Mt. Carmel, Israel

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Shalom everyone,

Blessings to each of you from what was a dry and thirsty Israel

This winter has been a record drought not seen before. We thought we were finished with the rains, as little as there was over this dry winter, but on Wednesday evening God opened the heavens and refreshed the land with an abundant rainfall. The rain was forecast for several days, but at the same time it is evident that Spring has arrived, with the beautiful colors of the wild flowers carpeting the mountaintops and valleys.

59 hostages are still in captivity

The nation continues to reel in anger and agony for our hostages who are still in captivity. They are no doubt even more vulnerable now in the hands of their captors, as the ceasefire has ended, and the Israel Defense Force has resumed air and ground attacks on Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. These two terror groups in the Gaza strip are still holding 59 hostages. This includes 24 believed to be alive and the bodies of 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. The military’s main focus is on seeing all of the remaining hostages returned together returned and Hamas removed from power in Gaza.

2025 - A year of war?

It looks like the way forward will be a repeat of the initiatives from the past 18 months to evacuate Gazan citizens so the IDF can resume targeting Hamas leaders and rebuilt weapons stores, rocket launching positions, terror cells and other terror infrastructure. As always, some of the few innocent Gazans will get caught up in the warfare, and Israel will be rebuked by the nations.

Israel is warning Hamas, with the backing of President Trump, that there will be total ruin and destruction, if they don’t return all of the hostages. Israel will operate with strength that they have not seen before. The new IDF Chief of Staff declared 2025 to be a year of war. So we put our seat belts once again and brace for what is ahead for us. The center of the country has been targeted over the last few days by Houthi ballistic missiles and rockets from Gaza, which were successfully intercepted by Israel’s defense system but at the same time sent millions rushing to their safety rooms both in the very early hours of the morning and in the middle of the work and school day.

In the north, Israel continues to target Hezbollah terrorists moving rockets and other munitions in the south of Lebanon, and the situation in Syria also remains unstable with the new Jihadi government beginning to show their true colors. Israel has attacked remaining pro-Assad cells and bunkers near and around Damascus in an attempt to prevent weapons and know-how to fall to the Jihadi operatives.

Golan Heights, Mt. Hermon and Syria

“Let My people go!”

As we prepare to celebrate Pesach (Passover) in a few weeks, I am reminded of this famous supernatural event, and how in so many ways it matches what is happening right now in Israel.

Moses stood before Pharaoh many times, requesting to let God’s people go free from captivity, but he defiantly and stubbornly determined to refused. There were consequences as we all remember from this story. Each plague got more intense and the outcome more severe.

Israel continues to go before Hamas and their proxies, and declare, “Let our people go!” However, like Pharaoh, they remain defiant and stubborn. So there will be consequences. The Prime Minister and military leaders are threatening that the force of Israel’s military will be far more severe than the last 18 months of military operations.

What will it take? What did it take Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go? We know the story. Even after he let them go, he changed his mind and led his army after them to try and take them back into captivity. His fate and the fate of the Egyptian army was total destruction.

Exodus 14:24-25: "And it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He [ troubled the army of the Egyptians. And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty, and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Let us pray

This is an arduous battle and can only be won with the help of the God of Israel, the Lord of the armies, Adonai Tzevaot.

Let us pray for God to give out military leaders and the armed forces the strength and power that the God of Israel promised He would give in Psalm 29:11.

Let us pray that the eyes of our enemies will be opened to see the power of the God of Israel, moving and working for the people of Israel in tangible powerful manifestations, and they (our enemies) too will say "Let us flee from the Israelites, for we see the their God fights for them against us."

Let us pray that the God of Israel will confuse, trouble and interfere with the plans of our enemies which seek to come against us. Notice in the scripture verse above, it says “in the morning watch, the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians.” God’s eyes are everywhere’ but especially looking down on Israel, as well as looking down upon all of our enemies. His eyes are on this vineyard that He calls “Israel.”
"Look from heaven upon this vineyard and visit this vine, the vineyard Your right hand has planted." (Psalm 80:14)

Let us pray for our hostages to continue to be preserved and protected, and the mouths of their captors will be shut, and the hands of their captors to be frozen. If the God of Israel can preserve and protect a man surrounded by hungry lions, let us believe He will preserve and protect those 24 still left alive in captivity in Gaza.

Intercession is powerful and effective, it makes a difference. We have seen and heard the fruit of the global intercession, as we have read and heard a growing number of testimonies from our returned hostages.

Shabbat shalom, Josie

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