This week has been filled with reminders of the war that’s raging in the Middle East as Israel pounds Palestine in search of Hamas after the terrible slaughter of October 7, 2024 that began this ordeal. The US has declared it would stop selling arms to Israel; South Africa is bringing on two charges against Israel in the International Courts. And here at home, protests have moved from the streets to occupying spaces in the universities of Ontario. Jesus said as He described the global cascade towards the End Times, “There shall be wars and rumours of wars” (Matthew 24:6). The word “rumours” [Gk. akoē] is anything that hits the news vocally, forcefully, relentlessly. It creates a fog through which it is difficult to discern truth from error, right from wrong, and justice from immorality. And it is increasingly difficult to process everything that happens. I’ve been asked often, “How do we pray for this war? Who is in the right? Where does a Biblically attuned Christian stand? How should we plead to the God of Heaven when we hear and read about the crises at hand?”
As I think on these questions, my mind goes to Psalm 46 on how God sees war. Verse 6 describes the voices of warfare, “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.” The louder the voices get, the more confusing the issues become. As nations rage, kingdoms (or political structures) are shaken. But notice that when the Lord speaks, and the earth melts. Every pretense and every falsehood is melted away. This informs us of the first thing for which to pray: that God’s voice will be heard and that He will thunder His righteousness where missiles and bombs now shake. Read verse 9, and we discover what God does, “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the chariots with fire.” Notice that God brings wars to a grinding halt when He destroys the implements of war. This is the second thing for which to pray: that weapons of warfare on both sides of the conflict will be rendered useless and broken. We’ve heard of protests against those who supply arms to Israel; but we hear nothing of those who supply arms to Hamas. Who gave them the weapons that they each use in this war? Where do the missiles and the bullets used to murder and to destroy come from? People don’t know how to address the armaments of war, but God does. One final thing for which to pray: that God will still each heart to know that He is God (verse 10). Jesus describes the work of Satan: to kill, to steal and to destroy (John 10:10). This is the ultimate purpose of war that Satan sows in the hearts of man so that in killing, stealing and destroying, those entering a Christless eternity grow by the thousands. Pray against Satan’s work. Pray for a stillness to know the Prince of Peace. He will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in all the earth.
Just Church
In the midst of confusing times, the purpose of Just Church is to turn people towards Jesus. “The vision of Just Church is to establish a church in just the way Christ called the church to be – true to His Word, loving Him, loving one another, and loving the lost.”
