The Link Between Ancient Judges and The Current War in Israel Part One: The Hamas spirit

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran invaded Israel. Men came in shouting, "Allah Akbar!" which means, "our god is greater." Their god is a demon. Our God is the One true and living God. With this pronouncement, on this day, they proclaimed the beginning of yet another physical war, taking place in Israel, with spiritual war being the source. This was the first war in Israel in 50 years. The media, here in America has gone fairly quiet on this subject. However, when it is mentioned, our media always seems to paint Israel in a negative light. As if Israel were the aggressor, instead of a sovereign nation defending it's very right to exist.

As we look back on the time of the judges in Israel, we find that those events happened over a 300-year period. It was a series, a cycle if you will, of wars that taught Israel warfare. It also showed them as it does us today, that if we do not follow the Lord our God, and live to serve Him alone, we will fall victim to the very snares that caught them. We will go from Genesis to Revelation and discover what makes the land of Israel so integral to the world stage, and global, political affairs. There is a spiritual battle behind the scenes of this very real, physical conflict.

Beginning in the book of Genesis, I want to introduce you to something you may or may not be familiar with, the Hamas spirit. What do we know currently about Hamas? We know it is a modern day, Palestinian terror organization that is backed by Iran. We know they attacked Israel last year. But what else can we discover? For one, the word Hamas in Arabic means zeal. It is a Palestinian anachronism for the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas is also an original word from the Hebrew scriptures. Hamas in Hebrew translates to violence, iniquity, wickedness, cruelty, lawlessness, basically, rotten to the core.

It makes its first appearance in Genesis 6:11. "Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence." What was happening here in Genesis six is the same thing that was happening in judges. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and not doing what was right in the sight of God. This filled the earth with violence, with Hamas. The ancient world became possessed by this spirit of violence and it corrupted the entire world that God had initially created, good. Hamas is a demonic spirit in the earth. The word for "filled" in Genesis 6 is similar in meaning to the same word translated into Greek by the writers of the Septuagint, carries the same meaning as "filled" meaning to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Filled here in essence means possessed by or indwelt by. True or false, does our world feels like it is filled with and governed by this demonic spirit? In Genesis 6, God rose up a man named Noah and his family. Instead of the Hamas Spirit, they had the Holy Spirit. Noah preached for 120 years about the judgement that would soon come upon the earth for all of this wickedness, but no one would listen and all that was saved was him and his family. They go into the ark. God shuts the door. Floods the earth and kills everything that has the Hamas spirit. Those who have the Hamas spirit all die in judgement; those who have the Holy Spirit are delivered. This is also a picture of what Jesus does for us. Noah faithfully preached and all that were saved was his own family. If you can minister to anyone, minster to your family. Ministry should always begin in the home.

Today is a day in which too many pastors, too many leaders, too many missionaries are trying to save the world and forget to start with their own family. If you truly want to make a difference in this world, start with your family, start with your spouse, start with your kids, with your grandkids. You may not save the world, but you don't want to lose your family.

After the flood, everything that had the spirit of Hamas was dead. Yet it's not long and the Bible begins to again speak of people who have the spirit of Hamas. I'll list 3 examples:

1. Chaldeans and the Babylonians in Jeremiah (31:5)

2. All of the "mites" in Judges. (9:34)

3. The Egyptians in Joel. (3:19)

The question then is, "if people who are filled with or possessed by the Hamas spirit all die, how come another group of people arises after the flood that has the Hamas spirit?" It's because people die, and demons don't. You and I inhabit a physical body, a demon does not. A demon can only work in and through a person. When that person dies, the demon doesn't. Instead, the spirit leaves them and waits for another body to occupy. So, what happens is that you begin to see the same behavior in different people, nations and generations. When you see this happening, you can know that it is happening because it is the same spirit at work behind the scenes.

This being said the story moves forward and God has another plan for His people. He is going to establish something called the Abrahamic Covenant. He moves from Noah to Abraham. He calls Abraham to leave his father and mother, his father was a pagan, to move to a nation he had not been in or known, and to trust in faith that God would provide for Him. God's answer for a fallen, cursed, sinful world is a covenant of love and grace that comes in and through a man named Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant in summary is three things:

1. land

2. lineage

3. the Lord

He is going to give Abraham a piece of real estate. It is called the Promised Land. Thousands of times in the Bible, we see this real estate called the nation of Israel. In addition to the land, God would provide a lineage. It would be occupied by Abraham's descendants. And through them would come the Lord, Jesus, the Messiah. He would come through the lineage of Abraham and He would come from the Promised land.

