Bible in the News The Bible Magazine

This week has been a busy one for the haters of the Jewish people. The International criminal court has filed an application for the arrest warrant of Israeli PM Netanyahu and the defence minister Yoav Gallant. On the same day, the ICC also issued a request for the warrant of Yahya Sinwar the commander of Hamas in Gaza - this carefully choreographed moment ensured that the world could see the moral equivalence that the ICC is placing between a genocidal terrorist group and the state of Israel. 

Throughout history God’s people of Israel have been hated by the nations around it. From the time Israel was in Egypt, Pharaoh attempted to destroy the nation by killing all the male children in the Nile of Egypt. The Edomites were condemned by Obediah: “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.”, the hatred of the Philistines for Israelites was called “the old hatred” by Ezekiel. When Israel was scattered from their land in AD135 they were persecuted wherever they went, and were never allowed to settle or mingle with the local populus. They were blamed for the Black Death and used as scapegoats. They were constantly in fear of pogroms and expulsion, with 100,000 killed in 1100 different pogroms in just the first few years after the First World War.

The sea and waves are roaring on the America political scene, as six months of political wrangling precede the presidential election. America is festering with an open-sore of Jew-hatred – visibly seen on its campuses. Israel is left to stand alone, about to move into Rafah to put an end to Hamas . Meanwhile, Putin has ascended the throne of Russia once again with an iron grip.

This last Thursday, during the passover holiday, tens of thousands of Jews attended the traditional priestly blessing ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Israel National News reported that, "During the ceremony, prayers were offered for the swift return of the hostages, for the healing of the wounded, and for the well-being of the State of Israel, the IDF soldiers, and the security forces.”

Last weekend the gloves finally came off.  Choosing to send an army of 170 suicide drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles into foreign territory, is a virtual declaration of war with the country to which those missiles are sent.
This has been a long time in coming. For decades, Iran has hidden behind its proxies in the middle east and operated indirectly through those channels (Hezbollah/Hamas/Houthis), fearing direct reprisals from Israel. For the first time since the Iranian Revolution, Iran attacked Israel from their own soil.

The world is highly distressed at the potential outcomes in the Middle East, whether of Israel's entry into Rafah and the response of the surrounding nations or the possibility of a direct strike on Israel by Iran and the ensuing war that might follow.  In this troubled sea of political turmoil, the Bible holds out a message of hope.