The Preservation of the Jewish People

^{* Excerpts from an article on christinprophecy.org by the same title; "The Preservation of the Jewish People"}

Perhaps the most insightful commentary on the immortality of the Jewish people was written by the American novelist Mark Twain (1835–1910) who was an agnostic and a skeptic. His article appeared in Harper‘s magazine in 1897...

"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one quarter of one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way.

...the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of.

Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of.

He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk.

His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine and abstruse learning are very out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it.

The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor; then faded to dream–stuff and passed away; the Greeks and the Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

“What is the secret of [their] immortality?”

Twain’s question, “What is the secret of his immortality?” can be answered in only one way, and that answer was provided by David Ben–Gurion (1886–1973), the first Prime Minister of Israel: “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.”

The Magnitude of the Miracle

The preservation of the Jewish people throughout their 2,700 years of dispersion is mind–boggling. Keep in mind that they were dispersed to over 130 nations worldwide, and they were brutally mistreated wherever they went. Will Varner, a professor at The Master’s College, has expressed it this way: “No nation in the history of the world ever has been exiled from its land, lost its national existence and language, and then returned as a people to that identical homeland and even revived its ancient tongue. No nation, that is, except one — the nation of Israel.”

The survival of the Jew can only be explained by the miraculous hand of God!!

The relentless persecution of the Jews dates from the very beginning of their existence as a nation. The Pharaoh of Egypt attempted to murder all their male babies (Exodus 1:15–16). A government bureaucrat named Haman conceived a genocidal plan to exterminate all the Jewish people in Persia (Esther 3:8– 10). The Assyrian Empire conquered ten of the Jewish tribes and scattered them throughout Asia. Then came the Babylonian exile of the remaining two tribes and the two horrific wars with the Romans (70 and 135 AD).

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews were herded into ghettos and required to wear identifying symbols. They were subjected to pogroms, witch hunts, and blood libels. They were blamed for all the problems of society — even for the Black Plague. They were slaughtered during the Crusades, they were tortured during the Inquisition, and they became an object of complete annihilation during the Nazi Holocaust.

Yet, the Jewish people survived and their persecutors ended up in the dust bin of history.

How could this be? Chance? Coincidence? Good luck? A roll of the dice? There are many theories.

Only one answer makes sense, the miraculous hand of God!