Friday, May 18, 2007

Mother Asks Again

At lunch with my mother, she again asks the question, the thorn that won't be removed, the stumbling block, the pet unanswerable: Where was God during the holocaust?

Hear, my beloved people! The Lord our God has answers to this question. They lie within the pages of His book, our own dear Hebrew scriptures, if you would only read them!

Here is an answer:

Where was God during our persecution and slavery under the Egyptians?
He was preserving a remnant of His people and preparing to deliver them for return to His promised land.
Where was God during our persecution and slavery under the Assyrians?
He was preserving a remnant of His people and preparing to deliver them for return to His promised land.
Where was God during our persecution and slavery under the Babylonians?
He was preserving a remnant of His people and preparing to deliver them for return to His promised land.
Where was God during our persecution and slavery under the Persians?
He was preserving a remnant of His people and preparing to deliver them for return to His promised land.
Where was God during our persecution and slavery under the Nazis? He was preserving a remnant of His people and preparing to deliver them for return to His promised land.

We are that remnant, and nothing could demonstrate God's existence, His purpose for us as outlined in His Holy Word, as convincingly as our mere existence: a scattered remnant, once a minor nomadic people that has survived through the millenia, with a Holy book that is a history of God's self-disclosure, an unlikely stiff-necked people that God made a promise to. It is because of that promise that we are still around, because God is a God of His Word. Who are we if not people of the Book? People of the Promise? People through whom the Messiah was promised and through whom the Messiah came, exactly as promised in our Hebrew scriptures. The Messiah not just of our people, but of the whole world. Read the prophecies for yourself! See how they came about! See Yeshua in the Tanakh!

What was God doing during those early Shoahs of the bible days? "The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-" (Ex 3:7-8)

Where was God during the holocaust? He was seeing the misery of His people, hearing them crying, concerned about their suffering, preparing to rescue them and bring them back into that good and spacious land.

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