ALL ROADS OF Jewish history have to lead back to Genesis 17, where God established an everlasting covenant with the father of God’s chosen people, Abraham. As an old man of ninety-nine years, Abram was visited by God and given the honor of establishing a covenant with God Himself, one resulting with his descendants—God’s chosen people—inheriting the land of Canaan. God did more than change Abram’s name to Abraham in that visitation—He changed the course of history for all time. God told Abraham:
As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.…I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
—GENESIS 17:4, 7–8
But God’s covenant with Abraham and His chosen people carried responsibility as well as blessing for the Jews. The point is clearly established in the Bible that Israel’s response to the blessing of the gift of the Promised Land determined God’s response to them. At the time of the dedication of Solomon’s temple, when God’s presence came down and took up residence in that holy place, God warned His people with these words:
If you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them [the Jews] from My land which I have given them; and this house [temple], which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
—2 CHRONICLES 7:19–20
It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day. In no way does this lessen or excuse the mistreatment and sinful atrocities the Jews have endured at the hands of their enemies, but it gives us a framework for understanding what has happened.
The words of God in the verses above were a warning. The verses that follow are no warning—they are the execution of judgment from God Himself for the disobedience of His people:
Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals…I will scatter them also among the Gentiles.
—JEREMIAH 9:13–16
In the forty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah, God was even more specific about their acts of disobedience:
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know…However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!’”
…Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by…answered Jeremiah, saying: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.”
—JEREMIAH 44:2–4, 15–17
How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing the blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come.
We are going to look briefly at some of the persecution that has faced the Jews. Some of it happened during the days in which God’s Word was being written, long before the term anti-Semitism had been voiced by anyone. It has plagued the Jews throughout the ages. Although it rises from the judgment of God upon His rebellious chosen people, it is sin—and it damns the soul. Where it raises its ugly head today, it must be eradicated, and repentance must flow where condemnation has prevailed.
Walk with me through the centuries, and learn from the mistakes of the past. Those who fail to remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them in the future. History reveals humanity’s triumphs and failures, giving us a compass for the future.
Jerusalem has been a strategic site in the Middle East for three thousand years. The sacred city has been the object of numerous attacks and sieges. Perched on easily defensible Judean hillsides less than thirty miles from the Mediterranean Sea, Jerusalem controlled the major highways that connected Egypt, Europe, and Africa. Therefore, whoever controlled Jerusalem had the ability to control the Middle East, economically and militarily. In addition to its military significance, the spiritual importance of Jerusalem to the Jews, Christians, and Muslims has made it the object of wars to gain possession of the city like no other city in the world. Those wars are not over. The greatest war the world has ever seen will soon envelop Israel and Jerusalem. The fact that it will happen, which nations will fight in that awesome battle, who will win the battle, and how many will die will be covered later in this book. But for now, let’s consider some of the persecution the Jews have faced throughout the years. (I encourage you to turn to the appendix, which contains a timeline to help you understand the history of Israel.)
JERUSALEM AND KING DAVID
After King Saul died in shame and disgrace for consulting the witch of Endor for spiritual guidance, his dynasty continued briefly through his son Ishbosheth’s reign over the northern tribes of Israel. The southern tribes, the powerful men of Judah, rallied to David, who had moved his headquarters to Hebron. For the next few years, the Israelites fought each other as much as they fought hostile enemies. The Israelites grew weary of fighting each other, and, after the violent death of Ishbosheth, they turned to David to lead them. (See 2 Samuel 5:3–8.)
At this point in history, Jerusalem was a Jebusite settlement. David attacked and drove out the Jebusites and ushered in the Golden Era of Israel. Jerusalem held the northern and southern tribes of Israel together and was the basis of economic and military control of the Middle East.
David then brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem as its permanent resting place. The ark contained the Ten Commandments and was the embodiment of the presence of Jehovah God. It had been with the Israelites throughout their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. It had carried them into battle and to victory time and again. But it had been captured by the Philistines a generation earlier. The sacred history records:
So they brought the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it.
—2 SAMUEL 6:17
This ark was and is the most sacred symbol Israel had because it represented the manifest presence of God. When the ark arrived in Jerusalem, the city was not only the political, economic, and military capital of the country—Jerusalem was now officially the City of God.
JERUSALEM AND THE ASSYRIANS
But approximately two hundred years after the arrival of the ark in Jerusalem and the establishment of Jerusalem as the City of God, the Assyrians, under the leadership of King Sennacherib, conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. The impact of that conquest was felt dramatically in Jerusalem by King Hezekiah. As Sennacherib and the Assyrians hammered their way south toward Jerusalem, King Hezekiah knew the battle would be won or lost over who controlled the supply of water. (See 2 Chronicles 32:1–4.)
