Proverbs 11:8
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.
The Polish Jewish rabbi had a grin on his face. His Nazi tormentors looked at him with disgust and asked, what makes you smile so, you Jew, don’t you know you are coming to your death? The old rabbi answered, In the days of the Persian Empire, a man called Hamman, just like you determined on the annihilation of our people. Today we celebrate his demise by eating a cookie called after his name: Hamantashen; I was smiling cause I was wondering what we will call the cookie we will eat after your demise.
The enemies of God’s people never seem to get it. As they kill God’s children, they are automatically sent into the Bosom of Abraham. They are forever delivered from their torment. They go to a place of rest and comfort waiting for the great day of the resurrection of all the saints. It is not the same with their persecutors. Those who seek the destruction of God’s people, just like Hamman of old in the Book of Esther, are hanged on the very gallows they prepared for God’s people.
This could seem very little comfort for those today who have to endure persecutions at the hand of very wicked people and governments. Yet, God’s people through the ages, starting with one of the oldest ones, have learned that nothing is due to us in this life; that our lot here is to make the best to keep our virtue, and that within the parameters of what has been dished out to us by the Almighty El-Shaddai.
As he was leaving the Russian village where he and his family had lived for generations, the old man was reminiscing on the pogroms they had suffered and on the order of eviction of all Jews fro Russia. He frustratingly prayed, Why God, why us? Then he cynically answered his own question and said, I know, I know, it is because we are the Chosen People; but sometimes couldn’t you choose somebody else?
Let us not be like this old man. Let us rejoice when we are chosen to suffer for the cause of Christ. Like the apostles and martyrs of old, let us count it all joy and honor when we are called to be a witness by suffering for him, when we are called to His side to share in His fate.
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.
The Polish Jewish rabbi had a grin on his face. His Nazi tormentors looked at him with disgust and asked, what makes you smile so, you Jew, don’t you know you are coming to your death? The old rabbi answered, In the days of the Persian Empire, a man called Hamman, just like you determined on the annihilation of our people. Today we celebrate his demise by eating a cookie called after his name: Hamantashen; I was smiling cause I was wondering what we will call the cookie we will eat after your demise.
The enemies of God’s people never seem to get it. As they kill God’s children, they are automatically sent into the Bosom of Abraham. They are forever delivered from their torment. They go to a place of rest and comfort waiting for the great day of the resurrection of all the saints. It is not the same with their persecutors. Those who seek the destruction of God’s people, just like Hamman of old in the Book of Esther, are hanged on the very gallows they prepared for God’s people.
This could seem very little comfort for those today who have to endure persecutions at the hand of very wicked people and governments. Yet, God’s people through the ages, starting with one of the oldest ones, have learned that nothing is due to us in this life; that our lot here is to make the best to keep our virtue, and that within the parameters of what has been dished out to us by the Almighty El-Shaddai.
As he was leaving the Russian village where he and his family had lived for generations, the old man was reminiscing on the pogroms they had suffered and on the order of eviction of all Jews fro Russia. He frustratingly prayed, Why God, why us? Then he cynically answered his own question and said, I know, I know, it is because we are the Chosen People; but sometimes couldn’t you choose somebody else?
Let us not be like this old man. Let us rejoice when we are chosen to suffer for the cause of Christ. Like the apostles and martyrs of old, let us count it all joy and honor when we are called to be a witness by suffering for him, when we are called to His side to share in His fate.
In the Bible, the word ‘witness’ originates from the Greek word used to make the word, martyr.
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