House of Hope Online

May 5, 2024

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Last time, we talked about the expression, “Lord of hosts,” a term used to describe God many times in the Bible, but especially in the Old Testament when the prophets were expressing the word of the Lord.  The Hebrew word for “hosts” means a mass of people organized for war, that is, an army of soldiers waiting for warfare.  Therefore, the expression is referring to Jesus’ role as Sovereign King over us in these end times, the One who directs us in spiritual warfare.

We said last time our job is to be the mass of people organized for spiritual warfare as directed by the Lord of hosts.  It is not our job to put an end to the evil of this world.  It is not our job to rationalize sin and re-write the Law of God and the commands of Jesus in the name of inclusion.  Rather, we are to wait on instructions from Him, and we are to pray when He tells us to intercede.  In the Great Commission, the Lord of Hosts told us to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins and to make disciples in all nations.  We must keep the desires of the Lord of hosts at the forefront of our purpose in these end days.

We find ourselves today faced with the Israeli-Hamas war centered in the Gaza Strip area of Israel.  While the war causes great emotions to be stirred within us, we must remain sober to hear what the Lord of hosts is commanding us, the mass of people organized for war.

Gaza is a small strip of coastal land located in the corner of Israel that borders against Egypt.  It measures only 6 miles wide and 25 miles long.  The area is controlled by Hamas, an Islamic political and military organization which is designated as a terrorist group by nine nations, including the U.S., Israel, the UK, the European Union, Australia, and Canada.  Allies of Hamas include Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah, a terrorist group which threatens Israel from the north in Lebanon.  In its first charter dated August 1988, Hamas stated that Israel should be eliminated through a “clash with the enemies.”

In 2006, Hamas won a Palestinian election giving it control of Gaza Strip in 2007.  There have been multiple wars with Israel since, including the current war, which began as an unprovoked attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Today in the U.S., we find an increasing number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.  We also find supporters of Palestine within the government of the United States.  Such proponents of the Palestine cause look past Hamas’ original charter and claim that Israel is wrongfully occupying land, which is catastrophic to the Arab and Islamic nation.

What Does the Lord of Hosts Say?

So as part of the army organized by the Lord of hosts, how should we approach this debate?  What is so important about this small strip of land?  And, more importantly, what does the word of the Lord say about it?

Let us start by reviewing Old Testament Scripture.  Genesis 12 documents God’s promise to Abraham to make Israel a great nation.

Genesis 12:

 1 ¶ Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;

 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing;

 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (NASB)

The right of Israel to exist as a nation and a people was established by God in verse 2.  Therefore, any nation who stands against Israel as a nation does so in violation of the word of God. 

Please take note of verse 3 – those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse her will themselves be cursed.  As a member of the army of the Lord of hosts, I choose to bless Israel in accordance with the word.

Genesis 15:

 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates–

 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (NIV)

In their book, “What’s Next? Israel-Gaza War,” co-authors Jimmy Evans and Mark Hitchcock assert that the land delineated in Genesis 15:18-21, which was given by God to Abraham and his descendants, includes Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Lebanon, Syria, and a substantial portion of Iraq[i].  This gifted area is much larger than present day Israel and, therefore, any claims that Israel is wrongfully occupying Palestinian land run counter to the word of God.  It is good for the army of the Lord of hosts to know that.

Ishmael: The Child of the Flesh

The origins of Islam and the unbelieving tendency of Arab nations point back to Abraham and his wife, Sarah.  God had promised children to Abraham, and the couple gave birth to Isaac when Abraham was 100 years old.   However, before Isaac was born, Sarah got impatient with her barrenness and gave her slave, Hagar, to Abraham and instructed him to have relations with her so they could have a son.  Abraham and Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Genesis 16 tells us that Ishmael would be wild and would be against everyone, and everyone would be against him.  In Galatians 4, Paul writes that Ishmael would persecute Christians, and that would continue. In my opinion, both passages are prophecies of today’s terrorist war.

Genesis 16:

 11 The angel of the LORD said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.

 12 “And he will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand [will be] against everyone, And everyone’s hand [will be] against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

Isaac is known in the Bible as the child of the promise and a child of the Spirit because His conception was a miracle that God promised despite Abraham’s and Sarah’s advanced age.  Isaac’s bloodline led through King David and eventually to Jesus Christ, who also represented a miracle birth.

Ishmael is known as the child of the flesh (or child of the bondservant) because Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands instead of waiting on God’s promise of children.  Verse 12 says he will be a wild man who is against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him.  He will live to the east of his brothers, meaning that he would not be part of the promised land.

