Gaza in the Bible

Israel’s defensive attack on Hamas in Gaza became the bridge story from 2008 into the New Year. Three thousand rockets raining on Israeli cities was too much to tolerate, especially when Hamas is financed by and serves as a surrogate for nuclear-minded Iran to weaken Israel. Israel possibly saw a closing window of permission in the waning Bush presidency before facing the uncertain policies of Barack Obama. And Israel’s probable short-term political goal is also to restore power to the Palestinian Authority under Abbas in order to deal with that more moderate political entity.

A knowledgeable focus on Gaza is a telescope on history long past and the intriguing prophetic near future.

The terms "Palestinian" and "Palestine" are closely related to "Philistia" and "Philistine." The area was called Palestina in early Bible times as seen in Exodus 15:14 and Isaiah 14:29, 51. The general area of the Old Testament Philistines comprised five cities: Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gath and Ekron. All but Ekron are modern cities; Gaza is now Gaza City, the area the Israelis have invaded. In New Testament times, the conquering Romans called the entire area, including Israel and Jordan, Palestina.

An aside here is that the term "Palestinian" is misapplied. Anyone living in Palestine would be a Palestinian including Arabs, Jews and Christians, but Palestinians came to be known as only those displaced from their Arab lands or those living under Israeli control in the West Bank "occupied territories," which are biblical Judea and Samaria. The term has been distorted to prolong the political and religious purposes against Israel and all the Western nations.

The most significant prophetic verse regarding the current warfare is Isaiah 11:14. "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."

The passage is clearly relevant to end-time events because the context is a description of a future Millennium. Consider that this passage is literal since the geographical areas are easily located. The land of the Philistines, as mentioned, is Gaza. The other lands that will be retaken to the east—Edom, Moab and Ammon—are present-day Jordan and part of Old Testament Israel.

The verse implies that Israel invades in a time when they do not control the Philistine area, but they retake it. In the 1967 War, Israel captured the Gaza Strip area from Egypt and held it until finally withdrawing all Jewish settlers a couple of years ago. They had to lose it to retake it. Now Israeli forces have reentered Gaza to prevent the further launch of Hamas rockets. This is likely a rehearsal for the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:14.

The restoration of Israel, the Philistine areas being reconstituted, and the fact that they have become the focus of international over an invasion which the Bible clearly says will one day happen is evidence that prophetic time is rushing forward, and perhaps one day soon that final invasion by Israel will occur.

Dave Virkler