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Returning to a Home at War

February 29, 2024

Why would someone move to a country at war? In fact, why would someone pack up their life in a prosperous, safe country like the United States or France and relocate to a country facing an evil enemy on the battlefield? There’s more though. What would motivate someone to start over in a country at war that recently had its sovereign border breached by a genocidal terrorist army who massacred over 1,200 people, wounded nearly 5,000 and kidnapped 250 more, only to drag them back to their terror enclave to torture, rape and starve them? Yet during the first ten months of 2023 and throughout three subsequent months of war, 46,687 people from over 37 countries did just that. If you have not yet guessed it, I’m speaking about aliyah (immigration) to Israel.

Although this logic seems to run contrary to reason, it makes perfect sense. Why? Because the Lord is in this. For 2,000 years, Jewish people all over the world have been praying three times a day facing Jerusalem. Every Passover, they declare, “Next Year in Jerusalem!” They holiday in Israel, come to study in Israel, join special trips to reconnect with Israel and follow daily events in Israel. Moreover, millions believe that the Lord is rebuilding Zion and drawing them back to the land because He said He would. In fact, God declared 63 times in the biblical books of the prophets that He would regather His people to the land (for example, Isaiah 11:12 and Ezekiel 36). Why? Because God has never broken His covenant (for instance, Genesis 15 and Psalm 105:7–11) with Israel, His “special treasure” (Deut. 7:6) and the “apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:8). He is forever faithful to His purposes, plans and promises, both to Israel and to us as Christians.

That’s why the logic is rock solid. God is behind this incredible miracle of aliyah. If we learn one major truth from Scripture, it is that when God calls us, we should answer. Think of examples like Abraham, Moses, David, the disciples and the apostle Paul.

God said He would do the impossible. We find one such seemingly impossibility in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones in chapter 37. God gave the prophet a vision, asking whether dead, dry, lifeless bones—which represent the people of Israel—could be given life again. The supernatural climax was stupefying as the bones came together, were covered in flesh and breathed new life, after which the Lord declared, “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel” (Ezek. 37:12b).

Since the modern aliyah movement began in the 1880s, millions of Jews have returned to their ancestral homeland. They have fled persecution and violence, left behind poverty or bid farewell to a comfortable life. They have made the choice to come home to Israel for a myriad of reasons. They have journeyed by ship, airplane or even walked to Israel. From the ashes of the Holocaust or from the streets of London, Paris or New York, Jewish people have responded to the call and yearning of their hearts to plant their feet in Zion, never to be moved again. God is beckoning them to return. He is calling them with a raised banner. As Christians in tune with God’s plan, we see it unfolding before our eyes.

The choice to relocate to a country at war may seem reckless to a world that largely rejects God. However, God moves and works outside of what the world deems as “normal” or “sensible.” Where people often focus on the gods of “safety” or “living in comfort” and “material wealth,” God calls those covenanted to Him to step out of the boat, to be “reckless” by the world’s definition. I believe God often loves to work in the space we call “uncomfortable.”

Within 24 hours of the evil attack by Hamas on the people of Israel on October 7, hundreds and then thousands of Jews began to prepare for aliyah. They eventually took the final step, often leaving behind the comfortable lives they had built to become Israeli, to join the Israel Defense Forces and be a light pushing back the darkness of Hamas.

In Hebrew, the word hamas means “violence.” That is exactly the essence of the terror organization that continues to hold more than 100 Israelis as hostages inside prison cells and terror tunnels, while subjecting the 2 million people of Gaza to an evil ideology.

Bridges for Peace has been operating around the clock to be a light and squelch darkness. We are so encouraged by the thousands of Christians who partner with us to ensure that the light shines all the brighter. We have assisted thousands of Jewish people who have taken the momentous step of moving to Israel, to become part of the people who have experienced the greatest trauma since the end of the Holocaust.

Will you please consider joining our efforts by donating to Project Rescue? We invite you to be a light in the lives of Jewish people who have obeyed God’s instructions and answered His holy call to make Israel their home. Darkness is trying to overcome the light. Will you bend the knee and allow darkness to run rampant? Or will you valiantly choose light (2 Pet. 1:18–20), cry out to God for strength and courage, and join us in helping thousands of Jews return to the land of their ancestors, thus partnering with God’s plan? Choose light! Choose life!

With boldness in this hour of need,

Rev. Peter Fast

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