- Original picture by José Ramírez from Unsplash
If the Jews are God's chosen people,
"why did they suffer so much in history?"
This is a question which puzzles
many people. It seems to be a
paradox. You would think they
should have been "super-blessed" if
they were such a privileged race.
The purpose of God
Let's start by thinking about what the overall purpose of God is. In the
first two chapters of Genesis we read how the creation was made "very
good". Then sin entered the world and it all began to go wrong. Sin is
the inbuilt human tendency to disobey the laws of God. The effects
of sin on the human race have been and continue to be devastating, and
all the more so as science and technology are harnessed to attempt
ever more advanced solutions to complex and intractable human problems.
The continued inability of nations to
live peacefully with their neighbours,
and the resulting terrible
bloodshed, suffering and death, is
just one example of unrestrained sin
affecting human existence. God's
purpose right from the beginning
was to remove sin from His creation,
witnessed by His statement that a
male "seed"or offspring of Eve would
crush sin's influence (see Genesis 3:15).
This is the first reference in
the Bible to Jesus Christ's role in
removing sin from the earth.
The call of Abraham
But where do Israel and the Jews
figure in all this? We can start in
Genesis chapter 12 and read about
the call of Abraham and the first of a
number of repeated promises made
to him in the next 10 chapters. The
promises showed that Abraham's
family were to be special in God's
purpose. They were to live for ever in
the land we now know as Israel
(Israel being the name God gave to
Abraham's grandson Jacob). They
would be multiplied as a great
nation, and most importantly a
special "seed" or "offspring" of
Abraham was to bring blessings to
all nations. Again, this last element
is a clear reference to the saving
work of Jesus Christ who was to be
born a Jew. These promises were
repeated to Isaac, Abraham's son,
and to Jacob his grandson. Jacob had
12 sons who became founders of the
12 tribes of Israel. The name "Jew" is
derived from one of Jacob's sons called Judah.
The family of Jacob went down into
Egypt to survive a devastating
famine and remained there for over
200 years. In the book of Exodus we
learn of the life and work of Moses
who brought Israel as a nation out of
Egyptian slavery, and led them
towards the promised land.
Israel – God’s kingdom
Immediately after the Exodus from
Egypt, Israel's special status was
confirmed. They were given God's
covenant law to obey, known as the
Law of Moses. The essential points
of behaviour towards God and their
fellow human beings are summarised
in part of that Law called
the 10 commandments. God laid
down conditions:
"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation ..."
This covenant was ratified by
sacrifice and the shedding of the
blood of animals, which pointed
forward to the sacrificial work of
Jesus.
They were to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation". No other nation
on earth before or since has been
given that status. As a nation they
were not only the subject of God's
promises to Abraham, but had now
witnessed first-hand an open
manifestation of the power of the
Almighty against a devastated
Egypt, the superpower of its day.
When Moses raised his staff over the
waters of the Red Sea, they were
miraculously parted allowing
around two million people to cross
to safety, escaping the Egyptian
army that was pursuing them. They
then witnessed the destruction of
their enemies in the same waters.
They continued their journey to the
promised land and miraculously
were given water in the desert, and a
daily supply of food, called manna.
But more than this, God had
predetermined that long in the
future, a member of this nation
would become the saviour of the
world.
Israel were God's representative
kingdom on the earth, firstly led by
Moses, followed by Joshua, then a
number of leaders called judges,
then kings. Their first king was
Saul, followed by David, the first in a
dynasty of kings from the tribe of
Judah. During this period, prophets
became the nation's spiritual guides.
Their writings form much of the Old
Testament scriptures. One of the
primary themes of their prophecies
was the coming of a saviour to deal
with the issue of human sin and its
consequences. That was why God
chose a people to bear witness to His
Name, and to be the nation from
whom would come Jesus Christ, the
world's saviour.
Privilege brings responsibility
This privileged position, however,
brought responsibility with it. It is
this principle that is the key to
answering the question − why did
the Jews suffer so much throughout
their history?
