The April issue of Friends of Zion magazine was given to me, and the articles stirred something inside that has been the catalyst for the past couple of devotions plus today’s. Reading of the atrocities the Jewish people have experienced caused my emotions to run the gamut. The first article in the magazine talked about something I’d never known that you might find interesting and heart wrenching, all at the same time.
Every year at sundown on May 5th, sirens howl as they are activated. The people know what it means. It is the start of Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Day. As the sirens wail, cars will come to a standstill. Pedestrians stop in their tracks. The silence is palpable. On this day, Israel renews its vow: Never again. Never again will they allow themselves to be led to slaughter. Never again will their people surrender to terrorist factions. This is why we saw Israel’s rapid response to the Gaza Strip bombings as well as the attacks from Iran.
Dr. Michael Evans writes the scathing truth that we need to wrestle with today. “The only reason Auschwitz continued in operation until very near the end of the war is that those who could have stopped it did nothing. The United States refused to bomb the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz with boxcars transporting innocent Jews to their deaths in the ovens there. Ala Dulles, a U.S. diplomat assigned to monitor Nazi intelligence furnished the U.S. government with a multitude of Nazi documents marked “Top Secret.” None of the approximately 300 documents provided
specifically remarked on the killing of the Jews, nor did any reveal the seriousness of Hitler’s “final solution.” Neither was there any indication that the railroad tracks to Auschwitz should be bombed…
“Historians believe that had American bombers been sent to target the railroads, thousands of Jews from Hungary and Slovakia might have lived. Sadly, polls taken during the late 1930s and early 1940s revealed more than 50% of the U.S. public surveyed asserted that Jews were avaricious and unscrupulous. In response to U.S. refusal to aid Jews feeling the Holcaust, Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, Ben Zion, said, “The spirit of the Swastika hovers over the Stars and Stripes.”1
Roosevelt and those serving in political places of power as well as every antisemite living at the time has much to answer for before Almighty God. But so also do those who are continuing today in that same antisemitic spirit. “The Western world, including America, is once again failing to take action to defend Israel. In fact, many are trying to tie Israel’s hands as it defends itself against the worst attack since the miracle rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948.”2
As believers, our stand must be with Israel. In the last couple of devotions, we have seen the reason why in the Scriptures. Today, let’s take some encouragement given to Joshua and apply it to ourselves.
Joshua 1:6-9 says, “Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. (7) Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. (8) This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 
therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (9) Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Taking Godly stands means taking stands for the things for which God stands. Paul summarizes this in 1 Corinthians 16:13, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”
We must take our stand for Israel, however and whenever the Lord provides opportunity. It’s the right thing to do!
1Friends of Zion, April 2024 edition; Evans, Dr. Michael
2Ibid.
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