Day 11 — Israel in Crisis

Last night was by far one of the most amazing evenings of my life. Because of your giving, we provided drinks for a cookout for 500 soldiers. This was their last festive evening before deploying closer to Gaza. As you can see in the video, there is pure joy. I'm sure many of them are nervous, but they are patriots. They love the land of Israel and understand that it is unique and special. They understand that they're fighting for something bigger than themselves.

It was so strange that many of them thanked us for the drinks. They're going to fight for our freedom. We thanked them! We spent the night dancing with them to ethnic Israeli music, and each time we touched them we prayed for God's protection.

HAMMERING THE HAMMER

I do not know why, but the Bible (meaning my Logos Bible Software) was opened to Jeremiah 50 this morning. To be clear, in context, it refers to God’s future judgment on Babylon and how God would eventually defend Israel after he allowed Babylon to crush her. It is not about Hamas, but the principle exists. Judgment came because “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains” (v. 6). But God comes to her defense in the end.

We see the same thing over 100 years before. Isaiah prophesies against Assyria. God uses Assyria to exercise judgment against other nations, but Assyria becomes arrogant. He calls Assyria “the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation” (Isaiah 10:5). But Assyria goes too far and brings God’s judgment on itself. No one wants to speak of horrible atrocities coming from God's instruments. And furthermore, no one wants to talk about Hamas being God's instrument. At the very least, we know that nothing escapes God's eyes. Here is what he says of Assyria when the king became arrogant:

"Therefore it shall come to pass, when the LORD has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, 'I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.'" (Isaiah 10:12).

But when the instrument or hammer begins to think it is the master and it overplays its hand, judgment falls upon the instrument. And in this case, the instrument is Iran, and Hamas and Hezbollah are the puppets. With America's warships on Israel's coast, this could end up being a showdown between the West and radical Islam.

If the biblical pattern holds up, as Israel humbles herself, the nations and organizations that are still openly hostile to Israel are in trouble. Of course, Israel must not go out with the spirit of revenge but rather a spirit of humility and justice, with the goal of protecting the people of Israel. That is easier said than done when you are a young soldier who has witnessed such savagery against the mothers and daughters of your nation. Thus, we must pray.

HAMAS FORBIDS PEOPLE TO LEAVE WHILE STEALING HUMANITARIAN AID..THEY ARE EVIL!

There is no compromising with evil. Hamas is evil. The people of Gaza are trying to leave, either to the north or into Egypt (if Egypt ever opens their border) and Hamas is taking their car keys and IDs, according to NDTV.com.

"The greatest humanitarian threat to the citizens of Gaza is Hamas, not Israel!"

In a rare moment of bravery for the UNRWA (UN org in for Palestinian Refugees) spoke against Hamas.

The Times of Israel writes: “The United Nations organization that works with Palestinian refugees and their descendants indicated Sunday that Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip had stolen fuel and medical supplies meant for refugees from its premises in Gaza City, during the fighting triggered by the terror group’s deadly shock attack on Israel."

While claiming that Israel is overreacting and hurting the citizens of Gaza, they steal their fuel, much-needed medicine, and supplies. “UNRWA fuel and other types of material are kept for strictly humanitarian purposes — any other use is strongly condemned,” the agency said.

Later, no doubt under pressure from Hamas, they retracted the statement. By make no mistake, the great threat to the people of Gaza is HAMAS and no one else.

Don't forget, among those murdered (1300 plus) were Arab Muslims! Hamas didn't blink an eye.

PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS COMING TO ISRAEL

World leaders are supporting Israel in an unprecedented way. In addition to President Biden, who is coming tomorrow, other world leaders are showing their support. Romania’s Marcel Ciolacu met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Rumors are that France's Macron and Itaty's

Headlines:

• Don’t forget the hostages! Hamas released a video yesterday of Mia Schem, that the NY TIMES says is at least six days old. She is a wounded Israeli hostage. The family went on international media this morning asking for the release of all the hostages.

• Jordan’s King Abdullah II, once again showing how the Arab world really thinks of Palestinians, is refusing for Palestinians to escape Hamas by coming to Jordan or Egypt. “There will be no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt.”

• Israeli Tech firms have paid for some of the surviving residents of Ofakim to vacation in the southern tourist city of Eilat. They lost 50 people on October 7th in their city of 34,000.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for Hamas members to have supernatural visitations of yeshua. Remember, paul was a murderer before he was an apostle.

• Pray for safety, an angelic canopy, over the people of israel and especially the IDF forces going into Gaza.

• Pray that our soldiers operate with wisdom and courage and not with a spirit of revenge.

• Pray for our military leaders to have God's plan and not man's, as they enter Gaza.

• Pray that Hamas will succumb to international pressure to release all women and children.

• Pray that the Israeli army is able to get every soldier the proper helmet and bulletproof vests that they need.

Elana and I are honored to partner with you. Through your expressions of love, we have been able to:

• Give a $20,000 donation to Ashkelon's hospital.

• Send $3000 to the survivors of Sha’ar Hanegev. We will be sending them $ 5,000 more.

• We are planning to send $10,000 TODAY to Kibbutz Sapir, where they are housing 1,500 evacuees.

• We partnered with Revive Israel to provide watches for soldiers. They are not allowed to take their phones into battle.

• We provided drinks to 500 soldiers last night at a cookout.

• Today we will buy osprey backpacks for eight soldiers who live in a local community here.

• Other projects are in the works. We'll share more when we have more information

Every Israeli we have encountered is so grateful for your help. You are truly showing them the love of Yeshua! Please continue to support at www.IsraelinCrisis. If you're not able to send funds, do not feel pressured by these emails. Please read the information and pray. The last thing I want to do is pressure people. I'm not at all ashamed about boldly raising money for these projects, but I don't want anyone to feel guilty if they are not able to give. God bless you all!