Millions of Jews were mercilessly killed during World War II. Satan was furious. Like monsters, people turned against God’s chosen people. What does God’s love for Israel mean if this is what happened to them? For some Christians, the question of how to talk about God in the wake of Auschwitz is urgent. Of course, this is even more true for Jews.
I found a website that provided information on over twenty distinct Jewish perspectives. This one struck me as the strangest: “If we continue to follow the Torah, then doing so is a voluntary decision rather than a duty. God’s breach of the covenant with Israel is evident. Is it accurate to say that? What about the love that God has for Israel?
Hosea on God’s love for Israel
The issue of God’s love and Israel’s suffering is not a contemporary one. In the Old Testament, it is also evident in other ways, like in Hosea 11.
The love of God serves as bookends at either end of Hosea 11. Verse 1 opens it, saying, “I loved Israel when he was a child.” One person compares God’s love for Israel to a parent’s affection for their kid. “I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord,” concludes verse 11. This has to do with God’s love and blessing for Israel when it has reached adulthood.
We read a great deal about Israel’s disobedience to God and God’s response to it between those two bookends. It is said that in idolatry, Israel turned away from God (Hosea 11:2). Israel continued to harbor hatred toward God despite God’s kindness (Hosea 11:7). God reveals His judgment for this reason. He’ll exact revenge on Israel (Hosea 11:5–6).
But even while the Lord God discusses the coming judgment, He declares that Israel cannot be treated like the region of Sodom and Gomorrah! “My compassion becomes warm and tender; my heart retreats within me.” Hosea 11:8. As a result, the Lord God declares that [He will again bless Israel].
The Lord says, “I will bring them back to their homes” (Hosea 11:11). Israel is once more permitted to reside in its own nation. When [the northern kingdom, the last ten tribes] returned from exile, this was largely fulfilled. However, since we are discussing a global return, including those from the west, Egypt, and Assyria, it is possible that we can expand this to include, for instance, the establishment of the state of Israel during the 20th century. That could possibly be a part of this prophecy coming to pass.
Paul on God’s love for Israel
The Old Testament period did not mark the end of God’s love for Israel. In Romans 9–11, Paul makes this very evident. It is very evident in several verses that the Lord God still loves Israel. “Has God rejected His people?” he writes. Not at all! (Romans 11:1).
He continues by drawing a comparison between God’s people and an olive tree. People from many countries can be grafted as branches onto that olive tree of faith. The statement, “How much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree,” applies more sense when it comes to Jews (Romans 11:24). Because “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable,” God has not forgotten Israel (Romans 11:29).
A hopeful story
However, what about the horrific experiences the Jewish people had during World War II? I am unable to find a theological explanation for this. But allow me to share another tale. This is also accurate. Israel Crystal was born in Poland in 1903 into a Jewish household. The First World War prevented him from celebrating his 13th birthday, which is when Jewish boys are supposed to become responsible for their own acts, with a bar mitzvah.
He ended up in a ghetto during World War II and then in Auschwitz. However, Israel left Auschwitz alive and immigrated to Israel, where he raised a family that included great-grandchildren, grandkids, and children. On his 113th birthday in 2016, he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, something he was unable to achieve a century before. He was the world’s oldest man at that point.
There was only one man remaining in 2016 out of the hundreds of millions of males who were 42 years of age or older at the start of 1945. Who would you pick in 1945 if you could have predicted at the outset that one person would outlive the hundreds of millions of others and still be alive today? Israel is his name, and he resides in Auschwitz, would have been the proper response.
Never question God’s love for Israel. However, [His love is also extended to you]. God came with His grace and His salvation, despite Israel’s wrongdoing. God nevertheless offers you forgiveness and salvation in spite of your sin—after all, who doesn’t sin? He extends an invitation for you to come to Him and give your life to Him.
