Now is Too Late

The video looped on and on. I couldn’t stop watching. I couldn’t react.

A shattered street littered with bricks and debris, no discernible buildings, no adults, no people other than running towards the camera a child, maybe three, filthy, her face blank with panic, a cry emanating from the depths of her small being: my God, my God, my God.

What have we done? How do we allow this? How do we justify the endless killing and still think we can face our Father in heaven?

I, for most of my Christian life, bought into the teaching found in Numbers 24 v 9: Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, and whoever cures Israel will be cursed.

I read and listened to John Hagee’s arguments and accepted them. I did not research the topic for myself or think too deeply about it. Until now. My bad.

When the horrific attacks on the people of Israel happened on 7^th October, I, like most of the world was appalled and incensed at the brutality and cavalier bravado of the attackers. My initial thought after the first reports was that this was a wake-up call for Israel. Once again, as so many times throughout their history, God was allowing the nation of Israel to be attacked to get their attention, to get them to turn back to him. I believe there is, or was, a low percentage of Israelis committed to the following the ways of Jehovah.

I also knew that retaliation would be swift and equally brutal, and I believed Hamas knew that too. In the first few months after the attack I supported Israeli attempts to get their hostages back, and, in a measure, for them to ensure their reprisal would guarantee their safety from further attacks. I wrote about this and was vocal in my support for Israel.

I was wrong.

My son, Mark, told me early on that he could not agree with my viewpoint, and that we should agree not to discuss it if we were to maintain family unity. He’s a wise man.

For me to maintain my viewpoint, I had to turn my face away from the reality of the devastation that was unfolding. I was concerned when South Africa took Israel to the ICCC, concerned it would bring a curse upon this land. Friends, also opposed to Israel’s aggression, disagreed with what I was saying, gently giving me another side to the story.

It was a long while before I began to watch what was happening, the blatant killing that was taking place in full view of the world, who, like me, seemed to think this was necessary. But deep down inside I knew the savagery had to be breaking my Father’s heart.

I think the U-turn came for me when Donald Trump touted the idea of turning Gaza into a massive resort, and within a couple of weeks of his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu there was an upswing in the scale of destruction, the determined deprivation of basic amenities. The reports of starvation, the lack of medical supplies, of families shredded by the daily bombing sickened me.

And then this video happened on my screen. A child, alone, terrified, desperate. A child like those my saviour Jesus said should never be stopped from coming to Him. He did not pronounce on a nationality. Since then, every scripture I read convinces me that this war is not of God. It is not what He wants that his heart is breaking at the loss of life.

Mathew 5 vv 43 – 45:  You have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good th to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

The words of Jesus.

Ezekiel 33 v 11: ‘as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live….’

I listened to an interview on Sky news last night with Mark Austin and Israeli Government spokesman, David Mencer. It was awful. Mencer shouted over the top of Mark Austin, who could not get his questions asked, he blamed Hamas for everything, and in doing so continually put Austin down, disparaging him. A familiar pattern from a small number of world leaders.

His argument, the same old Israel argument, no longer holds water, that Israel is innocent, Hamas is the instigator, the perpetrator, the thief, you name it, it is all down to Hamas. But Hamas are not the only ones firing shots. Killing is killing, and there is no justification for what is happening. Both sides are guilty of causing death and destruction and someone has to stand up and be the adult in the room.

It is unlikely to be either Hamas or Israel, so it falls to other world players. If they don’t act soon, the genocide will be complete, and the stench of blood will saturate the history books in the same way as other slaughters.

Every nation who has a stake in this situation is complicit from Europe to America to the Middle East and beyond. If this is not brought to an end soon, there will be few hands that are not bloodstained, few governments who have not heeded the cries of those on the ground for assistance and for the bloodshed to stop that will walk away without a degree of culpability.

Isaiah 26 v 2: Open the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

Please, God, let there be one righteous nation left on this earth!

The time is now, because even now is too late.