by Rick Ridings
Watch the video, or read the transcript below.
Yesterday was Monday, the 17th of November, and the UN Security Council passed a resolution recognizing and accepting what is called the Trump peace plan for the Middle East.
On one hand, there’s something very good in that you now have an official UN recognition of this plan, which does call for the total demilitarization of Gaza, of Hamas, and the other jihadist groups. It says that they must be disarmed.
The problem is that it doesn’t say who will disarm them, and it says it needs to be an international force. But realistically, living here, we could say there’s almost 0% chance of success of any group disarming Hamas as a UN-type group or international coalition.
From what we have seen, they are all basically jihadists to the death who would much rather die as a martyr for the cause of jihad Islam than to hand over their arms and be shamed and defeated. So we’re at a very key junction here now.
A Viable Plan for the Palestinian State?
A person on the Trump team mentioned that this was a viable plan toward possible recognition of a Palestinian state. As I understand it, it’s not officially in the document or the original Trump peace plan, but he said this could be a way forward.
So here’s what we believe right now. There’s no viable government that would not be against wiping out Israel. The Palestinian Authority has clearly said this in its founding documents. They are forced to stand against Israel.
The Palestinian Authority was in charge of Gaza in 2005 when Israel pulled out unilaterally for peace. Basically, they said, “We’re just pulling out completely. You can have it.”
They left beautiful green houses that could produce a high income. And very soon, the green houses were torn down, and rocket launching pads were put in their place after Hamas was voted in in 2005 or 2007.
So, the bottom line is that there is no real hopeful peace partner in the Palestinian Authority. Their clear objectives stated in their charters and public statements, especially when it’s in Arabic, are the eradication of the Jews, the eradication of Israel, and that they would completely occupy this land that God has promised in the word to the Jewish people to return home to.
Ongoing Prayers for the Region (Zechariah 9)
So how do we pray right now?
Number one, God spoke to us immediately after the October 7, 2023 massacre. All the brutal things that happened there were way beyond what had happened under the Nazis even. We were led to pray and believe for the total uprooting of groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah.
These terror groups are systems of evil. They’ve oppressed their own people. They’ve almost destroyed their own people in these places, and their main goal is the eradication of Israel.
So we felt God said to pray that they will not just be pruned one more time and then grow back with even more terror tunnels, more terrorists, more weapons, more rockets, but that we should pray that they would be totally uprooted.
So let’s keep praying according for the uprooting of these evil systems and the planting in their place the kingdom of God.
In Succat Hallel this morning, as we were praying for this region in our Isaiah 19 watch, a small team was here from Poland who had been given permission as Christian believers to go in and begin to dispense aid in Gaza next week. They wanted prayer that they would be able to share the gospel of the kingdom of God. So let’s pray for the uprooting of jihadi Islamic groups. Let’s pray for the opening of doors for the kingdom of God.
And then, the second way we’ve been praying for Gaza is through Zechariah 9. Our prayer:
We thank you, God, according to Zechariah 9, that Gaza will lose its king. You will take the forbidden food and blood from between their teeth.
And you said those who survive there, they will become like a clan in the house of Judah, the house of praise. And they will become like the Jebusites who were enemies of King David. And some of them turned and actually militarily beat King David in the establishment of His kingdom.
Jesus, Yeshua, is the son of David. So this is a wonderful promise to proclaim over these people according to Zechariah chapter 9.
Then one more way to pray, and I will pray that right now.
Father, we thank You that when You spoke to us a few months ago, when the newspapers were saying there’s no way to defeat Hamas and to see the living hostages released alive, You told us to pray that you would show Yourself in Your greatness and Your might like You did in the time of Pharaoh who hardened his heart over and over and over.
You gave him so many opportunities, nine plagues. He could have turned. He could have repented.
But when he got to that point of hardening his heart, you released the living hostages, the slaves, the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, even as we recently saw these 20 living hostages miraculously released from Gaza. And we thank you for what you did. But in what you gave us of the story of Moses and Pharaoh, some of the Egyptians believed in the true and living God, the God of Israel, and joined themselves to Israel and were preserved and blessed because they chose the true and the living God.
But then when Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, you drowned Pharaoh and his army in the sea.
So we look to you, oh Lord, to work circumstances in such a way that Pharaoh’s heart either repents or is hardened. And if it is hardened that all under this Pharaoh’s spirit would be destroyed and eradicated even as you did with Pharaoh and his army.
And those we pray there will be those like the people of Egypt who saw the wonders of God and joined themselves to the true and living God, the God of Israel. So we pray you’ll do that as well.
So we look to you, God. Only you can take this very complicated, impossible situation and do something that is great and glorifies your name and honors your word, for Gaza’s evil king to be destroyed and for the Gazans that are left to become like a clan in the tribe of Judah.
May your kingdom come. May your will be done in Gaza, here in Israel, here in the Middle East, as it is in heaven. In the name of Yeshua. Amen.