Weekly Update: “Let My People Go”
This week, the Jewish people celebrate Passover – commemorating the exodus from Egypt. Moses told Pharoah: “Let My people go”. Pharoah’s heart was hardened, and God intervened at the appointed time to ensure the Hebrew people could escape.
Just as in Egypt 3030 years ago, it seems God will need to intervene if His people are to live in freedom in the land that God has given them as an eternal possession in order to serve and worship Him as the only true and living God.
Normally Pesach is a joyous time, but this year for most Israelis it is a time of anguish. Israel is under siege as never before. Like Pharoah, its enemies are keeping Israel captive.
Those enemies include Iran, its proxy Hezbollah, and their allies like Qatar and Hamas. The war in Gaza provoked by Hamas’ invasion of Israel on 7th October 2023 has been going for 200 days, and the end is not yet in sight.
Hamas still holds 129 hostages in Gaza. It is not known how many of them are alive. 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have been recovered, including those of three mistakenly killed by the military. Recently, the IDF confirmed the deaths of 34 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces has conducted all necessary preparations to take Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah and can launch an operation the moment it gets government approval, a senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday. Top Israeli security officials visited Egypt Wednesday to coordinate the planned offensive. As soon as Israel makes a move, it will be immediately denounced by the international community for using excessive force and causing a humanitarian disaster. And yet it is the international community that is causing the crisis, by refusing to pressure Egypt to open its borders to enable Palestinians to find safety from Israel’s legitimate war against the genocidal Hamas regime.
Of course, Israel is fighting a war not just with Hamas. Rather, it is fighting a multi-front war with Iran and its proxies and allies. This became official when Iran attacked Israel for the first time two weeks ago.
Iran’s most dangerous proxy, from Israel’s perspective, is Hezbollah, which is primarily active in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. The conflict with Hezbollah continues to escalate. Since October 8, Hezbollah and allied terror groups in Lebanon have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a daily basis with rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and other means. Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities, from where some 70,000 people were evacuated to avoid the fighting.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in eight civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 11 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries. The IDF had announced that it has eliminated six Hezbollah brigade commanders and 30 battalion commanders in total. It is estimated that Hezbollah has 50,000 to 100,000 troops and 10 to 15 brigade commanders. It has built a vast network of tunnels in Lebanon – reported to be significantly more extensive than those built by Hamas in Gaza.
Global hatred of the Jews is on the rise. Anti-Israel sentiment is growing in the West. American Ivy-league universities have become hotbeds of antisemitism. For five days, pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel groups have been encamped on Columbia University’s campus in New York. Students at a growing number of United States colleges have gathered in protest encampments with a unified demand of their schools: Stop doing business with Israel — or any companies that empower its ongoing war in Gaza.
This is continuation of a decades-old campaign against Israel and its policies that is tantamount to calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Let us pray that the Almighty will intervene to set His people free, and that He will work in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people around the world – that they may love and serve Him with their whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Then Israel will be a true light to the nations.
How to define success in the next phase of the Israel-Hamas war
Eric Mandel: The world’s attention has left Gaza for the moment due to the Iranian attack against Israel, a major strategic shift in Iranian policy increasing the chance for a regional war. But it is only a matter of time before the spotlight will return to Rafah, the last holdout of Hamas’ standing battalions.
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Another Passover with the Jewish people under siege
Jonathan Tobin: A passage in the Haggadah teaches that “in every generation, there are those who rise against us.” It has never been more relevant.
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Purim & Pesach – Reflections on their Significance Today
Christians for Israel: The Jewish holiday of Purim and the biblical feast of Pesach provide us with some valuable insights into the miraculous ways of God.
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Fellowship | The Book of RUTH with Johannes Gerloff #32
Boas offers Ruth pita and hummus – typically oriental. The Israelite thus offers the homeless Moabite woman the protection of a community. But it also points far into the future.
SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK: Exodus 3:3-21
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’
18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty handcompels him. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
21 “And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. 22 Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians.”
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