Many of us get into the middle of II Kings and absently wade
through. King after king is reported to have done evil in the sight of
the Lord, like the king before and like the king to follow. The parallels
of history are multiple. Kings go out to war; kingdoms rise and fall;
lives are blessed and lost. It is the ways of God that remain the same.
There is no absolutely clearly spelled out mention of the holocaust or Shoah in scripture. There are however parallels, types and shadows, which may point to the severely unanswered questions in the hearts and minds of many Shoah survivors and indeed in all our hearts. One such parallel is that of the Assyrian Captivity. Read Chapters 15 through 17 of II Kings. Note the following:
After researching these ( I recommend with the Word alone, or with minimal helps such as a concordance and / or dictionary) compare each item on the list with the documented events of Shoah. Each of these will be expounded in future studies. Assyria was a northern kingdom, a type of the world whose progenitor is denoted as Asshur in Chronicles. It is located near the Tigris. Asshur was a descendant of Shem. The area gave rise to the Medio-Persians. Nineveh was in the Assyrian region, the city that was godless, so much so that G-d sent Jonah to prophesy destruction. Assyria at various times and kings, befriended Israel and Judah, and betrayed them, made alliances, and destroyed. Ahaz was warned by G-d through Isaiah not to make alliances with either Assyria or with Egypt, and yet in his fear, he joined arms with Assyria later against the northern tribes of Israel. The Assyrian captivity was actually the second decimation of the Northern tribes. The first was an invasion with great destruction to regain land lost to a previous Tiglath-Pileser. The second was the one most comparable with the Shoah, for strategy, politics and characters. COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE ASSYRIAN CAPTIVITY AND THE EUROPEAN SHOAH How could a war from 740 B.C. have a parallel to a war in 1940-1945 a.d.? Students of military history, know that there are many parallels among historical events which may bear predictive or explanatory power. A parallel does not mean that the two events are exactly the same. While certain events may correlate, the meaning and causality of that correlation are of course always held open to interpretation. Still, there are some interesting parallels. A few, preliminarily are listed below. I Kings: Chapters 15, 16 and 17 are the basis for biblical information. |
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| Assyrian Shoah | European Shoah |
|---|---|
| A spiritual "turning away"vs: 15:9; 15:4; Ch 13:6; 13:11 |
A deadening of spirituality of all faiths c/Bultmann's Higher Criticism including Judaism |
| Division among the Jews: Northern &Southern Kingdom vs 15:9,10; sins of Jeroboam |
Reform and Orthodox greatly divided among Ashkenazic Jewry on Halakah |
| High Places in foreign place instead of Jerusalem; separate priesthood vs15:9 |
worship apart from Jerusalem but not by choice |
| Intrigue of toppled political leaders: consolidation of power: Shallum smote by Menachem,Shallum had killed Zechariah and reigned instead; Menachem smites Tiphsah, etc. |
Initial Division of Germany into 30+ parties Factioning of Jewish religious and political parties |
| Menachem wars from Tiphsah to Tirzah because coasts not open |
Jewish nation did not war for land Hitler, however confiscated Austria, Rhineland and Sudentenland |
| Menachem makes deals with Pul the Assyrian King with financial arrangements to confirm kingdom and curry foreign power |
Hitler makes multiple concessions and political deals to consolidate 30 political parties. Early on, Jewish groups make concessions |
| Menachem scams Israel's Money through severe tax & gives to King of Assyria |
Jewish businesses taxed: On Krystallnacht Jews filed insurance
claims when businesses demolished then Himmler/Goebbels forces claims to be paid to 3rd Reich charging them with inciting the violence |
| Women & Children ripped up in Tirzah by Assyria |
Same actions/cruelty in Krystallnacht and Aktions |
| THE MAIN ASSYRIAN HOLOCAUST BEGINS | AFTER KRYSTALLNACHT |
| Tiglathpilezer takes Ijon, Abelbethmaachah Janoah, Kedesh, Hazoor, Gilead and Galilee all Naphtali: caried Jews captive to Assyria. |
Hitler takes Sudentenland, Autria, Rhineland Jews deported and taken into captivity |
| Pekah and Rezin beseige but cannot overthrow Judah |
Jews survive in victory with
minimal resistance, although suffering great losses |
| Rezin (Syria) recovers Elath to Syria, drives Jews from Elath, Syrians confiscate property 16:6 |
Nazis take over Jewish businesses and property, Jews driven out, deported, few items left, taken at trains. Ghettoizations parallel perhaps |
| 16:7 Ahaz makes wrongful alliance with Tiglathpilezer to save from Syria |
Wrongful alliances in aliyahs: desire for safety/ often happened in Judenrats |
| 17:26: King of Assyria despotic hater of Jews:
made alliances with, then turned on them |
Hitler and his SS elite use same strategy pre-war and during |
* by Elizabeth Kirkley Best,PhD copyright 1998/notes from Authorized Version