Wonderous History of The Jewish People

Wonderous History of The Jewish People 
(formerly Jewish History)

For over 1900 years the Jews had lost their nationality. They have used every dialect, mingling with, but never uniting with other people. They have preserved their distinctive characteristics, customs and race, regardless of what country or position they found themselves to be in. No ancient records can explain it, for their history is prospective as well as retrospective. In that day when their wandering ceases, the Jew will come to understand what their place in God’s end time plan is for them.

What-ever remains of their past can only be found written in ancient script, and observed in fallen monuments. Their glory had been swallowed up many times over. Where once great kings ruled, coyote’s cry out; where once kings dinned, flocks of sheep can now be seen grazing on the hillsides; this is a picture of Israel’s history.

Through the centuries, Jews have preserved their old identity. They could be found living in London, Russia, Germany, Africa, United States, and even the Australia’s gold regions.  To observe them is to know who they are. Regardless of personal feelings, a penetrating intense interest would come over anyone who looks upon them. They have always stood in the center of the world, a beacon of light reflected on the gloom of polytheism, superstition, and idolatry.

Great Empires such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans have played their part in world history, but soon enough pasted away; yet the Jews remained a people dwelling alone among the nations. Oppressed, exiled, and always the object of intense persecution and scorn, yet they live and prosper to this day.   

Both Abraham and Moses life are more the history of families, great journeys, and adventure, more so than the history of a nation. Once the builders of the great wonders of Egypt, they were soon cast down and held for centuries in brutal slavery, and contempt.

The Jew can be counted as being guilty of wondrous feats over a period of imaginative times: marching inn-keepers that left their places of bondage. Led by God, and assured of His promises, they built a nation of cities; a Temple to worship their God; cultivating the fields, herding their flocks in green pastures, and fished the great Mediterranean Sea. Wanderings after wandering, journey after journey, battle after battle, victory after victory, forsaken and forgotten by men, yet God continued to breathe life into their tormented souls.

The land is a holy land; their government always a theocracy. But like all men, the ancient Jews became restless, and sought after a king like other nations round about them. Their roll-call of kings betrays in them no great discernment or apprehension of truth from falsehoods. Some good came from it all, yet a great deal of sin and wickedness indwelled their inner natures. The later being the much larger volume of the two books. Every false step they took brought fresh disasters with it, this people became weak before their enemies.

The wandering Jew became a by-word, a marvel of human resourcefulness, and survival. Bendemann; the German artist exhibited this snap-shot of an old man leaning forward, and holding in one hand the harp which once was played in the land of promise. Manacles are upon his hands betraying how severe his bondage is. In the recesses of his face we see a man having grown old before his time, and gray streaking through his long beard. Engraved in the deepest furrows of his face are the signs of great depression and sadness. 

Three women figures are about him. One with a sorrowful glance looking off into space, and holding close to her bosom a small child; another with her head bent forward seeking comfort on the old man’s knee, weeping bitterly. There is an air of patient sorrow with the third woman as she rests her elbow upon her knee. She appears to be casual in her look, no outburst of grief found in her. And over the whole painting there is something of a deep sadness that awakens a feeling of compassion in all who gaze upon this portrait of their pain and suffering. 

Jewish history appears to have been taken from a thrilling romantic novel, one marked with an intense belief in the one true God of promise. Egyptian bondage occurred in the infancy of this nation. In the Babylonian conquest, the house of God was destroyed; the treasures, the holy vessels, carried away, and the Jews by God’s will served a 70 years sentence for their sins, longing for their Zion.

In the reign of King David came many victories; in the riches of King Solomon the glory of the nation had culminated. But soon they were to be held captive in foreign lands. The last days of Babylonian captivity were now at hand, the sentence of 70 years had been paid.

In these last days, the king of Babylon and his court had assembled, they polluting the vessels of the Temple of God. Final judgment was at the door as God’s finger wrote of their demise;

“God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.”

Soon King Cyrus a man appointed of God came to raise the hopes of the Jewish People. He ordered their return to the land, and the rebuilding of the Temple. As the years past, Isaiah the prophet wrote of a coming deliverer,

“For unto you a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.” 

Yet this people continued to hold sin close to their hearts. The Romans conquered and destroyed this nation and people, as Jerusalem was again overthrown.  We find the story of the wandering Jew, a story of glory and shame; of joy and sorrow; of a shining light, and one of great darkness.

And as the years past, their scroll of sorrows grew. Yet in their turmoil came the music of Felix Mendelssohn, the “Midsummer Night’s dream;” a Jew, who’s strains of “Elijah,” and “Paul.” Time will not forget the beautiful lyric poetry, and melodies of Heine, the art of Bendemann; Boerne, Rossini, and Meyerbeer, all Jews, all great artists of their time.

As a single rose would bloom among the thorns, Israel came to bloom once again. Today, after two world wars, by the saving grace of God, His breath remains in them, their existence preserved. The Almighty has kept His promise to save them for His grander end plan.

The world owes to the Jews a deep obligation. From the Loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Israel had been appointed to be the birthplace of Christianity. Christianity was founded in Israel, professed first by the Jew, than propagated by them. What heartaches lay before them, only God knows? Yet God waits to put upon their head a crown of glory.

There is evident purpose in the preservation of the Jewish people. Man disregards the breaking of a wave, but when every wave is moving in the same direction, when the tide is seen at work, we can see and understand the laws the govern God’s creation. We find cause in the sky, in the air, in the bowels of the earth, and in the universe itself. And so it is with the history of mankind, and especially in the Jewish records. Old and new, there is design in all things. Every circumstance is a link in the chain, all connected, all working together for the glory of Jesus Christ.

To be sure their history is most likely to continue to be eventful. Hidden in dark places are the enemies of the Jews. With swords in hand they patiently wait to strike. Still the light of God’s marvelous works shines through them, for God’s history book has marked their future well, and no man can change the smallest of letters.

Phillip LaSpino  www.seekfirstwisdom.com