Dear Friends,
“So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.” Deuteronomy 26:8
Israel is presently in a state of shock and mourning but at the same time she has had to pick herself up and wage another war for her very survival. It is truly heartbreaking to watch this saga unfold, and we weep with her as we seek to do all that we can to stand beside her.
A chosen people
From the time that God called her into existence through the mission and call that God gave to Israel in Abraham she has endured one attempt after the other to exterminate her. This began in Egypt as the very same Nazi demonic spirit inspired Pharaoh to destroy her. The attempt to murder the Jews has persisted through history and we all know it. The truth is the Jews everywhere are targeted for destruction because they carry in their historical journey God’s plan to bless the nations and save them from sin, the Devil and destruction. Jesus knew this when He proclaimed that, ” Salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22). Paul acknowledged the same truth in his Roman epistle when he reminded his readers that everything we have and hold dear in terms of our salvation comes from the Jews (Romans 9:1-5).
In other words, the nation of Israel, by the call of God over her, is the vehicle of world redemption which challenges and reverses the strategy of the Devil to destroy forever the peoples of the world. It is this chosen call from heaven that has plunged the Jews and Israel into terrible conflict, and we are called to stand by and help her. By doing this we affirm and acknowledge her mission and the redemptive plan of God that flows through her to the world.
A set apart people
The enemies of the Jews and of Israel have always set aside special days of rampage by which to destroy them. Haman and his accomplices did this in Esther’s time as did the Nazi’s when they unleashed a specific night in Germany by which to assault Jews, kill them, burn their synagogues, and destroy their businesses. This has been called Kristalnaght.
This same demonic spirit has set aside the 13th October 2023, this very day as I write to you, as another day when Muslims are called to rise up all over the world, and in Israel, to attack and kill Jews!! This alone together with the awful events that have unfolded in the south of Israel should stir into action all good-minded people everywhere, and especially Christians. This wickedness has become so evident and manifest that it cannot be justified or just ignored. No one can sit on the fence in this matter and truly for the wider Church in the world a day of reckoning has come!! It can stand by and watch the Jews be murdered again, as it did 80 years ago or come to their defense and aid!
This day arrived in Germany on Kristalnaght 80 years ago and history affirms that by and large the Christian world failed to discern between good and evil and rather chose to stand on the sidelines and let the Jews die! History has condemned them for it and it will do the same again if we fail today.
A delivered people
In all of Israel’s journey God has nevertheless defended and ultimately delivered His people by “His outstretched arm” and in these days “the new Nazis” of our time who have ruthlessly set out to murder the children of Israel literally in the south of Israel will be destroyed again. About this you must have no doubt. In striking out at Israel, in such a barbaric manner Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have struck out at the God of Israel and He will destroy them. Just as He ultimately did to Pharoah, the Babylonians, Haman and the Nazis. The “writing is on the wall” again and Hamas has been found wanting and will be brought down and must be, even for the sake of the nations.
Final thoughts
Israel today is a broken-hearted nation as are Jews everywhere. God has always allowed these awful things to happen in her long journey that spans 4000 years beginning with her bondage in Egypt. Some of this has mystery in it but one thing is sure, all of it is a lesson in the nature of evil and of the existence of the Devil and of the total depravity of the human condition. For this reason, the book of Revelation, in its twelfth chapter, pictures Israel in a life and death struggle with the Devil because she carries in her long historical journey the saving plan of God for the salvation of the world. Paul tells us that even her rejection of Jesus is for the blessing of the nations and that she remains “beloved for the sake of the fathers.” In the light of this I urge you to be very careful as to how you will respond to this conflict today. The God of Israel is watching!!
In the light of all this please pray:
- That God will comfort His people and use us to do it.
- That God will bind up the broken-hearted in Israel.
- That God will deliver Israel again by His outstretched arm.
- That God will protect her young people on the field of battle and give them supernatural strength.
- That God will help the leaders of Israel to have wisdom beyond themselves.
- That the Church, unlike in the Nazi era, will stand up in support of Israel….and,
- Through it all, as in the past, the redemptive purpose of God for her, the Palestinians and the nations will be furthered through this conflict.
May God, by Jesus Christ, be with you all!
Malcolm Hedding
Give To Israel