WATCH Update on Iran attack - and Rosh Hashanah "celebration"
Tonight, we will “celebrate” the new year. But no one will actually be celebrating. There are reasons to be happy in Israel: Iran failed in their mission to kill scores of Jewish people last night; the leader of Hezbollah, the largest terrorist group in the world, is gone, leaving the network in disarray; and Hamas is no longer operating as an army.
Nevertheless, in six days, we will be commemorating October 7—the black Shabbat—when 1,200 Israelis were murdered and over 250 were taken into captivity in Gaza. I remember those first days. We were shattered—stunned. We spent the first week in tears. The more we learned, the more we grieved. We kept expecting to wake up from a dream and find it out it wasn’t real. But it was.
To this day, there are many unanswered questions about how such an intelligence failure could’ve occurred. The past few weeks in Lebanon have shown what intelligence agencies are capable of. How could we have become so lazy with a terrorist organization bent on our destruction preparing to attack on our southern border?
But here we are on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Many of you know it’s not actually a new year. The biblical name is Yom Teruah—“The Feast of Trumpets.” And it points to the coming Messianic Age. We know from the new covenant that the trumpet will sound (1 Thes 4:16, we will be changed (1 Cor 15:51-52), and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God (Rev 11:15). While we grieve now, we will find joy then
“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)
As the shofar sounds, let us long for the age to come.
