HAD IT NOT BEEN THE LORD!
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,” Let Israel now say, “Had it not been the Lord who was on our side When men rose up against us, Then they would have swallowed us alive, When their anger was kindled against us; Then the waters would have engulfed us, The stream would have swept over our soul; Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul.” Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper; The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 124, NASB95)
The Psalmist (King David) rightly reminds Israel where their help comes comes from. “Had it not been the Lord” it would have been a different outcome against their enemies. It is the Lord (“who made heaven & earth”) who is on Israel’s side and who victory comes.
A lot happens in the space of a week in Israel. The past week was no exception, and had it not been for the Lord things could have been very different as Iran fired around 200 missiles into Israel to avenge the blood of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The world now awaits what Israel will do next.
Assassination of Nasrallah
Like all of Israel’s military operations there is a lot of intelligence and planning often years in the making. The assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in the Beirut neighbourhood of Dahiya was no exception. The opportunity to execute the plan however required the perfect decoy.
In this case it was Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fly to New York and deliver another powerful message to the UN that created a clever diversion lulling Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah leaders to the safety of their own headquarters in Beirut for a meeting. While en-route and in New York Netanyahu was continually briefed and finally gave the green light for the operation to commence. What took place next would shake the Middle East and entire Arab world.
Israeli fighter jets using dozens of bunker busting bombs ultimately found their target with devastating effect on the leader who had orchestrated terror attacks on Israel, the Jewish people and many other innocent lives around the world. Even in the Arab world there were many that rejoiced giving thanks to Israel for making the world safer as a consequence of Nasrallah’s death.
Ground operations Commence in Southern Lebanon
Israel has completed the most devastating blows upon Hezbollah in the past weeks including the initial communications device attack on terror personnel and targeted assassinations of their leadership. Now Israel is committed to disarming Hezbollah in the way
it has Hamas in Gaza and has reportedly already eliminated half of their arsenal of weapons. Through continual airstrikes that target the thousands of Hezbollah assets, the way has been paved for troops to enter Lebanon for the first time since 2006.
Israel has once again found weapons stored in areas occupied by civilians, networks of tunnels and terrorists working for the UN as a front. Essentially all the same tactics of Hamas in Gaza, in fact Israel found intelligence that showed Hezbollah had been planning for many years to attack the Galilee region in the same manner that Hamas did on October 7 and had around 3000 terrorists in position before Israeli air raids scared them off.
Iran attacks Israel
Iran’s vengeance for the blood of Nasrallah came when Israel was not exactly expecting it. Thankfully, Israel’s incredible defence systems together with assistance from allies in the region, most of the 200 ballistic missiles never found their targets and miraculously, not one Israeli was killed as a result of the attack.
The scope of the attack is well documented by the video below taken in Jordan as missiles fly west overhead towards Israel. Around 180 missiles made it to Israel.
While some of Irans missiles landed, miraculously mostly hit in uninhabited areas or were not effectual in destroying targets. Sadly one Palestinian man was hit by an intercepted falling missile in Jericho and killed instantly. He was out for a night walk having escaped the war in Gaza. Another person was killed in Jordan from a missile falling short of Israel.
These incredible events and the miracle that they killed no Israelis have not gone unnoticed by many religious Jews who witnessed what happened. One well known religious Jewish entrepreneur in Israel shared his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter). His insights are telling and indicative of the coming time when Israel will again see Gods divine intervention and see the power and might of His hand and many will turn to Him and believe in His Son.
“I really don’t think you understand the absolute miracles that we witnessed last night here in Israel.
In fact, I am sure you don’t.
Let’s break this down.
Israel has three air defense systems, each one of them a technological wonder and that’s not me saying it. That’s Dr. Gold who basically invented the Iron Dome who told me that. The level and sophistication of the Iron Dome is simply unparalleled.
But the Iron Dome only knows how to detonate short range rockets or missiles within a 70 km range, give or take.
Then Israel has the David’s Sling system. That knows how to deal with mid range missiles up to approximately 300 km.
Then we have the Arrow system that literally detonates missiles that can fly outside of the earth’s atmosphere. That has a range of about 2,400 km!! 🤯
Last night, as Iran rained down ballistic missiles on Israel, all three defense systems were activated and implemented to perfection.
