Last year I did a speech course for school, and one of my first major assignments was to speak on a hero from Christian history (i.e., a missionary). It was an enjoyable project . . . especially since my sister, Marah, who studies American Sign Language (ASL) agreed to try to translate for me just for fun while I was practicing giving my speech. Neither one of us could make it all the way through the attempt without either laughing or messing up, however. When I presented my speech to the family, I told Marah to sit silent and motionless in the audience.
The hero I chose to speak on was Jacob Deshazer, a World War II veteran, prisoner, and missionary. His story is an amazing one, and I only wish it were more well-known to Christians around the world. So much inspiration and encouragement can be drawn from his testimony!
Jacob was twenty-nine years old and already serving in the US army when the news came over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. In his fury, he sprung to his feet, hurled the potato he’d been peeling to the ground, and shouted, “The Japanese will pay for this!”
In his desire for revenge, he volunteered for a secret mission with the Doolittle Raiders that sent him overseas to bomb a city in Japan. The mission was designed not to have him killing innocent civilians, although Jacob later admitted, “I didn’t care if every person in Japan got killed. The more that got killed, the better, I thought.”
After successfully completing his bombing job, Jacob had to bail out in enemy territory, where he was taken prisoner. He was jailed, malnourished, and beaten by his captors. The only thing that sustained him was the thought of someday being free again and at long last having payback on his enemies.
But then he got his hands on a Bible, and everything seemed to change. Jacob committed his heart to Christ, and his whole perspective on life took a turn. Looking around him with the lenses of truth, he went from feeling bitter and angry to loving and even compassionate toward those who had treated him and his country so wrongly.
“I loved them,” Jacob confessed. “I began to feel sorry for ’em because they were losing the war.”
When Jacob was released in August of 1945 after three years of imprisonment, he headed back to America, where he attended college, married, and then returned to Japan as a missionary. He even established a church in the same city he’d bombed during the war. Still more amazingly, he became good friends with Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who’d led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fuchida read a tract Jacob had written (I Was a Prisoner of Japan) and turned to Jesus. Sometimes he and Jacob preached together!
Pastor Noll’s sermon this past week focused on justice—God’s real, compassionate justice. There is so much wrong in this world. Abortion, trafficking, and drugs are merely a few examples. I don’t know about you, but sometimes reading or hearing about these injustices can make my heart grow hot in my chest. During and after World War II, millions of people died. Where was the justice in that?
A couple years ago, a small robbery was committed in the store where my grandma worked. Thinking she might be called on as a witness for the case, she went to court to watch the proceedings, and she brought Connor and me along with her for “educational purposes” (or so we told Mom). We filed in and sat, still and quiet as mice, on a hard wooden bench. There were some cases before hers, and we saw one or two prisoners brought out from the jail, handcuffed, chains clacking. The judge listened to each case before handing down the sentence.
It made me sad to see lives getting messed up by addictions and poor choices. Spending any time in prison—though it be for less than a week—resonated with me.
Think, then, about the eternity of hell that awaits all who don’t follow God’s code for life: that they trust in the work of Jesus for their forgiveness and salvation.
That is the ultimate judgment, which Jacob Deshazer seemed to realize.
I want an attitude like his: to see the people around me as wretched as I am, a King Ahab who needs to be humbled in God’s presence. God’s mercy triumphed over judgement, and He chose me as His own (James 2:13).
Ultimately, vengeance is His (Romans 12:19). While on this earth, I’m called to stand up for what’s right, to be like Elijah, who followed God and found his worth in Him, and not the two “worthless men” who obeyed without protest Queen Jezebel’s command to stone Naboth (1 Kings 21:8-10). God has put us here to be a voice for the voiceless and a defense for the destitute (Proverbs 31:8).
What do you feel He wants you to stand up for today? Join me in praying and looking for ways to serve Him and share the good news of the Gospel in this age of skepticism.
If you want to learn more about Jacob Deshazer or where I got some of his quotes, I encourage you to watch this three-minute video: https://youtu.be/RN22AJyM0OQ