I want to dedicate this blog to my husband. May these words be a
source of encouragement and empowerment to you. I love you with all
my heart.
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi
regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” is a word of
Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who
came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were
“racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,”
were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.
In
1933, the Jewish population of Europe stood
at over nine million. By 1945, the Germans and their collaborators
had killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the
“Final Solution,” the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe.
A couple of days ago, we went to visit the Sachsenhausen
Nazi concentration camp in Oraninburg, Germany.
Life in the concentration camps
was unthinkable. Most camps were in forest areas, to make escape
almost impossible. The camps were enclosed within stretches of barbed
wire. Ditches were dug to serve as mass graves and the captives were
always stripped of clothing prior to being sent to the showers or
pits. Hydrogen cyanide or Zyklon B was used to gas the Jews and other
political prisoners of war.
The scarcity of food and water
meant toil without sufficient nourishment. German officers opened
fire without hesitance on crowded barracks. The poor sanitary
conditions were causes of disease and death.
The concentration camps had unrestricted power
over prisoners’ lives. Every aspect of daily life was ruled by
constant terror and hopelessness.
My husband is Jewish. Since arriving in
Berlin, he has had this strange sense that there is something here in
Germany for him to reclaim. He wasn’t sure exactly what that looked
like, but there was a strong stirring in his spirit that God had
brought him here to take back something which was stolen from him
before he was even born . . .
The Lord came to Abraham in a vision. He told Abraham to count the
stars in the sky, and that would be his number of descendants. He
told Abraham that He would give him land to inherit. But God told
Abraham, “Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not
theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years”
(Gen 15:13). But God also promised that they would one day return to
the land promised to Abraham. And the Lord made a covenant with
Abraham, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land”
(Gen 15:18).
And God also came to Isaac and said, “Dwell in this land, and I
will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I
give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to
Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as
the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands;
and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”
(Gen 26:3-4).
And God also came to Jacob and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham
your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will
give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as
the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the
east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the
families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 28:13-14).
And the Lord God appeared to Moses, and told him to say to the
children of Israel, “I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under
the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage,
and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great
judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out
from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into
the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I
will give it to you as a heritage: I am the Lord” (Ex 6:6-8).
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of their descendants were promised an
inheritance. And even though their descendants suffered through
hardships and persecution, God was faithful to redeem them with
outstretched arms, and lead them into the inheritance he had promised
them. God has also promised us an inheritance:
We
are children of God. We are co-heirs with Christ! We will inherit a
Kingdom!
“Therefore,
since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken…” (Heb
12:28).
“For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For
you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be
glorified together” (Rom 8:14-17).
“…to
be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing
Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His
glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving
thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in the light (Col 1:9-12).
“But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people…” (1 Pet 2:9).
“Beloved,
now we are children of god; and it has not yet been revealed what we
shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
God promised Abraham and all of his descendants an inheritance. And
Abraham trusted God in faith, because he knew God’s character. And
God was faithful with His promise to Abraham. “By faith Abraham
obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would
receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was
going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign
country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him
of the same promise” (Heb 11:8-9).
The inheritance that God has promised us may be a foreign country to
us, but we are called to live a life of faith, and to pray “Your
Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matt
6:10). And in Heaven, “God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There
shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev
21:4).
The things that happened during the Holocaust left a spiritual
darkness over Germany. There is a spirit of anger, a spirit of
hopelessness, a spirit of division, and a spirit of bitterness, among
other spirits looming over the land. But God has promised us an
inheritance where those things do not exist. And He tells us to live
by faith, and to pray His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.
He has given us authority to trample over darkness. I was honored to
be able to walk through this concentration camp hand in hand with my
husband, determined to take back the land.
So as we walked through the concentration camp, we prayed for
Germany. We prayed that God’s Holy Spirit would take back that which
was stolen. We prayed that God would restore the hearts of the
people here. We prayed that God would set free those still living in
bondage. We prayed that God would open up the heavens and pour out
His glory over Berlin. We prayed that He would send laborers for the
harvest. We prayed that He would release angels over the city to
reach out to the lost. We prayed that He would rise up a Holy army
to fight for the land, to fight for the captives. We prayed freedom.
And we wrote it in the dirt as a declaration.
