Last time we started looking at Satan's Anti-Sematic attack on the "seed of the woman that is the longest running assault on the "seed of the woman" during human history.

The prohibition against this assault begins in: Gen 12:1; Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country (Ur of the Chaldeans), and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you.

v 2 and I will make you a great nation (promise to make Abram the founder of the Jewish race), and I will bless you (divine favor on Abram personally), and make your name great (he is revered to this day by Islam, Jews & Christians); and you shall be a blessing (to both Jews & Christians);

v 3 and I will bless those who bless you (divine favor on any who are pro-Semitic), and the one who curses you I will curse (divine justice upon any who are anti-Semitic). And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (through the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ)."

The anti-Semitism clause is found in the middle of verse 3, "the one who curses you I will curse." At the moment of Abram's appointment to be the founder of the Jewish race, God proclaimed a curse upon any who abuse Jewish people.

The major English translations use the word "curse" twice but there are two different words in the Hebrew. The phrase "the one who curses you" is the Pi'el participle of: " qalal " and is translated "the one who curses you"

The definition of "qalal" amplifies the problem of the prejudice of anti-Semitism.

Harris, R. Laird. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Vol. 2. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), page 800:

Qalal. As God said to Abraham: "… he who curses you, I will curse him." To curse God's prophet was to attack God and to bring on one's head divine judgment.

Jenni, Ernst and Claus Westermann. Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament. Vol. 3. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), pages 1141-1143:

"qalal " To be contemptible; to have little regard for, despise, abuse; to be small, insignificant, minor, despicable; of low status on a scale of value; to be disdainful; to think little of; to declare someone despicable, insignificant, meaningless; to consider another as contemptible.

"qalal" in the Pi'el stem is the most common verb for mocking and reviling speech by which one who feels uncertain or weak seeks to elevate oneself above another.

The verb "qalal" as used in Gen12:3; is in the Pi'el stem which is evaluated for us by: E. Kautzsch, Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. Revised by A. E. Cowley. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1910), page 141:

The fundamental idea of Pi'el, to which all the various shades of meaning in this conjugation may be referred, is to busy oneself eagerly with the action indicated by the stem.

This intensifying of the idea of the stem appears in individual cases as a strengthening and repetition of the action, for example, (the verb) to laugh, in the Pi'el, means to jest, to make sport by laughing (to laugh repeatedly).

The eager pursuit of an action may also consist in urging and causing others to do the same. In Gen12:3; the warning given by God to the entire human race is that any one who engage in a strengthening, repetitious campaign of belittling, diminishing, abusing, mocking, and reviling behavior toward the Jew will come under a divine curse.

What we have here the strengthening and repetition of a cluster of arrogant mental attitudes that are directed toward others while simultaneously justifying one's own behavior, leading to self-deception by one's own rationales, that results in becoming self-absorbed in the process.

When a person views the Jew as being contemptible, looks upon him as a despicable person, and seeks to diminish him through reviling speech or hurtful action, that person is prejudiced.

When a person holds all Jews in contempt, looks down upon them collectively, and seeks to do them harm without cause or reason other than the simple fact they are Jews. This is anti-Semitism.

Gen 12:3; tells us that God personally curses those who engage in anti-Semitism and allow this prejudicial mental attitude to strengthen and intensify into a repetitious behavior pattern.

The word for "curse" is the Hebrew verb "arur"- "to curse with misfortune."

Jenni and Westermann. Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament. Vol. 1. pages 179-180: The meaning of "arur" as "to curse has the connotation of covering with misfortune.

"Arur", then, is the opposite of a "barak" or "blessing", and is therefore one stricken by misfortune and afflicted, whose existence is disastrous and whose mere presence brings misfortune.

The "arur" formula has a double function. First, it designates a particular person as "arur", and it goes on to cover the person with disaster. Second, the "arur "formula creates a curse zone, a potential disaster sphere, into which the one who commits the deed named in the formula enters.

This formula often contrasts blessing with cursing. This contrast is evident in Gen 12:3; where it is stated that those who bless Abram will be blessed by God while those who curse Abram, are anti-Semitic, and will be cursed by God.

Gen 12:7; And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land.. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

By making his promise to Abraham, God had narrowed the line of the "seed of the woman" down to Abraham's family, so Satan was now able to focus his attack on Abraham's offspring.

The first danger occurred during a famine that caused Abram and his wife Sarai to flee to Egypt. It is described in Gen 12:10-20;

Abram assumed that since his wife was beautiful that the Pharaoh would kill him and take her. He therefore tried to pass her off as his sister. The plan didn't work because Pharaoh took her anyway.

For Sarai to become a member of Pharaoh's harem was completely outside the plan of God since she was to be in the channel to the "seed of the woman."

God therefore struck the house of Pharaoh with plagues that resulted in the release of Sarai and the Hebrew matriarch of the Messianic line was rescued for the eventual birth of Isaac.

