With so much happening in the Gaza at the present, it is difficult to unravel the truth from the lies that seem woven together in a messy knot of history. It happens that today, June 5, 2025 is the 58th Anniversary of the modern day occupation of the Gaza strip by Israel in 1967. We will remember it as the Six Day War that stretched from June 5 to 11, 1967. After months of tension, Egypt gathered military forces backed by four other Arab nations, and unilaterally banned Israeli use of the Suez, effectively cutting off commerce and travel to Israel. All told, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon amassed 465,000 troops, 80,000 aircraft and 2,504 tanks against Israel’s 264,000 troops, 250 aircraft and 800 tanks. The numbers were staggeringly against Israel. This was not the first time it happened. That is why the conflict is sometimes called the Third Arab-Israeli War of modern history since Israel’s formation in 1948. But while this war was meant to crush Israel, God had other plans, and after 6 days of war, Israel’s insignificant military overcame the Goliath that stood against them, ending it with a treaty that would see Israel being given the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, and yes, the Gaza Strip, land that used to be occupied by each of the Arab nations that stood against Israel 58 years ago. It puts into clearer light what Israel is doing today as it talks about reclaiming the Gaza.
But as I read the Bible, I discover passages like Genesis 10:19 where the Gaza was part of the Promised Land. Joshua 15:20 and 47 tell us that Judah among the tribes of Israel was given Gaza as an inheritance after the conquest of Canaan. The ancestral lands that belonged to the people of God stretch back thousands of years before the attack of October 7, 2023. I read Paul’s declaration in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Before we assume that it is some saber-rattling declaration of victory in war, read on. Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, shall He not, with Him, freely give us all things?” The cry of “God is for us” is not about war, but about the victory over the things that this world trembles at. The Eternal God who is our refuge has given us His most precious Son. Nothing that assails us can prosper; nothing that occurs can separate us from His love. As we are reminded in days to come of the war in Gaza and the terrible price that war exacts, let’s likewise remember the history of the Six Day War, and the fact that “God can save us by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6).
Just Church
At Just Church, we call each person to lean on the love of Christ. It is in Him that all our fears are quelled and all our strength is found. “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.”
