Calamaties of the Jewish People

In almost every case, the Jews of the first century were the leaders of the persecutions against the early church. What they could not accomplish against the followers of Christ, they instigated others to do. Between them and the Roman government, they instigated trouble, started false rumors, encouraged persecutions, first against the apostles, and then Christian converts. For this reason, opposition to the Gospel was great, and the persecution of Christians, both Jew and Gentile, became very heated. Paul’s response to a letter from Timothy which has been recorded in 1 Thessalonians sets the tone for the calamities that have befallen the Jews, and their land for the past 2000 years.

1 Thessalonians 2:15-16, Paul is speaking of the Jews who were persecuting the Christian community. “Who = (the Jewish leaders, and the people) both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary (opposed) to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”

The religious leaders of Israel were responsible for slaying their own prophets. They even went so far as to kill their own Messiah, the one they had been expecting to save them from Roman tyranny. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian writes concerning his own people. They (the Jews) are, “Atheists and the dullest of barbarians.” Tacitus another historian writes, “They (the Jews) have a hostile hatred of all other men.” This was the nature of the Jews during the time of Jesus, and of the apostles. Ezekiel 36:18-19, this is a prophesy concerning future events.

“I (God) poured my fury upon them (Jews) for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols (the temple, the ceremonies, the priests, the law) wherewith they had polluted it: I (God) scattered them (the Jews) among the heathen (Gentiles), and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.”

The calamities that have befallen the Jewish people in the past 2000 have no parallel. They have been enslaved, scattered, murdered, enslaved and the land plundered. Famines and pestilences abounded; as did the terrors of war; of murder; and genocide from without. The curse that has befallen them is a curse that has been pronounced upon them; cursed by their own lips. All these pains have been self- inflicted.

Matthew 27:25. The Jewish people cried out to Pilate, this after Pilate had washed his hand of the whole matter concerning Jesus. “His (Jesus’) blood be on us (the Jews) and on our children.”

How literal the curse has been, one calamity upon another, having no precedence in world history. The descendants of the Jews, the children of their children, having the curse of their fathers imposed upon them, this bearing the proof of Christ’s innocence.

Matthew 23:38, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. He was referring to the temple, the city, the system of religion, the people, and the land. “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; note, Your house.”

The temple was always referred to as the LORD’S temple. Jesus said that this house of God, has now been abandoned, and left desolate. In this period of Jewish history, all things political, educational, scientific, and religious had as its hub, the law, and the sacrificial system that had been established by God. When the temple fell, the system collapsed. Matt.23:21, may further explain the meaning of,

Verse 38. “Whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by all things therein.” In the first temple, the one built by Solomon, God had promised to manifest Himself. He dwelled between the Cherubim, that stood at each end of the Ark of the Covenant. Between them, was the mercy seat, and on this, the splendor and glory of God was exhibited. In the second temple, the one enlarged upon and adorned by Herod, five things were missing that had been in the first temple. They were the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Spirit of prophecy, the Urim and Thummin, the sacred fire, and God’s Divine presence. The second temple had long been abandoned by the Lord. No prophet had spoken to the people for over 400 years. But now, the human nature of Jesus became the Shekinah (glory) of the people and the temple.

John 1:14, “And the Word (Jesus) was made flesh, and dwelt among us (the Jews) and we (the people) beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus was the glory of God returned to the nation, and the people. He was the Way, the Truth and the Light. No Jew could say that God (Jesus) did not inhabit the temple. He visited it many times, and taught there. Because Jesus had been rejected, this place was left desolate. A new and living way had come, but the Jewish religious authority rejected it. Thus, “Your house has been left to you desolate.”

Did God promise to preserve the Jews? The preservation of the Jews in the midst many horrible calamities for some 2000 years now is a miracle in itself. The Jews have been hated and persecuted by most every nation, and beyond all odds, are yet sustained by the promises of God. Kings and princes have handed out edicts for their executions and imprisonment. By personal killings, massacres, by conquest, and through slavery, seductive blood-thirsty people have committed great outrages against the Jews. Today that violence in most horrific and tragic then ever before.

The Portuguese Jews of 18th and 19th centuries believed that they would all be restored to the holy land. Some Christian writers also believe in their literal restoration to the Promised Land, and the re-establishment of temple worship. The Jews had been expelled from every part of the world. This has served to spread them into all nations. Yet by the promises of God they live. I read in a book written in 1838 that some Bible scholars believe that the Jews would be returned to their land sometime between 1866, and 2016; this after having been ejected from their land in 70 A.D. Now I can say, “that was a very good estimation.”

The Jews began a return to their land in 1948. To support this opinion of the Jews, the following passages are alluded to. Highlight are the parts that have to do with the Jews returning to their land.

Deuteronomy 30:4-5, A prophecy for the Jews, “If any of thine (the Jews) be driven out (from their land) from thence (there) will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence (there) will He fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee (the Jews) into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it (Israel); and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.”

Ezekiel 37:21-28, “Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen (Gentile) whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land (Israel in 1948): I will make them one nation (we call it Israel today) they all shall have one shepherd (future prophesy of Christ’s return) they shall also walk in my (God’s) judgments, and observe my statutes … I (God) will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant … And the nations shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”

That sanctuary is Jesus Himself.

Isaiah 11:10-16, It shall come to pass, the Lord, “shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left … and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

Amos 9:14-15, “I = (God) will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them …And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”

Joel 3:1-7-20, “Behold, in those days, and in that time, when I (God) shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem … I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them … Judah (Israel) shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.”

Hosea 1:10-11, “The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appointed themselves on head.”

Hosea 3:4-5, “The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice … Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king = (symbolic of Christ); and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the Latter days.”

God predicts that the Jews will be without a King and a temple in which to worship. It has been over 1900 years, and the prediction yet holds true.

Romans 11:1,2, 8-12, Paul said, “Hath God cast away (abandoned) His people? God forbid … God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew … It is written, God hath given them (the Jews) the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear (spiritual blindness); unto this day.

And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always. Though their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them (the Jews) to jealousy. Now if the fall of them (the Jews) be riches of the world, and the diminishing (failure) of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness (when they are restored)?” 2 Cor.3:15-16, “Even unto this day, when (the books) of Moses is read, the veil is upon their = (the Jews) heart.”

Christ is still a stumbling block and many Jews still reject the Lord Jesus. “Nevertheless, when it = (when anyone of them) turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” They will understand that Jesus is their Messiah.

Isaiah 65:17-18, 24, “Behold I = (God) create new heavens and new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind … Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy … And it shall come to pass that before they (the Jews) call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”

Ezekiel 36:21, “I had pity for mine holy name (Jesus), which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. I (the LORD) will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified (hollowed) in you before their eyes.” There has been a preservation of the Jews through 2000 years of awful suffering and disgrace. They have been, and are still a “reproach and a by-word” among all nations. They are “a bush burning with fire, yet not consumed.” This is a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy and, of course gives incontestable evidence of the truth of Scripture. If a person can read, hear, and contemplate the truth of Scripture, yet reject these prophecies, they must renounce all claims to a candid and considerate mind.

Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com