.

Right now we are in a time when public sentiment has turned sharply away from Israel. A recent poll showed sixty percent of the adult population at large and eighty percent of those aged 18 to 49 in the U.S. have turned against the Jewish state, in large part due to its decimation of Gaza and now the leading of the U.S. into the Iranian war and a new, Gaza-like decimation in Lebanon.

God made binding covenants with Israel that are recorded in the Bible. “I will show you . . . I will make you . . . I will bless you . . . I will bless those who bless you . . . I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:1–3; emphasis added).

That’s one aspect.

Another is the question some are asking: who are the actual Jews, what actually is Israel, as delineated in Scripture, and more to the point (especially sensitive territory here!), which “Jews” are what Jesus called the “synagogue of Satan.”

That’s a phrase from Revelation 2:9 and 3:9, where Jesus addresses churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia and refers to people who “say they are Jews and are not.”

Very interesting. Mysterious. Can it be interpreted in provocative, slanderous ways?

This is for your discernment.

A famous Jewish author, Arthur Koestler, wrote a book called The Thirteenth Tribe arguing that the majority of modern Jews, especially in Europe and the U.S., are actually descended from the Ashkenazi: Christians in Turkey and Eastern Europe who converted to Judaism—became “Jews”—to avoid persecution from invading Muslims (Moors) who at that time were persecuting and killing Christians.

Koestler based what he wrote on genetic evidence, but more recent DNA analyses argue that most of those who call themselves Jews indeed have significant and usually definitive genetic markers from the Middle East: They are descendants, at least in part, from Israel.

But as it turns out, that may not solve the case.

You see, historically, authentic Jews were considered to be of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Jesus was in the Judah line). “Judah” in particular is where we get the word “Jew.” It doesn’t mean Israeli, for there were of course Gentiles, Romans, and tribes such as the Edomites in Israel.

Edomites were not of the two original tribes—and in fact were a big problem for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.   As Wikipedia states, “The biblical Book of Genesis speaks of the relationship between fraternal twins Jacob and Esau, sons of Isaac and Rebekah. The story focuses on Esau’s loss of his birthright to Jacob and the conflict that ensued between their descendant nations because of Jacob’s deception of their aged and blind father, Isaac, in order to receive Esau’s birthright/blessing from Isaac.  Genesis 25:26^[3] states that Esau was born before Jacob, who came out holding on to his older brother’s heel as if he was trying to pull Esau back into the womb so that he could be firstborn.^[4] The name Jacob means “he grasps the heel” which is a Hebrew idiom for deceptive behavior.”

Many in Israel were Edomites—which some now believe is what Jesus meant by those who “say they are Jews and are not.”

Many of those in modern Israel are descended from the tribes Judah and Benjamin, but not all; not the Edomites who now (the argument goes) have taken hold of Israeli leadership. For example, Benjamin Netanyahu is a secular Ashkenazi Jew with deeply ingrained right-wing, revisionist Zionist political convictions. His family roots are European (though he has noted potential Sephardic ancestry based on a DNA test).

Golda Meir was likewise Ashkenazi (descended from Edom).

Edomites came from the southern part of Israel that intermixes with Jordan.

Fascinating this is, for two historic figures were Edomites: Herod, who massacred the innocents and sought to kill the Messiah, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus (the other eleven apostles were Galilean: of the tribes of Judah or Benjamin).

The name Judas Iscariot means “from the town of Kerioth,” which is in southernmost Judea (that area interlocked with Jordan).

Thus the question: Were Edomites what Jesus called “the synagogue of Satan”? What are their fruits?

Very touchy questions.

Does their prevalence indicate the Second Coming (just as their control of Israel was theirs during His First)?

Food for thought and prayer.

(Says the Book of Joel:

“For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all the nations
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Then I will enter into judgment with them there
On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
And they have divided up My land.
“They have also cast lots for My people,
Traded a boy for a harlot
And sold a girl for wine that they may drink….

Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men!
Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!
Beat your plowshares into swords
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”
Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations,
And gather yourselves there.
Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones.
Let the nations be aroused
And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
For there I will sit to judge
All the surrounding nations.
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
The sun and moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
The Lord roars from Zion
And utters His voice from Jerusalem,
And the heavens and the earth tremble.
But the Lord is a refuge for His people
And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.
Then you will know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.
So Jerusalem will be holy,
And strangers will pass through it no more.”)