It finally happened. The war in Gaza ended, and the headlines declared that all 20 remaining living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza. There they were, the photos of families reuniting, tears streaming, hugs that looked like they’d never let go. President Trump, fresh off signing the peace deal at the Egypt summit with el-Sisi beaming beside him, was promoting the success. It was the first phase of his big Gaza plan: hostages for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, a halt to the fighting, and whispers of aid trucks finally rolling in without the usual drama. Even the bodies of 28 dead Israelis were coming home, a bittersweet footnote to the chaos that started two years ago on October 7.
I wonder… how do you see this? Some are touting this ceasefire as though this is the end of all middle east conflict, that finally after decades of fighting there is now an everlasting peace in the middle east. But it feels a bit more like a crack of light in a very dark room to me. I tend to agree with the pundits who say that this peace is “fragile” at best, with Hamas already grumbling about phase two and Israeli hardliners eyeing the horizon for the next spark. Trump’s touting it as his masterstroke, but I can’t help wondering: Is this real peace, or just a timeout before the next round?
For me, I start to think about what the Writings tell us about wars in general. One of the things that we’re supposed to learn from the Writings is how important it is to take a longer view of things. While the world can feel like quite a mess when defined by the news soundbites of the day, part – a big part – of our faith is the God is in control and is leading us all to a good end. In Divine Providence, we’re told straight up that, “Spiritual-minded people realize that the Lord is governing wars in this world by his divine providence” (DP 251). You do want to be “spiritual-minded,” right? That same passage tells us that “unless evils were allowed to surface, we would not see them and therefore would not admit to them; so we could not be induced to resist them.” So are we to celebrate the end of the war and new peace by saying, “See, it’s all fine, the Lord had it all under control from the start. Evils have to be seen in order to be dealt with. Good things are now going to come out of this.”
Yes… but… you see, it says we have to see them so we can admit to them, and therefore resist, and I’m not convinced that either side has really admitted to anything. The situation feels to me more like Ulysses tying himself to the mast of the ship so he won’t be seduced by the sirens than a person or country that has been rehabilitated to the point that they no longer incline to their previous ways. Ulysses is basically a dry drunk: he wants to hear that forbidden song, but he’s forcing himself to do what is right. Do you think Israel and Hamas have actually changed their internal ideology? Or have they just realized that they’ve taken this as far as they can? That same passage says that the Lord will interfere, and wars “are suppressed only at the end, when the power of one side or the other has become so weak that there is a threat of extinction.” Was one side under the threat of extinction? I find that believable.
It’s a tough pill to be this cynical, isn’t it? I much prefer being the optimist, but this situation just brings out the skeptic in me. I mean, watching those hostage families—faces etched with two years of what-ifs—it’s easy to think “It’s finally over!” I want to think that the reason that this war ended is because they have learned some important lesson, but it seems more likely to me that the Lord interfered and ended this war because He finally had to.
If you’re looking for some sort of Writings-backed consolation to this situation, I think you have to reframe the war as something not of this world, but rather as an effect of something happening in the spiritual world.
Wars in our own times, wherever they occur, portray [states of the church in heaven and are corresponding images]. Everything that happens in this physical world is in response to something that is happening in the spiritual world, and everything spiritual involves the church. In this world, no one knows what countries in Christendom are the equivalents of the Moabites and the Ammonites, the Syrians and the Philistines, the Chaldeans and the Assyrians, and the other nations against whom the Israelites waged war, but their equivalents do exist. We in this physical world are absolutely incapable of seeing what the quality of the earthly church is, and which are the particular evils it has given way to, for which it is suffering the punishments of war. (ibid)
I think this passage can give us the perspective that what we’ve witnessed over the last couple of years isn’t just a war between Hamas and Israel, but is rather a symptom of something bigger. The earthly church has failed in some major way, and so war erupts. Can we go so far as to say that they didn’t even have a choice but to fight it? It almost seems that way, but it sure puts some additional pressure and urgency on our evangelization efforts!
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. As always, the real issue is that we have to change human hearts, and it just doesn’t happen quickly. I think what we have to remember is that Providence says that all of this is no accident —the Lord’s been tilling this ground for ages, waiting for the moment when hearts align just enough for light to break through. Are we there yet? I don’t think so. Hell doesn’t release easy; it lingers in the pushback and the unhealed wounds. So while the ceasefire stops the war, it doesn’t eradicate the reason for it. In the end that quote from Divine Providence says it all to me: yes, we have seen the evil, but have they admitted them and now induced to resist? Maybe you’re more optimistic than me, but I wouldn’t bet on it.