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by Rachmiel Frydland
MORE THAN FORTY years have passed since the perversity of men contrived to
kill, murder, and exterminate God's chosen people, the Jews. Hitler and his
associates, like Haman of old, devised a way to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young
and old, little children and women. Esther 3:13 Haman's
design failed completely. Haman and his ten sons were hanged on the
very day when all the Jews were to have been exterminated.
Hitler had a similar end to that of Haman, except that he committed suicide
along with the cohorts who were close to him. Jewish people could have
established a festival in memory of the victory over Hitler. They would only
have to decide what delicacy to eat. Potato latkes are eaten on Hanukah in
memory of the victory over Antiochus Epiphanes, and hamentashen
on Purim in memory of Haman's downfall. Yet, there are no joyful celebrations
over Hitler's defeat. On the eve of Israel's independence celebrations,
there is a memorial service commemorating the six million Jews who were
exterminated under the Hitler regime. There are no joyous celebrations
over Hitler's defeat because about one third of the Jewish population was
wiped out in the course of World War II! THE GREATNESS OF THE
TRAGEDY
There is a Jewish saying based on the Talmud: "Whosoever destroys one
life in Israel is as he would destroy the whole world, and whosoever
preserves one life in Israel is as he would preserve the whole world"
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 38a). Since Jewish people consider tradition and
Talmud to be inspired, the next step is to blame God Himself for this
tragedy. This feeling is expressed in strong words by Richard L.
Rubinstein in his book entitled, After Auschwitz: How
can Jews believe in an omnipotent, beneficent God after Auschwitz? Traditional
Jewish theology maintains that God is the ultimate; omnipotent actor in the antihuman explosion in all
history as a meaningful expression, of God's purposes. The
idea is simply too obscene to me to accept. THE DOUBLE TRAGEDY
Thus the tragedy is double. First, there is the physical and mental
damage that was done to those who perished and those who survived the
horrible death camps. Then, there is the mental and spiritual pain of
those who identify themselves with the perishing Jews of World War II.
Many of our people have failed to look into God's Word to find out what God
wants to say through these fearful events. From the Hebrew Scriptures we
present some of the things God says: 1. The Deceitful Heart
Here is the first thing we could learn from this tragedy. The prophet Jeremiah
records in God's Word: The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. Similar words are found in the Brit Hadasha (New Testament): From whence come wars and fighting's among you? Come they
not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? James 4:1
The liberal world, of which our people are prominent spokesmen, maintained
that the world is getting better and better and soon liberal men would be
able to bring about a happy world. But, they ignored God's Word which
states that man's heart is wicked, deceitful, and capable of every crime and
cruelty. Have we learned our lesson? 2. The Neglect of God's Word
We know that great honor belongs to the Jewish people. From them God
raised lawgivers, wise men, psalmists, and prophets who presented God's Word
to the world by the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit. The Brit Hadasha (New Testament) expresses it so beautifully: What advantage then hath the Jew? ...
Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of
God. (Romans 3:1-2
While due honor is given to the Jewish people, the prophets also place upon
them special responsibility as recorded in God's words through the prophet
Amos: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos
3:2). Instead of heeding God's Word to instruct our sons and daughters
in the living Word of God, the very Book which justifies our existence as a
people and a nation, we sent them to colleges and universities to instruct
them in secular topics. Our religious Jewish people send their children
to the Yeshivot. There, too, they are taught
the words of men, the Talmud, because it is maintained that the study of the
Talmud is more important than the study of the Tanakh (Old Covenant
Scriptures). As a result Christians have been translating the Hebrew
Bible into hundreds of languages, while we who gave the Bible to the world
are standing on the sidelines. 3. The Rejected Redeemer
In this respect also great glory belongs to the Jewish people. The
following is a quotation from the writing of the great Jew, the Apostle Saul
of Tarsus, later called Paul, in which he says of the Jewish people: I say the truth in Messiah, I lie not, my
conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great
heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself
were accursed from Messiah for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh: Who are Israelites: to whom pertaineth the
adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as
concerning the flesh Messiah came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen Romans 9:1-5
Jesus the Messiah and Redeemer is ours; He is of our flesh and blood.
We should join the Apostle in celebrating not only a simhat-torah (rejoicing of the Law) but also a continuous
celebration of simhat-moshiach, as he admonishes
believers in the city of Philippi: "Rejoice in the Lord always; and
again I say, rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). Instead we are still
looking for someone else. Many times we thought that "someone
else" had come and we were ready to follow him, but we paid dearly for
our mistakes. From the time of the false messiah Bar Kosiba, killed in
135 A.D., to Sabbatai Zvi
(died 1676) and his followers, large crowds of Jewish people, sometimes even
the majority, would commit their lives to encourage these so-called
"messiah-heroes" who brought woe and destruction to our people.
Jesus Himself foreseeing that
this would happen, expressed these words: I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if
another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. John 5:43
The rabbis, writing in the Talmud, knew that Messiah was to be rejected,
would suffer, and die. However, instead of applying these prophecies to
Jesus, they posited two Messiahs: Messiah ben Joseph to suffer, be rejected
and be pierced through in accordance with the prophecies of Isaiah 53 and
Zechariah 12:10, and, Messiah ben David to fight God's wars, defeat the
pagans, and restore Israel. But God's Word speaks of one Messiah to be
despised and rejected and then exalted.
Other Jewish people, after disappointments with false messiahs, put forth a
hypothesis that Messiah is not to be a person but an ideal. For many
years our people hoped that social changes in the East and the promise of
full quality was the redemption of which the prophets spoke. What a
great disappointment! God's Word speaks of the only person Who can claim messiahship - a man of the household of David, born in
Bethlehem in a supernatural way. THE ANSWER TO
MEN’S' TRAGEDY
If the Jewish people had a prophet today or if we would heed the words of
God's prophets of old, we would cry out as did Hosea: "Come, and let
us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1).
God has already started to heal us. He is beginning to bind up our
wounds. With these acts of mercy and restoration, God wants to woo us
again to Himself. At the same time God's Word extends to us a warning
in the words of the Apostle Paul: Or despisest thou the riches of his
goodness and forbearance and Romans 2:4
Here is the answer for us as a special people of God and for you and me as
individuals. What has happened cannot be changed. God's Word says
that we have failed - not God. Herein are set forth some of the
mistakes we have made. Are we ready to correct them? If so, then
we should acknowledge before God that we, too, have sinned, and being God's
chosen people, a greater responsibility rests on us than on others. We
must return to the Holy Scripture and seek the answer there. If we will
sincerely seek, then it will become clear that our greatest mistake was and
is that we have not accepted our own Messiah and Redeemer who still calls to
us. Are you willing to receive Him? 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem
... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth,till
ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Brit
Hadasha, Matthew 23:37-39) WRITE
M.L.O. below for the booklet "Messiah in the TENACH."
It will be sent to you free. Reprinted
with permission of The Messianic Literature Outreach
the Stone whom the builders rejected?
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