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by Frederick Hoehn, copyright 2013 All through the Old Testament, God warns the Jews to be faithful to him. "Don't worship idols," God said. He told them, when they got into the promised land, don't intermarry with the people there. So what did they do? They intermarried with the people who were in the promised land, and started worshiping their idols. Ps 66:3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Ps 66:4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah. Ps 66:5 Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. God does nasty things to his enemies. While Israel served the Lord, they were on his right side, and he did them good. Then they stopped serving the Lord, got on his wrong side, and he did them evil, but not without also showing some mercy, because he could have completely eliminated the Jews. And this didn't happen just once, but many times. There was an Assyrian captivity. There was the Babylonian captivity. You can read about the Babylonian captivity some in the book of Daniel, and in the Old Testament history books of 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings, 1st & 2nd Chronicles. There was a period when, because of the sins of Israel, he let the Philistines rule over them. Read the book of Judges in the Old Testament, and count the number of times God gave Israel a deliverer, and they did OK for a while, then fell into sin, and God gave them a deliverer, etc. There's a place in the Old Testament, where God tells Israel, "I will pour abominable filth on you." It was a warning. They could have avoided that by keeping straight with God. They didn't keep straight with God, and he poured abominable filth on them. The Jews were God's chosen people. He intended they should be priests to the world. But because they wouldn't fear Him and obey him, he dealt harshly with them. And yet, He still showed some mercy. After God scattered Israel to about every nation under heaven, in 1948, he allowed the nation of Israel to be reestablished in the area of Palestine. Just as ancient Israel had enemies, so does modern Israel have enemies who would like to push them into the Mediterranean Sea. Not long ago, on the news, Palestine was asking the United Nations to recognize them as a nation. They should not have it. Palestine is on land the Bible says belongs to Israel (everything from the Jordan River west to the Mediterranean is Israel's). God raised up for Israel many prophets to warn them to serve the Lord. Some of those prophets were murdered for bringing God's message to Israel. In the New Testament, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and said it killed its prophets, and stoned those who were sent to it, and Jesus predicted its destruction. Seems like I heard Jerusalem was pretty much destroyed in about 70 a.d. The Jews have rejected their Messiah, Jesus, and are looking for the Messiah. They will find a false messiah, also called the AntiChrist, and The Beast. The Jews will make a pact with him. Then after a while they'll find out he's not the Messiah. He will rule the world for 7 years, a period called "The Great Tribulation." The Jews have no legitimate gripe to God for the Holocaust. God has punished them less than they deserved, and has also made an example to them of what happens to people who get on the wrong side of God. Most people go to hell, Jesus said. The Holocaust was like a foretaste of hell. Some people, looking at the Holocaust, might fear God, get born again, and avoid hell. And Jesus said, "Don't fear those who can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom to fear, fear him who after he has killed can throw you into hell, yes, I say to you, fear him." And that one, of course, is God. Jer 15:1 Then said the Lord to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward these people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. Jer 15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. Jer 15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. Jer 15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. Jer 15:5 For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest? Jer 15:6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting. But the Bible tells us "We are not under the law but under grace," in the New Testament. So I believe God is more merciful to us Christians under the New Testament than he was to Israel. Someone might say, "But we're under the New Testament now, where Hitler has massacred the Jews. Yes, but those Jews had rejected Jesus as Messiah. Only a very few Jews are also Christians. Mostly, the Jews are still looking for their Messiah, their Savior. And they'll find a false Messiah, called the Beast, and the Antichrist. The Bible says we have a better covenant. We Christians have a better covenant. Better than what? Better than the old covenant of the Old Testament. The Jews could also get in on the New Covenant by accepting Jesus as Savior.
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