A Biblical Perspective on Israel Conflict

Biblical Perspective on Israeli Conflict

Selected Scriptures

 Today I want to take a break from what we have been studying to address the current situation in Israel. It is impossible to turn on the news or look at a news feed on your computer or phone and not see the images coming out of Israel. A week ago yesterday, Hamas, a terrorist group operating out of the Gaza Strip, cut through the barriers separating their territory from Israeli towns and villages and they unleashed a brutal attack on Israeli civilians. They killed hundreds of innocent people. There are claims that they beheaded babies. They took over 100 hostages to use as human shields. They retreated back into Gaza, a densely populated area. The Gaza Strip is about 3 miles wide and about 20 miles long. It is situated in the southwestern part of Israel and is bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the south by Egypt. This tiny area has a population of about 2 million people.

 The Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel retreated back into this densely populated area knowing that any retribution on the part of the Israeli military would result in civilian casualties. Hamas has their strongholds positioned in places surrounded by thousands of innocent civilians. The hope of Hamas is that Israel’s retaliation, which will include deaths of civilians that Hamas uses as human shields, brings the ire of the world. The possibility exists that Israel’s response brings other enemies to the fight and the whole thing escalates. 

 Should we worry? Should we be fearful about what is going on? Is this the beginning of the end? Will these events usher in the final battle and bring about the return of Christ? How should we, as followers of Christ, respond to the things going on in Israel today? I want to try to answer some of these questions on your mind today. I don’t like doing this kind of message. I’m not good at them. I’m not an expert on the politics of the Middle East. I’m not an expert on the Israeli/Arab conflict. I don’t do this kind of message often. I just don’t do many messages related to current events, but I wanted to do something on this issue because I know it is on the hearts and minds of many people. We have friends and acquaintances who were in Israel when this attack occurred. There are people who struggle with fear and anxiety over the things happening now. 

So, I thought it would be helpful to look at this situation from a biblical perspective. I’m sure I won’t answer all your questions. My objective today is to just build your confidence in the fact that God is absolutely sovereign over all that is going on in our world. He has this whole situation under complete control. Nothing is happening that has taken Him by surprise. God is orchestrating the events of history towards a perfectly designed end. He makes no mistakes so we can trust that He knows what He is doing. Pray. Pray for the people of Israel, and for the millions of Palestinians who are pawns in the hands of evil terrorists. This is but one chapter in God’s plan. God is working to bring about everything He has said He will do. Not one thing related to His plans and purposes can be thwarted.

 This conflict is yet another manifestation of a battle that has been going on for a lot longer than we know. It did not begin last Saturday. It did not begin when Israel was granted status as a nation in 1948 and given the area where it now exists. It did not even begin with God’s choice of Isaac and not Ishmael, although the roots of Jewish and Arabic conflict can be traced to that point. You should remember that Abraham had two sons, Esau and Isaac. Isaac’s descendants are the people of Israel and the countries surrounding Israel, all of which want Israel to be destroyed, are descendants of Ishmael. This conflict predates the days of Isaac and Ishmael.

 This conflict started somewhere in eternity past. This conflict started when Lucifer’s heart was filled with pride and he determined to overthrow God and usurp God’s position as the Most High. Isaiah 14:12-15 give an account of Satan’s fall from heaven. Jesus referred to verse 12 when He said that He was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Ezekiel 28 also describes the fall of Satan with these words from verses 14-17, “You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned: Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.” 

 The conflict started there, in eternity past, when corruption and pride filled Satan’s heart and he launched an all-out assault on God in heaven. God would have no part of it and cast the devil out of heaven. When Satan was cast out he took about 1/3 of the angelic host with him. He failed in heaven to destroy what God designed for His own glory. The score was God 1, Satan 0. 

 Then the heavens and the earth were created and it was all good. You can read about all that in the first two chapters of Genesis. Guess who showed up to destroy what God created for His glory? You know the story. Satan tempted man and man fell into sin and this did not just affect mankind, it affected all of creation. The cosmic battle scene just shifted from heaven to earth. Satan’s desire is to destroy what God has designed for His glory. Let me say this – Satan never wins, but Satan’s efforts are not without effects and impact. But everything he does God allows. God alone is sovereign.

