The Jewish Question: God's Answer to "Convenient Hatred"

In pondering the Jewish question, I recall Fiddler on the Roof in which Tevye poses a revealing, though tongue-in-cheek question: “I know, I know,” he concedes. “We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?” His is the story of life in a small Russian shtetl, still under the Romanov dynasty. At the time, anti-Jewish propaganda in Western Russia often led to one pogrom after another; in the end, violence claimed the lives of no less than 1,500 Jewish citizens.[1]

Radical Muslims and rightwing, Christian fundamentalists qualify among the world’s most hated; but Jews emerge as the most enduring, universally hatred group in history.[2] How ironic that many hate God Himself, who by His very nature loves so much.[3] A provocative Masterpiece movie, God on Trial (2008), addresses Tevye’s quandary—this time, without a hint of humor. While awaiting inevitable death at the Third Reich's most notorious death camp, Auschwitz, a group of Jews form a rabbinical court and put God on trial. In a universe presumably ruled by a benevolent, omnipotent God, they question how the Holocaust could possibly happen unless God is responsible for their suffering and therefore guilty of violating His holy covenant.[4]

The statesman Daniel knew better. His hope-filled, namesake book showcases God’s faithfulness, past, present, and future. Through it, Daniel references a complete history of Israel from Daniel’s time to that of the Messiah. Moreover, he discloses Israel’s miraculous restoration as a nation within a period of seventy weeks of seven years each (a total of 490 years), starting with the commandment to restore Jerusalem.[5]

Notably, God’s promise to Abraham came with no expiration date. That the last half of “the seventieth week” has yet to happen confirms God’s continuing plan for Israel.[6] God faithfully made of Abraham a great nation through which all families worldwide would be blessed.[7] For Christians, that blessing came as a babe in the manger. Others benefit through the significant number of Jews whose extraordinary contributions in literature, economics, physics, and medicine have won Nobel prizes.[8]

Although viewed with suspicion by many Jews, today’s Christian Right befriends and defends Israel as few others have. Why, then, are so many Jews left-leaning? Author Norman Podhoretz attempts to answer this perplexing question.[9] For one, he suggests, Karl Marx mesmerized Jews. Das Kapital became a new kind of Torah, representing secular Jewish Messiah-ism. The Marxist Labor Movement promised to overturn capitalism, procure higher wages, and improve work conditions for the vast majority of Jews in America who, among others, were poor and powerless.

Next, when French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, was charged with treason for having yielded military secrets to the Germans, fellow Jews believed their only friends were on the Left. From its inception in 1894 until its resolution in 1906, the Dreyfus affair divided France. Allegedly based on forged evidence, the Captain’s conviction ranks among preeminent political dramas of modern French and European history.

Historically, America’s Left has befriended Israel. Jews embraced America’s 32^nd President, popularly known as FDR, as a sort of Moses and her 33^rd President Harry S. Truman as Father of the Jewish State. Although JFK was considered cool toward Israel, Jews liked 36^th President Lyndon B. Johnson for completing Roosevelt’s New Deal. Our 39^th President Jimmy Carter negotiated peace talks and a treaty between Israel and Egypt, but later became openly and virulently hostile to Israel. Recoiling from Carter, Jews looked, albeit reluctantly, to our 40^th President Ronald Reagan. Despite Jews’ widespread fear of the Religious Right, the President sympathized with Begin in implementing many bold economic and foreign policies.

Israel means “to prevail with God” or “prince with God.” “Israel” designates the son of Isaac (Jacob) or his descendants, the twelve tribes of the Hebrews. It references the nation’s ten northern tribes, as opposed to Judah. Over time, the term “Jew” came to represent the entire Hebrew race worldwide.[10]

To this day, many disdain all Jews as international world controllers who, in practice, are not notably religious. Theorists hold that Jews unite universally in a manned and moneyed, exclusive and clandestine cabal ruthlessly devoted to world dominion. The long debunked, decidedly anti-Semitic Protocols portray the Jew as “a Republican as against the monarchy, a Socialist as against the republic, and a Bolshevist as against Socialism.”[11]

An emerging, one-world system engineered and propelled by the ruling elite is evident. Certainly, Jews serve shadow government, but so do Gentile counterparts. Be clear: The entire Hebrew race is not culpable. Of purest Jewish blood, Paul explained: Not all who descended from Israel are truly Israel.[12] Biblical Christians embrace Abraham as the father of all who believe—Jews first; then, Gentiles. Therefore, among those called and chosen of God stand New Covenant, Spirit-led Christians—i.e., “spiritual Israel.”[13] Set apart unto God, these (the collective faithful) “touch not the unclean thing.”[14]

In the presence of, and for the benefit of, Abraham and his progeny, God made a solemn, sacred blood covenant—with Himself.[15] While Abraham literally slept, God alone traversed the blood-covered trail between slaughtered animal sacrifices, thereby swearing to Himself (sole, authoritative witness) to uphold His promises.[16] No conditions whatsoever were imposed upon Abraham. Whatever Abraham did, or failed to do, God swore (1) to multiply Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven and (2) to grant the land “from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Simply put, God’s plan involves and even features Israel, distinguished in Scripture as “center of the Earth.” Israel was foreordained to “blossom as a rose”[17] —to lend, not borrow; to reign, not be reigned over.[18] Ezekiel described national Israel as “living securely” after returning from many nations.[19] Yes, death intervened before God’s promises to Abram were fulfilled but, by faith, he saw them “afar off”; Abram firmly believed God would make good His promises, even those not fulfilled in Old Testament times.[20]

Shaken, but Spared

The Maccabean revolt, which crushed the Seleucids and Hellenism during the 400-year silent period between Old- and New- Testaments, marked the last establishment of a unified Jewish.

"He [God] who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock." Jeremiah 31:10

1. http://fordcenter.blogspot.com/2010/10/history-in-fiddler-on-roof.html.

2. Isaiah 44:28; 45:1, 13; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4.

3. John 3:16.

4. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/godontrial /.

5. Seventy Weeks of Daniel prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27).

6. Romans 11:29.

7. Genesis 12:1-3.

8. The global Jewish population represents approximately 0.02% of the world's population, yet they have received 129 Nobel prizes. In contrast, the global Islamic population represents 20% of the world's population, but only seven have received Nobel prizes.

9. Norman Podhoretz. Why Are Jews Liberal? (New York: Vintage Books, 2009). 118-198.

10. Genesis 3:28.

11. Victor E. Marsden (Translator from the Russian Text). The [24] Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion with Preface and Explanatory Notes (1934). 11, 13, 15, 22-24.

12. Even before the physical act of circumcision, Abraham was deemed righteous by his faith—faith that secular Jews refuse. Paul understood that circumcision is more a matter of spirit than anatomy (Romans 9:6-13).

13. Romans 4:11,16.

14. 2 Corinthians 6:17.

15. Genesis, Chapter 15.

16. Genesis 15:12; 31:50; 1 Samuel 20:8.

17. Isaiah 35: 1.

18. Deuteronomy 15:6.

19. Ezekiel 38:8.

20. http://www.bibleed.com/bibleteachings/jesusandthepromises/promisestoabraham.asp.