The Sacred Romance

Those who know me well know that I am passionate about my support of Israel and the Jewish people.  This passion led me to participate in the fifth annual Christians United for Israel Summit in Washington DC this past week.  However unlike previous summits, I came away from this one with a deeper compassion and indeed a deeper commitment to stand with Israel and insure that my Jewish brethren are not alone.  One of the things that shifted me to the deeper levels was a simple Google search.  One of my fellow travelers asked me if I knew what the word "pogroms" meant.  I had a vague sense of the word, but I could not with conviction give her a definition.  Through the wonders of I Phone technology, I went on a search and found much more than I had anticipated.

The term pogrom means a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers, property. The term was originally used to denote extensive violence against Jews in the Russian Empire. (Wikipedia) However when one continues the research, the actions of pogrom began long before the Russian Empire and in fact date back prior to 167 BC when there were tensions between Hellenism and Judaism.  The incidences since that time have been numerous and violent.  As time passed, the frequency of the attacks increased until in the 20th century they proliferated and became the most deadly of all.

Why am I visiting history this week?  As I dialogued with my Lord about theses atrocities against the apple of His eye, the Jewish people, I began to see deep roots that go back to the first atrocity - a rebellion against the sovereignty and majesty of El Shaddai, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  When Lucifer created the first sin by rebelling against our Lord and taking a third of the angels with him, he was banned from the intimate relationship he had enjoyed until then in the heavens.  2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment.  Lucifer quickly understood that he had lost access to the heart of the Creator and subsequently lost the ability to impact the Lord's heart.  Perhaps in his anger or perhaps in his despair, he resolved to do whatever he could to get revenge.  Since he could no longer access God, he determined to attack those that are loved by the Lord - His beloved. 

We have a sacred romance being played out all of the time between our lover the Lord and Creator and ourselves - His Beloved.  The enemy is going to do whatever he can to disrupt that romance and cause darkness in our lives.  With that premise, now consider who the Hebrew people are in His eyes and heart - they are the apple of His eye, in fact His chosen people.  Zechariah 2:8-9 For thus says the Lord of hosts: "He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me. (Note: The Hebrew word that is translated as apple actually means the pupil.)  Therefore it makes logical sense that the enemy will do whatever he can to destroy these precious people whom God has protected from so much.  There is no logical reason why anyone should hate another group of people.  Yet the Jewish people have been a target since they were first set apart by the Lord.  The sacred romance between the Lord and His chosen people has suffered uncountable struggles in maintaining their identity, but the romance has survived and so has His people.

My purpose in writing about this today is twofold.  First we need to recognize the source of this animosity that is leveled towards our Jewish Brethren.  It is not our human nature to hate someone, particularly to hate someone who has never harmed us.  In fact if you were to study all of the advancements that have come from Israel in the past few decades, you will quickly see that they have done much to help the world in medicine, technology and food production to name just a few.  No that is not our human nature. However human nature is manipulated by that great deceiver and truth is distorted to appear very different than it is.   We need to come against these misconceptions and be a source of truth in the lives of those around us.  We need to study the truth and especially study the Word of God and understand how tightly we are connected to the Jewish people and honor our roots.

The second reason is to understand the sacred romance itself.  This is a term that I first heard in reading a book by that title by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis.  There is an ongoing romance between our Creator God and us His creation and His beloved. The romance exists for the Jew as well as the Christian and in fact it is there for the non-believers as our Lord continues to woo them and draw them near to Him. He does not love one more than the other, as hard as that may be for some people to believe.  I have often heard the expression, "He loves the murderer as much as the victim."  The truth is that His heartbreak over the sin of the murderer is probably more painful than witnessing the death of one of His beloveds.  It pushes that individual further away from Him.

What can we as believers in the Almighty God and in Jesus Christ do with this situation?  We are living in a volatile world in which there is growing animosity once again towards our Jewish Brethren.  We can only impact one person at a time.  We can only set the truth straight with the one person with whom we are talking.  We can only reach out and embrace the Jewish people with whom we come in contact.  We can support projects that demonstrate to the world and to our neighborhood that we will not let Israel stand alone and we will in fact stand between them and harm.  We can do everything in our power to embrace the sacred romance the Lord has for us and for His chosen people.