Gaza Again

The pull-out of Israel from the Gaza Strip area has increased, not reduced, area tensions between militant Palestinians and Israelis. The latest Hamas rocket barrages mean an impending invasion by Israel to staunch the flow of deadly rockets into southern Israel, the latest outrage being resulting damage to an Israeli hospital in Ashkelon.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to arrive in the area to rescue the shaky peace process. If peace is not achieved during the Bush presidency, which is an ardent wish for the Bush legacy, Jordan’s King Hussein warned that peace may be decades off since a new administration in Washington would be preoccupied with other issues.

The Gaza area is in the Old Testament land of the Philistines (a term that gave us "Palestine" and "Palestinians"). It figures in both Biblical history and prophecy. The five Philistine cities mentioned in the Bible are Gaza, Gath, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron. The first four are modern cities; the Ekron site has been located by archeologists. Although the area was included in the land grant to Abraham in Genesis 15:18, it was not fully controlled in Israel’s initial conquest of the land under Joshua (Judges 1:19; 3:3). Tragically, the time frame for total conquest was Joshua’s lifetime, and those Philistines who remained would be a continual trial to Israel as Joshua 2:21 & 22 says. "I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."

The tension continues presently, and will be resolved in the national repentance of Israel prior to the millennial reign of Christ in Jerusalem as the prophet Zechariah wrote.

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn" (Zech. 12:10-11). "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The Lord is one,’ And His name one" (Zech. 14:9).

At a future date, Israel 14:11 says that Israel will recapture Philistia. "But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them."

Although the specific time and scenario are somewhat unclear, troublesome Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis poised to possibly invade surely gives everyone pause to consider the approaching fulfillment of God’s prophetic Word.

Dave Virkler