Hezekiah knew he had to secure the source of water for Jerusalem and at the same time deny it from the enemy. No army could long endure in the searing heat of the summer without water. He solved the problem by cutting a tunnel through seventeen hundred feet of solid rock under the city from the spring of Gihon outside the city walls to the pool of Siloam within the city, so the water could run freely underground into Jerusalem.
I have been to Hezekiah’s tunnel twice. My first adventure into the tunnel was one of the most exciting moments of my twenty-plus trips to Israel. With my wife, Diana, and about fifty brave friends, we followed our guide Mishi Neubach like a flock of mindless sheep into the yawning mouth of the tunnel.
However, shortly after we entered the tunnel in Jerusalem, it became very narrow and totally dark. The cool water flowing from the Gihon Spring into Jerusalem was waist high, my shoulders dragged against the sides of the tunnel, and my head atop my five-foot-eight-inch frame touched the top of the tunnel. It was an extremely tight squeeze, and some of the people with me, fighting the fear of claustrophobia, asked to go back—and did so immediately.
The rest of us pressed forward as the water rose chest high. “Does the spring ever surge and flood the tunnel?” I asked our guide Mishi Neubach, one of Israel’s foremost tour guides. He assured me it did not. We pressed through the darkness until at last we saw the beautiful light of day at the other end. There is no rational reason why I repeated this adventure a second time two years later with another group. But if you are looking for a thrill when you visit the Holy Land, do it. If you are faint of heart, stay in the hotel and eat another bagel.
For those who boast of sophisticated intellects and deny that the Bible is true, what possible explanation is there for the reality of Hezekiah’s tunnel? Plainly recorded in Scripture (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chron. 32:30), the tunnel was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1880. The “Siloam Inscription,” commemorating the breakthrough in the tunnel by the workers, states:
The tunneling was completed.…While the hewers wielded the ax, each man toward his fellow…there was heard a man’s voice calling to his fellow…the hewers hacked each toward the other, ax against ax, and the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of 1,200 cubits. 1
Hezekiah’s tunnel is a rock that cries out to all who will hear, saying, “The Word of God is the absolute truth.”
Once Hezekiah had settled the water crisis, he began to build up the broken walls of Jerusalem, raising up towers and making weapons of war for the men of Jerusalem to use in the coming battle with Sennacherib. He also made spiritual preparations for the coming war by introducing radical spiritual reforms and repairing and purifying the temple. He also broke up the idols made by the previous administration and outlawed pagan worship. He aroused the citizens of Jerusalem, saying:
Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him.…With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.
—2 CHRONICLES 32:7–8
The Assyrians attack.
Sennacherib and his legions attacked the City of God in 701 B.C. Known as cold-blooded killers who tossed babies into the air and caught them on their swords, raping women and terrorizing their opponents, they surrounded the city with a sea of troops and tents as far as the eye could see. Hezekiah attempted to purchase peace by sending a letter to the king, saying, “Whatever you impose on me I will pay” (2 Kings 18:14).
Sennacherib demanded silver and gold, and Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was in his house and all that was in the Lord’s house. He even stripped the gold from the doors of the temple to buy off this Assyrian terrorist. But Sennacherib only demanded more, asking Hezekiah to put two thousand men on horses so his men would have some sport as they slaughtered the Jews. This was the ultimate in ridicule.
But late at night, there was an invasion from outer space. The angel of the Lord walked through the camp of the godless, cutthroat Assyrians, killing 185,000 Assyrians as they slept.
JERUSALEM AND THE BABYLONIANS
One hundred years after God defeated the Assyrians, King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 597 B.C. (See 2 Kings 24:8–13.) He took seven thousand Jewish captives to Babylon as craftsmen, scholars, and intellectuals to elevate the standard of living in Babylon. Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego were among those taken by Nebuchadnezzar in this first attack on Jerusalem, along with all the treasures of the royal palace and the temple.
Not content with his first victory over Jerusalem, in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar returned to Jerusalem, causing the wholesale destruction of the city and another draft of exiles for Babylon. Jerusalem was the portrait of desolation. Its walls were torn down, its beautiful temple was destroyed, homes were burnt to the ground, and most of the citizens were in exile in Babylon.
The sobs of brokenhearted Jews run deeply through the Book of Lamentations. (See Lamentations 2:5–9.) In the hearts of the exiles, Jerusalem continued to live. In the anguish of their captivity, it haunted their thoughts, and all their hopes were focused on remembering Jerusalem. In Psalm 137, the poetic pen of King David captures the mood of the exiles who were captives for seventy years:
By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea we wept
When we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps
Upon the willows in the midst of it.
For there those who carried us away captive asked us a song,
And those who plundered us requested mirth,
Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget its skill!
If I do not remember you,
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom
The day of Jerusalem,
Who said, “Raze it, raze it,
To its very foundation!”
O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,
Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
Happy the one who takes and dashes
Your little ones against the rock!