Daily Minyan

“We, the Jews, collectively rejected God and hung Him up on a cross to die, and thus we deserved the punishments that were heaped on our heads over the last 2000 years” – from an essay titled Why Us?, written by an anonymous Jewish convert to Christianity for Harvard Ichthus Christian journal.

Many Christians, among them those who were born Jewish, believe that Israel fully deserved the two thousand years of persecutions and atrocities it suffered first at the hands of the Romans legions and then of Rome’s descendants, the European Christians. These Christians believe that according to the New Testament Jews rejected and killed Jesus, “G-d in the flesh”, and because of that G-d has ordained, or at least allowed, as a form of justice, the persecutions and murders that befell that Jewish people. (Needless to say, Jews themselves have a wholly different understanding of the true reasons behind their exile, and some of these reasons are even positive and beneficial for the world). In other words, some people believe that it was G-d’s will to punish the Jewish people so severely. However, what does G-d Himself think? During the previous exile, in Babylonia, G-d has laid out His own feelings about this subject:

 Then the angel of the L-RD said, “L-RD Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?

So the L-RD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the L-RD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.‘

Therefore this is what the L-RD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the L-RD Almighty. “Proclaim further: This is what the L-RD Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the L-RD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’” (Zechariah 1:12-17)

From the above we can glean that although Hashem was “only a little angry”at his beloved “spouse”, Israel, the enemies of Israel have vented their own anger and evil at the Jewish people, far exceeding what G-d Himself had intended.

While the nations saw Israel as rejected of G-d and collectively mocked her misfortunes which they inflicted on the Jewish people with their own hands, G-d was very angry. He has been so angry with the innocent blood that has been spilled, that He has been busy preparing the final judgement for the nations.

In Joel 3:1-3, G-d speaks of the final judgement on the nations for their crimes and wanton violence against the Jewish people through their painful history. It will be a second “Nuremberg trial”, this time for the whole world:

“In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land. They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine to drink.

G-d will not only restore Israel’s fortune, but their former persecutors will be punished for their mistreatment of Jews and will be compelled to honor and praise the Jewish people:

At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the L-RD. (Zephaniah 3:19-20)

Yes, G-d has been saving up the final judgement for the very end. However, in the meantime Christians should ask themselves a question – if Jews have committed the most horrible of crimes, that of “deicide” (murdered their own G-d), why would G-d Himself give them praise and honor in the lands of their  enemies, the very enemies who claimed to be Christians and reviled Jews in the name of Jesus? Something doesn’t add up. Don’t Jews deserve shame for their rejection of Jesus? One can perhaps understand grace and forgiveness for what Jews did to Jesus – that should have sufficed as they humbly convert and enter the Church with all the nations at the end of the age as Christianity fully expects. But honor and praise for Israel?