Light Will Prevail Over Darkness
This year the Jewish people will celebrate Hanukkah— the ‘Festival of Light’, as we celebrate Christmas. During Hanukkah, the Jewish people recall the Maccabean defeat (a small army of pious Jews) of the tyranny of the Greek empire and the rededication of the Temple in the 2nd century BC. Since 7 October 2023, the world is experiencing another battle between light and darkness.
The violence of 7 October was intended by its perpetrators (Iran, Qatar and their proxies Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others) to unleash not only a kinetic war but also a dark, ideological war to destroy the Jewish nation again.
As early as 8 October, there were massive calls throughout the West, by a strange but now familiar alliance of Islamism and secular Marxism, for the liberation of Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’. That, of course, is a call for a global jihad—the genocide of Jews. Like the Maccabees, the response of the Jewish people was to seek to survive, so that Israel can be the light to the nations that it is called to be.
In doing so, Israeli leaders faced an incredibly difficult dilemma: how to destroy Hamas and release the Israeli hostages, while also keeping innocent civilian casualties to a minimum? Eliminating Hamas terrorists has meant, tragically, that thousands of Gazan civilians have been killed, and the infrastructure has been largely annihilated. For the next decades, lawyers will debate whether or not Israel’s response was ‘proportionate’ or ‘excessive’.
In human terms, it is impossible to see any way to break this tragic cycle of violence and destruction, in which neither Israelis nor Palestinians, Jews nor Muslims, are winners.
Thankfully, we can be confident that redemption is not only possible, it has been promised. The Lord will change the hearts and minds of all in the land. One day, there will be peace from Egypt to Assyria, and the people of Israel will live together in harmony.
“Let us pray that His Son who is the Light of the world will intervene and redeem our broken and dark humanity, in a miraculous way.”
Only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can solve this conflict, that has become truly a global battle between light and darkness, for the hearts and minds of all people.
Luke records that Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied saying that Jesus came to save the people of Israel from their enemies, so that “being delivered [we] might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” (Luke 1:74-75).
As we celebrate Christmas, let us pray for the return of our Lord and Saviour, who will judge the nations, take the throne of His father David, and reign in the midst of His people Jacob. Let us pray that His Son who is the Light of the world will intervene and redeem our broken and dark humanity, in a miraculous way.
