dancing under the gallows

                    "We didn't know it, but we were dancing under the gallows."

                                    (Words spoken by a Nazi "death camp" survivor)

I found the above statement, spoken by a woman who survived the Nazi death camps of WW2 to be fascinating. As I thought about those words I was reminded of a famous sermon preached by Jonathon Edwards ("Sinners in the hand of an angry God") way back in 1741 in Enfield, Conn. And, no, I wasn't present in the audience at the time. I've only read it and it's certainly one that fits the old "fire and brimstone" category. But, more about this later.....

I've mentioned this before, and I believe it to be true of most writers, that I find it interesting as to what inspires me to write the things, the lessons, that I do. I don't know how to explain it, but I see or hear something and before long, thoughts start congregating in my head and I see a way of connecting them into a spiritual lesson. I have no idea how this works and sometimes I'm not sure that the thoughts in my head successfully transfers to my fingers but, I try and I'm going to try again today.

What kicked my thoughts into gear for this lesson is a simple thing. I saw an ad for an art school the other day and immediately recalled two things related to art that I had seen before and, as previously stated, the editorial juices began flowing. I'll start this lesson by the use of two little stories about some artists.

Our first story is about a failed artist. I guess you could call him a "wanta-be" artist, but never made the grade. He wanted to be an artist so bad that he applied to the famous "Academy of Fine Art" in Vienna, Austria TWICE and failed the entrance exam both times. The reason given was, that he lacked academic skills. I just wonder what history might have been had he possessed the necessary skills to enroll.

The second story is relative to our beginning "dancing under the gallows" statement spoken by the death camp survivor. I heard it spoken while watching the story of a 106 year old woman named Alice Herz-Sommer, who is the oldest living death camp survivor. She lives in London, England and still plays classical music on her piano. It's because of her musical artistry that she survived the German prison camps. Very briefly, here is her story:

When Germany invaded her native country of Poland, she and several million others were imprisoned in concentration camps. Because she was a professional musician, a concert pianist, she was assigned to a camp housing other artists. It seemed that the main purpose for this particular camp was to provide entertainment for the Germans so they were allowed to continue playing, dancing, singing.....whatever their individual talents consisted of and their audience was their German captors.

However, they were not to stay at this camp for the duration of the war, they were transferred to the infamous Auschwitz death camp and, here again, because they were "artists," and could entertain, not all of them were put to death. It was while here at Auschwitz that the statement was made by another of the women artists, a friend of Alice's, that they were "dancing under the gallows." What a tremendous statement that is. What a great picture it paints in our minds.

Now I'm going to try and connect these two stories with the earlier mentioned sermon, "Sinners in the hand of an angry God." The scriptural basis for this sermon was a phrase found in Deut. 32:35 "....their foot shall slide in due time..." The entire sermon is a picture of the "divine justice" of God. It's the most graphic picture of the situation of sinners and evil-doers that I've ever read. Allow me to try and present you a very brief overview of this picture.

The picture is of an evil-doer hanging by a mere thread over the "fiery pits of hell" with an angry God, a "God of wrath" holding His mighty sword in His hand aimed at this thread. The sermon is designed to show how precarious a situation the unrepentant sinners/evil-doers are always in with the idea that death in that condition can bring about the slash of the sword and the parting of the thread. The sermon goes on to say that "it's only the hand of arbitrary mercy and God's mere will that holds it (the sword) back."

What a picture of the predicament a person can find themselves in. Here's a thought question: Do you think that man really sees himself in that precarious of a condition? In my opinion, I don't think so. I think that many people think that God is a "God of love" (2Cor. 13:11) and He certainly is that but, He is also a "God of wrath" (Psa. 78:31) but, above all else, He is a "just God." (Isa. 45:21)

The aim of the sermon is to show that mortal man's eternal life hangs in a precarious position, by a slender thread over the fires of hell, and that there is only one possible way of appeasing the "divine wrath" of the "just God." In the words of the sermon, the one and only deliverance from this terrible situation "is contained in the covenant of grace, the promises given in Christ." That it is only the being "in Christ" that provides salvation from the eternal fires of hell.

And think about this, there will come a time in everyone's life that the "thread" will be parted. That the "silver cord will be loosed." If that parting occurs while a person is an unrepentant sinner, an evil-doer, there will be only one place to drop. There's a verse that also speaks to the precarious position man needs to see himself in and that's found in 1Pet. 4:18 and it reads there: "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear."

Let's see if I can bring this all together in a comprehensible closing. In my mind I see the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps as representative of the "righteous" of the world, in that, percentage-wise, few will be saved. I see them as "scarcely" saved from the hell of the death camps.

That the Nazi's represent the sinners and evil-doers of the world and history shows us that their "foot did slide in due time." That there is a place prepared "for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41)" and the architect of those death camps and his henchmen certainly fit in that category of evil-doers.

I see one other connection, one other picture here. I see a lot of people "dancing under the gallows" in a manner suggesting that they are not really aware of their actual situation. Not really aware of the precariousness of their lives.

And this brings us back to the little story about our first artist. It may not have seemed like our two artist stories had any connection, but in a real and horrible way, they do. Our "failed artist." The one that lacked academic skills and could not pass the test to get into the famous art school was none other than "the architect" of those Nazi concentration/death camps  -  Adolf Hitler.

Ron Covey