‘This will sear Jews and Arabs for years to come...’

Isaiah 40:1 ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’

When I was eight years old, I remember sitting in front of my family’s black and white television while watching the Yom Kippur war unfolding in front of my eyes. It was exactly 50 years ago and, as a Jewish boy growing up in the USA, it was my first realisation that there was a country named Israel that Jewish people call home.

As I watched those Jewish people on the television defend themselves from Arab attackers, the guns, the shooting, and the killing, fear welled up inside me. From that early age fear grew into a distrust and dislike of Arab peoples.

As I became more aware of Jewish history, I learned that over many centuries, because so many people hated us, killed us, and drove us from country to country, Jewish people needed a place to call home. I understood this as my family had emigrated to the USA in 1900, fleeing the pogroms they suffered in Eastern Europe.

Isaiah 40:2: ‘Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for.’

But the Lord was merciful to me and revealed Himself to me in the Messiah Jesus. Just as the Lord saved me and forgave my sin, so he replaced my fear with love. As my faith matured over the years, I learned that I did not need to, nor should I, fear or hate anyone. God’s love in Jesus is for all people, Jewish, Arab, Muslim, whoever.

Today, when I look at the church and see the polarisation that takes place over politics in the Middle East, and now war, it deeply perplexes me and grieves me. I am not saying that there are no injustices – of course there are. But surely as those who are followers of the Prince of Peace, we are the only ones who can and should declare that the power of sin can be broken by the power of the cross.

(Left: High rise buildings in Gaza. Right: The Israeli community of Kibbutz Bee’ri. | photos: Wiki and Twitter / X)

Isaiah 40:5: ‘And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

The hard truth is that we, as followers of Jesus, cannot expect Israelis nor Arab peoples to act in Godly, sanctified ways when they are not yet born again. They need to know and be changed from within by the power of God. This is what changed me, and this is what has changed my Palestinian friends who also love Jesus. This is how we are now able to love each other and live and work together.

As long as a person or people group places their identity in anything other than the Lord, whether it is a religious belief, an ideology, or a piece of land, then this is the thing they will fight and die for. But this is not God’s will or way.

Isaiah 40:6,8: ‘A voice says, ‘Cry out.’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’… The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.’

We as Christians need to do better. Only the gospel of Jesus has the power to break the chains of sin and death in the lives of lost Jewish and Arab peoples. We are the ones who have been commissioned to carry this Good News that has the power to save and transform Jewish and Arab lives, communities, countries, and whole regions.

But it is easier to talk about politics and take sides than it is to tell people they need to repent, call out to God for forgiveness of sin, and allow him to change them from the inside out. And before some say this is overly simplistic, this is exactly the change I and many other Jewish and Arab believers in Jesus have experienced by the work of the Spirit of God.

Isaiah 40:9 ‘You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God”!’

The situation in Israel and Gaza is horrific. My heart breaks for the loss, the grief, and the pain that will scar both Jewish and Arab peoples for years to come. It will be hard for many not to give way to bitterness, anger and hatred, no matter which ‘side’ one supports. But a time like this should cause us, as followers of Jesus, to renew our commitment to sharing the gospel as the only remedy for the sinful human heart and the evil attitudes and acts that flow from its hatred.

I want to challenge you to renew your commitment to holistic mission and the evangelisation of all the peoples in the Middle East, including the Jewish people. We must pray, we must declare the truth of God’s love in Messiah Jesus, and we must do so with focus and without fear, trusting and hoping in our Lord God who saves.

Just as God changed my heart, and is transforming Jewish and Arab lives today, so, as we are obedient to his call to share Jesus and make disciples, He will continue to save.

Isaiah 40:31a: ‘But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’