A new day for Gaza: Praying into the possibilities

Over 500 days have passed of Israel’s full scale war with Hamas, not to mention Hezbollah, as well as ongoing contention with the Houthis and especially, Iran. It’s a sobering reality, but there is hope. A new future for Gaza may be on the horizon, one filled with fresh possibilities.

President Trump threatened that “all hell” would “break loose” against Hamas if all the hostages were not released on February 15. All the hostages were not all released, and all hell did not break loose.

As of now, we can only speculate why. Surely Israeli majority opinion demanding the captives’ return (alive) played a role, among other factors, in PM Netanyahu’s decision not to order a widespread attack. Netanyahu also announced that timing of any attack is strategic, relates to broader plans concerning Iran, and that “hell” still awaits.

Other than “hell,” what good might be in store for Gaza? And how can we effectively pray into it? A brief glance at history is instructive.

To go forward into the future, we can learn from Gaza’s past, millennia-long history

A moderately detailed, online search of the known history of Gaza indicates it has been inhabited since at least approximately 1500 BC, and quite possibly much earlier. The area has been ruled by the Avim (of unknown origin), Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, possibly Cretans, and others. A good sized Christian presence was established in Gaza by the 3rd century, alongside strong pagan forms of worship that ran deep and have probably never been uprooted.

In the 7th century, Gaza fell to Islamic expansion under the vast Rashidun Caliphate. Much of its Christian community was obliterated.

Through history, Gaza has been destroyed over and again, if not by military conquest, then by natural means such as floods, earthquakes and at least two plagues. Although Gaza has enjoyed brief periods of peace and prosperity, particularly under Christian Byzantine rule, some historical sources say it never truly prospered or flourished as a stable, freedom loving entity for any significant period of time. (As is often the case with ancient history, some of the data are mixed.)

In the early 1500’s, Gaza fell to the Islamic Ottoman Empire for 400 years. In 1917, General Allenby liberated (or conquered) Gaza during World War I on behalf of Great Britain. Gaza then remained part of the British Mandate until the mandate ended in 1948 and Israel’s War of Independence began. In 1949, under international armistice agreements intended to end the war, Gaza officially came under Egyptian military rule (aka occupation).

Gaza quickly morphed into a refugee camp for Arabs who had fled Israel during the War of Independence. (Israel did not evict them; Muslim leaders had told or ordered them to flee. Israel quickly tried to find an Arab or Egyptian leader with whom to negotiate for the refugees’ return and repatriation into the Jewish state. But none would negotiate with the “Zionist entity.” Negotiating, they said, would amount to recognizing Israel’s existence, which they had vowed never to do. Meanwhile, Muslim states refused to absorb them.)

Egypt never officially annexed Gaza, but loosely governed it until 1967, when Israel acquired it in the Six Day War. With no Arab leader willing to negotiate for the refugees in Gaza to return, the displaced population grew violently enraged and susceptible to jihadi Islam. Due to ever mounting terror from Gaza, Israel tried to encourage emigration and resettlement of its population elsewhere. But those efforts were unsuccessful. Eventually Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Strip in 2005, forcibly removing all Jewish communities still existing there. Notably, those communities were prosperous, thriving and living peaceably–except for the terror.

When Israel left Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (Fatah) assumed loose administrative control over it. But the PA encountered insurmountable resistance from Hamas. Ongoing internal strife between the two led to an ostensibly democratic election in 2007. Gazans voted in a Hamas-led government and Hamas promptly expelled the PA. (Gazans were presumably aware that a key tenet of Hamas, as stated plainly in that group’s founding charter, is its goal to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.)

From this history, we can fairly conclude the only people groups still alive who could be considered indigenous to Gaza are Egyptians and Jews. Egypt has repeatedly refused to take responsibility or stake claim to Gaza, leaving just us Jews.

Why has Gaza seemingly never experienced any lengthy period of genuine stability, prosperity and domestic tranquility, at least since biblical times?

According to Scripture, Gaza is land which God promised to the Jews, specifically to the tribe of Judah. (Genesis 15:18-21, Joshua 1:4; 15:45-47, Numbers 34:6, Ezekiel 47:19-20) Therefore, the area will probably never truly flourish until Jewish people inhabit and govern it — at least to a significant degree.

Recall that for nearly 2,000 years, the land of Israel lay mostly barren and uninhabitable. During that time, a small population of Arab nomads and farmers, as well as a steady remnant of Jews, continued living there. Not until God regathered the Jewish people en masse in the 20th century did the land revive and the nation flourish.

It is conceivable that President Trump could, with divine inspiration, devise a plan whereby he or the US or a conglomerate of freedom loving nations would hold Gaza in a type of international trust. In such a scenario, with a strong Jewish presence and significant level of Jewish governance, Gaza might flourish. A time must come when Israel essentially inherits the trust, inhabiting and governing Gaza. This may not fully occur until after Yeshua returns. But it could transpire, at least in part, before then.

