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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
A former leader of a Hungarian Chasidic community was quoted as saying that the Holocaust was a punishment of the Jews for their sins. Only very great sins could account for the six million victims’ gruesome end. The question that I want to pose today is, “Does God punish Israel?”
For many years the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah lived in the Promised Land and were more or less successful as sovereign nations. The Lord sent prophets to both nations to call them to return to the contract that they had made with Him or He would invoke the penalty clauses of the contract. They refused to listen to the Lord and became like oxen that wouldn’t bow to the yoke. Eventually the Lord sent Israel, and later Judah into exile. At that point, without any consideration of context, we could say that the Lord punished Israel.
However, we should examine the context and see what was really happening. In Gen 1, the Lord God’s account of creation, we see that the first creatures that God blessed were the animals and the second creatures he blessed were the man and woman He created. He also told them to have dominion over all the living and moving creatures. We can learn from this that God’s intention was to bless the man and woman.
In Adam’s account of the sixth day of creation, and his subsequent activities, he recounted the first commandment that the Lord God gave him. The interesting thing about this commandment is the fact that the Lord God put it in the form of a choice. Not only did the Lord tell Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree, He also told Adam that there would be a consequence for disobedience. This establishes the basic principle for the Lord’s creation, every action has a consequence and the Lord will bring that to bear, in the end. We always get what we choose even though it may seem, for a while, that we are escaping the consequences of our actions.
When Adam and Eve chose to listen to the serpent they were faced with the question, “Do you really want to accept the Lord God’s definition of what is good and evil or do you want to have the authority to make those decisions yourself?” They thought that they were choosing to make the definitions for themselves but they were accepting the serpent’s definition instead. Firstly the Lord God told the serpent what to expect because he was responsible for making a lie and leading the man and the woman astray and he was cursed to to perpetual warfare and eventually one of Eve’s descendants would bruise his head, that is comprehensively and finally defeat him. From that time forward there has always been a great cosmic conflict between good, the Lord God, and evil, Satan. Satan desired to prevent the world from enjoying God’s blessings. There is evidence of that cosmic battle to destroy Israel during King David’s lifetime. (1 Chron 21: 1-6)
Eve wasn’t told that she was cursed but was told what the consequences of her actions would be. She was, however, given the hope of a Descendant Who would, one day, defeat the serpent. Adam was told that the ground would be cursed and he would have to labour and sorrow because he had not exercised the leadership that God entrusted to him; he allowed his wife to be seduced by the serpent.
The first person to be punished in the Bible, as opposed to being cursed, was Cain (Gen 4: 12). He was cast out the Lord’s presence and forced to be a vagrant all the days of his life. Cain had no home and no hope. The Lord warned him to overcome his sin but he didn’t and he was cut off from the Lord. We can see that punishment leads to restlessness, separation and no peace, there was no recovery from Cain’s punishment. Punishment also includes the idea of retribution.
Later we see that the Lord called Abraham and Abraham obeyed the Lord. The Lord promised Abraham that He would use the patriarch as the vector for blessing all the families of the earth (Gen 12: 3) Abraham was counted a righteous because he believed God (Gen 15: 6)
As time went by, the promise the Lord made to Abraham was eventually kept, firstly Abraham and Sarah became the parents of their promised son and, secondly Israel took possession of the Promised Land. The Promise that the Lord made to Abraham was eternal and unconditional. (Gen 15: 18)
In the cosmic battle, Abraham’s descendants became significant targets because, if they could be destroyed, the Lord’s plan of blessing all the families of the earth would be destroyed and evil would triumph However, the Lord loves Israel and will not allow Satan to accomplish his goals (Deut 32: 10).
After Israel took possession of the Promised Land, they remade the contract with the Lord, on their own behalf. There are five conditions for a contract to be valid. (While these are modern conditions they are based on ancient precedents.)
A contract has to state specific details, there must be some consideration, where agreed value is exchanged for agreed value. Both parties must show that they have the ability to satisfy the contract. A contract cannot be made that will violate the law of the land. Both parties must agree that a contract has been made and that it is recorded to the satisfaction of both.
When the Lord made his contract with Abraham they both knew what the details were: Abraham would have son but he had to believe the Lord. Abraham would be the vector of blessing for all the families of the earth and the Lord would bless Abraham and his descendants forever. The Lord had defined what was right and wrong for His creation and He would not behave without integrity. (compare Deut 7: 9) An ancient form of making a contract is described in Gen 15. Both parties knew what was happening and, because Abraham believed God, he knew that God had the capacity to complete the Divine part of the agreement. All Abraham had to do was believe God and he had already demonstrated his ability to believe God. The agreement was recorded for posterity in a document recorded by Abraham’s son,Isaac, after Abraham told him later. (Gen 25: 19)
The contract was made and was binding on both parties. However, by the time that Israel went into the Promised Land, Abraham was unavailable to agree to any changes to the contract that he had made with the Lord. On that occasion, the Lord, who is completely consistent, made a new contract with Israel concerning tenure in the Land rather than permanent possession.
The specifics of the covenant are listed in the Torah. The final form of the contract, as agreed between Israel and the Lord are listed in Deuteronomy. Joshua 8: 30-35 gives an historical account of the final ratification of the contract. The specifics of the contract are stated as a copy of the Law of Moses was written on the stones that had been set up for that purpose. When Joshua read the blessings and the curses, he was stating the consideration, the Lord would give Israel peace and prosperity in the Land and Israel would keep the Law of the Lord. Israel would lose tenure but not permanent ownership of the Land if they disobeyed. The Lord had already demonstrated his capacity to keep the contract because He had brought them from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Lord God also knew that, at some time Israel would be able to keep the contract (see Deut 30: 6) as He promised to write the Law on their hearts. When the Lord brought Israel into the Promised Land, the contract was, essentially, the constitution of the new nation so it was legal. The contact was written on the altar that Joshua had made.
In the section of the contract defining the rewards and the penalties associated with the contract the Lord defined the context for all His future dealings with Israel.
The relevant clause is recorded in Deut 30: 1-5, Where the Lord let Israel know that they would, inevitably, receive the consequences of their actions but these were only designed to bring them to their knees before the Lord so that He would restore them to the Land and His blessing.
The Lord will never punish Israel as He punished Cain, even though they have experienced the consequences of the choices that they have made. Israel has wandered for many years but now they have their own, truncated homeland. In a material sense, Israel was broken before the Lord and returned to their Land after the holocaust. When the Jews were under the threat of genocide the leaders in Palestine agreed that the only protection against any further attempt at Jewish genocide was to have their own Land. Modern Israel is determined to stay in their own Land and prevent any further attempts at genocide. Their only hope of avoiding future genocide is to maintain the presence in the Promised Land that the Lord God promised to Abraham as a permanent possession.
In the spiritual sense they are not yet broken because the Law of the Lord is not yet written in their hearts, as a nation. History has shown that Israel was never cast out of the Lord’s presence forever and they were never put in a place where recovery was impossible. In answer to the question, “Does the Lord God punish Israel?” we can answer with a resounding “NO!” On the other hand, Satan will always work to destroy Israel using any means he can. The Lord God has always worked with Israel to bring them to the place where they, as a nation, remember their contract with the Lord, accept it in their hearts and obey Him wholeheartedly then they will have peace and tenure in every inch of the Land that the Lord promised to give to Abraham and his legitimate descendants forever. Eventually they will live in peace and prosperity in their own Land when they have, as a nation, fallen on their knees before the Lord in a spiritual sense