 Satan shows up to destroy all that God is doing on the earth and this world becomes the theater of the battle between God and Satan. Satan is successful in leading Adam and Eve to sin, but the curse that results proclaims his ultimate defeat. Genesis 3:14-15 God said to the serpent (Satan) “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

 The blow to the head of the Serpent foreshadows the death blow to Satan. He knows he is ultimately defeated and disarmed and destined for eternity in the lake of fire in the end. But he will not go down without a fight. Mankind is now caught up in the great struggle between righteousness and evil, between God and Satan, between the plans of God and the efforts of Satan to destroy the plans of God. If God’s plan is the ultimate destruction of Satan and his evil demons, of course he is going to do everything in his power to thwart those plans.

 The next manifestation of the battle involves the first two children of Adam and Eve. Cain was of the evil one and Abel was a righteous man. Cain murdered Abel and it was Satan’s hope that the righteous lineage would be gone forever. The righteous seed cannot be extinguished because God produces it. God prevailed. God’s plan was not thwarted, even with the first murder. Satan’s score remains at 0.

 Sometime later, as recorded in Genesis 6, Satan sent his evil demons to have relations with the daughters of men so that the human race would become so corrupted that it would be irredeemable. I’m not going to take time to explain all the details of that, but just know that God destroyed the evil offspring of this plot with the Flood. If you are keeping score we are still at Satan zero.

 Satan’s next recorded plot came in Genesis 11 at Babel. Satan motivated mankind to attempt to steal God’s glory with their tower. God responded with confusion of languages and separation of the people and scattering of the people over the face of the earth. God again prevails. His plans and purposes will not be overthrown. Satan fails again.

 In Genesis 12 God calls one man, Abram, and makes a covenant with him. Turn to Genesis 12. This is important. Read verses 1-3. Why is verse 3 important? This is important because God still holds to this. He blesses those who bless Abraham’s descendants. He curses those who curse Abraham’s descendants. We want to be a people who are a blessing to God’s people. 

But it is significant for another reason. If Abram is to be a great nation he needs a descendant. God promised a son. God’s promised son is delayed. Sarah does not have a baby right away. Abraham decides to help God out. He produces a son with Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid. Ishmael is born but he is not the son of the promise. He is sent away and he is sent with a promise from God that God would make him a nation as well. The Jewish people are Isaac’s descendants. Isaac was the son of the promise. The Arabs are descendants of Ishmael. I’m going to come back to the present day tensions between these two.

 Since God’s promise of redemption would come through the seed of the woman and now God singles out one man and his descendants to bless, it is obvious that God’s plan of redemption would happen through the descendants of this man. So, Satan began to conceive of plots to destroy the particular nation of people whom God would use for His plan. When the descendants of Jacob, Isaac’s son, went into Egypt, there were somewhere around 70 of Abraham’s descendants who went to Egypt along with Joseph and his family already there. Acts 7:14 tells us there were 75 in all. 430 years later there were about 2.5 million who came out. There was an explosion of descendants. So prolific was this growth that Pharaoh got concerned. He ordered the two Hebrew midwives to kill the male children. When this didn’t work, he ordered the male Hebrew children to be thrown into the Nile. You know the story of Moses and the deliverance God provided through him. Satan tried to destroy the people of God and thus the plan of God. Again, score a victory for God and another failure for Satan. Are you seeing the pattern here?

 If Satan can wipe out the nation of Israel, he can wipe out God’s entire plan. He can prove that God is not able to fulfill His promises. So the special target of Satan’s hatred has always been Israel. No nation throughout history has suffered the way Israel has suffered. Now, some of that has been chastisement at the hand of God. But the majority of it has been satanically inspired hatred.

 There are many examples we could refer to throughout the history of Israel. Satan was doubtlessly behind the plot of Haman to kill the Jews in the story recorded in the book of Esther. Satan inspired the plot to kill the baby Jesus, using Herod the wicked Roman ruler to slaughter babies after he discovered he had been tricked by the Magi. Satan knew Jesus was the seed of the woman God had promised back in Genesis 3. Satan tempted Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the Temple. He was hoping Jesus would test God and kill Himself. This didn’t work either. Even in Luke 4 the people of Nazareth were offended at the words of Jesus and tried to throw Him off a cliff. Again God prevailed and the results are always the same. Satan still has a big goose egg on the scoreboard. He is getting shut out. God is winning every time.

 Even at the Cross, when Satan thought he was coming out on top, God once again prevailed when Jesus rose victorious from the grave. God’s plans will never be thwarted.

