1973 Yom Kippur War

Adonai, on this most holy day we thank you for sending Yeshua to atone for our sins. You are indeed a magnificent God!




Esther 4:14 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

When we think of God's defense and deliverance of Israel, we are drawn to the awesome signs that declare He and He alone is God, a pillar of fire, or the parting of a sea.This passage from Esther reminds us that the Lord more often uses obedient people than He does pillars of fire. As today marks the passing of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, it also marks the thirty-sixth anniversary of a milestone between the US - Israel relationship.

As Israel pressed into the holy sabbath of atonement, with her head bowed and her guard down, her enemies viciously attacked her in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. By any measure of worldly logic the Jewish State had its back against the wall, and was quite literally counting the rounds of ammunition she had left.

Half a world away, President Nixon, with the scandal of Watergate hanging on his neck like a millstone, received a phone call in the middle of the night from Israel's Prime Minister Golda Meir appealing for military hardware and munitions. The words of his dying mother, "if you are ever in a position to help Israel, do it" must have echoed in his head. This man's political career had ended in shame, but the Lord used this unrighteous gentile to deliver and defend Israel from the jaws of her enemies. It was as though he had come to that royal position for such a time as that.

As world powers wrestle to redefine the US-Israel relationship, let us be obedient in not remaining silent at this time, that relief and deliverance for Israel would need to arise from another place. Let us remember that the Lord uses people, ordinary people like you and I, to defend the apple of His eye.