Tuesday, December 17th, 2024
HISTORY LESSON—THE HOLOCAUST
On the way to the VA (Veterans Administration) and back, forty miles both ways.
What happened to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust? I asked the Holy Spirit as I left my house in the early morning and headed to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Then I stilled my mind and waited for input from Him. This is not a “Thus sayeth the Lord” proclamation; it’s thoughts that came into my mind in my words as I meditated on the matter.
Only in God’s Kingdom can this be explained. God would not have let six million of His chosen people die and go to hell. He is a merciful and loving God. It’s mankind that is cruel and hateful, in this case the Nazi regime.
First of all, the Jewish state of Israel would not have come about in 1948 had it not been for the Holocaust, and Scripture shows us Israel will play a central role in The Last Days. But would God allow six million of His chosen people to go to hell for that end. No, somehow in some way God had mercy on these six million, but how?
There would have been no pride left in those six million as they were stripped of their clothing and sent to the gas chambers or otherwise killed. They would have been like sheep led to the slaughter, and Isaiah 53 tells us we all are sheep who have gone astray and that the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. In their pitiful state, asking for forgiveness would have been the one thing left for them that they had any control over. They would have been humble and poor in spirit.
Then a light flashed in my mind, hopefully from the Holy Spirit, since I was driving 70 miles per hour on Interstate 94. Could Jesus have been thinking of those six million Jews at the Sermon on the Mount with the first and the eighth beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven. Who would have been more poor in spirit than those six million.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven. Righteousness means being in right standing with God. God chose the Jews to be His chosen people from whom a Savior would come. That’s righteous. And God wants His chosen people to give up themselves and surrender to Him. That’s all that was left for those six million. Did every single one of the six million ask for forgiveness and surrender their lives to their Creator? Most likely not. But they had the chance to do so.
How God worked all that out, I don’t know, but I do know that God is a merciful God and would not have let six million of His chosen people be sent to hell. Jesus died for them as surely as He died for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and King David—as surely as He died for you and me.