 In A.D. 70, when the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem, an act that was as much God’s judgment as it was Satan’s destructive intent, 1.1 million Jews were slaughtered. In post biblical times the story has gotten even worse. The Jews in Europe were persecuted horribly during the first Crusade in 1095-99. When the crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099 they herded Jerusalem’s Jewish population into a synagogue and burned it to the ground. The Jews not killed in that atrocity were sold into slavery. King Edward I banished Jews from England in 1290. France did the same in 1306. In 1492 Spain did the same thing. Throughout the Middle Ages the Jews were blamed for various natural disasters and even the Black Death, and were savagely persecuted. In Russia in the 1880’s Jews were blamed for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II and for the next 40 years tens of thousands of Jews were killed and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes. Nearly 3 million Jews were killed under the reign of Joseph Stalin. And in the 1930’s when the Nazi’s came to power in Germany over six million Jews were exterminated in German concentration camps.

 Despite thousands of years of relentless persecution, the Jews still exist. You know what is fascinating about their survival as a distinct people with a national identity is the fact that for most of their history they have not lived as a united people in a country of their own. No other people, after being forced to disperse and integrate into other cultures, has retained a unique identity. People forced into other cultures always assimilate into those cultures and their distinctiveness disappears over time. This has not been the case with the Jews. They are a distinct nationality. They are not a separate race. There is only one race and that is the human race. But the Jews have a distinct national identity despite not having a nation to call home for most of their history.

 This is interesting because Satan is a master at offering compromise and erasing distinctives. If you doubt that, just look at what he is doing to erase the distinctives of the church in the world today. He has successfully lured the church to become just like the world. When it comes to the Jewish people, they have remained uniquely distinct, at least for the most part.

 Consider this for a moment. Why is it important that Israel’s distinct national identity be preserved? After all, the Messiah has come. The nation was preserved long enough to keep the Messianic lineage in tact, and Jesus the Messiah was born. So why has God continued to preserve Israel’s distinct national identity for the last 2,000 years? It is because He isn’t finished with them yet.

 God has preserved the nation of Israel because it is ultimately going to be a redeemed people. The nation will be restored. Jesus will come back and reign among this nation, from the throne of David. Israel will look upon Him whom they have pierced and will mourn. They will repent and believe in Jesus as their Messiah. This national restoration spells the end of Satan’s reign on the earth. He is a defeated foe. He knows the final chapter has been written. He can read the Bible just like we can and he knows that his eternal dwelling place is the lake of fire. But he will not go down without a fight. He continues to try to destroy the nation of Israel because if he can destroy God’s people he can deny God the right to execute His complete plan. This will not happen.

 So, there you have a sweeping picture of the history of the battle between good and evil, God and Satan, and how Israel is at the center, in many ways, of that battle. Now, let’s talk about the animosity between the Jews and the Arabs. You need to understand that this tension is not simply a territorial dispute. It is a religious dispute. The tension exists between the Jews and the Arabs because the Arabs are of the Muslim faith. The Muslim faith is Islam. If you understand the basic teachings of Islam, you can understand why it is incompatible with Old Testament theology and certainly the Christian doctrines of the New Testament. These differences are the reasons why Muslims are at odds with both Jews and Christians.

 “Islam is actually a word that means “surrender” or “submission.” Islam claims to be fully surrendered to the will of Allah. The name of the Muslim’s god is Allah. Don’t listen to anyone who tries to tell you that he is the same God as the Christian’s God. The will of Allah, Muslims believe, was revealed through his prophet Mohammed. The revelation is written down in the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Islam was established about 610 A.D.

There are six basic articles of faith in Islam and five duties. A simple Islamic doctrinal statement would look something like this:

Muslims believe that Allah alone is the one true deity. He has neither mother nor father; similarly, he has no sons or daughters. He is not a Trinity; he is not the God of the Old Testament; and he is not the God of Christianity. Allah, according to Islam, is the god of all humanity.

Muslims believe in all the “Messengers and Prophets of Allah.” According to Islamic literature, Allah sent thousands of prophets (Jesus being one), but Mohammed is the greatest of them all.

Muslims believe in “the Revelations and the Koran.” They believe the Koran is the most holy book. Islam also recognizes other sacred writings, including the original manuscripts of the Bible. But Muslims claim that all other holy writings have been corrupted and tainted by translation and copyist errors. Only the Koran is pure, and every word of the Koran is the word of Allah, as given directly to Mohammed.

Muslims believe in the angels of Allah. They believe angels are created beings that have no material or physical needs. Angels require neither food nor drink. The angels are inferior to Allah but superior to humans, and they may be either good or evil.

