Writing from Vienna in 1897, the American author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) observed in his inimitable way, ”The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they were gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, and have vanished. The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert but aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” (“Concerning the Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899; The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, Doubleday, 1963, p. 249). The answer to this puzzle is in the Bible that Twain read but did not believe. The secret to the Jew’s “immortality” is the immortal God and His eternal covenants. “Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them” (Jeremiah 33:25-26). (Friday Church News Notes, November 30, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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