On October 7th, 2023, the last day of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles), several hundred Hamas terrorists breached the border fence between Gaza and Israel proper and slaughtered over 1400 people and took several hundred hostage. The bloodthirsty and heinous way the terrorists systematically murdered their victims was as savage as anything you could see in a horror movie. People were burned alive in houses and cars, shot randomly and hunted down like rabid animals.
The killing was indiscriminate. There was a 90 year old Holocaust survivor killed and babies were butchered in unimaginable ways. Entire families were executed and videos were made of the terrorists driving or marching down the streets and entering into their victims’ houses while performing their executions. Paragliders swooped in on an outdoor music festival, chased down and summarily executed about 260 primarily young people who were just dancing and having a good time. The images were utterly shocking, even for a world accustomed to violence. Israel has been galvanized to go to war and root out Hamas from Gaza. Many are comparing this to Israel’s 9/11 and the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust. It also occurred, not coincidentally on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war in 1973. Simultaneously, thousands of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel with the intent to his as many civilian targets as possible. It is clear that this was a well-planned and coordinated attack with outside help. Hamas is an Iranian proxy terror organization, as is Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Houthis is Yemen. All three are now threatening to get involved. Hezbollah has also fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel and Syria is sabre-rattling to do the same. A war on three fronts would be devastating for Israel. And behind it all is Russia who is Iran’s ally.
Several questions have to be asked. First of all, how did the most security-conscious country in the world get caught off guard to that level? The Gaza border is the most secure in the world and there is constant surveillance. One woman who had served with the military for 25 years said they knew when a dove flew across that border. Are we to believe the entire Israeli government was caught off guard to that level where hang gliders and bulldozers were able to fly over and smash through the border fence without the IDF (Israeli army) or Mossad (secret service) knowing about it? There is obviously something very nefarious going on here. At the very least, the Israeli government allowed this to happen with its full knowledge, or even worse, was complicit in its planning. Many are now reporting that the IDF was actually told to stand down. That means the government conspired to let its own citizens be slaughtered to further whatever objectives it had in mind. The Israeli government has now shown itself to be the enemy of the people, just like almost every other government in the world.
More importantly though, we need to ask why would God allow this to happen. What about all the promises made to Israel about protecting it? What is God doing here? Many people, including Christians have been badly shaken by this. Terrorism has one objective in mind: to instill fear in the populace. That’s what Covid was all about. The constant barrage of reports and statistics about people dying by the trillions to get us to mask up, stay apart, stay home and get the shot. People in every country were traumatized by the turning upside down of their lives and it was all caused by making them afraid of what the alternative was. How could the Shomer Yisrael (keeper of Israel) allow this to occur?
One of the dangers of trotting out certain Scriptures to “prove” the will of God is that those promises must be made in context. While God does protect Israel and prevent it from being destroyed entirely, that doesn’t mean it won’t have problems along the way. 586 BCE and 70 CE, the years the Temples were destroyed and 135 CE, the year the Jews were driven out of Israel for over 1800 years after the Bar Kochba rebellion should have demonstrated that to us thoroughly. God’s protection isn’t unconditional and perfectly guaranteed. That should give us a clue as to what happened on October 7th. Israel’s protection by the Lord is based on certain conditions. Deut 28:7 says “The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.” It’s a great promise but the beginning of the chapter says “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God.” So driving Israel’s enemies away was dependent on them being obedient. How many times in Israel’s history do we see them being disobedient and then suffering from the removal of God’s protection and even Him sending in their enemies to afflict them? Was that what happened on October 7th? The music festival where Hamas first attacked was called the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, which was labeled “a psychedelic trance music festival”[i] Trance music uses beats and rhythms to bring people to alternate states of consciousness. There are also reports of many of the attendees being high on drugs and there was a huge Buddha statue right at the front where the stage was. It was also reported that the DJ was an occultist. This event was no different than the pagan Burning Man festival, held in the Nevada desert every year that has tens of thousands of people show up to get high and engage in sexual debauchery. So, on the last day of God’s appointed time of Sukkot where Israel is supposed to be worshipping and giving thanks for God’s provision and remembering Him dwelling with them in the desert for 40 years, these worshippers are participating in another religious exercise. Sounds a lot like Baal worship to me, which constantly got Israel into trouble in the ancient world. And we wonder why God’s hand of protection has been removed? I think it’s pretty obvious. In Deut 28:25, the Lord says to Moses that if Israel disobeys the Torah that “The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out one way against them, but you will flee seven ways before them, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses will be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away." Israel was an example of terror. Isaiah 54:14 tells us that “In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you.” Righteousness is the key ingredient. With Israel being a mostly secular society and the orthodox Jews vociferously opposing the gospel being preached anywhere in the country with young orthodox Jewish children even encouraged to spit on Christians, Israel is in opposition to God’s will for them to recognize and submit to Him. This is why their enemies are free to attack.
Many have condemned Israel for its response to the attacks and its efforts to root out Hamas. No matter what atrocities Israel experiences, they’re always criticized for attempting to defend themselves. The problem is, their defense comes from the Lord, not their own efforts. Because Israel refuses to bow the knee to Yeshua and in fact participates in outright pagan rituals, they cannot count on God’s promises of protection and blessing but rather curses and destruction.
The 1400 Israelis murdered in such ghastly ways is tantamount to a satanic ritual sacrifice. We have to pray for the forgiveness of sins for both the Palestinians and the Israeli government that allowed and perhaps even help orchestrate this to happen. This event has pushed almost every country in the world to take a position and it looks like this could be leading up to the War of God and Magog in Ezekiel 38. Only time will tell but one thing we can discern is that as horrible as the massacre was, it shouldn’t really surprise us. Whenever Israel moves away from worshipping God and keeping His commandments, tragedy strikes. While we mourn the loss of life in such a tragic and jarring manor, things like this will continue to happen and even get worse until Yeshua returns. The greatest tragedy is that most of the dead who were adults died in their sins and now have an eternity in torment far worse than the pain of their physical deaths to look forward to. Therefore, we must continue our relentless pursuit of the Great Commission and proclaim Yeshua to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
“For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” (1Cor 9:16)
Darryl Weinberg
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re'im_music_festival_massacre