Muslims believe in a day of judgment. Muslims believe all the dead will be raised to stand trial before Allah, and they will be judged according to their works. It is hoped by most Muslims that if a person follows Islam and does enough good deeds to outweigh the bad, Allah may allow such a person to enter paradise rather than sending that person to hell. But there are no guarantees of this. One’s ultimate destiny is subject solely to the will of Allah. In Islam, there is no atonement for sin or promise of forgiveness, and no assurance of any kind — except for those who die in jihad (holy war). Those people, martyrs, are guaranteed eternal life in paradise.

Muslims also have five duties, known as the pillars of Islam. Islam itself is said to be built on these five “pillars”:

1. The first duty is the recitation of the Islamic declaration of faith, known as the Shahadah.

2. The second duty is prayer five times a day.

3. A third duty is charity (known as Zakat).

4. A fourth duty is the annual fast — actually a month of fasting — called Ramadan.

5. A fifth duty, required of every Muslim at least once in his life (unless it is utterly impossible by some restraint), is a pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hajj.

Islam is fundamentally and irreconcilably opposed to biblical Christianity. Islam teaches that Jesus Christ was a mere man–a prophet, and not God incarnate. Islam also denies that Jesus died on a cross. Obviously, if Christ did not die on the cross, He did not have to rise from the dead; so Islam denies the resurrection, too.

Islam further teaches that no one can have salvation but a Muslim. Even though a Muslim can never know whether he has salvation, only Muslims can have it in the end.

Much more could be said, but clearly, Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Both claim to be the only true way to God. Both cannot be right.

Jewish/Muslim Tensions

 In seventh-century Arabia, principally in the city of Medina, the Prophet Muhammad’s claimed religious and political leadership of the region. Because his new religion was so different from Old Testament scriptures, the Jews rejected his assertion. 

Today, there are two main issues divide contemporary Jews and Muslims. The first is widespread Muslim rejection of Jewish political control over land–in this instance the State of Israel–considered part of dar al-islam, an Arabic term denoting territory that Muslims consider rightfully theirs because of it having once been under their rule. The second issue is Islam’s theological insistence that it has replaced Judaism as God’s favored religious expression because of Jewish transgressions. Islam also claims to have similarly replaced Christianity.

 The most radical factions of the Muslim religion of Islam advocates the death of the infidel. Jews and Christians are infidels because they reject the Koran, Mohammed, and the tenants of Islam. Anyone who rejects Islam is an infidel. Radical Muslims advocate for jihad, or holy war. They believe that the only sure way to eternal paradise, or heaven, is to die as a martyr. It is an honor for them to die for the cause of Allah. 

 The city of Jerusalem is prominent in both Islam and Judaism. The Muslims claim the rights to the city because the entire territory of Israel was once under their control. There is a massive mosque built on the site of the Jewish Temple. This was built somewhere around 700 A.D. The Muslims controlled the area from the 7th century until the 19th century.

 In 1948 the nation of Israel was established. If you remember your world history you know that the League of Nations was established following WWI. This was the first attempt at an organization to regulate international conflict. It was the forerunner to the United Nations. Out of this organization came a mandate for England, who had secured control of this region from the Ottomans, to establish a permanent home for the Jewish people in Palestine. 

 You cannot watch the news without hearing much about the Palestinians. The Palestinians have lived in this area for more than a thousand years. Following WWI many Jews began to migrate back to the region. The hope was that Israel could exist along side the Palestinians in this region. The Jews saw this land as rightfully theirs by design of God. It was their “Promised Land.” The Palestinians see it as rightfully theirs by virtue of their theological superiority, Islam being the only true religion and Jews being among the infidels. The Muslims believe that any region they have ever ruled belongs to them by sovereign right. Both Jews and Muslims claim the area by sovereign right.

 Since the establishment of Israel as a nation there has been conflict after conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians.

• 1948 Arab–Israeli War (November 1947 – July 1949) – Started as 6 months of civil war between Jewish and Arab militias when the mandate period in Palestine was ending and turned into a regular war after the establishment of Israel and the intervention of several Arab armies. In its conclusion, a set of agreements were signed between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, called the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which established the armistice lines between Israel and its neighbours, also known as the Green Line.

• Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency (1950s–1960s) – Palestinian attacks and reprisal operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These actions were in response to constant fedayeen incursions during which Arab guerrillas infiltrated from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan into Israel to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The policy of the reprisal operations was exceptional due to Israel's declared aim of getting a high 'blood cost' among the enemy side which was believed to be necessary in order to deter them from committing future attacks.

• Suez Crisis (October 1956) – A military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel, beginning on 29 October 1956, with the intention to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and to take over the Suez Canal. The attack followed Egypt's decision of 26 July 1956 to nationalize the Suez Canal after the withdrawal of an offer by Britain and the United States to fund the building of the Aswan Dam. Although the Israeli invasion of the Sinai was successful, the United States and USSR forced it to retreat. Even so, Israel managed to re-open the Straits of Tiran and pacified its southern border.

