Some Thoughts on Jessica's Comments (see Tiffany's post)

Okay, so I'm also reading a book called "Lost in the Middle: Midlife and the Grace of God" by Paul Tripp. At one point in the book, he is discussing Exodus 32 where the Israelites have recently been delivered from Egypt, and when Moses goes up to the mountain to meet with God, the Israelites become restless and demand that a golden calf be crafted so they can worship it. They were not seeing that the Lord Himself was the one and only one they needed to worship. In part of Tripp's discussion of this, he writes:

"God is willing to sacrifice what is important to us in order to reclaim our hearts. God loves Israel so much that he is willing to lose three thousand Israelites in order to turn the hearts of the whole nation back to him. The one thing God is unwilling to share is our hearts. So he uses everything at his disposal to reclaim our affection, adoration, and worship. God's reclaiming actions are often devastating, but they are at the same time a sure sign of the depth and faithfulness of his love.... He will not share us with another. He will battle to be the center of our personal universe until we are with him in eternity."

So, here are a couple of thoughts that possibly connect this paragraph with what we're reading in Night. It seems to me that the Bible is clear that the Jews are God's chosen people. But sometimes we make a mistake when we think that this necessarily includes every person who is Jewish. What I understand is that the Lord is designing history so as to redeem his people (the Jews) and his other people (the Gentiles). But this does not mean that he will redeem every individual along the way. Sooo... is it possible that the Lord designs certain things, even the Holocaust and other events, to get the attention of his people to cause them to lean on Him and realize that he is the answer? I think it's definitely possible.

All of this pales in comparison to the fact that Christ, God's son, the PERFECT man was joyfully brought to the cross (Isaiah 53) as a sacrifice so that MANY would be brought into relationship with God. It is difficult for us to understand certain things as acts of love, especially when we consider that God could have designed it so that hundreds of thousands of people would die without saving faith. However, when we remember that he would be perfectly just in sending us all to our rightful punishment--hell--we can appreciate his grace on us even more when we realize that he saw fit to redeem some of us from damnation. And we can marvel at his grace and love in saving even one person. And we can share his love with others, spreading the Gospel, realizing that we are the tools he decides to use to share his love for others.

In the end, what if Elie Wiesel turned to the Lord as his savior in the wake of the Holocaust? What if he realized that everything he trusted in before the Holocaust was meaningless without the completed picture of seeing Jesus as the Messiah he was waiting for? What if he realized he didn't need to wait any longer to have the relationship with God he always wanted to have? What if he was able to share his story with the MILLIONS who have read his books? And he's just one person who has this platform. What about Corrie Ten Boom as another example? Is it possible that the Lord would see fit to sacrifice hundreds of thousands in order to save millions? It's possible.