In Genesis 12 God shows up and tell Abraham, "you belong to me. you're gonna leave the protection of your parents and your family, you're going to take your wife and move to another nation that I will lead you to. You're going to trust Me and I'm going to bless you." In Genesis 15, God tells him, "I'm giving you a land. I'm giving you a lineage. Though your wife is barren, I'm gonna give you a son. through your lineage, in this land will come the Messiah (Jesus Christ), the Son of God, a son of Abraham. And the blessing, not just to this nation but for all nations will come through you." At the center of all Bible prophecy is our Lord, Jesus.

In Genesis 16, They come up with their own plan. They do so because

a) Sarah is barren, and

b) they are both advanced in years.

They decide they need to "help God out." Sarah comes up with a terrible plan. She says to her husband, "Why don't you take a second wife?" Ladies, we all agree this was a terrible idea, right? There's no way you would want your husband to take another wife and make babies with her, correct? She tells him, "Take Hagar, my maidservant, marry her, consummate the marriage, and she will give you a son. That son will be the heir. And now, we don't need to wait for God to perform the supernatural, we can do something in the natural. We don't need God to give us a son, we can make our own through polygamy."

Side Note: In our current day and time, we see a resurgence of and push for polygamy. Polygamy is demonic. It is another means to denigrate the original institution of marriage as a covenant made between God and one man and one woman, the way He originally intended it. Abraham does just as she suggests. He marries Hagar, she is Egyptian, he was not supposed to marry her. She worships a different god. They have a son and name him Ishmael. In Genesis 21, God allows Sarah to conceive. She names him Isaac, because God always has the last laugh. We now have an elderly, barren woman, with a child named laughter. Can you see the problem that has arisen? We have one covenant, and two wives. We have one covenant, and two sons. Each woman is going to advocate for their child to be the promised son, who receives the covenant promises. Abraham has to choose one and reject the other.

This becomes a father wound. This becomes a demonic root of bitterness that continues to this very day. God instructs Abraham to be loyal to Sarah. Sarah determines to send Hagar and Ishmael away. That is the beginning of bitterness that has lasted for more than 4,000 years to this very day. The Hamas spirit came into the home of Abraham. Genesis 16:5 "Then Sarai said to Abram, [a] “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.” The word "wrong" here is the same word in Hebrew that means Hamas. When Abraham and Sarah brought Hagar into their home, into their marriage and into their marriage bed, they brought the spirit of Hamas with her. When you bring other people into your home, life, or family, sometimes they bring a spirit with them.

Sarah says, "I can no longer live with this woman; she has brought Hamas (violence) into our home." And Ishmael demonstrates the spirit of Hamas. He is said to have been, "a wild donkey of a man." His hand was against everyone, and everyone's hand was against him. It was his (Ishamel's) descendants (Palestinians) who invaded Israel on October 7th, 2023, 4,000 years later, polygamy is still a family feud that has erupted into geopolitical conflict. In addition, Ishmael goes on to have 12 sons like the 12 tribes of Israel. And those tribes become the nations that surround Israel. So, when you see in the book of Judges and the rest of the Old Testament all the way up to the final battle of Megiddo at the end times battle of Armageddon that ushers in the 2nd coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ, all of these nations that are surrounding Israel, attacking and invading, they are the descendants of this polygamy.

God blesses both Isaac and Ishmael. He gives them both land. He is good to them. They have sons and heirs. But ultimately what happens is these two wives and these two sons, bring about a spiritual battle over the Abrahamic Covenant. Who gets the promised land, who's lineage inherits the blessing? From which line will the Lord come? This sets up a geopolitical war that is also a spiritual war.

