The Chosen, Won…
‘Remember only that I was innocent and, just like
you, mortal on that day. I, too, had had a face marked by rage, by pity and
joy, quite simply a human face!” writes Benjamin Fondane. Murdered at
Auschwitz, in 1944.
This quote, and many like it spawned from an age
of depravity and injustice. A seasonal pursuit of not just happiness but peace,
justice and the decency to be treated more like a human and less like the feces
from the livestock they shared housing trailers, sheds and railway box cars
with. Such a sad yet prevalent example of what we human beings are fully
capable of.
I don’t assume to even have the slightest inkling
of understanding about the full depth and breath of such a travesty, in order
that I may share , in detail, what really happened as if an insider or a new
peak at never before seen, heard or experienced horror from the Holocaust. I
just want to share with you what I found when I peaked through the window of
wailing hearts, broken homes and destroyed cultures of people – all for the
sake of greed in the face of being called a god.
Fortunately, I don’t have to bring any more light
to the situation outside of my own short-lived experience, cause there are much
better writers about this subject matter with articles, publications,
documentaries and the like that do a much better job at providing legitimacy
and authenticity to one of the most painful experiences for a nation of people
who’ve been promised much both in suffering and blessing of what is and of
what’s to come.
Apart from our Savior, we are capable of terribly
dark acts of self-reflective horror dating back to the denial of our Creator in
order that we may obey the creature within the creation. This is one example of
how far we’ve fallen.
Historically, anarchical acts of human
demoralization has plagued hearts with doubt and death about the future leaving
little room for faith to breath life. Luckily, it doesn’t take much. Only a
mustard seeds worth is needed.
Jospeh Conrad once said, “The belief in a
supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of
every wickedness.” How true indeed such a statement is. And it’s
only after physically visiting the museum for the Holocaust while in Jerusalem
that I spiritually tasted for the first time the sour wine of destruction,
pride and self-actualization and smelt the familiar stench of fear that
physically paralyzes societies, spiritually blockades hearts from feeling the
love of the Father in each other (and in ones self) and mentally imprisons
nations who seek selfish pleasures and personal advancement and greed over global harmony and life
preservation.
“In the midst of this great chill there are
some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic.
They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to
hunt some lonely place and pray. ‘ O God, show me thy glory.’ They want to
taste, to touch with thier hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that
is God.” – A.W. Tozer
I once heard a poet say ” we claim attempts
to cure poverty, but do nothing about greed…”. It is this kind of greed
that lurks in every human heart around the world, which keeps us from feeding
the homeless, serving our brothers and seeking His face above all else. From
our nations capital around the world to the clerk counters and church pulpits,
the fertile soil of greed seeded with selfish desires is forever the enemy of
the garden of Eden – God.
Albert Einstein (A Jewish Nobel prize winner, and
scientist) said “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those
who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
We are a part of those lost to such evil that
only the enemy can truly applaud – because his work has (and is still) being
done through us.
There were many who did nothing during this
season of death that plagued Jewish people around the world. Turning the chosen
people of a promise to come into victims
of hate, rage and ultimately genocide.
With unshakable depth in awe at what I just experienced while visiting
Yad Vashem (The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem ( http://www.yadvashem.org/) I
was overwhelmed by what evil lies within us all. Probing my heart for answers
to the unanswerable question of ..”Why would God allow such things to
happen?”
What happened in the concentration camps between
1933 to 1945 is a prime example of the horror that happens when in-humane acts
happen to human beings.
The Jewish people are the chosen people of God
and through adoption we’ve been given a birth-right to the promises of
possessing the land both on earth and in heaven. And it’s through adoption into
the kingdom of heaven through the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
that we are given the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
Unsure of what’s ahead, I know that we are a
fallen people desperately in need of a Savior. I also realize that although we
may have come a long way from the days of physically burying of the living and
morally degrading and burning humans for the sake of fulfilling a selfish prophecy of a
“superior race”, we are not too far from the social act of providing
the same kind of segregation and self righteousness that create such toxic environments
that are perfect breeding grounds for a Holocaust of another kind.
And the realization that it could (and may)
happen again, places me into a battle with God begging “what must it take
for you to come back and set the captives free, receive your children and save
us from us..?” His answer “Come up here, and I will show you what
must take place after this.” (Revelation 3:20). So it’s with complete
humility and unwavering thirst in seeking His truth of revelation and throwing
away my short sighted answers of comfort, that I approach the door and knock –
waiting for His invite to “come up here..” – daily I knock.
Believing that in the face of uncertainty and
death, His promise for the “chosen people” (both Jew and Gentile) is
at hand and it’s only a matter of time before the depth and breadth of His
truth is fully realized. “…so that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the flory of God the Father.” (
Phillipians 2:10)
As the old nursery rhyme goes.. “He’s got
the whole world in His hands…”. And it is written, the chosen win…
Im encouraged to be filled with complete faith
and fearless freedom as I surrender it all again today, just as I did yesterday
and will do again tomorrow for what’s to come – no matter how great the
destruction may seem. I am desperate to taste with my mouth and touch with my
heart and see with my eyes the wonder that is God and ask for His glory to pass
before me.
That said, as promised, there will come a day when
God will bring His people back to the land from which they came and claim His
people for Himself and make a footstool out of the enemies of the land of God.
I pray that before anything else, we find refuge
in Him and rest in His presence seeking understanding before being understood,
repentance before retribution, personal responsibility before community
respect, contribution before contradiction, freedom before fear, inner –
revival before outer reformation and spiritual awakening and acceptance before
accusatory and defaming
I leave you with one question, where will you be
when they come for you?
“First they came for the communists, and I
did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did
not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak
out – because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left
to speak out for me.”
Pastor Martin Niemoller
