Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on David’s Tent, a ministry of Israeli believers Avner and Rachel Boskey. The Boskey’s have ministered at Tabernacle of David, and we consider them trustworthy and Biblically sound.
In the days of Moses, the twelve Jewish spies – one for each tribe of Israel – spent forty days reconnoitering throughout the Land of Israel, from south of Beersheva to the Golan Heights (Numbers 13:25-33):
- When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days, they went on and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. And they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. So they reported to him and said, “We came into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And indeed, we saw the descendants of Anak there! Amalek is living in the land of the Negev, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.”
- Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will certainly prevail over it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are too strong for us.” So they brought a bad report of the land which they had spied out to the sons of Israel, saying, “The land through which we have gone to spy out is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are people of great stature. We also saw the Nephilim there (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim). And we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
The God of Jacob uses this historical event to warn his people: Be on guard against evil propaganda meant to sow fear or unbelief!
Warfare is not only prosecuted by force of arms; often it is carried out by striking fear into the heart of the enemy. The ancient Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu said: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Moses reminds Israel of their recent history, when the ten spies struck fear into the hearts of their own people by overestimating the power of the enemy to resist YHVH and His Jewish armies:
- “Yet you were unwilling to go up. Instead, you rebelled against the command of YHVH your God. And you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because YHVH hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we. The cities are large and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.’’ But I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified, nor fear them’’ (Deuteronomy 1:26-29)
Evil reports in our day
Part of the battle going on between Hamas and Israel involves what can be called ‘information wars.’ Hamas and its main bankroller Qatar (a US ally) smother the media airwaves through their jihadi TV/media platform al Jazeera with negative propaganda. It is meant both to weaken Israeli resolve and to crush pro-Israeli support among the nations.
Those Western power brokers who are connected to Qatar and its strategic goals – including the US State Department and most American media outlets – ensure and enforce ‘evil reports’ against the Jewish state through anti-Israel reporting and op-eds.
- The work of their hands is crafted to do the same as the evil report of the ten spies in Moses’ day.
Here are some very recent examples, where Israeli mainstream media and American anonymous sources spread unbelief and fear:
- “US intelligence officials told members of Congress earlier this week that Israel had damaged Hamas’s combat abilities, but is not close to achieving its war aim of eliminating the terrorist organization militarily, The New York Times reports, citing ‘American officials’”
- “Israel cannot beat Hamas. It’s time to halt the fighting and think ahead . . . Israel will not win this war. In three critical areas Hamas, followed by Hezbollah, succeeded in setting the rules of the game, and the longer the war continues, the worse their implications will be”
- The RAND Corporation: “Dealing with Hamas in Gaza puts Israel in a strategic quandary: It needs to exert enough force to deter Hamas from attacking but not so much that it topples the regime. As one Israeli defense analyst put it, ‘We want to break their bones without putting them in the hospital’”
- Wall Street Journal: “Israel’s conflict with Hamas is set to be a long one – with both sides struggling to accomplish their fundamental aims and no clear path to any kind of enduring peace”
- Palestinian Authority: “Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh claimed Thursday that Israel’s war goal of eradicating Hamas is impossible to achieve because the terror group exists as an ‘idea’ and many of its top members aren’t even in the Gaza Strip”
- Josep Borrell, EU Foreign Policy Chief: “There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hamas is first and foremost an idea, and you can’t kill an idea with bombs. The only way to kill a bad idea is to propose a better one, one that gives hope and confidence in a future where peace is possible. This can and must be the implementation of the two-state solution”
- Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said, at a November 8, 2023 conference organized by the Amman municipality, that “Hamas is an idea and ideas do not die”
A word to the wise, direct from YHVH
When the sons and daughters of Jacob allowed the words of an evil report to enter into their hearts and then to be confessed out of their own mouths, the God of Israel responded very soberly:
- Then all the congregation raised their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. And all the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. And the entire congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or even if we had died in this wilderness! So why is YHVH bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder! Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt!” (Numbers 14:1-4)
There is a spiritual responsibility and an accountability which happens when people buy into an evil report – especially when YHVH has already declared His views and perspectives about that situation.
The children of Israel had expressed what might seem to be a valid concern about the well-being of their wives and children – a fear of what harm the Canaanites and other pagan tribes might do to their families. The God of Jacob revealed that fear and unbelief were lurking behind their supposedly ‘realistic concerns.’ But that desert generation would not enter the Promised Land; their children (for whom they were supposedly afraid), would be the victorious army which would put Canaan’s pagan warriors to flight:
- YHVH spoke to Moses and Aaron again, saying, “How long shall I put up with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel which they are voicing against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ declares YHVH, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you; your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, all your numbered men according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. By no means will you come into the land where I swore to settle you, except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. Your children, however, whom you said would become plunder – I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected” (Numbers 14:26-31).
Instead of rebuke – encouragement
Moses’ understudy, Joshua son of Nun, was given strong words of encouragement from YHVH Himself. The God of Jacob refers Joshua back to how Israel believed an evil report, and reminds him of how YHVH promised that their children (about whom they ‘feared’) would triumph against Israel’s enemies on the battlefield:
- “Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall himself enter there; encourage him, for he will give it to Israel as an inheritance. Moreover, your little ones who, you said, would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good and evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall take possession of it” (Deuteronomy 1:38-39)
Some of us are physical descendants of these warriors; others walk in their spiritual army boots! All of us can draw great encouragement and strengthening from God’s strategic heart-message to us at this moment in history!
How should we then pray?
- Pray for clear revelation to be given to the Jewish people, to all believers and to humanity as a whole about what is true and what is an evil report regarding Israel and Hamas
- Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 136 Israelis (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Hamas is also holding onto many corpses (35-55) as bargaining chips
- Pray for Hamas’ cruel terror dictatorship in Gaza to be decisively shattered and for all chains broken off the Palestinians living there, and for Iran’s role in jihadi deception, dissimulation and anti-Semitism to be exposed and opposed by world leaders
- Pray that Israel’s leadership be granted justice, clarity, moral courage, discernment and divine strategies in utterly destroying the jihadi threat in all of its aspects, and for minimal loss of life for Israel’s defense forces and for those Gazans who are truly innocent
- Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth
Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.
In Messiah Yeshua,
Avner Boskey
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