The people of Israel are alive
By Jurek Schulz
Several ancient cultures no longer exist, but the Jewish people live.
Over the millennia, the Jewish people have had to experience deadly hostilities, which have resulted in the catastrophe of the murder of six million Jews in the Third Reich. Different „final solution plans“ have been drafted throughout history, and to date there are leaders who are pursuing this goal. Nevertheless, it remains true: the people of Israel are alive.
Faith carries in suffering
Suffering, distress and pain have always come over like a storm over people and over the Jewish people. Job has become a symbol of suffering representative of all. How did he exclaim his distress and despair in chapter 30 – and yet he has become an example of the faith. His faith is shown in the certainty: „I know that my Redeemer lives!“ (Job 19:25). Like a monolith, like a rock in the surf, he rises above the suffering with the hope of faith and the certainty that at the end of all terror the presence of God stands.
There has always been the testimony of faith through all generations. For those who believe, consolation is revealed: „I can never fall deeper into the hands of God!“ In the midst of suffering, God did not cast away the Jewish people.
At a funeral, I witnessed the testimony of a daughter who believed in Jesus. On the coffin of the deceased mother was the sentence: „Goodbye, Mama.“ Faith carries in pain.
God keeps his promises
Despite all the threats that the Jewish people experienced throughout history, it did not go down. The historian Nahum Glatzer (1903-1990) once said: „The Jew did not create history, but he suffered it.“ 1
So, before our eyes, it is a miracle of God that the Jewish people are still alive and exist today in the realm of the biblical land. Germany’s most famous ophthalmologist Hinrich Jung Stilling (1740-1817) considered the promises of God to the people of Israel true and prophesied from the Bible that one day there would again be a state of Israel. „I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth“ (Isaiah 43: 5-6).
Remember the promises
A Jewish wisdom says, „Memory is the secret of salvation.“ 2
Although this process is painful, it is precisely Judaism that has memorized the memory of its stations as it passes through the millennia. But at the same time, God never let the Jewish people fall, but carried it out according to His promises. By this we see the faithfulness of God.
Hope in the midst of suffering
The depths of suffering through which people have to go are not always understandable. Nevertheless, God is present even in the worst catastrophe.
„For thus saith the Lord, ‚Even as this great evil has come upon the people, I will also bring good news to them that I have promised them‘ (Jer 32:42). The future of the Jewish people will lead us into a good Messianic age, no matter what may come (Is 40ff.).
Israel – pointer to the world clock of God
Israel was, is and will be the addressee of many promises. It will be exciting how the outstanding promises of God are fulfilled. Every day we come closer to the return of our Lord. Israel has once again become the focus of the world public, as promised in Zechariah 12.3. In this respect, Israel is „the pointer to the world clock of God,“ as the pastor Gerhard Bergmann (1914-1981) once wrote from Siegerland.
Hop on him all the time
The poet Georg Neumar from Weimar (1621-1681) expressed his faith in God in the midst of the Thirty Years‘ War as follows: „He who loveth and loves only God, he will receive it wonderfully in all distress and sadness. He who trusted God, the Most High, did not build sand. „
1Num by Norbert Glatzer, History of the Talmudic Period, Neukirchen, 1981, p. 11.
2Hans-Friedrich Luchterhandt, Fifty Years of Kristallnacht – And Now What ?, Schorndorf, Privatdruck Kleve, 2001, p. 19.
source: Amzi