2 Chronicles 28-30; Proverbs 3:11-26

Monday's Bible Reading: 2 Chronicles 28-30; Proverbs 3:11-26

Today in Jewish History (23 Tammuz)
In 1099, Crusaders captured Jerusalem. The Crusaders were a Church-sponsored movement to "liberate the Holy Land from the infidels." (En route, the Crusaders carried out a campaign of rape and pillage; an estimated 40% of European Jewry was slaughtered in the process.) The day following their conquest of Jerusalem, the Crusaders murdered all the city's Jews, by herding them into a synagogue and setting it on fire. Jews were barred from Jerusalem for the next century. Muslims were also victims of the Crusaders, which historians believe planted a deep-seeded hatred of the West. [Source: Aish.com]

The period of time known today as the Crusades is a primary example of how one generation's "solution" to a problem becomes the next generation's problem. In the case of the Crusades, this ill-conceived "solution" is still a problem for Christians more than 900 years later. Beware of "solutions" that leave behind resentment and hatred.

Israel, of course, has been not only a victim of such a solution, but also the perpetrator, as we learn in today's Bible reading:

But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He said to them, "Because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven. And now you intend to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren't you also guilty of sins against the LORD your God? Now listen to me! Send back your fellow countrymen you have taken as prisoners, for the LORD's fierce anger rests on you." —2 Chronicles 28:9-11

This happened during the reign of Ahaz, who was King of Judah for sixteen years, from 732-715 B.C.

In contrast, consider the work of Swiss missionaries Ernest Creux and Paul Berthoud, who, with their families, entered Mozambique on July 9, 1875. Instead of taking lives to establish religious dominance through power and military might, they gave their lives to establish a spiritual kingdom through love and the example of Christ. [Source: Dictionary of African Christian Biography]

For more information about what happened on this day in Christian history, go to: Christian History Institute