Today is April 19, 2012; it is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. Today in Israel you can hear the sound of sirens all over the land, as everyone stops everything (banks, policemen, cars, buses, trains) It is a moment for remembrance and contemplation. Every year on this day, I think of my mother, a 91 year old living survivor, and so many of our extended family who perished. And I remember being a young man, becoming aware of our Jewish roots and our family’s long and rich history. I remember how my mother would tell me, “Never speak about being Jewish. Be silent, never tell anyone about us and, especially, about our Jewish family history. It will happen again. It happened to my father, his father, and his father’s father. It will happen again. Let me tell you, Jimmy, what has happened to us Jews. It has happened for as long as anyone can remember, to all of us.” My thoughts were always the same, such a scared, silly old woman. Never again would man bring such horror upon fellow human beings. Even as I became a believer and studied the Word in depth, I thought, surely the western world has learned a great lesson from the horror of so much human tragedy brought on by the Holocaust. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Today, let’s consider this for a moment. Let’s go back just 70 years. In 1939, before WWII, radio listeners in America heard reenacted on the ‘March of Time’ radio program, a scene that took place in Nuremberg, Germany. Jules Stretcher was the speaker, and he proposed in a speech broadcast to the world that all nations join Germany in exterminating the Jews. In 1941, another spokesman for the Nazi government, Joseph Goebbels, speaking at the Nazi Party Congress held in the same city, declared that Germany would only be satisfied when its war against the Jews was taken up by all other nations. Let me say here that I have the highest regard for the German people. I have had four German interns in the past eight years, and we minister in Germany. Germany has given us many valuable gifts, and there are some wonderful believers in Germany today, as there were during the entire war. Dietrich Bonheoffer, a WWII German martyr, is one of my favorite authors.
Psalm 83:1-8 offers something important for us to consider today. As we remember the horror of 70 years ago, there seems to be another horror quickly coming upon the Jews. I suggest that Psalm 83 is a relevant commentary on our current situation:
O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”
Is this language out of today’s headlines? Are these the countries mentioned later in this Psalm, lined up against Israel? Are these the inhabited lands of Israel’s current neighbors? Edom and the Ishmaelites were in land occupied by southern Jordan today, while the territories of Moab and Ammon make up the rest of that country. Ahman, the modern spelling of Ammon, is the capital of Jordan. It all speaks of modern day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia. So here we have all of Israel’s next-door neighbors, all of them sworn to Jewish destruction, and all of them being whipped into frenzy by Syria and Iran.
The Jews have been persecuted, scattered, scorned, rejected, outraged, murdered, hated and legislated against; the Jews have been without a nation, without a home, without a capitol, without a government, without a temple or priesthood. They have been the subject of every republic, kingdom, empire and monarchy- and even now are citizens of most nations in the world.
So to Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, to name a few… I would say to you, this Remembrance Day, if you want to destroy the Jews here is what you must do: Blot away the sun, the heavens, the moon and the stars. The Apostle Paul very clearly shows us that if the Jew is totally and finally rejected, exterminated, the very foundations upon which our salvation began and rests are obscured and in danger, for the covenant made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was an unconditional covenant.
What a glorious opportunity we have as we remember the Holocaust! If we reach out first to our Jewish believing friends, encouraging them to share our precious Jesus as Messiah to the many Jews all around the world, then the Holy Spirit will move to change hearts and minds. Jewish believers will turn to others of their nations and say “Arise shine, for thy light is come.” (Zach. 8:22-23)
So, we must strive to bear witness to the claims of our precious Jesus Christ. We should remember that it is our witness first, for we will never urge any Jew to consider Christ unless our own life reveals Jesus to him. The end of Psalm 83 clearly states that those who would attempt to crush God’s covenant people will be destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. God’s truth is clearly evident. Let us all consider our attitude toward God’s chosen covenant people.
Jim Stretchberry has been the executive director of the American European Bethel Mission (AEBM) for the last 9 years. Prior to his tenure with AEBM Jim served as a Pastor with Pastor Rickey Ryan at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara. Jim’s passion for the lost is evident in his commitment to missions for much of his Christian walk. He regularly travels throughout Europe and the Middle East ministering both humanitarian aid and the glorious gospel of Christ. His Jewish heritage has given him a passion to see his Jewish brothers come to recognize their long-awaited Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth.
Thanks, Jim – good reminder. I appreciate your passion for the peoples outside the States.