The Holocaust Question

“For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear about it, and they will surround us and eliminate our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?”  Joshua 7:9  NASB

What will You do – The people of Ai defeat the Israelites.  Many die.  Joshua is dumbfounded and greatly disturbed.  How could this happen?  Isn’t the One True God on their side?  Didn’t He proclaim that the Land would belong to Israel?  Joshua tears his clothes, falls on his face, and pleads with God.  “What does this mean?  Won’t all the tribes of Canaan now join together and wipe us off the face of the earth?  Why didn’t You protect us?”  Of course, we know the answer because we have the omniscient view of the narrator.  Achan has sinned.  But Joshua doesn’t know this (yet), so the question he asks is the right one.  “You promised.  Why did it go wrong?”

In the course of Israel’s history, this question comes up many times.  Often the answer has something to do with the behavior of the people, as the prophets are quick to point out.  But then there are cases where Israel’s suffering seems entirely unwarranted or completely out of proportion with their present status.  This is the “Holocaust” question, vocalized by Joshua centuries before Hitler’s madness.  If God has promised His chosen people protection and possession, why do pogroms occur?  Before we run to the Church’s answer, consider the implications of Joshua’s statement.

God has tied Himself intrinsically to Israel.  What happens to Israel is a direct reflection on God.  Joshua is quick to point out that Israel’s existence, or non-existence, isn’t the issue here.  The issue is God’s reputation.  If Israel is not upheld, what happens to God’s great name?  YHVH loses value.  Other cultures might say, “Yes, those Israelites believed in a sovereign God, but look what happened.  They were wrong.  Their god was no better than any other, in fact, when their god confronted our gods, we won.”

Now put this in modern context.  Is YHVH intrinsically tied to Israel (not the nation-state, but the people)?  If He is, then how do we explain such things as the Holocaust?  The Church provided the Western answer.  God is not tied to Israel as a people.  He’s tied to Israel as an idea, and the Church embraces the “new” Israel—the Israel based on the idea of a divine Messiah who calls all people to follow Him.  The real “chosen” people since the time of “Jesus” are the Christian believers who have replaced the “old” Israel.  So, God’s response to Joshua is still correct.  He still upholds His people.  It’s just that Joshua was wrong to think that “His people” meant “the tribes of Jacob.”  Those days are gone.  The Holocaust proves it.

In other words, Christian theology must interpret this text as the mistaken belief of ancient Israel.  Not until the utter demise of the Church will the theology be forced to change.  But this admits that God is intrinsically tied to Israel.  It’s just that the Church is the new Israel.  That might be hard to swallow after 2000 years, but its implicit in the claim.  If God’s people are now “the Church,” then the Church will endure to the end.  Jews simply have to accept this.

Does that really explain history?  Does it make you feel better about the Holocaust?  And why, then, are there still any Jews at all?  If the evidence is so overwhelmingly in favor of the Church, why do these Jewish people still hang on to an old, outmoded, religion?  Could it be that the Hebrew Bible doesn’t support such a transition?  Could it be that the written text of the apostles doesn’t support it either?  Could it be that in order to “explain” the Holocaust in this way we have to rewrite the Bible according to the Church?  If YHVH is, in fact, the God of the Jews, what does that say about all the rest of us?

Topical Index: name, Holocaust, replacement theology, Joshua 7:9