Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
March 16, 1986
The Miracle of the Jew
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
One of the greatest challenges facing people today is the ability to have confidence in what you believe. The world has become a supermarket of competing philosophies and religions. Most of these religious systems probably have elements of truth, but since they contradict each other there is obviously a great deal that is false. How can we know that our beliefs are correct? Or at least that they are headed in the right direction?
Most of our lives this may not be much of an issue. We are protected by our families or community or church. We sort of soak up what everyone else believes. But there comes a time when you have to make personal commitment, a time when you decide what you're going to believe, not just what other people tell you.
The moment of decision comes in different ways. For many people it's when they go to college. The average college does not have a high regard for Biblical truth. Even many supposedly Christian colleges tear down the beliefs the students were taught at home.
For other people the crisis may come when they travel outside familiar boundaries. I enjoy traveling a great deal, but I always feel a little queasy when I arrive in a foreign country. Everything is at least a little bit different. The food is weird, you can't understand the people, and you suspect that very few of them are Baptist. Just like Dorothy said when the tornado put her down in Munchkin Land, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Anyone who has a mind of their own is going to have times of doubt about what they believe. What we need is anchors that hold our faith tightly when everything around us seems to be shifting.
What is your anchor? It might be your family. If Jesus is good enough for Mom and Dad, it's good enough for you. Maybe you have had a positive change in your life after accepting Christ, or you just feel in your heart it is right.
If these kinds of things anchor your faith, then fine. But for many people they are not enough. In the first centuries of Christianity, missionaries traveled far and wide to spread the Gospel. A common strategy was to convert a king because then his people usually copied him - whether they wanted to or not.
One missionary came to a king in what is now eastern Europe. The pagan king was impressed by the ethical teaching in the gospel and he had no problem with the miracles of Jesus. But he still wasn't convinced. He asked the missionary: "How can you prove to me that the Bible is true? What is one fact you can point to that cannot be contested?" The missionary replied with two words: "The Jew."
You may think this is an unusual answer for a Christian missionary, but it is a very powerful one. Most of our reasons for being Christians are subjective. This means it feels right to us. It's something we can't prove, or even explain. But the evidence of Jewish history is a solid fact that even our opponents cannot deny.
Jews are a miracle of history. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have survived as a distinct race in spite of the most formidable odds. What other people on earth can trace their continuous unity back nearly 4,000 years?
Twice the Jews have been destroyed as a nation and dragged away to the far corners of the earth as slaves. Twice they have returned to Israel and re-established their nation. For a total of 2,600 years they had no land to call their own, but they still hold together and kept the faith. They have endured more persecution and suffering than any other collection of people.
There is only one thing more incredible than the survival of the Jews. What is really incredible is that it was all predicted. About 3,500 years ago, at the time when the Jewish people had left Egypt and were going to possess the Promised Land, Moses predicted they would be punished as a nation for not believing in God.
Turn to Deuteronomy 28:36. Before they have even reached the land of Israel, Moses predicted they will disobey God, and he will punish them. After describing a terrible invasion, verses 36 & 37 say: "The Lord shall bring thee, and thy King which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; And there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee."
Later prophets added details to this. Jeremiah predicted who would conquer them - the Babylonians - and how long they would be captives - exactly 70 years. Sure enough, the Babylonians defeated Israel and hauled the Jews off to Babylon for 70 years.
During that time the troubles and insecurity Moses predicted were literally fulfilled. As it says in Deuteronomy 28:65: "And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy feet have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it was evening! And in the evening thou shalt say, Would to God it was morning!"
The exile in Babylon was grim, but relatively short. Most but not all of the Jews returned after 70 years like Jeremiah had said.
The prophecy of Moses is still not fulfilled completely. In Deuteronomy 28:64 he said the Jews would be scattered among all the peoples or nations of the earth. Many of the later prophets predicted the same thing.
The final word came from Jesus Christ himself. Just before he was crucified, he predicted in Luke 21:23, "For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations." Over in Luke 21:32 he adds, "Verily I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled."
History shows how accurate the Bible is. Forty years after Jesus said this, the Romans conquered Israel and abolished its government. Jerusalem was burned to the ground. When the Jews rebelled again, the Romans rounded them up and sent them to other countries as slaves.
From this point on, the history of the Jews is very sad. Everything Moses said came true. Jews were scattered from Asia to Europe to Africa to North and South America. If Jews bought land, it was confiscated from them.
They entered England in the eleventh century. In AD 1240 they were all kicked out. They were expelled from France in 1306. When some returned, they were massacred in AD 1348. In Spain Jews were given 3 choices: become Christians, leave or die. Thousands had to flee.
At the beginning of this century Poland and Russia began massacring their Jews. As a result, millions immigrated to the United States, so that we have more Jews than any nation on earth. [2005: Because of the influx of Russian Jews, today Israel is about even with the U.S. in official Jewish population with 5 million each, though only 4 million Americans claim to be Jewish. (http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions)]
The climax of Jewish suffering came during World War II. Like many Europeans, Hitler detested Jews. So he killed them. A museum in Jerusalem is filled with pictures of the slaughter. One picture shows a naked Jewish family standing by an open trench filled with bodies. Next to the picture is an excerpt from the diary of a young German soldier. He said that none of the Jews screamed or pleaded for mercy. Instead they huddled together quietly. One man held a small child. He silently wiped tears off the child's face and pointed up to heaven. Nearby another German soldier sat on the ground with one foot dangling in the trench. A cigarette hung from his lips, and a submachine gun was cradled in his lap.
In all, Hitler killed 5 to 6 million Jews. These sufferings were all predicted. And yet the Jew has survived.
There is more to this story, but it must wait for next week. For now it is enough to consider God's harshness and love. According to their own prophets, the Jews suffered because they turned from God. Christians are not immune to disobedience, or from similar punishment.
At same time, God is not angry forever. Through it all, God protected the Jew so they survive to this day. God can protect you as well.
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Typed by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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