OPERATION RISING LION AND THE BALLISTIC MISSILES, Living in Israel During the War with Iran

The snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Psalm 124:7

In the twelve days of the recent war, Iran fired over 550 ballistic missiles and 1,000 UAVS at Israel.

After sirens at all hours signalling multiple missile and drone attacks, leaving many like myself, staggering around, Zombified, we have a tenuous ceasefire, mediated by the United States and Qatar.  The President of the former is convinced he has knocked out Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Whether that’s so remains to be seen.

HOW THE WAR WITH IRAN STARTED

It began with a resolution of the IAEA (International Association of Electrical Inspectors), drafted by the US, UK, France and Germany, declaring that Iran was non-compliant with its nuclear obligations.

In response to the perceived imminent threat of its achieving nuclear capability, Israel attacked Iran the very next day.

NETANYAHU AT THE WESTERN WALL

Ahead of this, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu prayed at the Western Wall, leaving a note to God in a crack between the bricks, as is the tradition. It read:

‘Look, a nation like a lioness will rise up, and like a lion raises himself.’

Num. 23:24

This is from the story of Balaam (he of the Talking Donkey). Balaam had been instructed to curse Israel but found himself able to pronounce only blessings over the Land.

CODENAME: OPERATION RISING LION

Netanyahu’s note reveals where codename Rising Lion came from. The lion is also symbolic of the Tribe of Judah, from which it was foretold the Messiah would come…

We thought the Iron Dome could save us all but, sadly, not always and not everyone. Considering the magnitude of the attacks, we should perhaps think ourselves fortunate to have lost only 28, (including 4 children), with 3343 (of which 346 children) hospitalized or treated in hospitals, of which 23 remain in a critical condition.

Some 15,000 were evacuated from their homes, including senior citizens and children. And almost 33,000 homes were structurally damaged.

We learned that the Iron Dome did not make us invulnerable.

PRAYER WARRIORS ACROSS THE WORLD

Even as missiles rained down on us, God had prayer warriors all over the world, praying for God to watch over this land, its peoples and Butch and myself personally. We received many emails from several continents, particularly from UK and N. America, telling us that people were praying for us and this nation.

The Book of Psalms has proved comforting and inspirational:

 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say—
² “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
³ Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
⁴ Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have ^[a]gone over our soul;
⁵ Then the swollen waters
Would have ^[b]gone over our soul.”⁶ Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
⁷ Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the ^[c]fowlers;
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 124:1-8

A Song of Ascents

A song of ascents would be sung as pilgrims for one of the three major festivals in the Jewish calendar— Passover, Shavuot (Weeks) and Sukkot (Tabernacles)— climbed the steep slopes to Jerusalem.

The climb is called ‘Aliyah’ (עליה ‘going up’). The root of the same word is used for new Israeli citizens: we are עלים  (‘olim’ or ‘pilgrims’, ones who ‘go up’).

Like the old hands born here, (צבר ‘sabras’ or prickly pears, tough on the outside, soft and sweet inside), who have been at war, on and off, their entire lives, we are grateful that the hundreds of missiles did not engulf us:

Blessed is the Lord, Who did not give us as prey for their teeth.

Verse 6

BOMBS IN THE BACKYARD

As the stats above show, not everyone got off scot-free, however. Here are some shots from a friend of a friend, Eli, who lives in Safed in the north of Israel. He cooks Friday night shabbat dinner for the soldiers stationed there. He had a close call when shrapnel from a massive ballistic missile fell in his garden.

In our minds, our relatively light escape is the Lord at work, protecting the Land that He loves.

With thanks to Christine Sakakibara whose sermon inspired this article.

Thank you for visiting.

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