Israel-Gaza: There’s only one solution

The terrible bloodshed in Israel and the Gaza Strip has accelerated the Last Days chatter among many Evangelical Christians in the U.S. My mother, for example, is a 91-year-old believer with a deep faith, and she is constantly talking about the End Times and the return of Jesus to the earth. I tell her, “Mom, you may be right.”

Is the Israel-Gaza war a pivotal moment in the biblical End Times drama? None of us can know for sure. But this I can say — there is only one solution to this crisis, and his name is Jesus.

I’ve worked in media ministry in the Middle East for many years, often amid wars and conflicts in many countries in the region. In the face of catastrophes, I’ve seen a pattern emerge. People across the Middle East are desperate for real hope. Not just physical aid, but something much deeper. Spiritual hope.

Right now, our Middle East-based Christian multimedia ministry SAT-7 (www.sat7usa.org) is broadcasting live 24/7 across the region, including the Holy Land — reaching people via satellite television, online streaming, and social media in regional languages.

We take to heart the call of the prophet Isaiah: “‘Comfort, comfort my people’, says your God. ‘With gentle words, tender and kind’” (Isaiah 40:1-2). Our local presenters understand what their audience is facing right now, whether that’s war, hopelessness, loneliness or bereavement. In a crisis, people are even more dependent on social media and our platforms are always open for real-time conversation, encouragement, and prayer.

Strength for isolated believers

Everywhere, God has his remnant. In both Israel and Gaza, there are isolated believers living their faith in secret among the non-Christian majority. Many of them fear what will happen to them if they’re discovered. Even now, SAT-7 staff are encouraging these believers through our social media channels, strengthening them spiritually amid the heartache now and for the struggles to come.

We address the difficult questions — “Why did my spouse die?” “Why am I suffering like this?” “Does God really care?”

Many people are questioning how Israel didn’t see this coming. In the midst of the chaos, we’re able to reassure viewers that God has not been caught off guard. His heart and purpose remain constant: to seek and to save every person, in every tribe, in every nation.

While humankind tries — and repeatedly fails — to solve its problems without acknowledging God, with poetic poignancy the biblical prophet Jeremiah tells us what God said: “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:13).

Jeremiah reminds us that, without God, humankind gropes around in the dark, looking for answers but not finding any. In critical moments like this, we often hear politicians calling for peace, making statements that may sound good but lack real substance. Words alone are hollow when they have nothing to back them up and don’t look to God. They’re like “broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Only Jesus has the “spring of living water.” Only he has the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis because only Jesus is capable of transforming hearts, lives, and — ultimately — nations.

Making Jesus visible

At SAT-7, our mission is to make Jesus visible to all those in the Holy Land and across the Middle East so they might discover that he is the solution they’re searching for.

If the tragic events in Israel and Gaza are indeed part of what Jesus describes as the “beginning of birth pains” (Matt. 24:8), the biblical End Times could be unfolding before our eyes.

And that means sharing the Gospel with others — and making Jesus visible to them — should be the driving passion of all his followers in these Last Days.