No Place to Rest
Witnessing Tools
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Wendy Wippel
Prophecy is nothing more than promises from God--both for blessing and for judgment, and as such can be tied to our emotions-- some comforting, even inspirational, some ominous and frightening. My vote, however, for the most poignant prophecy in Scripture is Deuteronomy 28. All the more because it was 19000 years in its fulfilling.
It started with God's promise that, because of the disobedience of the nation of Israel, they would be "plucked from off the land which you go to possess". Then it got worse:
"Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life." (Deuteronomy 28:64 NKJV)
The Jews fled the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD and they went in two directions: one group fled west across northern Africa and up into Spain (this group is now known as the Sephardim); the other group went up through Turkey into Eastern Europe (now known as the Ashkenazim).
(We can follow this genetic bread trail in both directions, the crumbs in question being a Y-chromosome marker ubiquitous in Hebrew men called M172. Pretty cool, eh?)
God's promise to the Jews in Deuteronomy were fulfilled all over the world (as promised) but let's just look at Europe as an example. The Sephardim landed initially in Spain-- still within the clutches of the Roman emperor but far enough away to escape his notice, and not far enough to be prey for the barbarians (Celts, the Pics, the Visigoths and the Vandals) that lay beyond the borders.
Eventually, however Rome began to crumble under repeated Barbarian assaults, and under the Catholic Visigoths. 597 AD, persecution of the Sephardim intensified and they spread into the surrounding countries. And now the predictions of Deuteronomy 28 were eerily but exquisitely fulfilled. England expelled all Jews from with their borders in 1290. Many went across the channel to France.
France expelled them in 1396. Austria in 1491.
Spain's large Jewish population, although subjected to regular persecution and sporadic fits of ethnic cleansing, had escaped official efforts to displace them, largely because Ferdinand and Isabella had bigger fish to fry. Islamic Moors had an outpost on Spanish soil at Granada. The famous Spanish sovereigns defeated the Moors and reclaimed Granada on January 2 of 1492, and issued the edict of expulsion just a few weeks later.
Spain's Jews were gone by Aug 3, 1492. Most went to Portugal.
Portugal expelled them in 1497.
God promised that He would scatter them, but take care of them. Or to quote Julie Andrews; "If God closes a door he opens a window."
We know now that many of them went to the New World. (Courtesy of those DNA breadcrumbs again.)
In Spain the inquisition purposed to ferret out those Jews who, forced at gunpoint (literally, sometimes) to convert may not have been sincere and was now underway. Realizing that some of the "pretenders" had escaped their clutches, the medieval church established an office of the inquisition in Mexico City in 1509. Burning at the stake had hit the global market.
The Mexican Jews, whose family trees historians have now linked to those being tried as Jews in Spanish courts, moved up into what is now Santa Fe and Albuquerque. (Genetic bread crumbs again.)
Read Deuteronomy again:
"Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone." (28:64)
(BTW- those Jews called up by Inquisition officials, suspected of being false converts, were often forced to kiss a crucifix of wood or stone.)
"…And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life." (28:65-66)
Doesn't it make you want to cry? Oh, the humanity….
Fast forward to May 15, 1948. Finally, a homeland again. But still no assurance of security. Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Lebanon's Hezbollah, said he was glad that the Jews had returned to Israel. "It will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
Hezbollah and Hamas have fired nearly 15000 rockets on Israel in the last ten years. One hundred sixty from Syria just this week, as well as some from Gaza and yesterday, from Sinai.
Funny that God told Israel in Deuteronomy that they would fine no rest, because he told them in Isaiah that He would judge them on the basis that He told them where to find rest, but they rejected that rest:
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.When the overflowing scourge passes through, Then you will be trampled down by it… For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon…For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, A destruction determined even upon the whole earth. (Isaiah 28:11-18, 21-22)
A destruction revealed throughout the Old Testament as having the purpose of bringing God's chosen people back into His arms.
And with God, ever faithful, there remains a promise of rest:
"Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make himafraid." (Jeremiah 30:10 NIV)
So with the rockets falling on Israel again, they have the prophecies made sure, like a light shining in the dark.
And we might see the ultimate fulfillment in our lifetimes.
(Ok, for most of us, from the mezzanine. But that'll do, right?)
Last week: Blue State Blues
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