A Menmorial Holocaust

“The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 
                            Genesis 12:1-3

To day January 27th 2014 is Holocaust remembrance day. A day when we remember the millions killed in the Nazi holocaust of world
war two.
I was born after the war and have only seen films of the concentration camps as a result I can only imagine the horrors.
My father was one of the liberators of Bergen Belsen. He told us very little about what he seen. Still I can remember on two occasions when he told me vividly about what he saw.
The first occasion was when the two of us were watching the news.
There was a some one who was on trial for hate literature, some one who denied the holocaust.
For a few moments he was silent, then he suddenly exploded. It was as if a dam had burst inside him and he told me what he had seen and experienced.
What he told me was beyond belief I can understand why he didn’t want to tell people. Were a writer to have written about such horrors no one would have believed him.
As I found out later from some aunts, he didn’t keep silent in the years after the war. He did tell people about what he saw. It was just that I was too young to remember.
The experience at Belsen did change his life.  
The facts speak  for themselves, over eleven million (11,000,000) people died in the holocaust. Six million (6,000,000) were jews. An estimated 1,500,000 children died. The numbers are staggering.
If my math is right that means one person was murdered every twenty seconds from the day war was declared in September of 1939 until it ended in Europe in May of 1945.
The other thing my father was bitter about was that his country, England refused to let them all go to Palestine because of politics.
 It’s interesting that the United Kingdoms fortunes started to go down after the war.
The scripture I have chosen for today is a blessing God gave to Abram the father of the Jewish nation it reads,
“The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 
                            Genesis 12:1-3.
I firmly believe that, that blessing to Abram is still in effect.
       Germany as a nation repented after the war paid reparations to Israel and has become an economic power house.
While the United Kingdom who placed harsh restrictions on the Jews in Palestine going even to the point of training and arming the enemies of the Jews, had their fortunes fall.
Here in Canada we have a government that is firmly behind Israel and I believe it has resulted in Canada’s prosperity even in these uncertain times.
But all of that aside. I believe it is incumbent on all Christians everywhere to pray for and bless Israel.
Many Christians died in the holocaust also. They died for simply trying to protect Jews.
We can never let such a thing happen again.
The Reverent Martin Niemoeler a pastor in the German Confessing Church who himself spent seven year in a concentration camp wrote,

First they came for the Communist

And I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Socialist

And I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came fro the Labour Leaders

And I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Labour Leader.

Then they cam for the Jews

And I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they cam for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me.

If there is one place we should be politically active, it is in our support of Israel.
There are people in this world who do not want Israel to exist.
Think of it were they to win. Millions more Jews would die.
Not only Christians, but humanity as a whole cannot let that happen.
Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and pray that God will bless Israel.