The chances of all of these incredibly complex systems working in unison as flawlessly as they did last night, are basically non existent.
If one thing went wrong, if one of those ballistic missiles hit an apartment building, a shopping center, or an army base, we would now be burying hundreds of Israelis.
And all of that is not even the biggest miracle.
A few hours ago, I got a WhatsApp message from a good friend who is a senior executive at Microsoft and who wasn’t exactly a God fearing Jew. Until yesterday.
Here is what he wrote me.
“If you’re looking for miracles man - last night I started believing. Missiles hit all around me but none of them hit my house or any house, for that matter.”
He elaborated some more and shared info about the missiles that he watched land just meters away from very strategic places in Israel, to say the least.
Each one of those defense systems is, in and of itself, pretty miraculous, but what is even more insane is the low casualty numbers from the rockets and missiles that we’re NOT intercepted.
Where did those missiles go? I’ll tell you where. They landed in sand, in water, and in “Empty spaces”.
Have you been to Israel? It’s a microscopic country. What empty spaces? Where are these empty spaces? 🤷♂️
How have hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles all either get detonated by miraculous systems or totally miss their mark and land in empty spaces causing zero casualties and minimal damage?!
How??
Listen, I get it. This thought process begs the question, where was God during the horrible terrorist attack yesterday? Where was He on October 7th? Where was He during the holocaust?
All valid questions that require a very serious nuanced conversation.
But if you know anything about what had to happen last night and throughout this war in general, for such a low number of casualties, you’ll know that what we witnessed last night was the equivalent of God splitting the sea right before our eyes.
Guess what. When God split the sea, there were those who didn’t believe it was a miracle and didn’t jump in. And there are also those who feel the need to explain it naturally. Ok, that’s fine.
You don’t want to call yesterday an act of God? That’s your choice, but like my Microsoft friend, if you look at these events objectively, you’d have a really hard time seeing those hundreds of deadly missiles land in empty spaces and not see the hand of God.
Last night was an incredible display of the collaboration between two of the powers that protect the Jewish people: The IDF and Hashem.
Last night will go down in history right alongside many of Israel’s accomplishments in this war including the beepers and the unprecedented low ratio between combatant and civilian, as a military operation the likes of which the world has never seen. Ever!
Last night will be analyzed by military strategists and experts for generations.
Last night, we witnessed history.
Last night we witnessed open miracles.
Last night, we witnessed God in all His glory watching over His children.”
The Lord fights for Israel while the greater conflict rages.
Had it not been the Lord, Israel would have not prevailed in the events of this past week where He sovereignly provided the success of eliminating those conspiring to annihilate the Jewish people. Had it not been the Lord, Israel would have not successfully eliminated the weapons and infrastructure their enemies intended to use for mass murder in Galilee, the place where Jesus lived and performed so many miracles. And if had not been the Lord, hundreds of ballistic missiles intended to destroy as much of Israel as possible were rendered ineffective.
But in the midst of miracles, there are reminders that Israel is not always impervious to suffering and that the effects of the greater conflict are often felt throughout the land of Israel the world more broadly.
On the night Iran attacked, two armed Hamas terrorists got into Israel from the West Bank City of Hebron. They travelled to the ancient city of Jaffa where they shot and killed 7 people and wounded a further 16 at a rail station.
Then, news came that 8 Israeli soldiers had been killed in an ambush while fighting in Southern Lebanon.
SOLDIERS KILLED N LEBANON
The IDF announced in the past 24 hours that 8 soldiers were killed during gun battles in Southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah claims to have killed around 18 Israeli soldiers.
CONTINUE TO PRAY
It is likely more Israeli soldiers will die in the battle against Hezbollah who are a more resourced and organised terror group. We must therefore continue to pray to the Lord who is for Israel and who grants success as He sovereignly overrules and as we also await the next events that will likely involve Israel making a strike on Iran.
Please also continue to pray for the situation in Gaza, for those hostages that may still be alive there, and for all the families in Israel grieving over lost loved ones from the events of the past year.
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