FORSAKEN, NOT FORSAKEN – COMPASSION IN THE WAKE OF ANTISEMITISM
I am writing this article, knowing that our mailing list recipients hold varying beliefs, yet are united by a common concern for the Jewish people. As a follower of Jesus, I read the Hebrew Scriptures believing in their authenticity, expecting to find answers as to why the oldest hatred exists, and how the God of Israel would have us respond to it. I have been reading the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, amazed at the prophet’s commentary on the painful history of the Jewish people and their ultimate consolation.
“But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”” (Isa 49:14, ESV)
First, let me say that I assume the God of Israel is the living God that “declares the end from the beginning” (Isa 46:1), and that Isaiah is a true prophet, who received God’s revelation to Israel. That said, I believe the prophet saw the future exile of Israel’s southern kingdom to Babylon and the hopeless state of the exiles there. I also believe that his words aptly speak to the last two millennia of Jewish suffering at the hands of the nations into which they were and continue to be dispersed after AD70. Now I understand that it is difficult to see Adam Levine or Amy Silverman as “exiles” in America. Yet they are nonetheless, part of the Jewish story that unfurled before Isaiah, though interpreted through his ancient lens versus a modern one.
For the sake of brevity, I will assume that you, the reader, can then see the trends Isaiah saw, without needing a detailed retelling of ancient or modern history. For instance, it could be that the prophet saw the effects of two thousand years of blood libels, forced conversions, inquisitions, and pogroms, that forced many Jewish people to seek a form of Jewish identity that made them less of a target for antisemitism. The prophet may also have foreseen the impact made on Jewish life by the Enlightenment, the dawn of postmodernism, and the promise of the American dream. All of which offered an attractive, and assimilated option for Jews to be Jews without being religious. Perhaps from God’s thirty-thousand-foot perspective, millennia of Jewish hardship and the continually deferred promise of the Messianic age would naturally produce the assumption that God had forgotten and forsaken them. Would not the consequence of such an assumption be to “forsake God” or at least the ancient and seemingly irrelevant religion of their fathers as well?
The prophet does not, however, end his prophecy on the low note of Israel’s assumption that God ceased to remember them. Instead, he continues:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I (God) will not forget you (Israel).” (Isa 49:15, ESV)
Using the beautiful metaphor of a mother’s attachment to her nursing child, God conveys his heart to Israel in light of their long wait for his deliverance. His inability to forget Israel is illustrated with emotional intensity, likening his own emotions to those of a nursing mother toward her child. Anyone who is or has known a nursing mother knows that her fierce attachment to her child is not just emotional, but biological. Even if her human emotions were to wane, her body is so attuned to the child’s needs that it lets her know when the child needs nourishment. This biology only adds potency to the emotional bond that she feels toward the infant. Her ability to forget, let alone forsake her child, is impossible!
If Israel is not forgotten, despite her long history of pain and persecution, then what is there to look forward to? Is there any consolation for the Jewish people? Does their God not see, or does he just not care? The prophet had something to say about this as well:
“Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.” (Isa 49:13, ESV)
The very fact that the prophet acknowledges Israel’s affliction and need for compassion, tells us that God is in tune with the plight of his people. He has neither forsaken them nor has he overlooked their hardship. He promises to comfort them, and he promises to demonstrate his compassion for them. He promises that their suffering will end and that they consequently will be healed of the trauma engrained in their history. His coming, though now delayed 2700 years from the time of Isaiah, is certain, inasmuch as his covenants with Israel are certain. He is the everlasting God who, much different from human beings, does not weary. Therefore there is hope for the Jewish people. There is a day when antisemitism will be a distant memory, a time when Israel’s oppressors will be no more (Isa 49:26), and a day when the nations will participate in honoring Israel. (Isa 49:22-23)
The words of the prophet Isaiah remind us that the Jewish people have had to deal with hardship and hatred in the nations for quite a long time. They remind us that antisemitism has been a part of their story for centuries. They also remind us that as friends of the Jewish people, we have an important role to play in their story, whether we are religious or not. In every era, there have been a few people who have chosen to stand with Jewish people to offer comfort, compassion, and help to them. When their enemies have arisen to threaten and persecute them, those friends arose to stand beside the Jewish people. They provided strength and attested to the fact that the Jews were neither forsaken nor forgotten. These friends stayed committed, oftentimes at their own expense. These friends were genuine because they were glad to demonstrate compassion to the Jewish people. This is the call upon those of us who are true friends of the Jewish people, now and as long as antisemitism exists.