The next attack came from within Abram's immediate family because of their impatience. It marked the point where the satanic assault instituted the concept of racial hatred as a means of destroying the Messianic line and brought about the creation of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism is a sin of satanic origin that betrays a lust pattern that will find any excuse to blame the Jews, project on the Jews, and persecute and murder the Jews for almost every problem that mankind faces.

The Abrahamic Covenant included the promise that Abraham would be the father of a great nation but Abram and Sarai were still childless so this was a major test of their faith.

The Lord had assured him that he and Sarai would have a child. Gen 15:4b; "… one who shall come forth from your own body, he ( Isaac ) shall be your heir."

However, time passed they had become impatient with God so Sarai came up with the plan for Abram try to sire a child with their maid, Hagar and because of his impatience Abram made the mistake of going along with it.

Gen 16:1-4;Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.

v2 So Sarai said to Abram, "Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, and have sexual relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her." Abram did what Sarai told him.

v3 So after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram's wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, to her husband to be his wife.
v4 He had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. Net note 14

Gen16:5; Then Sarai said to Abram, You have brought this wrong on me! I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, but when she realized that she was pregnant, she despised me. May the Lord judge between you and me!

v6 Abram said to Sarai, Since your servant is under your authority, do to her whatever you think best. Then Sarai treated Hagar harshly, so she ran away from Sarai.

v7 The Lord's angel found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert the spring that is along the road to Shur

The immediate pregnancy of Hagar caused her to disrespect Sarai and caused Sarai to become extremely jealous so that she began to treat Hagar harshly, so much so that Hagar fled toward Shur.

But the Lord intervened in a theophany and insisted Hagar return to Abram and Sarai: Gen 16:9; Then the angel of the Lord (Jesus Christ in a theophany ) said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority."

Hagar was pregnant with a son who was not a member of the Messianic line. Abram had made a mistake in judgment by listening to his wife's suggestion of trying to have a child through Hagar.

The child was to become the patriarch of the most vicious and implacable enemies that the Jews would ever encounter.

Gen 16:1; Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count."

This promise is fulfilled by the line of Ishmael that makes up a large portion of the Arabs that have persecuted the Jews for millennia and have made the crime of anti-Semitism their major focus.

Although the Lord would ultimately keep his promise to Abram through Isaac, because God honored Abram's free volition He permitted the birth of Ishmael. In addition because of blessing by association with Abraham God promised to greatly multiply his descendents in future generations.

Gen 25:13-15; names Ishmael's sons and their camps and villages according to their tribes. These twelve tribes of Ishmael decided to settle on land that is right in the middle of the land God promised to Abraham.

Gen 25:18; They ( the twelve tribes of Ishmael ) settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt as one goes toward Assyria; he settled in defiance of all his relatives.

The phrase "in defiance" is the plural of "face" that is translated from the Hebrew word "panim" that means literally "in front of." It is an idiom that refers to a geographic location where one positions himself in defiance of others.

Harris, R. Laird (ed.). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), page 727

"pana" "turn." The basic meaning of the verb is "to turn," but it may assume a number of nuances. For example pana may mean "to turn towards" a direction, a person, or a thing.

"Panim" "Face". always occurs in the plural, perhaps indicative of the fact that the face is a combination of a number of features. The face identifies the person and reflects the attitude and sentiments of the person.

In the Bible the "face" does not only refer to an exterior instrument in one's physiology, but rather it refers to being involved in some form of behavioral pattern, and is thus characterized by some personal quality.

It is only natural that the face was considered to be extraordinarily revealing of a man's emotions, moods, and dispositions.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, defines Disposition.
1. One's customary manner of emotional response. 2. A tendency, especially when habitual.

Disposition is equivalent to an habitual frame of mind. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: Disposition: a: Prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination. b. Temperamental makeup. c. The tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances. Implies customary moods and attitudes toward the life around one.

This defiant emotional irrational disposition is consistent with what God had told Hagar in Gen 16:12; and he will be wild-ass man, his hand against every one, and every one's hand against him and he live to the east in the face of all his brothers.

Ishmael's disposition, and the disposition that developed in the souls of his twelve sons, was a "habitual mood" and "frame of mind" that crystallized into the chronic sin of anti-Semitism.

They settled to the east of Canaan and developed a perpetual deep-seated hatred for their cousins, the Jews.

Ishmael and his descendants will have no self-discipline and reject legitimate authority and therefore have no respect for themselves or anyone else. Freedom requires respect for true authority and self-discipline.

The reason why the Arab nations are always in slavery to dictators is because they have no self-discipline and no respect for true authority. This means that they have no capacity for freedom and according to this prophecy never will.

Paul describes this in Gal 4:22; It is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman ( Ishmael by Hagar ), the other by a freewoman ( Isaac by Sarah ).

v. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through the promise.

v 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
v29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh ( Ishmael ) then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit ( Isaac: Gen 21:9-10; ), even so it is now ( anti-Semitism of the Arabs toward the Jews ).

This means that the anti-Semitism that was first committed by Ishmael in Gen 21:9; will rage throughout human history until our Lord Jesus Christ stops it at his second advent.