“BE STILL.” ~ Psalm 46

As I write these notes, the Middle East is a powder keg ready to explode. What is going on in the Gaza strip, on the border of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea, has consumed the news feeds, from Fox News to CNN, for the better part of a week at this point. We saw the optics –“ horrific” doesn’t do justice to the terror that has been perpetrated upon the Israelis in the Gaza by the terrorist group known as Hamas. Inexplicable wickedness. That is how we define evil. This is what we have seen. We have no clue, as I write these notes, how this will play out. Israel is positioned to move in, via, ground troops to expunge Hamas and try and find, and rescue, hostages. We have riots, in so many parts of the world, many blaming Israel for their response to what was perpetrated against them. It feels, to me, like we are on the threshold of World War III.

Gaza. This small parcel of land, south of what was the Promised Land, is as old as creation itself. We read about it in Genesis. Ponder that for a moment. Gaza is in the Bible. The Arabs warring against the Israelis. The Israelis warring against the Arabs. The tribalism in that region is as old as Cain taking the life of his brother, Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

We cannot forget about the displacing of the innocent Palestinians from the Gaza, as well. Egypt – as I write – closed the door to Palestinian refugees in fear that, among them, are more of the members of the extreme Jihadist group – Hamas, with the potential of exacting the same kind of terror in Egypt. Displaced at the southern border with nowhere to go and no way in Egypt. Oh, my! The history of Egypt! Joseph, the dream-weaver, with his coat of many colors, interprets the dreams of Pharoah. Four hundred years, after the Pharaoh’s of Egypt are no longer sympathetic to Jew, in fact, as we know, they have enslaved them, Moses is commanded to “Tell ol’ Pharoah to let my people go!”

Egypt. The cradle, crib, home of Moses, raised in the house of Pharaoh – best food, best education, best “digs,” best life until what? Until he finds out that he is a Hebrew. A couple of thousand years later another Joseph, different Joseph – the earthly father of Jesus – is told by God to take the babe and Mary to Egypt to avoid the slaughter of innocence, by Herod, in Bethlehem. Do we see a connection here?

We look at the global landscape and we are wont to wonder, “is anyone in control?” “Is God in control?” “Where is God?” “Is there a God?” These are real and legitimate questions. Only through the eyes of faith, as we search the Scriptures, can we find the answer. There is no Psalm in the Psalter that says it better. Psalm 46. Read it. Read all of it. Go to verse 10. “Be still, and know that I am God.”

In other parts we read the following:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. And we read: He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth; he burns the shields with fire. And we read: The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

God is never more sovereign then when it seems like He isn’t. He knows. He sees. Part of the purpose imparted upon the chaos is for us to turn to Him; for all to turn to Him. Not Allah! Yahweh! The One true God! The One who, in the deepest love for us, sends His Son to be terrorized on a cross so that we can become part of the eternal habitation of the Lord.

As we see the optics, we pray. We pray for peace. We pray for ALL who are innocent. We pray for God’s will to be done. Through such praying we are empowered to adhere to the imperative: BE STILL. And so we will – “though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea.”

Until next month,
PTK