With the war raging in Israel and the surge of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist/Israel language, lots of people are opining about things, and displaying their ignorance. Christians who hate Israel are steeped in ignorance. Messianic people who hate Jews are steeped in ignorance. People jump to conclusions when their itching ears are scratched by deceitful teachers who have an ulterior motive, many times which is vengeance based on jealousy.
I have seen several posts and heard several speeches about the “Star of David” and how evil it is, how the Jews are evil and worshipping a pagan deity, based on their sporting this symbol about on the flag of Israel, and other mediums.
It is not a ‘star’, however. It is a ‘shield’. Look for any Jewish literature about it, way into antiquity, and it is “Magen David”, the “Shield of David”. That alone should stop the madness, but that is not enough for those who just wish to paint Israel in a bad light.
I will say here that no, I do not blindly support Israel’s government, and yes, Israel’s government is a worldly government, and like all governments in the world, it is somewhat corrupt, because all men are corrupt, until they start following Messiah and His Torah. However, the Jewish people are not beyond salvation, like most of the Christian world teaches. Israel was not replaced by the church, like most of the Christian world teaches. God does not hate Israel, like most of the Christian world teaches. These are bald-faced lies. All men are subject to believing the lies of mankind. Indeed, the Bible teaches that most men decide to be stupid [remain in ignorance in spite of the truth].
Christians tend to forget that Yeshua IS Jewish. It’s not that He ‘was’ Jewish and now is something else; He is still Jewish, and always will be Jewish, and is King of the Jews, first! If you want Yeshua to be your king, you have to join Israel! Yeshua, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is called the “Root of David” in the END of the book, when the End Time climax begins:
5And one of the Elders [Z’kenim] said to me, “Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Yehudah [Judah, “Jew-duh”], the Root of David [Shoresh David], has prevailed, and He will open the book and the seven seals thereof.”
David is the King of the Jews in the “Old Testament”, the first one chosen by God and anointed as God’s choice for King of Israel. His heir would take His place eternally, and thus be King of the Jews…. King of all Israel. Yeshua is still Jewish.
The Bible does indeed not mention “The Shield of David”, but it does. David is persistently seen as the archetype of Messiah; David is understood to be “The Anointed One”; as such, He is “Messiah”, foreshadowing the coming one; and God promised David that his son, someone descended from David’s loins, would be the permanent King Messiah. That man is Yeshua, who is directly descended from David both genetically and legally, through Miryam and Yosef, respectively. And David is directly descended from Abraham, to whom God promised that He would bless the whole world by ONE of his seed, one man who would come out of the loins of Abraham. That is Yeshua, through David. And “Magen Avraham” is indeed in scripture.
אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה הָיָה דְבַר יהוה אֶל אַבְרָם בַּמַּחֲזֶה לֵאמֹר אַל תִּירָא אַבְרָם אָנֹכִי מָגֵן לָךְ שְׂכָרְךָ הַרְבֵּה מְאֹד.
“After these things the Word of יהוה [ D’var יהוה ] came unto Avram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Avram, I am your shield, your very great reward.” [Genesis 15:1]
Anyone who knows the scriptures decently knows that Yeshua is the Word of God; here, the Word of God is appearing to Abraham, and telling him He is “Magen Lakh”, a ”shield ‘for you’. And The Word immediately says that a ‘seed’ out of Abraham’s loins would be his heir. That is a pre-manifestation of Yeshua telling Abraham that the Messiah would come from him: A “Shield”.
This idea is also promised to Israel, as a nation, that יהוה is their ‘shield’, and, of course, this is alluding to יהוה Messiah:
אַשְׁרֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִי כָמוֹךָ עַם נוֹשַׁע בַּיהוה מָגֵן עֶזְרֶךָ וַאֲשֶׁר חֶרֶב גַּאֲוָתֶךָ
“Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like unto you? A people saved by יהוה , the shield of your help, and He who is the sword of your excellency!” [Deuteronomy 33:29]
The notion of יהוה being David’s shield, inheriting the shield of Abraham, however, comes from the Psalms, where יהוה is seen as David’s shield at least 17 times. Below are just a few of the references:
וַתִּתֶּן לִי מָגֵן יִשְׁעֶךָ: וִימִינְךָ תִסְעָדֵנִי; וְעַנְוַתְךָ תַרְבֵּנִי
“You have also given me [David] [the] Shield of Your Salvation [Your Yeshua] , and Your right hand has held me up; and Your gentleness has made me great.” [Ps 18:36]
מָגִנֵּנוּ רְאֵה אֱלֹהִים; וְהַבֵּט פְּנֵי מְשִׁיחֶך
“Behold, O God our Shield, and look upon the face of Your Messiah“. [Ps 84:10]
[a list of other references in the psalms is below]
Over and over in the Psalms there is a theme of David’s shield being יהוה himself, and it is because he is the “anointed one”, the Messiah, and it is to David that the line of Messiah is promised out of all of Israel; it was promised to Judah first, and David is descended from Judah [who is only the third generation after Abraham], and Messiah is descended from David: thus, Yeshua, the Lamb and Son of God, is “the Lion of the tribe of Yehudah [Judah, “Jew-duh”], the Root of David [Shoresh David].” As such, He, Yeshua, is the Shield of David.
So, how did the symbol “Magen David” come about? And yes, it does look ‘like’ a star. As with most customs in the world, the very origin of it is not recorded. However, customs are strong, so much so that they sometimes become “law” to a people. But, the earliest description in Judaism of the origin of the Magen David is that it was actually drawn from the shield that David used in battle.
