Ramblings on reading and the news today

My Bible study was cancelled this morning, so I took the time to play with Sam in the backyard and catch up on my daily readings. I am reading Jeremiah and still in the first 35 chapters of gloom and doom. It was interesting timing because as I went back upstairs to shower Alex had CNN on and they were talking about a pastor who thinks Jeremiah’s prophecies foretold the holocaust. Alex asked what I think of that…

Well at first I thought it completely ridiculous, I told her I thought that Jesus died for our sins as an intercession, basically buying us time to repent in this life so there would be no need for the punitive action of God until final judgment. Suffering in this life is simply a by-product of the free will we are given mixed with a very real evil force that permeates secular life. Later I wondered if I had been too quick to cast the notion aside. Could Jeremiah have been prophesying about the holocaust and the restoration of the Jews in 1948? Could God not use evil in this life as a vehicle for what could ultimately be good according to His plan?

First let me point out that the whole idea of the Jewish nation needing to be judged and punished and then restored through a process of affliction and agony paints a picture eerily like what Christ did for each of our punishable sins to restore our nature – interesting!

But back to the question: was Jeremiah talking about some historical event that we have already seen (like the assault by the Babylonians or the Nazis in the holocaust) or a future event that still has not fulfilled this prophecy?
If the first is true, as I understand the verses in Jeremiah 30, we are missing some of the finality and incomparability of circumstance described in verse 7. The Jews were enslaved and attacked by Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, the Greeks and the Nazis each one would seemingly disqualify the previous as to any claim of fulfilling the Jeremiah prophecy in chapter 30. If another event as big or bigger happens it will disqualify the last (holocaust) if it isn’t already disqualified by a previous event. We also know of prophecies surrounding the End of Days where Israel will be involved with unifying the nations under some false leader (anti-Christ,) maybe this is what verse 11 refers to.

I am no expert on this and have not made up my mind about what I think. I am sure my soul does not hang in balance over which side of this issue I stand. As for the pastor on CNN, I wish he had been given better context for his statements.