The Bible says that our war is not just against flesh and blood, but powers, principalities, and spirits. As we look at geopolitical conflict, and wars in our world, behind all of it is the battle between the Holy Spirit and the spirit of Hamas. This war will continue until the Lord, Jesus Christ returns. Let me make this very practical, do not bring the spirit of Hamas into your home. That's what Sarah and Abraham did, and we are still seeing the conflict. If there is someone popping up in your dm's wanting you to commit adultery, or someone hanging around your family that worships another god or just wants you to live with and sleep with them, you need to know that this is the spirit of Hamas trying to invade your home. Sarah says we have to cast out this woman the same way we have to cast out a demon. You can't have the Hamas spirit and the Holy Spirit in the same home.

Moving forward to the next book, Exodus, I'm going to discuss the Hamas spirit in the days of Moses. So, we are going from 4,000 years ago to 3,400 years ago. The Jewish people come from Isaac. and the Arabs come from Ishmael. The war today is between the Jews and the Arabs. It goes all the way back to Abraham and his decision to have both the Hamas spirit, by way of his mistake of a wife, Hagar, and the Holy Spirit, by means of listening to God and walking out in faith. His faith faltered when he brought another player into his marriage. This brought violence into his home that persists all the way down through the annals of time to today. I feel inclined to say this, we live in a day when people say things like, "we're consenting adults, we aren't hurting anybody. We're having sex. We want an open marriage, we want polygamy. We're living with and sleeping together." Thats what Abraham would have said. And hey, he even had permission from his wife! I cannot fathom that! They say, "we want a progressive lifestyle; what's the harm?" Think about it, 4,000 years after the fact, we are still dealing with the same geopolitical conflict and war. We have terrorist activity and no sense of lasting peace. If you don't think that your life and your decisions have lasting consequences, you are not paying attention to the scriptures.

The Edomites who are called out by God in Joel 3:19 (“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence ((another translation of the word Hamas)) against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.”) are the descendants of Esau. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac had two sons also, Jacob and Esau. These same descendants called out in Joel 3:19 are the other side of the family. This is a family feud that is still taking place. In the 90's we in the West show up in the middle east and supposedly have a grand solution. Metaphorically we say, "can't you just hug it out?" Absolutely not. This spirit of violence, wickedness, and evil was invited in by Abraham long ago. The sword didn't depart. They are still fighting over who in the family has the right to the land, the lineage, and the Lord. Joel says they are guilty of Hamas, violence, hatred, wickedness, evil to their own family. You know it has to be a demonic spirit behind these battles because who do they go after first? The children, the women. They attack the weak first to draw the men to war.

The Hamas spirit works through the Edomites and the Egyptians in the days of Moses to kill all the baby boys who are Jewish before they can rise up and before one of them becomes the deliverer and the Savior. His name is Moses. He is a foreshadowing of Jesus. Interesting to note, 1,400 years later, after Moses, another king does the same thing Pharoah did in Exodus. He hears word that there will be a Hebrew, Jewish, Savior, deliverer born and it is a boy. So, he sends forth a decree for the soldiers to slaughter all baby boys 2 and under. Jesus' family is warned and flees to Egypt to prevent Jesus from being killed. He was trying to take Him out before He got a chance to become the Savior/ Deliverer, promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. Herod, the king who issued this decree, was also a descendant of Esau. The same people who were trying to destroy the baby boys in the time of Moses, are the same ones who attempted to take out the Savior of the world before He had the chance to grow up, live a sinless life, die a horrible death on a cross for humanity's sins and become the Savior of all mankind. They were again attempting to steal a part of the birthright. A precious part of the Covenant. The line through which would come the One through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. This is an ancient war between the Holy Spirit and the Hamas spirit.

Next, we're going to discuss yet another side to this family. Abraham had not just 2, but 3 wives. Sarah, his first wife, who though she was barren, God gave a Promised son, Isaac. His second wife, Hagar the Egyptian whom he was not supposed to marry, that had Ishmael, creating the Arab peoples of today. And Keturah, who he married after Sarah had died. The people known in the Bible as the Midianites are descendants of Abraham through this 3rd wife. This nation of people also surrounds Israel and often attack and invade it. Nine times in the Book of Judges, the Midianites are mentioned. 22 times it says Midian. For those who are Hebrew, they would have realized, this is the other side of the family. We have a broken, dysfunctional, conflicted family. This is a family that fights amongst themselves and lead the nations into war.