The Jewish people, and those of us grafted in by Jesus, are children of the promise.  The unbelieving Arab nations are children of the bondservant, and the clash between the two peoples continues today.

Galatians 4:

 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman.

 23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

Galatians 4:

 28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.

 29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him [who was born] according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

 30 But what does the Scripture say? “CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN.”

 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free woman. (NASB)

Even though verse 29 makes clear that the descendants of Ishmael would persecute Jews and Christians even today, Paul’s words should not be interpreted to mean that God despised Ishmael and Hagar.  Hagar and Ishmael were cast out by Sarah after Isaac was born, because she saw Ishmael mocking the son of the promise.  Abraham was distressed because he loved Ishmael, but God told him to listen to Sarah.  Paul’s point is only that we are children of the Spirit of God, and Ishmael was conceived in the flesh.  Even though Ishmael is not the child of the promise, God and Abraham nevertheless loved Ishmael and Hagar, as illustrated in Genesis 21:

Genesis 21:

  9 ¶ Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”

 11 And the matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.

 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

 13 “And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.”

14 ¶ So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave [them] to Hagar, putting [them] on her shoulder, and [gave her] the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

 15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she left the boy under one of the bushes.

 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.

 17 And God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

 18 “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand; for I will make a great nation of him.”

 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.

 20 And God was with the lad, and he grew; and he lived in the wilderness, and became an archer.

 21 And he lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

God’s love for Hagar and Ishmael is significant because it illustrates His grace toward us even when our predicament is due to sin, or failure to wait on God’s promise.  The point is, we should not despise the Muslim.  At the same time, we cannot accommodate Islam because it clearly is an antichrist religion.  Instead, we should pray for their salvation through conversion to Christianity, just as we should pray for Jews who have yet to receive Jesus Christ.

Pray for Israel

As part of the end times army, we are called to pray for Israel as well as her enemies.  While the word of God requires us to support Israel, we must remember that many of God’s people have not yet accepted Jesus as Messiah, something they must do in order to be saved.  The Apostle Paul urges us in Romans 9 and 10 to pray for Jews to receive Jesus.

Romans 9:

 30 ¶ What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;

 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law.

 32 Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

 33 just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Romans 10:

 1 ¶ Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for [their] salvation.

 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Pray for Gaza and Israel’s Enemies

As we saw the compassion of Abraham and God toward Ishmael, we are duty bound to pray for those who have not yet come to the knowledge of the truth.  Paul wrote in 1^st Timothy 2 that God desires that all would be saved.

1^st Timothy 2:

 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 5 For there is one God, [and] one mediator also between God and men, [the] man Christ Jesus,

 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony [borne] at the proper time.

In Luke 24:47 Jesus, the Lord of hosts, said that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  In Matthew 28:19-20 He said “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…”

Note in both passages, Jesus refers to all the nations.  We are to pray for those who are on the wrong side of the war.  We are to pray for those who desire to eliminate the nation of Israel, and even those who practice antisemitism and seek to eliminate Jews from the face of the earth.

There is an interesting story in Acts 8 about Philip, who listened to the Spirit of the Lord and spread the Gospel to a nonbeliever.  Philip had just received the Holy Spirit after preaching in Samaria and was on his way back to Jerusalem, when the Lord spoke to him and said he should turn around and go south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.  There he met a high-ranking Ethiopian official who was trying to understand the Book of Isaiah.  The Holy Spirit directed Philip to explain the scripture and to preach the Gospel.

Acts 8:

  35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.

Philip was new to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, yet he obediently changed direction  and made a disciple of another nation. 

As we pray and contemplate the Israel-Gaza war, may we be sensitive to the human tragedy unfolding, and may we understand the possibility that it may be lead to a significant, prophesied, end time event.  Let Philip be an example to us.  Let us be sensitive to the urging of the Holy Spirit and be willing to change direction to preach Jesus to all the nations.

Let us pray.

Father God, thank You for making us children of the promise while teaching us to have compassion for the children of the flesh.  We pray that the Lord of hosts would guide and direct us by the Holy Spirit to intercede for an awakening among the unsaved Jewish people, the Palestinians, and all the nations of the world.  Quicken us as you did Philip on the road to Gaza.  We trust your promises, Your prophecies, and Your refuge.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.

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[i] Jimmy Evans and Mark Hitchcock, What’s Next? Israel-Gaza War, (Southlake, TX: Tipping Point Press, 2023), p. 30.