Israel & Christians Today: Weekly Update (May 4)

What happens to those nations that reject God’s people

Today, 4th May, The Netherlands commemorates all its fallen in WWII and subsequent armed conflicts. And tomorrow they will remember that on 5th May 1945 The Netherlands was liberated from the Nazi occupation.

With Yom Hashoah just behind us (1 May, the day Israel commemorates the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust), we are reminded that the Europe of today is built on the ashes of the countless innocent Jewish children who yesterday were led to the gas chambers like little lambs to the slaughter.

It is important to remember that for those who survived the concentration camps, their suffering was not over. Those fortunate Polish, Dutch and French Jews (and Jews from many other countries) who miraculously survived the hell of Auschwitz and finally, months later, managed to return to their villages discovered that the anti-Semitism had not disappeared. So many survivors testify that there was no space for them after the war to share their experiences with their gentile neighbours. On the contrary, many survivors had to cope with disinterest, rejection, hatred and in some countries new outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence.

In many ways Europe has never recovered from the trauma of what happened in the decade between 1935 and 1945. In those dark years Europe tried to wipe out the presence of God’s chosen people in their midst. They very nearly succeeded. In doing so, they not only rejected God’s people, they rejected God Himself. And the last 70 years have been a continuation of the same story.

The nations of Europe have never really repented of those dark years in which they submitted to Satan’s project of destroying the Jews. There have been (and are) many wonderful initiatives to confess and seek reconciliation (for example the March of Life movement), but our nations as a whole have never really confronted and dealt with their dark past.

The “European project”, as many like to call it, is all about building a bigger, better and more united Europe. Behind the chaos of Brexit and the lead-up to the coming EU Parliament elections there is brewing a fundamental debate about the relationship between sovereign states and the monolithic empire represented by Brussels. Inevitably the core underlying issues are: why are so many obsessed with creating a single Europe? What is their vision of the future? What is it that they are trying to leave behind? It is strange that no-one can seem to provide a coherent answer.

Is it possible that they are trying to create a new Tower of Babel in order to avoid having to confront their own dark past?

I am convinced that the obsession with the creation of a united Europe is deeply connected with Europe’s equally obsessive hatred of Zionism – what might be called “the Jewish Project”. The anger on the continent towards the Brits is driven by the same anger towards the Zionists – because both Brexit and Israel represent a belief that nations have an individual calling and destiny, and that it is more important for nations to submit to the sovereign will of an Almighty God than the sovereign will of a Godless Brussels.

Nations that do not confess and repent of their role in the Holocaust and their ongoing anti-Semitism can never earn God’s favour. Europe is on a collision course with the God of Israel. There’s no doubt about it. And His judgment is coming on the nations, perhaps sooner than we think.

Chapters 10-19 of the Book of Revelation describe what is to happen in the last days. They tell the story of the apostate church that commits adultery with the kings of the earth, and rides on the beast, only later to be persecuted. They tell the story of the ten kings, and the rise of one “beast” to whom Satan will give great power and authority. They tell of the false prophet who will deceive the nations and the peoples of the earth to worship the beast. And they tell of the remnant who are faithful to Jesus even unto death.

In these uncertain and challenging days, let us enter into the mind and heart of Jesus. The suffering of the Jewish people is His suffering. The rejection of the Jewish people is His rejection. The world’s hatred of the Jews is their hatred of Him.

Our calling as children of God is to stand with, and intercede on behalf of, His chosen people – the Jewish people, with whom we are members of the same body, sharers in His promises, and co-heirs of His kingdom (Ephesians 2-3).

May we – by God’s grace – be counted worthy to be amongst those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and the blessed who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).

Maranatha – come Lord Jesus!