• Six-Day War (June 1967) – Fought between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, and others also contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai and Gaza from Egypt.

• War of Attrition (1967–1970) – A limited war fought between the Israeli military and forces of the Egyptian Republic, the USSR, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1967 to 1970. It was initiated by the Egyptians as a way of recapturing the Sinai from the Israelis, who had been in control of the territory since the mid-1967 Six-Day War. The hostilities ended with a ceasefire signed between the countries in 1970 with frontiers remaining in the same place as when the war began.

• Yom Kippur War (October 1973) – Fought from 6 to 26 October 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel as a way of recapturing part of the territories which they lost to the Israelis back in the Six-Day War. The war began with a surprise joint attack by Egypt and Syria on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria crossed the cease-fire lines in the Sinai and Golan Heights, respectively. Eventually Arab forces in the east were defeated by Israel and there were no significant territorial changes, while the Egyptian forces saw a victory in controlling most of the Suez Canal by the end of the war, and eventually regaining Sinai.

• Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon (1971–1982) – PLO relocate to South Lebanon from Jordan and stage attacks on the Galilee and as a base for international operations. In 1978, Israel launches Operation Litani – the first Israeli large-scale invasion of Lebanon, which was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in order to expel PLO forces from the territory. Continuing ground and rocket attacks, and Israeli retaliations, eventually escalate into the 1982 War.

o 1982 Lebanon War (1982) – Began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon to expel the PLO from the territory. The Government of Israel ordered the invasion as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the Abu Nidal Organization and due to the constant terror attacks on northern Israel made by the Palestinian guerrilla organizations which resided in Lebanon. The war resulted in the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon and created an Israeli Security Zone in southern Lebanon.

• South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) – Nearly 15 years of warfare between the Israel Defense Forces and its Lebanese Christian proxy militias against Lebanese Muslim guerrilla, led by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, within what was defined by Israelis as the "Security Zone" in South Lebanon.

• First Intifada (1987–1993) – First large-scale Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

• Second Intifada (2000–2005) – Second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified violence, which began in late September 2000.

• 2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – Began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah. The operation gradually strengthened, to become a wider confrontation. The principal participants were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006 and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006, when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. The war resulted in a stalemate.

• Gaza War or Operation Cast Lead (December 2008 – January 2009) – Three-week armed conflict between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008–2009. In an escalation of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israel responded to ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip with military force in an action titled "Operation Cast Lead". Israel opened the attack with a surprise air strike on 27 December 2008. Israel's stated aim was to stop such rocket fire from and the import of arms into Gaza. Israeli forces attacked military and civilian targets, police stations, and government buildings in the opening assault. Israel declared an end to the conflict on 18 January and completed its withdrawal on 21 January 2009.

• 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip or Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip.[1]

• 2014 Gaza War or Operation Protective Edge (July–August 2014) – Military offensive on the Gaza Strip as a response to the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the subsequent kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager, and increased rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants.[2]

• Syrian Civil War and the Iran–Israel conflict during the Syrian civil war.

• 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis or Operation Guardian of the Walls (May 2021) – There were riots between Jews and Arabs in Israeli cities. Also Hamas in Gaza sent military rockets into Israel and Iron Dome intercepted most dangerous rockets. Israel attacked targets in Gaza.

• 2023 Israel–Hamas war (October 2023- )

What can we expect going forward? I don’t know how the current situation will turn out. There are two things we can be sure of. Israel will not live in peace, for now. Israel will not be expelled from this region. I know who is in control of not only the current situation, but every situation going on in this world. God is not sitting in heaven wringing His hands and scratching His head trying to figure out what the next move should be. He has written the end of the story. I told you a few weeks ago that God is the only One who can write history before it happens. I showed you how He has done that in the past and He is always 100% correct. There is good reason for believing what God has written in the Bible.

We can count on one thing. Satan will continue to try to destroy the people of God. He will do this because he can read the Bible. He knows the end of the story. He knows that God will redeem the nation of Israel. He knows that Jesus is coming back to rule and reign from His seat on the throne of David. This will be from the city of Jerusalem. Satan knows that if he can wrestle the territory from the Jews and eliminate the Jewish people completely, there will be nothing for God to work with. We have already demonstrated that Satan still has a big goose egg on the scoreboard. He always fails because God always prevails.

Let’s pray.