Demons of the Wilderness

As anyone who truly studies religion knows, The Bible is not the be-all and end-all of Hebraic thought; it is merely the primer. Judaism is much, much more than The Bible, some of it written down for thousands of years, some of it preserved in ‘the oral tradition’ until written down some time later. But all of it is part of Judaism. It is from all these sources that we get our knowledge of demons and a wilderness.

Demons are often described as belonging to the wilderness and we even have prayers and rituals surrounding them. The term “scapegoat” comes from a very ancient and holy Jewish ritual. During Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the sins of the people are symbolically placed upon the goat’s head, after which the goat is sent into the wilderness.

The wilderness itself is a designation that is surrounded by ancient Jewish teachings. And this whole concept of wilderness, as well as demons, may be an undercurrent of what we see happening today.

For various reasons, some being political, not all Jewish teachings and writings were included in the portion of The Bible that comes after the Torah (the first five books, also known as the Pentateuch). And yet, it is from some of these teachings and writings that we get our deeper knowledge of Judaism. The Book of Enoch is one such work and some of its teachings are echoed in The Midrashim and other places. (1, 2)

The Book of Enoch, parts of which were found with the Dead Sea scrolls, goes into much greater detail regarding the story surrounding the fallen angels, who are mentioned in Genesis. According to the book of Enoch, there were two main fallen angels: Shemhazai (aka Semjaza aka Samiaza aka Shamhazi) and Azazel (aka Aziel aka Aza’el, aka Azael aka Asa'el). Shemhazai was the leader of the fallen angels and Azazel taught humans how to make war and weapons. (1, 2, 3)

Curiously, both have been referred to by the nickname “Aza” at various times and places. (3) Perhaps even more curiously, what we English-speakers designate as the area known as “Gaza” is called “Aza” by the Israelis and people who live in the Middle East.

Back in ancient times, there were thriving cities, usually with wildernesses between them. There were no paved roads or urban/suburban sprawl. This scenario held true for that area we know as Gaza/Aza, although the original specific site for it is still uncertain, it is known to have been in the general area. (4)

In the Book of Enoch, we are told that as punishment for his sins, the fallen angel of war, Azazel, was thrown into a pit in the ‘Wilderness of Dudael,’ and left there to await Final Judgment. Although no one knows to where the name ‘Dudael’ refers, ‘Dudael’ also means ‘Great Desert’ and ‘Fiery Caldron.’ Furthermore, there is one place in Israel that fits that description: the Negev, which has one of its borders on…Gaza/Aza.

So how do places come by their names? Oftentimes, they are given names either relating to important people, events, history and the like. Is it mere coincidence that Gaza/Aza has the same name as one of the leaders of the fallen angels?

Sometimes these ‘demons of the wilderness,’ to whom the scapegoat is sent, are referred to as earth-bound evil spirits, having the warlike attributes of their progenitors -- the abominations created by the fallen angels, while also taking human form. (5) Either way, original demons or earth-bound spirits, these embodiments of evil have certain characteristics, bizarrely echoed by the inhabitants of Gaza/Aza today.

The current occupiers of most of Gaza/Aza today are the Arabs/Muslims. But they are not the descendants of the original inhabitants. Gaza/Aza is mentioned 18 times in The Bible as part of the Jewish homeland. The Israelites had been in Gaza before the time of Samson (Judges, 16:1) and were still in possession of it in the time of Solomon (Kings I:4:1). (6) However, just as what happened in Judea and Samaria, Gaza/Aza had its Jews expelled, and has been occupied by numerous invaders and foreign civilizations.

Gaza/Aza was part of the Jewish homeland long before Islam sprang into being. Archeologists have documented remains of a Roman-period synagogue in Gaza which includes Judaic inscriptions on a column located today in the major mosque of Gaza/Aza. This writing is a Hebrew-Greek inscription complete with Jewish motifs that mention Hananiah, the son of Jacob. It has been dated to the second or third centuries -- long before Mohammed lived. And as late as 1839 the Ottoman census of Jerusalem demonstrated that Jews were still living in Gaza/Aza. (6)

Therefore, it is obvious by the historic and archaeological evidence, that the Arabs/Muslims are invaders who took the land by conquest and war. And war is one of the characteristics of that fallen angel Azazel and his demons or evil spirit followers.

Then come some of the other characteristics of demons. They are known to be the embodiment of evil, perpetrating lies, manipulating mankind and causing pain, strife, terror and destruction. With this in mind, let us look at the behaviors of the current Arab/Muslim occupiers of Gaza/Aza.

Do they lie about who they are? Yes. There has never been a country known as Palestine, nor an Arab/Muslim people known as ‘Palestinians’ until Yasser Arafat and his supporters stole that designation from the Jews in the early 1960’s. One of their own leaders bragged about this in an interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw. Zahir Muhsein, Executive Committee Member of the PLO, stated the following:

Then, as true to demonic characteristics, there are the unrelenting lies meant to foment hatred and genocide. The official government of these Arab/Muslim occupiers promotes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as factual, claims that Jews poison their (Arab/Muslim) food, water and candy, and puts bombs in their children’s toys.