David’s name in one ‘font’ of Hebrew writing has two triangles in it. In what we call “K’tav Ivri”, or ‘Hebrew script’, David’s name looks like this, reading this palindrome right to left:
ד ו ד
In another form of the alphabet used in David’s time, the ‘dalet’, the ‘first’ and the ‘last’ letter, looks like a triangle:
Δ
The legend is that David, Δ | Δ , merged the first and last letter of his name on the back of his wooden shield, in order to strengthen his shield, and this helped him be so mighty in battle. We can neither prove nor disprove this; however, since it is what our Jewish people originally tell us as to why it is their symbol, who are we to say otherwise?
So, when did this symbol come about? That, also, is hard to tell. But, its being attributed to David is very early. In fact, there is no record of it ever being called something else by our Jewish people. However, the fact that it was used in antiquity is indisputable. The very first use of it as a symbol for Jewish people was by Joshua Ben Asayahu, whose name happens to mean “Yeshua The Son made by יהוה”, by the way, in the second Temple period, just before Yeshua Messiah showed up; it was found in Sidon.
When in Israel about five years ago, we were touring the Synagogue at Capernaum, and there were stones saved from it, upon which were carved several “Magen David” symbols in relief. Below is a picture of one, which we saw with our own eyes. [note how very much it looks like our “Camp of Israel/Throneroom of Revelation 4-5” above]
It was indeed much later that this symbol was first written about and described, but it was originally called “Magen David”, and not a ‘star’. It was also found on a Tanakh, the HOLY SCRIPTURES, from around the time it was first called the “Magen David”:
The fact that it looks like a star is nothing to deny, nor eschew. Yeshua, after all, is also called “The Bright and Morning Star”. It was a STAR that announced Yeshua’s birth to the ‘wise’, to the ‘learned’. Yeshua is also called “The Lily of the Valley“. And that particular flower, which is indigenous to Israel, happens to look just like the Shield of David:
This lily is used in the Temple architecture that David designed for Solomon. A lily flower was carved into the capital of the columns of the Temple at the top.
This lily flower was also the base of each of the seven lamps on the Menorah. So, there were seven of them on the Menorah.
The pomegranate flower, which is woven into the priests’ robe [also indigenous to Israel], when in bloom, also looks like a Magen David:
All of these things are very relevant to Yeshua Himself. And Yeshua is the person in whom we put our trust. Is it any wonder, then, that our ‘trust’, our ‘faith’, is described as a SHIELD/MAGEN in the book of Ephesians?
The relevance to Yeshua of THIS particular design of a star is seen in the book of Revelation:
“And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword; and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”
“The Sod [Biblical Mystery] of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden Menorahs: the seven stars are the Messengers [Angels] of the seven congregations, and the seven Menorahs are the seven congregations.”
All of the former references given are ‘rolled up’ into this one description of Yeshua at the end of the Book. Hopefully the keen-eyed reader can see how they all relate.
It is very interesting to me that David Ben Gurion, the “George Washington” of modern Israel, proposed SEVEN stars on the original flag of modern Israel.
The reason I am writing this, is because people take ONE verse in the NT, attach it to a verse out of the “OT” and impose over the Jewish people the error of former generations, and link paganism to this particular symbol, which is the self-chosen symbol of Israel.
That link is just as preposterous as saying that the Rainbow of the Most High is evil, because one community has chosen it as their symbol of evil.
I wish I could find the post[s] that I saw referring to it as an evil star. But, they cite Acts 7, which is quoting a prophet, and twist the scriptures to fit their narrative of hatred for Israel:
“Then God turned and gave them up that they might worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets, ‘O Sons of Israel, why have you offered me slain creatures or sacrifices during the period of forty years in the wilderness? Indeed you have borne the tabernacle of Malkom and the star of the god Refan; and you have made images to worship them; therefore I will remove you beyond Bavel.’”
They use those verses and insist that this is the “Star of David”. This is utter perversion of the Word of God.
They cite it OUT OF CONTEXT, not realizing that this was NOT referring to God’s Tabernacle, which Stephen immediately explains in the next verse:
“Behold the Tabernacle of the Testimony of our fathers was in the wilderness just as יהוה , who spoke to Moshe, had commanded him to make it after the pattern which he had shown him.” Amos 5:
The prophet being quoted is Amos, and it is very poorly and anti-semitically translated in the King James and other renderings.
Amos actually wrote: “So shall you take up Sikut [a Babylonian deity] your king [מַלְכְּכֶם/ malk’khem] [NOT Molech, as in the KJV] and Kiyun [saturn deity] your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.”
Amos is ministering to the northern kingdom, which had indeed perverted its way by mixing the worship of God with paganism around them. The ‘star of Refan’ is NOT the Magen David: it was another symbol altogether, a Babylonian symbol, and the Magen David image has never been associated with it. The ‘stars’ that come out of Babylonian star worship, which Amos is attributing to the northern tribes of Israel, look MORE like the stars used in Christian worship at xmas and easter:
So, the notion that the ‘star of David’, which is first a shield, but also a lily, and a star, is somehow proof that Jews are pagans, is a lie, and a megalithic symbol of hypocrisy for the people hating on Israel right now.
Yeshua is the STAR of DAVID:
“I am the Shoresh David, and his offspring, the bright morning STAR.“ Rev 22:16
Shield of David list: Psa 3:3, Psa 5:12, Psa 18:35, Psa 28:7, Psa 33:20, Psa 35:2, Psa 59:11, Psa 76:3, Psa 84:9, Psa 84:11, Psa 91:4, Psa 115:9, Psa 115:10, Psa 115:11, Psa 119:114, Psa 144:2