Today’s Scripture Reading (June 14,
2013): 2 Kings 1
If it was
not for the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazi party may never have risen to power
in Germany. That is a huge statement. And I cannot say that the Treaty was the
only reason for the rsie of the Nazi’s and Hitler, but it was a key element in
setting the conditions that would make their rise possible. You see, there is a
reason why the Nazi Party has never come to power in North America. It is not
because they are absent – they are here. And as much as I want to say that it
because we have a high level of morality on this side of the pond, we don’t and
that really is not the reason. Rather, the reason why the Nazi’s have never
come to power is because there has been nothing to create the necessary
conditions needed to allow them to rise.
Part of the
Treaty of Versailles did was cripple Germany. She was crippled economically
during a time when the rest of the world was getting richer and richer – the
roaring twenties. It mandated that Germany could keep no standing army so that
they could never again become a threat to Europe. The lack of a standing army,
the absolute inability of the nation to stand up and defend itself in times of
need, cut at the pride of the nation. And as Hitler rose to power, he fed into
those two things. As the thirties progressed Germany defaulted on both of these
conditions. The world was taunted into coming back into the country to compel
Germany to comply – but they never did. The war was so long ago and so many
things had happened since that time – the attitude was that maybe Germany had
paid enough (which I think was very true), but Russia and the West were unable
to see that the very conditions that had been imposed on Germany at the end of
the First World War to stop Germany from becoming a threat again, were the very
factors that would allow a charismatic militaristic leader to lead the nation
into the Second World War – the very conflict that the world had been trying to
avoid.
If we have
the image in our minds of Germany at the end of the First World War, with all
of the rules and regulations that regulated what the nation could and could not
do, that is the image of Israel at this point in their history. They are a
nation that exists at the very crossroads of the world, conditions that should
have made them an economic force in the world – and yet they are poor and
oppressed. And to make sure that Israel will never be a threat to the nations
of the Middle East and of the Near East, her military has been reduced to a
level where she can no longer even protect herself.
It might be
that we should have known that something would happen in Europe if Germany was
humiliated, because Israel would fight their way back and defeat their oppressors
three times, gaining back all that was lost. And, it might also be true that
when we humiliate or bully a nation or a person, we put ourselves on the
opposite side of the conflict from God – he is the One who is concerned about
the oppressed and the humiliated - and warring against God is never a
constructive way to spend our time.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings
14
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