I see Pem is still at it. sigh
In a conversation on religious questions,Fredric II, King of Prussia (1740-1786) askedJoachim von Zieten, General of the Husars,whom he esteemed highly as a Christian, “Give me prooffor the truth of the Bible in two words!” To whichZeiten replied, “Your majesty, the Jews!” TheGeneral’s statement reflected his understanding ofnot only the miraculous preservation of the Jewishpeople, but his belief that their preservation was forthe purpose of bringing God’s unfulfilled promisesto pass. To Zeiten, the present existence of theJewish people was proof that God’s Word was truebecause Scripture had promised that they wouldremain until all that had been prophesiedconcerning them was fulfilled. Remarkably, thisexpression of faith was made in a day when theLand of Israel was desolate of a Jewish populationand the majority of Jews were scattered among thenations.
A century before Zieten, Martin Luther alsostruggled with the significance of Jewish existence,but came to a very different conclusion based on hisobservation of the miserable condition of the Jewsin his day (sadly, one largely imposed upon them bythe Christian Church). Deciding that such Jewscould not be those to whom the Bible referred in itspromises of future restoration, he said:If the Jews are Abraham’s descendants, thenwe would expect to see them back in theirown land. We would expect them to have astate of their own. But what do we see? Wesee them living scattered and despised. As a result, he continued to accept the spiritualinterpretation of his Augustinian order that theChurch is the only heir of the promises to Abraham.I wonder what Luther would say if they lived in our day when almost six million Jews have returned tothe biblical homeland to regain their independencein a developed Jewish state whose technology andmilitary achievements are the envy of the world?How different might have been the religious andpolitical history in Germany and Europe (and theworld) had Luther rightly understood God’s purposefor preserving the Jews?
The modern return of the Jewish People to the Landof Israel has been called the “Miracle on theMediterranean.” Such a return by a people groupthat had been scattered among the nations isunprecedented in history. Indeed, the Jewish Peopleare the only exiled people to remain a distinctpeople despite being dispersed to more than 70different countries for more than 20 centuries.
Mark Twain made an observation in Harper’s Magazine:The Egyptian, Babylonian, and the Persianrose, filled the planet with sound and splendor,then faded to dream-stuff and passed away.The Greek and Roman followed, made a vastnoise and they are gone. Other peoples havesprung up, and held their torch high for a time,but it burned out and they sit in twilight nowor have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beatthem all, and is now what he always was,exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age,no weakening of his parts, no slowing of hisenergies, no dulling of his alert and aggressivemind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is thesecret of his immortality?
Because Mark Twain was an agnostic and skeptic,he could only recognize the miracle of Israel’spreservation, but could not understand the reasonfor it.
In all of human history therehave been less than ten deportations of apeople group from their native land.These people groups disappeared inhistory because they assimilated into thenations to which they were exiled.
The contrast here with other historical exiles shouldnot be overlooked. While other people groups wereexiled to one country, the Jews were dispersed tomany different countries, and in fact were scatteredto every part of the earth. {as the Bible said}
The Jewish people alsohold the distinction of being the only people to have successfully revived their ancient tongue after morethan 2,000 years!!
Moreover, the Jewish people are the onlypeople to have returned en mass to theirancient homeland and to have restoredtheir national independence by reestablishingtheir former state.
Even though the Jewish people didnot have a homeland, a common language or ashared history (the factors that historians use todefine a nation), they have remained a distinctpeople. This fact impressed the great secularhistorian Arnold Toynbee who remarked that therewas no natural explanation for the survival ofJewish People through the ages.
Gods faithfulness was seen even in spite of thenational sin of the Jewish people in breaking theircovenant with God, for the Lord promised thatwhen he punished them they would not beannihilated as a people as would be their enemies:“For I am with you, declares the Lord, to save you;For I will destroy completely all the nations where Ihave scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely” (Jeremiah 30:11).
When God made the covenant with Abraham why did he walk through the divided animals alone? Abraham was asleep.Why do you think God made the covenant in that manner?
