(Ezekiel 25:12-14) “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge with malice in their hearts, and with ancient hostility sought to destroy Judah, therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will wipe out the Kerethites and destroy those remaining along the coast. I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in My wrath. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I take vengeance on them.’”
(Amos 1:6–7) “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom. So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds”
(Isaiah 11:14) “They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.”
Gaza was a city associated with judgment. The Hebrew prophets Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah all prophesied judgment on Gaza because of the sin of the Philistines against the Israelites.
The reference in Ezekiel 25: 12-14 and in Amos 1:6-7 appears to be to raids made upon the villages of Judah without the excuse of an all-out war.
Their raids upon Israelite towns was for the commercial purpose of procuring slaves for the trade with Edom that in turn more than likely would have sold many of the Israelites amongst the tribes inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula.
Edom today covers Southern Jordan but sweeps down into Saudi Arabia, the heart of the Islamic world.
These incursions from Gaza that attacked Israelite towns brought down God’s judgement on the heads of the Philistines.
King Sargon of Assyria conquered Gaza and probably destroyed it in 720 BC. Later, Alexander the Great destroyed the city again in 332 BC, after a lengthy battle. During the Maccabean period, Jonathan subjugated Gaza to Israel.
In the time of Joshua, the Israelites conquered the land “from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon” (Joshua 10:41).
The tribe of Judah inherited Gaza, and they were able to keep the city for a short time before it fell back into the hands of the Philistines (Judges 1:18).
By the time of Samson’s judgeship, the Philistines were living in and controlling Gaza (Judges 16:1). The Philistines were always Israel’s implacable enemies and ‘a thorn’ in the side of the Israelites.
Before the Israelites entered Canaan, the Promised Land, the inhabitants were steeped in the occult and indulged in all kinds of satanic wicked and perverted practices.
The whole land was a hot bed of principalities and spirits of wickedness in the unseen spiritual realm. Like all of the cities in Canaan the inhabitants of Gaza were also steeped in the occult.
We know from the Book of Daniel that there were specific principalities over Persia and Greece. Today Persia is Iran and Greece translated in the Hebrew text as “yavan” or “Ionia” today would be Turkey.
These principalities still exist today and through them Satan is attacking Israel because he thinks that if Israel is destroyed then the Messiah our Lord Jesus will have no kingdom to return to.
Of course this is Satan’s twisted and deluded mindset and one which he has infused into the minds of the Islamic world.
Even though the Philistines have long gone the principality over Gaza still remains and Hamas and the majority of Arab citizens are under his control expressed in their hatred of Israel and the Jewish people.
There is no question that the October 7, 2023 massacre and butchery perpetrated by Hamas and Gazan citizens on Israel was the work of this principality and his cohorts.
Today Hamas and most of the Arab citizens in Gaza are still Israel’s enemies. We saw on the news media outlets the euphoria of the citizens cheering on those who perpetrated the massacre on October 7, 2023.
The day is coming when Hamas and all in Gaza who are afflicting God’s people will be judged by Him for this merciless militancy against the Jewish people.
The prophet Zephaniah wrote; “Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. At midday Ashdod will be emptied and Ekron uprooted” (Zephaniah 2:4).
The prophet Zechariah wrote; “Ashkelon will see it (God’s judgement on Gaza’s neighbours) and fear; Gaza will writhe in agony, and Ekron too, for her hope will wither. Gaza will lose her king and Ashkelon will be deserted” (Zechariah 9:5).
Israel’s enemies in Gaza today are not the Philistines, who experienced judgement from the LORD in past history as Zephaniah and Zechariah prophesied.
However, the principality that was behind the Philistines is behind Hamas today.
Behind every other Islamic terrorist group hell-bent on Israel’s demise are principalities in the unseen spiritual realm in the atmosphere just above the earth’s surface, whether it is Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrian rebels, Turkey, Iran and the other terrorist groups operating in Iraq and in Syria.
At present Israel as a nation by and large are still aliens and strangers to their own covenants of promise.
There are multitudes of Secular Israelis today that do not have any real regard for the teaching of Torah, neither have many even read the New Testament hence, the need for the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to them.
It also needs to be said that more Jews are coming to a saving faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus more than at any other time in history through those faithful Biblically centred Messianic New Covenant believers in Israel preaching the gospel of the kingdom to them.
The terrible events happening in Israel is causing many secular Jews to re-evaluate their lifestyles. As for the Jewish religious Orthodox Jews they desperately want the Messiah to come and to save the nation.
The tragedy is that these die-hard Orthodox religious Jews by and large reject the Messiah our Lord Jesus and persecute those who follow Him just as they did to the Body of Messiah in the first century as we see in the New Testament.
Israel as a nation is yet to pass through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, a time of distress and trouble unequalled in past history and never to be equalled in the future (Matthew 24: 15-22) (Jeremiah 30:1-7a) (Zechariah 13:8-9).
God will use this to bring His people back to the Messiah our Lord Jesus and the Passover Lamb sacrificed for the sins of His people and for the sins of the whole world (1 Corinthians 5:7) (John 1:29).
As the time of the great trouble comes to its end the LORD will save the faithful remnant of Israel out of it, those chosen by God’s grace and foreknowledge, because “His gifts and His call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-27, 29) (Jeremiah 30:7b-10) (Isaiah 10:22) (Romans 9:27).
After the Messiah has returned as Israel’s Commander in Chief, and as their rightful king, the people of Israel will conquer Gaza and the Islamic Arab nations surrounding Israel.
Israel will expand their territory from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
In that day the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and Syria bordered by the Euphrates River will all belong to Israel.
The whole land of Israel bequeathed to Abraham by God will be their possession through an irrevocable blood covenant God made with Abraham and for his offspring the Jewish people biblically called the Israelites (Genesis 15:17-21).
The whole land of Israel was to be for the Jews “as an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8).
What the Israelites failed to complete in taking possession of the whole land of Canaan in the time of their Commander in Chief Joshua, they will possess in the time when their Commander in Chief, the Messiah our Lord Jesus, leads the nation to have a complete victory over all of their enemies (Luke 1:67-75).
Israel as a nation will take possession of the whole land of Israel promised to the decedents of Abraham through the lineage of Isaac and Jacob, not through the lineage of Ishmael and Esau (Genesis 17:17-22).
In that day when the Messiah has returned Isaiah tells us that under His command Israel “will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines (Gaza) to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east (the Arab nations). They will lay their hands on Edom (Southern Jordan) and Moab (Central Jordan), and the Ammonites (Northern Jordan) will be subject to them.”
Israel as a nation will be the head of the nations and not the tail!
In that day the people of Israel will “possess the gates of their enemies” and “possess their possession” and in that day “no one will ever make them afraid again!” (Genesis 22:17) (Obadiah 1: 17-21) (Jeremiah 30:8-10).
As for Gaza, God will fully restore it in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom.
(Zephaniah 2:6-7) “The land by the sea will become pastures having wells for shepherds and pens for flocks. That land will belong to the remnant of the people of Judah; there they will find pasture. In the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon. The Lord their God will care for them; he will restore their fortunes.”
