Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

By Daniel Deininger

April 8, 2021

 

So today my computer informed me it was Yom HaShoah.  I didn't know what that was, so I had to look it up. Holocaust Remembrance Day. Oh, the Holocaust? That I've heard of.  Memories come into my head of Schindler's List and World War II movies and shows that showed Allied troops finding concentration camps. Horrific images.  Sad images. Heart-wrenching images.  How many died? One website said 6 million. Evidently that many were Jews. But it also says 11 million total died. 

 

My mind wanders to thoughts of other mass murders or attempted genocides.  How many died under Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union?  20 million?   What about in China under Mao Zedong? 40 million? 80 million?   And what about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia? 2 million more?  The numbers are staggering and mind boggling.  My mind has a hard time comprehending them.  And those are just the first ones I thought of.  Yale University has a website for its Genocide Studies Program that lists many more.  https://gsp.yale.edu/ 

 

What I really have trouble getting my mind around is the prophecies in the Bible that discuss future times that will be even worse. That seems unbelievable - unthinkable.   A time when Jesus said there would be "great tribulation" - worse than anything the world has ever seen. (Worse than the horrors we have already experienced??)

 

Mat 24:21 NKJV - "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Mat 24:22 NKJV - "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

 

Jeremiah appears to be speaking of a similar time:

 

Jer 30:4 NKJV - Now these [are] the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

Jer 30:5 NKJV - "For thus says the LORD: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace.

Jer 30:6 NKJV - Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man [with] his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale?

Jer 30:7 NKJV - Alas! For that day [is] great, So that none [is] like it; And it [is] the time of Jacob's trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.

 

Further down in the same chapter of Jeremiah it talks about a whirlwind...

 

Jer 30:23 NKJV - Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD Goes forth with fury, A continuing whirlwind; It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

Jer 30:24 NKJV - The fierce anger of the LORD will not return until He has done it, And until He has performed the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will consider it.

 

When researching what Yom HaShoah means I found a site that says 'HaShoah' also translates to 'whirlwind.' 

 

As much as I would like to hope and believe we will not see future holocausts, the Bible indicates we will.   And that these holocausts or "whirlwinds" will come because of the sins and evils of mankind.  Verse 24 indicates these tribulations come at the latter days, which would be just prior to the return of Christ.   Jesus Christ urged his disciples to live in a manner that would allow them to avoid future holocausts aka tribulations or "whirlwinds".  

 

Luk 21:34 NKJV - "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

Luk 21:35 NKJV - "For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Luk 21:36 NKJV - "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."

 

Is it possible that on this Day of Holocaust Remembrance - Yom HaShoah - that not only should we look back at terrible events of the past, but that we are also sobered to examine ourselves?  To be sure we are living in a manner pleasing to God that will enable us to be accounted worthy to escape  the terrible future things that are prophesied to come to pass? 

This adds a more personal  and urgent dimension to Yom HaShoah. 

 

Resources: 

https://nationaltoday.com/yom-hashoah/

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/07/17/how-many-died-new-evidence-suggests-far-higher-numbers-for-the-victims-of-mao-zedongs-era/01044df5-03dd-49f4-a453-a033c5287bce/

 

https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/the-khmer-rouge

 

https://gsp.yale.edu/

 

https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-commentary/bible-commentary-jeremiah-301-3126

 

https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/the-book-of-revelation-unveiled/the-time-of-jacobs-trouble