In the battle of Gideon in Judges 6-8, He was fighting against the Ishmaelites and the Arabs, and the battle against Midian was against the descendants of the sons of Abraham and Keturah. By the time you get to Judges 9, the actual war between the 2 spirits is still an ongoing conflict. Gideon wins the battle with 300 men. This proves God was at war for His people. After the battle, the people see Gideon as a brave war hero. They want him to be king. But the nation was not ready for a king. They had yet to submit to God as their King. Nevertheless, Gideon goes and does the same thing Abraham did. Except he did it on a far grander scale. He had a number of wives and concubines. He has 70 sons. This all started with polygamy, remember? What do you think will happen? There's definitely going to be more conflict because now you have 70 boys, not just 2 or 4. Have you noticed that the problem is always sexual? Sex outside of its proper place invites in this Hamas spirit. Now you have sons that don't even know their father, they have again, a father wound.

One of these sons, Abimelech, decides, "I want to be King." His name after all means, "My father is king." Gideon was never a king; he was a judge. Theres a difference. The judge was filled with the Holy Spirit. And empowered to lead the nation of Israel by this power. Nevertheless, Abimelech becomes filled by the Hamas spirit. He goes to his mother's brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother's clan, "Ask all the citizens of Shechem, which is better for yo: to have all 70 of Jerubbaal's (Gideon's) sons rule over you, or just one man? Remember, I am your flesh and blood." The citizens of Shechem were inclined to follow Abimelech. They gave him 70 shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith that he used to hire scoundrels who became his followers. He murdered all but one of his brothers. He ruled viciously in Israel for 3 years. He was empowered by the spirit of Hamas. The same Hamas that was rampant in the days of Noah. The same spirit of Hamas invited in through polygamy by Abraham, is still at work in the days of the judges.

Next, we're going to discuss a one state verses a two-state solution:

The one-state solution is this: the promised land of Israel that God guaranteed to the descendants of Abraham through the Abrahamic Covenant, through his wife, Sarah, namely their son, Isaac should govern and rule the entirety of the nation of Israel. If any of the Egyptians, the Arabs, the Midianites, the Edomites, or any other nation should want to dwell in that nation, they should come under the governance of the Word of God.

The two-state solution is: one part of the country will be ruled by the Hebrews, and they are devoted to the God of the Bible. The other part of the country will be ruled by other people who worship a different god. This divides the promised land between the two people and the two spirits. This is not what God promised in HIs covenant with Abraham.

God promised this was going to be a problem over 3,000 years ago. In Deuteronomy (written by Moses) He says in summary, when you get there, you are to take possession of the land. For context, these people had just been delivered from slavery and the Hamas spirit in Egypt. They're in the wilderness; they aren't home yet. But He gives them a list of do's and don'ts. He tells them, "You are to take the land to the point of destruction. Kill everything." He says, "You shall make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. You shall not intermarry with them because they would turn your hearts away from serving Me." Side note: Who your children marry determines your legacy.

"You shall break down their altars." These are places of sexuality, drunkenness and debauchery. He's saying close down the abortion clinics. Get rid of the weed stores. No more strip clubs. No more Only Fans. No more adult entertainment industry. No more woke, progressive churches that go along with and celebrate these things. Break their altars, burn their carved images. Consume the people, your eyes shall not pity them. Neither shall you serve their gods. Don't do their holidays. Don't fly their flags. Don't celebrate their hashtags. You shall not covet their silver or their gold or take it for yourselves. Let the Lord provide for you. Don't take anything and don't be obligated to them, lest you be ensnared by them. He says, "Do not bring an abominable thing into your home." Don't allow Hamas into your home. You can't have the Holy Spirit and unholy spirits in your house.

But they didn't listen. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. They became susceptible to the demonic. They attempted the two-state solution. Over 3,000 years later, we are still reaping what they had sown. There are 3 things I would like for you to take from this:

1. If you tolerate evil, evil will dominate you.

2. Evil must be stopped because evil will never stop itself.

3. Demons don't die. They play generationally. You and I think in terms of our lives, our life span. Politicians thin in terms of their terms in office. Demons think in terms of generations and eons.

4. People who think they aren't hurting anyone are actually hurting everyone in their lineage.

I hope you have enjoyed this first part of the introduction of the Hamas spirit. I will continue it next week. Til then, be blessed by being a blessing