The Jew

The Jew:

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

Through the centuries, Jews have preserved their old identity. They could be found living in every corner of the world, and to observe them is to know who they are.

Great Empires as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans have played their part in world history, but were to soon fade away; yet the Jews remained a people dwelling alone among the nations. Oppressed, exiled, and always the object of intense persecution and scorn they lived and prospered.   

Both Abraham and Moses life are more the history of families; great journeys and adventure. Once the builders of the great wonders of Egypt, the Jew would soon be cast down and held in brutal slavery and contempt for centuries.

Led by God they left their places of bondage and built a nation, a Temple, cultivated their fields, herded their flocks and fished the great Sea. Wanderings after wandering, journey after journey, battle after battle, victory after victory, forsaken and forgotten by men, the Almighty continued to breathe his life into their tormented hearts.

Against the will of God, their roll-call of kings was to betray them, though some good came from it all, yet a great deal of sin and wickedness continued to indwelled their inner natures. Every false step they took brought fresh disasters with it, exposing them before their enemies.

They soon became known as the wandering Jew, yet remained a marvel of human resourcefulness, and survival. Men like Bendemann a German artist exhibited a snap-shot of an old man leaning forward, and holding in one hand the harp which once was played in the land of Israel. Manacles are upon the old man’s hands betraying how severe his bondage is. In the recesses of his face is seen a man having grown old before his time, as gray streaked 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 the old man. 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, appears to be casual in her look, with no outburst or grief seen in her. Over the whole painting there is something of a deep sadness that awakens a feeling of compassion on those who gaze upon this portrait of pain and suffering, this is the Jew. 

Through all their disasters, their history has been marked well with an intense belief in the one true God of promise. Through the Egyptian bondage, the Babylonian captivity, the destruction of the Temple; their treasures and holy vessels plundered, they now had to serve a 70 year sentence for their sin against the land. The king of Babylon and his court one night had assembled for a drunken orgy; they polluting the vessels of the Temple. What followed was a final judgment on them as God’s finger wrote; “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.”

Soon after, Cyrus a man appointed of God raised the hopes of the Jewish People. He ordered their return to the land, and the rebuilding of the Temple. Some 49 years passed, Cyrus’s son Darius decreed that the Jews return to their land and rebuild the walls and repair the gates of the Temple. Soon after Alexander would pass these gates; followed by the Romans who would soon come to conquer and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple once more.

So here we have 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. But in all this there was hope when Isaiah wrote,

“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 they held sin close to their heart, and as the years pasted, their scroll of sorrows grew.

Yet in all this turmoil and darkness came the music of Felix Mendelssohn, the Midsummer Night’s dream; and once heard how can anyone forget the beautiful lyric poetry, and melodies of Heine, the art of Bendemann; Boerne, Rossini, and Meyerbeer, all Jews, all great artists?

God had made them a promise that one day this rose would bloom once more. After two World Wars, by the saving grace of God, His breath remained in them, their existence preserved, the Almighty keeping His promise to save them for His grander end plan.

The world of Christianity owes the Jews a deep obligation, because from the Loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came the Savior of the world. Israel had been appointed to be the birthplace of Christianity; it founded in Israel, then professed and 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. Men will disregard the breaking of one wave, but when every wave is moving in the same direction, when the tide is seen at work, they can than see and understand the laws that govern God’s creation. We find cause in the sky, in the air, in the earth, and in the universe itself, and so also with the Jewish record. 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 the history of the Jew and of their promised land is most likely to continue to be eventful. Hidden in dark places are their enemies, waiting patiently with sword in hand to strike. Yet the light of God’s marvelous works shines, for God’s history book has marked their future well, and no man will ever change the smallest letter of God’s promise.

Phillip LaSpino  www.seekfirstwisdom.com