October 18th, 2023

“The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world.”

― Hannah Arendt

  I’m almost certain that, by now, many of us have gone through that awful process wherein we accommodate ourselves and our prayers to yet another situation of warfare in the world around us. The terrorist attacks by Hamas against innocent Israeli men, women, and children on October 7th set a grim milestone: “More Jews were killed last Shabbat…than on any other day since the Holocaust.”* Gaza is now under siege; innocent Palestinians who have not fled are put in harm’s way by the strategy of Hamas, which includes using schools, hospitals, and orphanages to store their guns, bullets, and explosives.** For Israeli’s, and Palestinians alike - nothing will be the same. 

  In the west, we debate as only those who are not accustomed with warfare on our doorstep are able: what-about-ism, conspiracy theories, and flagrant anti-semitism from all sides seems unavoidable. We wonder: “What is true?”;”What is Just?”; “When  will this effect us?” While media outlets, and pundits jockey for attention according to our discordant political opinions. Make no mistake - there is absolutely no biblical justification for the terrorist attacks of Hamas on October 7th or anything done by Hamas afterward. It is sin; the LORD is grieved; God’s people should, before anything else, pray. 

  Hardness of heart is something we should all be aware of - but this is especially true now lest we participate in the spiral that Ms. Arendt described in the quote above. Some of us may be fearful; some of us may be grieving; many of us are angry, but none of us who are in Christ are ever without hope. 

* Rabbi Daniel Fellman in The National Post

** Evidenced in this report from Reuters in 2022

—Matt Allhands