Day 47 of Operation Protective Shield.


Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
² When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
³ Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

It is a hot and sleepy Shabbat afternoon here in Jerusalem. In my neighborhood the only sound is the gentle cooing of doves and the occasional chirping of a bird.  As I look at the beautiful and deceptively peaceful view across the neighboring Arab villages and the distant, hazy hills of Jordan, it is hard to believe we are in the middle of a war.

                           http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Pages/Rise-in-rocket-fire-from-Gaza-3-Jul-2014.aspx

Just 50 km away, all is not so tranquil. As I write orange and blue pop-ups appear regularly on the TV as 'code red' sirens sound in Ashdod, Ashqelon and the towns and kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip, warning of incoming rocket fire.  Close to the Strip the sirens sound every 10-15 minutes, each one giving the residents only 10 to 15 seconds to find shelter. In the days since the collapse of the last ceasefire, we have had record numbers of rockets raining down- around 140 per day.  Little wonder that most of the towns down there are like ghost towns. Over 80% of the residents have fled to the north, and those few who remain must stay indoors, close to their 'safe rooms'. Businesses and factories lie idle and late summer crops are rotting in the fields. 

Last night the first Israeli child, Daniel Trergerman, aged just 4 1/2 was killed when a mortar hit his home. It was Friday night and the children were playing outdoors in a moment of quiet. The parents managed to get their two younger children into the shelter but Daniel just couldn't run fast enough. He died. Put yourself into his parent's shoes this morning. They had been up north in relative safety for some weeks, but had decided to return home to try and put their lives back into some semblance of normality. After two days of constant rocket fire they had begun to pack up to return to the north, but too late. Daniel is dead, another little life cut off way too soon.  Here is a facebook post about Daniel. Read the small print.

Its an impossible situation for the citizens of the south. And an even more impossible situation for the citizens of Gaza who are suffering even more. It cannot go on.  Our government is again and again telling us that we need more patience. They say that it will all end but not yet. But how long can people hang on?

The mood here is changing. People are losing patience with the slow process of negotiation and counter negotiation in the search for peace. We don't believe that Hamas will honor any negotiated deal even if agreement is reached. After all, they have broken every one of the 11 ceasefires that we have had so far, even though they themselves were the ones to call for the ceasefires . The cry is getting stronger for a quick and decisive incursion into Gaza to 'finish the job', that is to say to disarm and cripple Hamas to the extent they are no longer able to fire rockets into Israel.   There is a feeling now that this is our ONLY real option, in spite of the fact we all know that this would cause a great many casualties on both sides, and would probably isolate Israel  even more in the international community. At the beginning over 80% of Israelis were in support of Netanyahu's approach to the situation but only around 56% support it now, according to polls.  

Meanwhile the world's eyes have been distracted by the events in Iraq, as the ISIL (ISIS) forces continue their relentless march to take over Syria, Iraq and eventually the entire Islamic block. ISIL has killed thousands of innocent people, massacring whole villages, raping and selling women and children into slavery, crucifying, beheading and stoning others, yet the world paid little attention until one poor American journalist is brutally beheaded.  The Western world is suddenly shocked and appalled by their medieval barbarism, but we here in the Middle EAst are not at all shocked. We have been trying to warn the West of this threat for years. After all Hamas is but a branch of the same tree that has given birth to Al Quaida and ISIL. The same ideology, jihadist fundamentalist Islam, committed to world domination, drives them all. Its time for the Western world to open up its eyes. Their whole civilization is facing an existential threat and for the most part they are blissfully unaware.
http://libertyunyielding.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Iraq-ISIS-ISW-BBC-map.jpg

Amongst Christian and Messianic believers here in Israel there is a growing awareness that the battle lines are being drawn up for the great and final showdown between the spiritual forces of  evil and the forces of the living God of the Bible, the God of Israel. It is time for all of us to get off the fence and decide which side we are on. There is a desperate need for Christians everywhere to go back to the Bible, read it as it is written, and not to listen to the myriad voices of liberal humanism in the media and the pulpits of many churches. I challenge every Christian to read the Bible literally. Where the words say "Israel" read it as "Israel" and not the "Church" as replacement theology teaches. The place and role of Israel in God's plan for the redemption of the World has not been replaced by the Church. God's promises and plans for the people of Israel are not void. God will not abandon his people at this time, just as His word says over and over again. Israel will survive and her enemies will be destroyed. The nations will be judged by their stand at the end. Will your nation stand with Israel or against her? Will you stand with Israel or against her?

Prayer points:

• Continue to pray for God's supernatural protection on the people of Israel. We have seen many miracles during this war and it is amazing that to date only 4 Israeli citizens have died in spite of  the more than 4000 rockets and missiles fired from Gaza since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Pages/Rise-in-rocket-fire-from-Gaza-3-Jul-2014.aspx

• Continue to pray for our leaders who are under incredible pressure from every quarter, both within the country and internationally. May they make wise and righteous decisions and not allow themselves to be swayed by personal or political considerations or threats.

• Pray for the civilians of both Israel and Gaza, who are suffering daily physical danger, privation and economic tragedy.

• Pray for the  brave and selfless soldiers of Israel who are willing to suffer and sacrifice their lives minute by minute in order to protect us and allow us to more or less go about our lives as normal. Another 10,000 reservists were called up to supplement the 70,000 already called up, and the regular army. All these men and women have left behind mothers, fathers, siblings, wives and children, businesses and careers. Some have not been home for over 40 days, and are sitting out in the open with little or no  respite from the searing heat and dust of our late Summer.

• Pray for truthful, honest and unbiased reporting in the media. This issue is addressed very eloquently in this video by a Maori woman in New Zealand. http://www.israellycool.com/2014/08/10/a-maori-woman-stands-up-for-israel/

• Pray for church leaders and congregations that they will interpret Scripture according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and not according to erroneous traditions and philosophies of men.

• Pray for your own nations and leaders that they will be found supporting the right side in this war.

• Pray for the enemies of Israel. They are the true victims in all this. They have been deceived by Satan into believing they are doing Good, destroying the infidel and winning the world for their false god, Allah. They will get a great shock when they meet the true God on Judgment Day. Pray that many will receive visions and revelations of the Truth, as some have already. Pray that they will be rescued from the Deceiver and the Father of Lies.

• Pray against the advance of the ISIL forces in Iraq and Syria,  and that the Western world will move to stop them before it is too late. Today it is Iraq and Syria, tomorrow Jerusalem and the next day, Europe. As someone in my congregation recently remarked "I am not afraid for Israel, but I fear greatly for Europe".

Psalm 27 (NJKV) from verse 11.

Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
¹² Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
¹³ I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!