The Miracle Called Israel预览

Many against One

There was a grim outlook when Israel was born. The Arab nations were very confident that they could quickly conquer Palestine after the departure of the British forces. The Israeli soldiers were farmers, holocaust survivors, and war refugees, many of whom did not speak a word of Hebrew. As soon as they arrived by boat, they were given a uniform and a rifle and were told to fight. Those who had escaped Europe had “leaped out of the frying pan into the fire.” They were now destined to spill their blood in the Holy Land, where their story had begun thousands of years ago. 

The Jews had only two airplanes and five armored vehicles, but the Bible says in Psalm 147 that “His delight is not in the strength of the horse.” 1 Samuel 14:6 says that “nothing can hinder the Lord for saving by many or by few.” 

It was not at all a victory for the Arabs as they had expected; rather than wiping the Jews from the map as they had vowed to do, the miracle was that the Arab armies failed to dislodge the Jews from Palestine. That tiny new nation repulsed the invaders and even expanded its borders by 20% by the end of the war. Israel calls it The War of Independence. The Arabs call it The Catastrophe. Is this not the hand of God?

On October 6th, 1973, there was a surprise attack on Israel from the borders of Syria and Egypt. About 100,000 Egyptians invaded Israel from the south and 1,400 Syrian tanks invaded Israel from the north. At one point, three Israeli tanks faced 150 Syrian tanks. The commander said, “Stay there and coordinate between yourselves so that you can fire shots in quick succession, so that when one tank fires and goes down, the next one immediately fires, and so on. They need to think that you are many.” By the time the Israeli tanks ran out of rounds, the Syrians had turned around and left. One hundred fifty tanks left because they thought that three tanks were too many. 

Another miracle is the story of a platoon who found themselves on a field with land mines in the middle of the night. Out of nowhere, a strong gust of wind came, and they had to take cover. The wind lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, exposing all the land mines. The platoon walked between them and was safe. 

All we can say is, “The Lord is our refuge and our fortress, our God, in whom we trust.” (Psalm 91:1)