Notably, the name “Gaza” in Hebrew, means “Strong.” Samson, who was known for supernatural physical strength, was imprisoned in Gaza and died there in a heroic form of battle. Although Gaza was allotted to the tribe of Judah, the ancient Israelites were never able to conquer it.

Could it be there is something highly strategic about this strong hold? Could it also be that a strong Christian presence, perhaps through an influx of evangelist- missionaries, is needed to take such a stronghold for God’s end time purposes?

What do the Scriptures say about Gaza — according to precise translations of the Hebrew text – and how should we pray into those Scriptures?

Below are the main Scripture references to Gaza. Prayer points listed under them are intended merely as a guide. It is always best to declare the Scriptures themselves.

Amos 1:6-7 “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because they took captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. But I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour its palaces. I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God.” (NKJV)

• Prayerfully declare that God execute His justice on Hamas, ie., His judgment on those who refuse to repent for cursing Israel and viciously kidnapping and holding captive innocent Jews and others.

• Prayerfully declare that He will send consuming fire on the walls of Gaza: his holy, refiner’s fire of love-driven justice, cleansing the area unto spiritual and physical revival.

• Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth evangelist laborers into the harvest fields of Gaza, especially Muslim background believers from the Middle East.

Zephaniah 2:4-5 “Gaza will be abandoned …. Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites [probably ancient Gazans]. The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines: And I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitant.” (NASB)

• Prayerfully declare that God will remove all those from Gaza He desires to remove. Pray that those who remain will turn from Islam to Jesus.

Ezekiel 25:16 “I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon them.” (NKJV)

• Prayerfully declare that God stretch out His hand with holy vengeance to cut off Hamas and other unrepentant Gazans so that Gaza will know YHVH is God.

Zechariah 9:5-7 “Gaza too will writhe in great pain…. the king shall perish from Gaza…. I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will remove their blood from their mouth and their detestable things from between their teeth. Then they also will be a remnant for our God, and be like a clan in Judah. (NASB)

• Prayerfully declare that Gaza’s king will perish. (To an important extent, this happened when Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders were killed. But a weakened Hamas still rules and reigns in Gaza. The ultimate “king” of Gaza to be dis-empowered and evicted is a spiritual stronghold.)

• Prayerfully declare that God cut off the pride of Gaza and all those who deceptively identify with or as the Philistines; that the blood be removed from their mouths and detestable things from between their teeth.

• Prayerfully declare that those who remain in Gaza will be a remnant for YHVH, and like a clan in Judah, the tribe He assigned to Gaza.

Zechariah 9:11-14 “As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set forth your prisoners out of the pit where there is no water. Return to the fortress, you prisoners of the hope; today I declare that I will restore double to you. For I have bent Judah, My bow, have fitted the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Javan [Greece], and made you like the sword of a mighty man. And the Lord shall be seen over them, and His arrow shall go forth like the lightning, and the Lord God will blow the shofar and shall move in stormy winds of the south.” (Tanach Bible Online, AA Rosenbaum Services Ltd. and Redlex)

• Prayerfully declare the atoning, covenant blood of Yeshua over the hostages for their release and for their full, even double, restoration.

• Prayerfully declare that God continue to use Judah (and all Israel) as His weapon against the “sons of Greece,” ie, the humanist spirit of this age.

• Prayerfully declare that God go forth in battle as lightning, blowing heaven’s shofar and moving in “stormy winds of the south.” (To an important degree this has happened through Operation Swords of Iron, but until Hamas is removed from Gaza and disabled, the war is not over.)

Numerous other Scriptures that are not specific to Gaza are also relevant, reflect God’s character of justice, and can be prayerfully declared, such as:

“The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tent of the upright will flourish.” (Proverbs 14:11)

“Endless ruin has overtaken the enemy; You have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them is perished.” (Psalm 9:6)

A fuller list of relevant Scriptures is posted on our web site.

A final note ….

Chapters 36 through 38 of Ezekiel indicate that in the last days, Israel will be supernaturally restored to her land, then to her Lord. It has been our joy to prayerfully watch many of these prophesied realities unfold.

Eventually, however, an apocalyptic, end times battle takes place as described in Chapters 38-39. This happens, apparently, when Israel is living in peace, in a land of secure, unwalled villages or population center (38:11-13). At that appointed time a broad coalition of nations attacks her. But YHVH is the One who initiates the assault, for the sake of His glory, as He executes judgment on His enemies (38:4; 39:1-2). “I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself and Make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.” (38:23, NASB 1995)

Reading the Ezekiel passage alongside other prophetic Scriptures, it could be that a restoration of Gaza may be used in the future by forces associated with a coming antichrist. Is this reason, then, to resist the restoration of Gaza?  We think not!

We believe God wants to set Gazans free, along with multitudes of other Muslims in the region, to know His love and salvation before a period of end times tribulation visits the earth. We believe He desires to reap a great harvest of souls across the Middle East, giving all an opportunity to surrender to His goodness.

For that, we labor in faith, hope and love, sustained by His mercy and grace.