eclipse

It was a first for the Queen of Talk. Several months ago, thousands of fans, along with Oprah, glimpsed a fraction of the hellish, Holocaust journey of Elie Wiesel. Arm-in-arm the two of them walked around the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, as Wiesel described his experiences. To those looking on from the distant comfort of television, the charred bricks, dusty train tracks, and mountains of hair, shoes, and glasses of the Jewish dead loomed foggy and surreal.

Wiesel’s recollections, aptly described in his memoir, Night, is anything but vague. It rebounds off the pages as a personal and historical documentation of a living hell-one whose screams shriek to this day from the scorched land and the scarred lives of survivors.

When I read Night, the brutality of such inhumane acts and loss of innocent life grieved my soul. I blinked in disbelief and shuddered with the turning of pages. The horrors grew more ghastly, more demonic; and the story ended in unresolved hopelessness. Brushing tears from my eyes, compassion rose in my heart as I closed the small book. My bones ached with the inability to change circumstances for the Wiesel family, for the whole Jewish nation.

One statement from Night pierced my heart above all others:

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.

It is hard to wrap my mind around the anguish and despair that drove a man to write such words. As I read, my heart longed for light-that which would cancel the darkness and the curse.

The immortal God dwells in unapproachable light. He is not like light or to be compared to light. The Lord of Creation is light, the source of all illumination. Psalm 139:7-12 says there is no darkness too deep to hide from our Creator.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Condemned to a concentration camp for hiding Jews during World War II, Corrie ten Boom’s darkest hour did not hide her from God’s light. She had much to say about her night at Ravensbruck, located 90 kilometers outside of Berlin. One declaration pierces the darkness:

No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still: with Jesus even in our darkest moments the best remains, and the very best is yet to be.

Released from the concentration camp by a (divine) clerical error, Corrie prepared for the best. She became a healing voice, describing the depth of God’s love amid the darkest circumstances. Corrie’s message about the power of forgiveness, for those who dare to forgive, shattered the night. Self proclaimed “tramp for the Lord” and heroine, Corrie emerged from that black hole as a sunbeam of hope.

Not only did Wiesel wrestle with the curse of darkness but with questions of God’s justice:

Some talked of God, of his mysterious ways, of the sins of the Jewish people, and of their future deliverance. But I had ceased to pray. How I sympathized with Job. I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.

All his ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he (Deuteronomy 32:4).

Written by his own hand, the Bible of Andre Trocmé bears this inscription in French:

Happy are those hungry and thirsty of justice; for they will be satisfied…

Andre Trocmé earned the right to speak of justice, especially for the European Jews. As a French Protestant pastor in Le Chambon, Trocmé became an agent of God’s love. In the winter of 1941, Trocmé opened his home to a cold and hungry Jewish woman who was fleeing the Nazis. His act of kindness multiplied and became a strong shelter. The entire town followed his example; and for the next four years, they collectively rescued and sheltered 5,000 Jewish refugees.

Strong faith and conviction led Pastor Trocmé to risk his life for the lives of others. He despised the injustice of the world around him. As an instrument of God’s just intervention, Trocmé saved 5,000 Jewish people who did not deserve to die.

Faith and justice must exist side by side. There will not be justice if faith dies, conversely there will not be faith if injustice goes unpunished. It is so intertwined that Yeshua used it in a parable in Luke 18 about the woman who persuades the judge by pleading for justice. Because she does not let up, he grants her request. Yeshua goes on to explain that God will execute justice on the earth if His people plead day and night for it. We can understand that this means to plead for justice during the day and night seasons of life.

During times of dark injustice, those with faith must weather the storm-still believing a just God will even the score. Like Pastor Trocmé, God may use our very lives to right the wrongs of a world overcome by evil. There will not be justice without strong faith that is willing to die for conviction.

Along with demanding justice, Wiesel believed God answered his prayers with silence:

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.

Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the Lord, Who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God-the Lord, the God of his fathers-even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people (II Chronicles 30:18-20).

God answers prayer in the most unexpected ways. Dr. Klara Schlink, president of the Women’s Division of the German Student Christian Movement (1933-35), prayed for revival in her Bible study groups. On September 11, 1944 Darmstadt, Germany, was destroyed by an air-raid and over 12,000 people were killed. On that dark and deadly night, the young girls discovered a holy God. They repented of their sins. Revival sprang up, and new life emerged. The Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary was born out of those ashes with a handful of German women who dedicated themselves to loving the Lord Jesus and to the healing and reconciliation of wounded Israel.

This movement still exists and has expanded to other nations. The sisters have demonstrated a deep love for the Jewish people globally by many, unseen and unsolicited acts of generosity and compassion. They have openly repented for the sins of the German nation and asked forgiveness. Their acts of kindness have brought healing and reconciliation to both Germans and Jews around the world. All of this happened by one woman’s simple prayer for revival.

God hears our prayers but answers in unique ways. This is called the serendipity of God! We must believe that He hears and that His answer is will come creatively.

Oprah is famous for asking all she interviews if they see the good that comes from suffering. She broached the subject with Wiesel. Of course, his writings have educated many on the subject of Holocaust and Jewish suffering; but Wiesel’s wounded heart is still so evident. This was a difficult question for him.

Jews have strong objections about Jesus. Many stem from their wounds of suffering through unjust persecution. While I agree that their affliction should not be minimized, it is my constant prayer that those who hurt would not distinguish the light of their faith in God. No matter how dim, that light will illuminate truth.

I pray they would see these times as “eclipse,” rather than “night.” Yes, the dark is real, and the pain agonizing. Yes, God appears silent and distant in the darkness. But He is still there with justice and hope for tomorrow. Night does not eradicate the light.

Even in a total solar eclipse as the moon blackens the sun’s bright rays-during the darkest moments-a ring of light rays called corona can be seen encircling the sun. The corona light gives testimony that the light is present behind the dark and will return with noonday brilliance.

God dwells in unapproachable light, but we are all brought into relationship with Him by the blood sacrifice of Yeshua who is the Light of World. God is not cold and indifferent to our suffering. That is why He sent Jesus.

Isaiah foresaw the birth of the Yeshua, the Light of the World and Jewish Messiah, when he made this prediction:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isaiah 9:2).