God can be seen even in the darkest of times

Whenever something tragic occurs on a personal or national level, the following question usually follows; “How could a loving God allow this to happen, and why didn’t He do something to help”? The truth is that while we live here on earth, we may never be able to understand many of the circumstances that God allows us to endure. For Job, it was to test and strengthen his faith, for Israel in the Old Testament it was punishment for sin, and for Christ it was to save mankind from their sin. However, even in difficult situations the hand of God can be seen. Perhaps the greatest example of human suffering in modern times was during the Holocaust. Hitler and his Nazi party systematically rounded up millions of Jews and put them to death. Jews were worked until they could do no more, and then they were put in gas chambers and then burned. This unimaginable hatred and wickedness caused many Jews and Gentiles to question the love or even the existence of God. While it is impossible to know the mind of God as to why He allowed this suffering, it is possible to see some good to come out of this horrible chapter in history. After the Holocaust was made known to the world at the end of World War II, many nations around the world recognized the need for a Jewish state. Israel had been out of their land since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Jews had been forced to live in exile all over the world since the first century. God used the massive outpouring of sympathy for the plight of the Jews after World War II to move countries to form the nation of Israel in 1948. Hitler’s plan was to destroy the Jews and set up a super race of Arians. God’s plan was to defeat the designs of wicked dictators, and allow the return of His people to the Promised Land. Hitler and those who followed him were responsible for the Holocaust, but God was able to take that tragedy and turn it into something that has been a blessing to the Jewish people for the last sixty years.