Remembering The Holocaust

There are two Holocaust Remembrance Days during the year. International Holocaust Remembrance Day was on January 27th.

“Yom HaShoah” is a day set aside to remember the Holocaust in Israel. Many in Jewish communities around the world also recognize Yom HaShoah. The name comes from the Hebrew word ‘shoah’, which means ‘whirlwind’. Yom HaShoah was established in Israel in the mid 1950s by law. This year it falls on Thursday/Friday April 8/9. Mark it on your calendar.

Since the early 1960s, a siren sounds on Yom HaShoah. All traffic stops. Pedestrians pause with heads bowed. Everyone around the nation of Israel freezes for two minutes of silent devotion. Everyone and everything stops. Literally. One can feel the stillness of those two minutes. It does not matter where you are or what you are doing. You stop. All cars on the highway stop. People get out of their cars. And stop. Shopping for groceries. In the mall. At lunch with a friend. Stop. To remember.

Stopping to remember is important. To reflect on the past, on what was, and on what happened. In fact, God tells us to remember over and over again. “Remember when I took you by the hand to lead you out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:13)

God tells us to stop and to remember the past and, most importantly, to remember the One who protected us through it.

We need to remember the Holocaust for several reasons which I will explain. The question is, “Why did it happen?” Six million Jewish people exterminated. Where was God? We recently received a question via text - not an easy question, but vitally important. It came from a seminary student wrestling with the scriptures.

“Okay I have a question, and let me start by saying that hopefully you know I think God is good and antisemitism is bad. But, I’m reading Leviticus 26 about punishment for disobedience and wondering if/how it could be related to antisemitism and the Holocaust. Obviously not to say that Jews deserved it or blaming God for the Holocaust, but just literally taking Him at His word specifically as it relates to the Jewish people. Thoughts?”

What a great question! Thoughtful, sincere, and truly seeking to understand some very important issues. The ultimate question is “Was the Holocaust connected to God’s judgement on Israel for disobedience in Leviticus 26?”

Reading the judgements/curses of Leviticus 26 is not easy. Those curses for Israel in disobedience include being taken over by their enemies, tilling the soil in vain, animals taking children from parents and cattle dying. Famine will strike and food will be impossible to obtain. “You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you.” Leviticus 26:29-30

Ouch God! What gives here?

We need to be very careful when interpreting scripture and making or reaching a biblical conclusion based upon current events.

We cannot attribute an individual tragedy or tragic event to God’s judgment. There are those who would use Leviticus 26 as a reason to hate the Jews. It has unfortunately happened throughout church history. Most Jewish and even non-Jewish scholars today would trace the roots of modern-day antisemitism to the “church” and to church dogma.

The thinking goes something like this, “They deserve what they are getting. Not only did they reject Christ but they killed him.” The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition... At the end of his life, Martin Luther wrote a treatise entitled “On the Jews and their Lies” based on the presupposition that “they deserve to be exterminated because they rejected Jesus.” The Lutheran Church did later reject Luther’s views on the Jews.

I’m going to propose three perspectives through which to view the horrors of the Holocaust and its relationship to the Jewish people, Israel: God’s covenantal promise, his spiritual protection, and his prophetic provision.

THE COVENANTAL PROMISE

God made a covenant with one nation...Israel. When God makes a promise he does not break it. When God walked alone through the sacrifice and made the covenant with Abraham and his descendants...God made the covenant unconditionally (Genesis 15). He made that covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who was renamed Israel, and through whose line came Jesus, the Messiah.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised a new covenant with Israel fulfilled in Jesus (Jer 31:31). Directly after that we read, “This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is his name: Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” Jer. 31:35-36

Never will Israel cease to be a nation before me. The Holocaust is not a reflection of God’s judgment but a massive reflection on God’s faithfulness to his promises. If God did not exist, my people would have been annihilated a long time ago. Hitler was not the first. He was preceded by Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Herod, the Romans, and the multiple historical nations that wanted to rid themselves of the Jews. More modern history gives us the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Pogroms, and the Holocaust. Today is no different as many modern-day nations would love to see Israel and the Jews...gone.

History declares: God is faithful to his covenantal promises.

THE SPIRITUAL PROTECTION

The first messianic prophecy in the Bible sets the stage, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) There is an enemy destined to be crushed by the “seed of the woman.” The enemy is Satan. The “seed of the woman” is Messiah Jesus.

Satan hates the Jews. He is the Adversary. His goal is to undermine the promises, plans, and covenants of God. He has chosen to try to stop what God has ordained: Redemption. Centered in the birth of Jesus.

I’m often asked “Why the Jews?” Of all the people on the planet, why have they been targeted for extermination? Annihilation. Why them? A tiny people. A tiny nation. Why for thousands of years have nation after nation tried to get rid of the Jews? I can answer that question in one word. Satan.

Satan knew if he could get rid of the Jews prior to the birth of Jesus he was getting rid of Jesus. He tried over and over again. Just as Pharaoh wanted to kill all the Jewish male children, so did Herod. You get rid of the lineage, you get rid of mom and dad... and the baby born in the manger. But God promised a deliverer who would be born in Bethlehem.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2

The birth was announced and secured. Satan tried, and failed.

Scripture declares: God protects his people.

THE PROPHETIC PROVISION

After Jesus, the question continues, “Why the Jews?” The enemy of God’s plan is aware that his ultimate demise will happen from the city of Jerusalem. Jesus is coming back and Satan will be defeated. We read in Zechariah 12 that all the nations of the earth will come against Jerusalem. Jesus will return as a warrior in battle.

“On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter. The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.” Zech. 14:8-9

Scriptures give us a view of the past, the present, and the future. We know that Israel and the Jewish people are central to God’s heart and plan - past, present, and future. There is and will continue to be hatred of Israel and the Jews. Hitler and the Holocaust is one event within a much larger prophetic timeline. We look ahead to the culmination of his plan.

The ultimate defeat of Satan on this earth will occur when Jesus returns to establish his Kingdom. Satan is well aware. Jesus is going to split the clouds above Jerusalem. He will descend. His feet will touch the Mount of Olives, and it will be split in two. He will walk down a hill across the Kidron Valley, through the Eastern Gate. He will take his place on his throne as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We declare: Maranatha! Come quickly Messiah Yeshua, Jesus!

Hope after the Holocaust

Out of the ashes of the Holocaust came the State of Israel. Out of the ashes came hope. Out of the ashes came salvation! God did not cause the Holocaust, but he did use it for his purposes. The Holocaust catalyzed the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a clear fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel... I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ Ezekiel 37:12, 14