ISRAEL’S REJECTION OF THEIR GOD

My Jewish people are unwilling to connect the dots, dots which lead back to a God who had chosen them and had promised to bless them if they followed Him.

Hank Pellissier has provided some telling statistics about the extent of God’s blessings to Israel:

·       Nobel Prizes: Since 1950, 29% of the awards have gone to Ashkenazim (the largest group of Jews who lived in Europe and spoke Yiddish), even though they represent only 0.25% of humanity. Ashkenazi achievement in this arena is 117 times greater than their population.

·       Hungary in the 1930s: Ashkenazim were 6% of the population, but they comprised 55.7% of physicians, 49.2% of attorneys, 30.4% of engineers, and 59.4% of bank officers; plus, they owned 49.4% of the metallurgy industry, 41.6% of machine manufacturing, 72.8% of clothing manufacturing, and, as housing owners, they received 45.1% of Budapest rental income. Jews were similarly successful in nearby nations, like Poland and Germany.

·       USA (today): Ashkenazi Jews comprise 2.2% of the USA population, but they represent 30% of faculty at elite colleges, 21% of Ivy League students, 25% of the Turing Award winners, 23% of the wealthiest Americans, and 38% of the Oscar-winning film directors.

These blessings coincide with the promises of blessing that God had made to Israel:

·       “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God…He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.” (Deut. 8:11-19)

Along with this, God had warned Israel that they would turn away from their God, and that He would allow the surrounding nations to destroy Israel and to take the survivors into captivity. However, He also promised that if they turned back to their God, He would restore them to their Promised Land. Amazingly, this restoration has occurred three times already:

1.    Patriarchal (1850 BC) – Exodus and Conquest under Joshua (1410 BC)

2.    Babylonian Captivity (586 BD) – Return under Zerubabel  (532 BC)

3.    Roman Dispersion (70 and 136 AD) – State of Israel (1948)

These three returns are historical anomalies. No other people group has ever experienced this, even once. However, my Jewish people remain unfazed by these events.

They are aware of the fact that they have experienced intense persecution throughout their history, but they seem to be reluctant to associate them with God’s warnings:

·       If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law… Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations…Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. (Deut. 28:58, 64-65)

·       You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the Lord will drive you. (Deut. 28:37)

After Hitler, my people proclaimed “Never again.” However, they remain blind to the surrounding threats and to their Savior, as the Prophets of Israel declared that they would. God had ordered the Prophet Isaiah to warn Israel to wake up:

·       “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Isaiah 6:9-10 (ESV)

They also remain blind to the many prophecies that Israel will reject their promised Messiah as they had their own Prophets:

• Isaiah 53:3-6 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

• Psalm 118:22-24 The stone [the Messiah] the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

• Isaiah 8:14 and he [the Messiah] will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

• Isaiah 49:6-7 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." This is what the Lord says--the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel--to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation [of Israel], to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

When I confront my Jewish brethren with these facts, they yawn. They do not want to be shaken from their sleep. Nevertheless, their is hope. Their Messiah remains faithful:

·       “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10)

Mourning brings repentance, and repentance brings salvation.