10/13/2025
A Prayerful Note: Hostage Returns and Deep Reflections
October 13, 2025 โ Good news, tempered by sorrow, marks this significant day. As we rejoice deeply today at the return of 20 hostages alive, making a total of 168 alive returns, it serves as a beacon for many families who have carried profound grief since October 7, 2023, when 251 were taken.
The Returns: Joy and Numbers
Across multiple exchanges, 58 bodies have been previously recovered, and broader estimates indicate roughly 75 perished in captivity. The recent agreement reportedly resulted in the release of approximately 1,718 Palestinian prisoners, plus around 250 serving life sentences (totaling over 1,900).
A Day of Spiritual Significance
Today also marks Shemini Atzeret, the last great day of the feast, a day for profound reflection. It echoes the time when Yeshua stood and declared, "Let him who thirsts come to me... let's go and drink of Him," so that we may receive wisdom, power, and living water for our generation.
As we rejoice in this eighth night of Sukkot, which is also Simchat Torahโthe night of rejoicing in the Torah and God's Lawโthere is now real cause for dancing.
Gratitude and Hope
The posters of the hostages, which hung on many walls as a daily prayerful reminder, are now being taken down. We are thankful and grateful for the American government and everyone involved in securing their return, bringing great joy all over Israel.
Sorrow's Shadow: Those Not Returning
However, our joy is interwoven with great sadness. There is immense sorrow for those who now realize, irrevocably, that their loved ones, for whom they hoped, will not be returning alive.
We grieve with those whose loved ones returned as corpses in previous deals, and for those whose loved ones, having returned, could not withstand the pain and took their own lives, leading to secondary and tertiary ways of su***de.
Complex Sadness for Palestinians
There's also profound sadness for many Palestinians. With approximately 35% of the population in Gaza being children under 12, we pray they areโand hope to God we are rightโthe most innocent victims there; the only ones, in our minds, who could be considered truly innocent.
We have witnessed large portions of society there supporting Hamas for many years, supporting them in word and action, and rejoicing when October 7th and other attacks took place.
Concerning Chants and Releases
We are also not rejoicing that about 2,000 militants with literal blood on their hands have also been released under this deal. Nor are we rejoicing to hear the chants often misinterpreted in the West.
Many believe these chants signify joy for a ceasefire. However, they are actually chanting "Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud," which historically recalls Muhammad's victory against a Jewish settlement in the 7th century. They are also chanting and referring to this as a "Hudna," an Arabic word, and mentioning the "Quraysh agreement" or "Quraysh treaty."
These are cited here for historical and situational clarity; they are not endorsements. This refers to a temporary, purposeful, calculated ceasefire intended to gain victory and continue their activities.
The Red Cross: A Disturbing Failure
We must also record what was witnessed at the scene: the Red Cross initially received the returnees and transferred them into national custody. Yet, despite their clear humanitarian mandate, they *never* checked on them for two years, demonstrating a disturbing failure to uphold their responsibilities and suggesting they are serving their own agenda rather than their mandate.
Such an allegation merits immediate independent scrutiny; humanitarian mandates must be upheld without politicization.
Hamas's Unwavering Goals
These leaders of Hamas, if one can call them leaders, have constantly declared they will find ways to continue, because as they keep chanting, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." When you look at the map, you realize they leave zero room for the Jewish people to live.
They don't want Gaza; they want the whole land. This is not our view; it's what they explicitly state. The majority of the Palestinian people, not just the extremists, almost 400% of them, wish for this to be a fully Sharia Muslim country, an Islamic country, ruled and presided over by what they call Palestinians, with zero Jews allowed there.
That's the overarching majority, and it seems like the West is unable to contain that because they've been fed such a different narrative.
Food and False Narratives
Suddenly, we see lots of food that was always there. It didn't just pop into being; it was always there, in spite of the bogus, now debunked in so many ways, accusations of mass starvation. We can see very fat, well-fed people celebrating.
They're not celebrating the fact that there is going to be peace; they're celebrating the fact that they have more time to keep their rule. Even today, there are clashes between armed forces and killings of Palestinian and non-Palestinian individuals, including at least one press person. There was no global outcry because, as they say, "no Jews, no news."
A Faith-Oriented Community's Stance
As a faith-oriented community, we rejoice at the living returns, we grieve with the families of the dead, and we call for truth, dignity, and due process for all affected. We have said for many, many years, long before this conflict started, that everything happening there is planned and strategic, geared for one purpose: the internationalization of the conflict.
You will see this take place, whether faster or slower, but it will comeโit will be completely internationalized, setting the ground, we believe, for an international force to control all the way up to the real center of the dispute, the real center of what everybody is contending for, whether the West realizes it or not: who rules Temple Mount in Jerusalem?
That's the real battle, because if we read our eschatology correctly, there will come a time when a figure, a deceiver, will be held for a season as a peacemaker but will later be known as the man of lawlessness, who will establish himself as ruler from that place. Whether you agree to this or not, one has to see the dynamics and the trends that are leading up to this.
A Window of Grace and Transformation
But at the same time, we are thankful for the window of opportunity that appears to have been opened. We're thankful that this time we will see an opportunity for God's peopleโwho love both Israel and the Palestinians, who love people where they are because they are created in the image of God, people who have been touched by divine power and the good newsโto go in.
Let's pray for these people to be positioned at places of influence, to be able to bring the life-changing message that can truly transform, the life-changing good news that can truly transform hearts in Gaza and across the Middle East. It is a life-transforming message that can bring people to a renewed spiritual experience, that can make individuals into better people through the process of deep repentance, through the process of deep catharsis, looking at the One who penetrated into our reality and suffered for all of us, who were once His adversaries.
A Call for Redemption and Peace
So let's hope for real, deep singing instead of the chant, "By spirit and by blood, we will redeem you, Palestine." May they instead sing, "By spirit and by blood, You have redeemed me." (ุจุงูุฑูุญ ืืืืืื ืคืืืชื ื ืื ื Bil-rลซแธฅ w-bid-dam fdayt-nฤซ ana)
When we realize, all of usโJews or Arabsโthat we all need redemption, and it's the good news that we now can be redeemed by the spirit and by the blood of a perfect, blameless sacrifice, the Lamb of God who was slain from before the foundations of the world.
Let's pray that a huge and prolonged window of grace will be opened up to bring restoration, to bring healing, to bring hope from heart to heart. Let's pray for individuals committed to positive change to go into the harvest as the Word of God commands us to.
Let's help equip and train and deploy these individuals into the harvest from all over the world into this region, and from this region to all of the world, representing what was promised in Isaiah 11: that this whole region, which is now so known worldwide for violence and hatred and war, will at one point be known as a blessing in the midst of the earth. Let's by faith take as much of the down payment as we can from that future prophecy. Yet now, God bless you all.
