Israel at War: Week 154

The High Holidays for the Jewish people consist of the last three feasts God gave Israel in Leviticus 23. Those feasts are the Feast of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25); Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) which is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar (Lev. 23:26-32); Finally, The Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-43).

Two of these feasts have been marred in modern times by enemy attacks on Israel. The Yom Kippur War on October 6-24, 1973, which caught Israel in a surprise attack, nearly defeating it. Then the recent Hamas attack on Simchat Torah, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, October 7, 2023, leading to the Israel-Hamas War in which Israel is currently engaged.

I have finally come to a personal summary of that attack upon Israel: Calculated Brutality. In the attack Hamas made on Israel, headed by Yahya Sinwar, Hamas brutalized Israeli citizens, kibbutzim, communities. They left behind 1,200 murdered people, including beheading infants. They sexually assaulted women, left behind 5,000 wounded Israelis, and took 251 hostages to Gaza holding them captive with meager rations of food and water.

As we come up on the anniversary of the attack, please remember the statement of Prime Minister Netanyahu as he declared war on Hamas, “This is a war of good against evil, of light against darkness, and light must win.”

As Israel celebrates their final feast of the Fall, pray for God’s intervention and deliverance of Israel in defeating the scourge of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their leader Iran. “Let there be known among the nations in our sight the avenging of the blood of Your servants which has been shed” Psalm 79:10).

As always, continue to pray for peace in Israel (Psalm 122:6).