America’s been dealing with mass shooting events on a yearly basis for over two decades so we’ve gotten used to seeing news reports of that nature on TV and on Social Media. This is to say nothing of the news reports coming out of Ukraine that much of the world was beginning to get used to. For all the unspeakable atrocities ISIS committed when they terrorized the Middle East, what Hamas did last weekend is unequivocally far more evil.
I have spoken to people from Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Qatar. All are were devout Muslims. They have all been disgusted and horrified by what Hamas has done to Israel last weekend. The same is true for people I know from Iran, Lebannon, Syria and the West Bank. Not the governments but people who are from those countries.
There has been an almost uniform condemnation from across the Muslim world as there should be of what Hamas has done. Not just over the acts committed but the savagery is even beyond what they saw ISIS do not that long ago. ISIS butchered whole towns to the point the streets were caked with blood. They left the bodies of those they killed propped up or strung up for everyone to see and be terrified of. What Hamas has done to Israel–so far–is FAR worse. I’m not even going to repeat the unspeakably evil things that have been reported by just the media. People who live near Gaza in Southern Israel have flooded the internet with graphic images of charred bodies and worse.
That brings me back to the point of this article: One thing media outlets worldwide do particularly well is coverage of violent conflict. They go into as graphic detail as they’re able to. They treat those who are killed or injured as no more than numbers, not the people they are or once were. More so when it happens outside the United States. Yes they talk about how devastating war in general is but the fact that most outlets make covering a conflict 24/7 coverage quickly becomes desensitizing. It’s not intentional but at the same time it is. Before too long, people get indifferent to what’s going on and more tragically marginalize the fact people died.
Matthew 10:29 says in part not a single sparrow that falls from the sky escapes God’s notice. Every hair on every human’s head is numbered. The nearly 3,000 people on both sides who’ve so far died are known to God. It’s estimated over 7,000 people die a day globally. I mean in general and regardless of the cause of death. How many of those who died knew God? How many of those people died without having the opportunity to know God? How many of those people who died knew about God but held off making a decision for Christ? Those are the three biggest questions every Christian regardless of denomination should be asking themselves every single day.
Suicide aside, no one knows when their last day alive on this Earth will be. The Bible is clear about this: Regardless of how or when you die, your next conscious thought will be The Second Coming when you’re raised to either Eternity or Damnation. This brief life of 65 to 80 years on average for most of the world is the time to pick a side. With everything going on across the world these days, the urgency is growing even more for people to not just make a decision for God but show it by being living stones. Many have no problem making the decision for Christ for themselves but are not as willing to be witness to others. Instead, many so-called Christians in America are working as we speak to turn the country into a Theocracy. They’re making the same mistakes The Pharasees made in Jesus’ day. They’re focused on tradition, customs and outward appearances. 1 Samuel 16:7 which they had access to plainly states Man looks at outward appearances but God looks at the Heart.
Getting back to Media’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict as well as the conflict in Ukraine for that matter. Most Americans in particular are already desensitized to violence due to entertainment media. Most of American society has a measure of indifference toward human suffering because unlike Israel, East Africa, Ukraine, Haiti and other places Americans don’t live in fear of sudden death every day. As bad as gun violence in America has been getting in recent years, it’s not the same as what’s going on in all of those other regions I mentioned. Many of the journalists who go to these conflict zones to cover what’s happening often seek psychiatric help as soon as they get back and with good reason. You’re meeting and talking to people who saw loved ones killed in front of them or are in the process of burying them. Not once or twice but several times a day every day they are there. It’s all the more reason to pray for those who often risk their lives just to tell the world what is going on.
Most Americans–and I’m including Christians on that note–lack true empathy for people suffering in other place because they’ve never had to live in fear every day of someone looking to do them harm at a moment’s notice. You hear a building come down and find out your only child had just walked inside moments before it was leveled from above. You’re afraid to leave your home for fear someone will mistake you for a terrorist or worse, grab you and use you as a human shield. This is the fear of the 2.3 million people who live in Gaza. They live with the fear and the reality that their lives could end at any moment without warning.
On that last note. Expect to hear daily reports from Gaza of innocent people who have nothing to do with either side getting injured or killed in large numbers. Again, they will largely be referred to as simply numbers and statistics in the media. Every single one of those people including those doing the fighting is someone’s loved one. The Bible may speak of these things happening but that’s not a free pass to disregard the misery and suffering that’s going on. Christians have a moral imperative to ease that suffering by any and all means possible. Not review prophecy or and certainly not dismiss the conflict because those who are dying aren’t Christian. Most importantly, everyone should pray this conflict ends as quickly as possible. The longer it goes on, the more suffering there will be for both sides.
In closing, I would urge people to do a full media blackout if need be until the news media eventually moves on. Because it will. In time, the media’s attention will turn to something else. It always does. Everyone should also pray the conflict ends sooner than later. Now is not the time to take advantage of the conflict to stoke tensions around the world either.
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Bible Truth, Faith and Prophecy 