Cohn. Joseph became the director of the Mission upon the death
of his father. The writings are drawn from The Chosen People, the
official newsletter of Chosen People Ministries, and The Shepherd
of Israel, an evangelistic publication. The vignettes cover the
times before, during and after the Holocaust.
If there was one outstanding lesson I gleaned from these stories,
it was simply this—the Lord uses tragedy to draw us to Himself.
The story of the Jewish people during the Holocaust can be
compared to the Book of Job. God created and chose the Jewish
people to be His light to a dark and broken world. He made
promises to our forefathers that He would never allow His people
to be destroyed (Jeremiah 31:31–37, Romans 11:28–29). As God
promised through the prophet Jeremiah: “‘If this fixed order
departs from before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘then the offspring
of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever’”
(Jeremiah 31:36).
He has His own reasons for allowing Adolf Hitler to turn Europe
into a Jewish cemetery. However, although Hitler murdered at
least six million Jewish people, he never completed the job he
started, as God would not…and could not…allow it!
God’s grace is sometimes hidden in the midst of life’s greatest
difficulties. Tragedy opens our eyes to His presence in ways that
good times never will. It is during the difficult times that we
recognize He is always present and powerful, and that even death
and destruction cannot keep us from Him. This is why the Apostle
Paul writes so powerfully, “For I am convinced that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).
It is good to remember the Holocaust and the evil intent Satan
still has in mind for God’s ancient people. The Devil always