Next are the traits attributed to Azazel: those of war, violence and terror. The Arabs/Muslims occupying Jewish Gaza/Aza have perfected the homicide/genocide bombing, specifically targeting women, children and the elderly to spread horror, fear and death, and to destroy future generations of Jews.

Coupled with these warlike traits of Azazel are the demonic traits of the utter disregard for life, even of their own offspring. They have camps for young children to brainwash them into aspiring homicide/genocide bombers. (8) And like ravening beasts, they will literally tear apart, from limb to limb, any Jew who ventures into their area, passing around the body parts as in some Satanic ritual of cannibalism. (9)

The incidents of unrelenting violence and war, often including the bizarre and perverse, are much too numerous to detail except to say that they number in the 10’s of thousands in the past five years alone.

Regarding the wilderness aspect of these current Arab/Muslim occupiers of historical Jewish Gaza/Aza, here too is truth. They have been the recipients of billions upon billions of aid dollars and yet choose to remain in a wilderness of their own making. They use their world record-setting welfare dollars for anything except improving their lives and living conditions. Whatever is given to them they systematically destroy, including ancient and historical buildings and sites. Recently, they even drove out the free medical services provided to them by the Red Cross.

So when The Bible and other teachings tell of ‘demons of the wilderness,’ it has become obvious that they aren't speaking in parables, but truths for today and warnings for the future of Israel and all humankind.

Part III. Of a Christian Commonwealth.
Chap. xxxviii. Of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, and Redemption.

[12] And first, for the tormentors, we have their nature and properties exactly and properly delivered by the names of the Enemy (or Satan), the Accuser (or Diabolus), the Destroyer (or Abaddon). Which significant names (Satan, Devil, Abaddon) set not forth to us any individual person, as proper names do, but only an office or quality, and are therefore appellatives, which ought not to have been left untranslated (as they are in the Latin and modern Bibles), because thereby they seem to be the proper names of demons, and men are the more easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils, which at that time was the religion of the Gentiles, and contrary to that of Moses, and of Christ.

[13] And because by the Enemy, the Accuser, and Destroyer, is meant the enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God, therefore if the kingdom of God after the resurrection be upon the earth (as in the former Chapter I have shewn by Scripture it seems to be), the Enemy and his kingdom must be on earth also. For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God. For God's kingdom was in Palestine (Israel), and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy; and consequently, by Satan is meant any earthly enemy of the Church.

Part IV. Of the Kingdom of Darkness
Chap. xlvii. Of the Benefit that proceedeth from such Darkness

[1] Besides these sovereign powers, divine and human, of which I have hitherto discoursed, there is mention in Scripture of another power, namely, that of "the rulers of the darkness of this world," [Ephesians, 6. 12] "the kingdom of Satan," [Matthew, 12. 26] and "the principality of Beelzebub over demons," [Ibid., 9. 34] that is to say, over phantasms that appear in the air: for which cause Satan is also called "the prince of the power of the air"; [Ephesians, 2. 2] and, because he ruleth in the darkness of this world, "the prince of this world":[John, 16. 11] and in consequence hereunto, they who are under his dominion, in opposition to the faithful, who are the "children of the light," are called the "children of darkness." For seeing Beelzebub is prince of phantasms, inhabitants of his dominion of air and darkness, the children of darkness, and these demons, phantasms, or spirits of illusion, signify allegorically the same thing. This considered, the kingdom of darkness, as it is set forth in these and other places of the Scripture, is nothing else but a confederacy of deceivers that, to obtain dominion over men in this present world, endeavour, by dark and erroneous doctrines, to extinguish in them the light, both of nature and of the gospel; and so to disprepare them for the kingdom of God to come.

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html

Thank you for this post.

Reading through had to stop at this point...

"The current occupiers of most of Gaza/Aza today are the Arabs/Muslims. But they are not the descendants of the original inhabitants. Gaza/Aza is mentioned 18 times in The Bible as part of the Jewish homeland. The Israelites had been in Gaza before the time of Samson (Judges, 16:1) and were still in possession of it in the time of Solomon (Kings I:4:1). (6) However, just as what happened in Judea and Samaria, Gaza/Aza had its Jews expelled, and has been occupied by numerous invaders and foreign civilizations."

One cannot ignore that both Samaria and Judea were warned before they were sent into captivity. It is really not correct to use the word expelled without telling who called for and directed the expelling. The book of Jeremiah was warning to the Kingdom of Judea about what was going to take place and that king refused to listen. He was forced to watch as his sons killed before his eyes and then his eyes were 'removed'. So I suppose it comes down to who it is describing the expelling as to what the expelling was about.

I must do a bit of research on this Gaza history, there is a place the refers to a "rumor" coming out of Gaza... so get back to you on that one.

Now what is curious about this history is that Paul tells us that what happened to these peoples, was written for our warning, as to what would be happening as the flesh age comes to an end.

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