Recent events in Gaza have focused the world media’s attention on skirmishes between Islamist Hamas-led rioters and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Sound bites and eye candy (short segments of doctored video) have been crafted by jihadi propagandists and then swallowed hook, line and sinker by international news agencies. According to this fake news, Gaza’s ‘peaceful civilians’ are ‘being massacred’ by ‘bloodthirsty IDF troops.’
The 40,000 Gazans who were egged on to attack stationary IDF positions were guided by terror cadres of Hamas commandos. In the aftermath of that first day of riots (when 60-plus rioters were killed by IDF snipers), Hamas proudly announced that it had identified over 50 of these casualties as undercover Hamas fighters. Most of the others shot were claimed by the Islamic Jihad organization as their own.
The source of this present violence is gratingly simple – it is Hamas’ violent attempts to break into sovereign Israeli territory and then to kidnap or massacre civilians. And Hamas is unashamed of its genocidal goals. Its Covenant (backed up by foundational Islamist scriptures) prophesies destruction of the Jewish state and declares an out-and-out jihadi war of annihilation against the Jewish people (https://davidstent.org/the-passover-plot-arsonists-and-firefighters-in-gaza/; https://davidstent.org/morphing-the-face-of-jihad/).
The present Palestinian attacks against Israel’s security fence and IDF troops are simply one more clash in an epic war which has gone on for more than 3,000 years. The Bible describes it as a battle between the forces of Edom/Esau and the armies of Jacob/Israel:
- “Because you have had everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword…” (Ezekiel 35:5)
- “I will lay My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom according to My anger and according to My wrath. Thus they will know My vengeance, declares YHVH God” (Ezekiel 25:14)
Geography and jihad
God once spoke to Abraham, promising the entire Land of Canaan to the Jewish people (Genesis 15:18-21) as an irrevocable gift (Romans 11:28-29). In Patriarchal times Greek invaders from the Aegean islands established trading colonies and settlements in the Gaza region, pushing out previous Egyptian frontier posts (see Deuteronomy 2:23; Amos 9:7; Joshua 13:3; Exodus 13:17; Numbers 33:55). That area of the Promised Land became known temporarily as ‘the Land of the Philistines’ (Genesis 21:32; Exodus 23:31). YHVH however called it “the land that remains” to be conquered by Israel (Joshua 13:2).
During the period of the Judges the Gaza area became a Philistine staging ground for murderous military attacks on the tribes of Israel (Judges 10:6-11). YHVH explains in Scripture that Israel’s enemies followed false gods, and that these counterfeit deities were also enemies of the God of Jacob. In time He would take vengeance upon both the Philistines and their false gods, using Israel’s prophets and judges as His crafted weapons (Judges 10:6; 14:4). The Bible tells us that all enemy invasions of the Promised Land – whether by Philistines in ancient days or more recently by Islamist jihadi forces – these will eventually be reversed, and their false claims to Jacob’s soil will be resoundingly overturned.
Blazing foxes
After Joshua passed off the scene and as Israel suffered enemy occupation, God remembered His covenant with the seed of Isaac. And He responded to the desperate intercessory cries of His beleaguered Jewish people. He began “to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5; 1 Samuel 9:16) through Samson the Judge, a chosen arrow for a chosen purpose. But even Samson’s “father and mother did not know that it was of YHVH, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines” (Judges 14:4).
Samson was a one-man army – a prophetic precursor of the entire Jewish nation who (as prophesied) will become God’s amazing Last Days army (Ezekiel 37:10). YHVH raised Samson up to execute vengeance on the enemies of Israel (see Psalm 149:5-9) – those who claimed portions of the Promised Land as their own (see Psalm 83:12; Ezekiel 35:10-13; 36:1-6).
The fox is depicted in the Bible as a prowling thief who skulks around, seeing what he can rob or carry off as prey (see Song of Solomon 2:15; Psalm 63:10; Luke 13:32). So it is fitting that foxes had a special role to play in Samson’s divine vengeance on the Philistines invaders. When the Spirit of YHVH first fell on that mighty warrior (Judges 14:19), Samson took down thirty armed Philistines in hand-to-hand combat.
