The Holocaust and the Jews

"Do you really believe the holocaust was God's punishment of the Jews?"

I would never say that God used Hitler to punish the Jews. If God treated any of us justly and punished us according to our sins, we would all be in Hell in an instant. I’m Jewish and I am as guilty as any Gentile of violating His Law.

However, you and I get to stay alive for a time because God is rich in mercy, is filled with what the Bible calls "lovingkindness," and He particularly lavished this lovingkindness upon the Jewish nation. If you study the Scriptures you will see that He promised them that if they loved and obeyed Him He would give them long life, health, prosperity, and protection from their enemies.

But He also warned that if they disobeyed Him, His hand of protection would be removed. This happened when they were conquered by the Babylonian nation.

When you read Jeremiah and Lamentations you will see that they were starved, raped, and horribly murdered. The Babylonians were incredibly cruel--they hung people by one hand, ripped babies from mother’s wombs, committed genocide, and used slave labor. They, like the Nazis were merciless.

Yet, with all their sins God was still rich in mercy and He promised that He would draw the Jewish people back from where he had scattered them throughout the world (see Nehemiah 1:8, Luke 21:24). He said that He would give them their own homeland. That happened in 1948 when they became a nation in one day, as the Scriptures said they would:

"Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (Isaiah 66:8).

This accurately describes what happened on May 14, 1948. The Zionist Jews declared independence for an Israeli sovereign nation for the first time in 2,900 years. Hours beforehand, a United Nations mandate expired, ending British control of the land. During a 24-hour span of time, foreign control of the land of Israel formally ceased. Israel was literally born in a single day.

Within hours of the declaration of independence in 1948, Israel was attacked by the surrounding countries of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Right now, the Jews are still surrounded by enemies who are sworn to their death as a nation. Their only hope is to turn to God with their whole heart, and if they obey Him, they will have victory.

Only time will tell us if they have learned anything from history.