The 10 commandments begin with
these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
These commandments clearly show
that God would not tolerate wilful
disobedience. It would be punished.
Israel's special status brought with
it special responsibilities.
Blessings and curses
Just before Moses died, he made a
speech to the people recorded in the
book of Deuteronomy chapter 28.
The first 14 verses set out God's
blessings for obedience to the
covenant law. For example we read:
"The LORD will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you ..."
They would be richly blessed in
every sphere of life if they lived
faithfully, but the consequences of
disobedience would be severe. The
rest of chapter 28 sets out the
opposite side of the coin. All the
various curses for disobedience
make sombre reading indeed. They
would bring on themselves a terrible
series of consequences for dishonouring
God and His commands.
The nation would suffer disasters,
be crushed by surrounding enemies
and suffer terrifying sieges. They
would be oppressed and persecuted
by foreign nations, and eventually
lose their land and be scattered
across the globe. For example we
read:
"And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other ..."
Israel's history
If you are familiar with The Old
Testament, you will understand that
Israel was unfaithful to a large
extent . The messages of the
prophets, sent to realign the wayward
tendencies of kings and
people, went largely unheeded. Thus
God did bring punishment on his
people, just as he had foretold
centuries beforehand through the
words of Moses. The commentary in
the Second Book of Chronicles
chapter 36 tells us what happened,
and gives the reason why the Jews
were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon:
"And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy"
- Part of the Jewish cemetery in Szprotawa, Poland.
- Cemeteries like this witness to the long history of the Jews in dispersion across Europe.
- Picture from Marciej Borgna CCBY-SA4.0
The history of Israel is a remarkable
testimony to the truth of God's
Word. The greatest act of
disobedience was the rejection and
crucifixion of their Messiah, the Son
of God. Although, even in this, God's
purpose was not frustrated, because
Jesus died to take away sin. Having
lived a sin-free life, he was raised
from the dead to carry on his work in
heaven as a mediator and saviour for
all those who have faith in him.
The nation of Israel, having become
part of the Roman province of Judea,
finally disintegrated completely as a
political force after two rebellions in
which they aspired once more to set
themselves up as an independent
kingdom. AD 70 saw the brutal
crushing of a four year Zealot revolt,
and AD 132-136 saw the defeat of the
forces of a charismatic messiah
figure, Simon Bar Kokhba. It has
been estimated that 580,000 Jews
perished in this final confrontation
with Rome, and 50 fortified towns
and 985 villages were razed to the
ground. Many more Jews who were
not sold as slaves died of famine and
disease.
The subsequent 1,900 years of
Jewish history completely vindicates
the accuracy of Bible prophecy,
including Deuteronomy chapter 28.
The Jews were scattered to every
part of the Roman Empire, and later
were persecuted and driven from
country to country by the so-called
Christian nations who treated them
with hatred.
Zionism and the conclusion of God's purpose
The close of the 19th Century saw the
beginnings of a change with the
birth of Zionism − the aspiration of
scattered Jewry to re-establish the
nation of Israel. After the terrible
Nazi persecution of the Jews in
Europe in the "Holocaust", 1948 saw
the founding in Palestine of the
modern Jewish State. Again, this
reversal of Jewish fortunes was
foretold long ago. It's all in the
Bible, and is often written about in
this magazine. For example, the
prophet Jeremiah foretold:
"For I am with you", says the LORD, "to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished."
- Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe landed in Haifa, Israel in 1949.
- Picture from Eldan David/Government Press Office of Israel
In conclusion, the Apostle Paul
explained in his letter to the Romans
that God had not forsaken His
people, and he quoted from the
prophet Isaiah about the day still
future, when the Jews will recognise
Jesus as their Messiah, and the
blessings promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob and their descendant will be completely fulfilled:
"For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery … that hardening in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.'"
Author Justin Giles
Country London, UK
Source Light on a New World reprint from Volume 33.2
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