A little later Samson took 300 foxes, tied them tail-to-tail into 150 pairs, fastened 150 torches onto their tails and set them loose during the Philistine wheat harvest (Judges 15:1-5). The fires caused severe agricultural damage which included vineyards and olive groves (Judges 15:5). When the Philistines responded by burning Samson’s wife and family to death, Samson retaliated against them “ruthlessly and with a great slaughter” (Judges 15:6-8).
Turning Japanese ploughshares into swords
Hamas has found itself checkmated time and again as it has tried to murder Israelis and possess their Promised Land. Gaza’s Qassam rockets and mortars have been blocked by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile systems. Islamist terror tunnels have been uncovered and collapsed by IDF technological advancements. Hamas has turned to whipping up civilian Gazan attacks on Israeli troops in order to garner front page headlines and bamboozle world sympathy.
Israel’s measured blockage of these attacks has forced Hamas to search out new ways to harm Israel. Their most recent solution has been to use plastic children’s kites (donated by Japanese humanitarian groups), turning children’s toys into airborne bombs. These Japanese kites have burning chemicals or even explosive devices attached to them. The kites are directed from Gaza and sent to crash into kibbutz and moshav fields, where they set fire to wheat fields, fruit orchards and food crops. A few have landed in civilian areas and towns.
- www.timesofisrael.com/blazing-kites-from-gaza-set-fire-to-israeli-wheat-fields/
- www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-fire-kites-destroy-much-of-nature-reserve-along-gaza-border/
- http://aijac.org.au/news/article/hamas-rolls-out-new-terror-innovation-the-moloto
- www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/thousand-gaza-school-students-fly-kites-solidarity-japanese-earthquake
- www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001239115 (Hebrew article)
The fields and gullies which once saw Philistines and Samson using fire against each other – these same areas are now witnessing Palestinian attempts to destroy Jewish farms and foodstuffs using weapons of fire.
The Hundred Year war ends when God raises up His Ezekiel 37 army
Moshe Ya’alon has been Israeli Minister of Defense, Chief of General Staff, Head of AMAN (Israeli Military Intelligence) and Commander of Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s Delta Force). He is one of Israel’s most seasoned and thoughtful warriors, respected for his straight talking ways. He has spoken on numerous occasions about the ongoing nature of the Jewish State’s war with Arab and Islamic forces, and how this is not a war which will be ended in the near future. He has described this conflict as having been on a high flame for the past one hundred years, and also as having the potential to stretch on for at least another fifty years.
Ya’alon said that his advice for the Israeli people is to “be patient … Our test is not one of immediate results. In these types of conflicts, there is a need for endurance and determination, as well as creativity, and we are doing this … This won’t end immediately, and all of the various ideas or natural expectations for some sort of military maneuvers that will deal with the situation and finish it [ed. instantly, are wrong]. We have been in conflict for 120 years already, and throughout 67 years of independence … We will have to continue to struggle. We have had much more difficult challenges in the past, and we will know how to beat this too” (www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Yaalon-Israel-still-fighting-War-of-Independence-435698).
- Ezekiel and other Hebrew prophets describe the Last Days resurrection of the Jewish people in both spiritual and physical terms. One significant linchpin of this restoration is the raising up of the entire Jewish people as an exceedingly great army (Ezekiel 37:10). The present clashes between Islamist forces (on the one hand) and the regathered and restored Jewish people (on the other hand) are a significant part of the process which leads to that soon-coming day when faith will become sight.
King David’s spiritual paradigm regarding physical warfare
“Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of YHVH of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day YHVH will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel’” (1 Samuel 17:45-46).
How should we then pray?
- Pray that Hamas plans for destruction and murder in Israel be frustrated and stopped
- Pray for Israel’s security leaders – for divine revelation and strategies
- Pray for the Israeli civilian farmers and kibbutzniks in the Gaza periphery – for safety and courage
- Pray for Gazans to receive revelation about what is at stake and for them to be delivered from Hamas’ deceptions
- Pray for believers and prophetic intercessors worldwide to tap into God’s heart about these issues
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s army speedily and in our day
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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