(Zephaniah 2:4-7) (Vs.4) “Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. At midday Ashdod will be emptied and Ekron uprooted. (Vs.5) Woe to you who live by the sea, you Kerethite people; the word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. He says, “I will destroy you, and none will be left.” (Vs.6) The land by the sea will become pastures having wells for shepherds and pens for flocks. (Vs.7) 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.”
The Ancient Philistines were an aggressive, warmongering people who occupied territory southwest of Israel between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The name “Philistine” comes from the Hebrew word Philistia, and the Greek rendering of the name, “palaistinei”, gives us the modern name “Palestine.” The Roman Emperor Hadrian officially renamed Judea Syria “Palaestina” after his Roman armies suppressed the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 AD. This is commonly viewed as a move intended to sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland.
The word “Palestine” was derived from the world “Philistine”. Of course God Himself, the Lord Jesus, the prophets of Israel and the apostles who wrote the Bible never called the Land of Israel Palestine. It was always known as Israel and the name itself was given to the patriarch Jacob (Genesis 32:28). Those who insist calling Israel ‘Palestine’ argue with God!
Now the Philistines were enemies of Israel and part of the Canaanite culture. They were into idol worship connected with barbarity and bloody sacrifices offered to their ‘gods’ which in reality were principalities of wickedness in the atmosphere and demonic strongholds across the land of Canaan. When we see Joshua and the Israelites fighting physical battles on earth in the Land of Canaan at the same time there was spiritual conflict going on in the unseen spiritual realm in the atmosphere just above the earth’s surface. We see this conflict revealed in the Book of Daniel when the Pre-incarnate Messiah aided by Michael the Archangel of War had been fighting against the resistance of a powerful entity in the unseen spiritual realm who had power over Persia which is Iran today. That same principality is still over Iran (Daniel 10:13-14).
These wicked principalities have been around for centuries in the Middle-East and their goal has always been to destroy Israel by any means possible. By the way they exist today over many cities not confined just to the Middle-Eastern region but this is not the subject of this post. The fact that the war continues in the unseen spiritual realm today comes out clearly in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul tells us that as New Covenant believers that the weapons of our warfare are not of an earthly nature requiring physical weapons as such, but are of a spiritual nature for demolishing unseen spiritual strongholds of Satan in the lives of the unsaved and that these entities live in the atmosphere above the surface of the earth including Satan “the prince of the power of the air” (the Greek word “sir” is the atmosphere). Paul writes; “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4).
Now the Philistines have long gone but the same principality that goaded the Philistines to constantly attack and harass Israel is at work today in the Gaza Strip. As for Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron, these cities are no longer a threat to Israel and they are not exactly sure where Gath was located but the seat of this wicked entity is Gaza, the home of the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organization Hamas.
When the Messiah our Lord Jesus comes back and Israel is rescued, the Jewish armed forces under their Commander in Chief the Messiah will, through a physical battle, conquer the entire Gaza Strip once and for all. The PA (Palestine Authority) and Hamas are marked for destruction by the Lord. As we read in the prophet Isaiah; “They (the armed forces of Israel) will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west.” (Isaiah 11:14). This is a future conflict that has not occurred as yet but the context of this prophecy in Isaiah is still in the future. The Philistines no longer exist but the principality over the region of these five former Philistine cities that was controlling the Ancient Philistines is still there today and controlling Hamas and the PA leaders in Gaza to constantly attack Israel.
Now with these things in view let’s briefly look at what God says about the future of Gaza and the other cities in these verses of scripture in Zephaniah 2:4-7.
(Vs.4-5) “Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon left in ruins. At midday Ashdod will be emptied and Ekron uprooted. Woe to you who live by the sea, you Kerethite people; the word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. He says, “I will destroy you, and none will be left.”
We are told that Gaza will be abandoned, Askelon left in ruins, Ashdod will be emptied and Ekron uprooted. Historically this is what happened to the Philistine cities when they effectively disappeared from written history during the 6th century B.C. when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC – 562 BC) conquered the region and destroyed several cities, including Ashkelon. However, the principality lived on in the region and today is actively at work through the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza seeking Israel’s destruction and pushing the PA to organise the formation of a so called ‘Palestinian’ state.
Now we know from God’s Word that the worship of idols is the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17). These five cities controlled by the Philistines were all under a principality that had access to these cities through the idols they worshipped. As for Ancient Ashkelon it was the seat of worship for the goddess Astarte also known as Ashtoreth the Queen of Heaven to whom the Canaanites burned offerings and poured libations (Jeremiah 44:17-19). Astarte was the goddess of war and sexual love. Ashkelon was left in ruins by the Babylonians.
In the Bible we are told that Ashdod was the place where the LORD’s hand was heavy upon the people there; He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours after they had captured the Ark of the Covenant. The name Ashdod means, “Diffusion; inclination; or theft” Ancient Ashdod was the place where the entity Dagon was worshipped. As for Ekron we are told it will be uprooted. The name itself means “Barrenness” or “torn away” and it was uprooted as a Philistine city. Also we are told in the prophet Amos that Gaza was judged by God because it took Israelite hostages and sold them to the Arabs. Hence the Lord sent a fiery judgement on Gaza and its fortresses and removed the ruler of Ashdod and the one who reigned in Ashkelon.
Ekron also received its demise and God destroyed all of the Philistines at Ekron (Amos 1:6-8). The Babylonians were God’s instrument of judgement on the Philistine cities primarily because of their militancy and hostility towards the Jewish people. Even now the militant pro Hamas Arabs in Gaza are daily afflicting the people of Israel. We have seen how the PA and Hamas are suppressing the Arab people living in Gaza, many of whom do not want to be fighting against the Israelis. The day is coming when Israel will occupy Gaza to the relief and joy of many Arabs under the tyrannical heel of Hamas. It is clear when you look at the economic plight and living conditions in Gaza today that they are not under the blessing of God. Those who bless Israel will be blessed but those who curse Israel will be cursed (Genesis 12:3).
Despite being by and large spiritually backslidden as a nation, Israel is still the Apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8). Through applied pressure and His refining fire that brings about separation to Him, the Lord will bring forth a faithful remnant of Israelis who will inherit the whole land of Israel from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates and everything in between because God does not renege on his covenants (Zechariah 13:8-9) (Genesis 15:17-19) (Psalm 105:8-11).
Now let’s look at what will ultimately happen to Gaza and the territory that was once part of the Ancient Philistine kingdom.
(Vs.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.”
As yet this has not happened but in the Messianic kingdom it will happen. Gaza is the immediate problem in the region at present with its militant attacks on Israel. The entity or principality behind the ancient Philistines is behind the PA and Hamas today. The Israelis are up against a powerful principality that only God can overthrow. At present Gaza is the habitation of this principality but the time is coming when the armies of Israel under the command of the Messiah after He has returned, will destroy the power of this principality and the Hamas tyrants under its control and the land will become a blessing for the surviving Arabs in Gaza.
Once the PA and Hamas have been eliminated and the principality has been removed from human contact this land by the sea will become a luscious pastureland and a place where there will be fresh water in abundance and green grass for the livestock with pens to keep them safely corralled. The Jews living in Judea (located in the West bank) will oversee and control the land but the people in it, both Jew and Arab, will live side by side at peace living primarily as shepherds in the Messianic Kingdom. At night they will all sleep in safety throughout the whole region originally occupied by the Philistines. The principality will no longer be around having been incarcerated under the earth along with Satan and his cohorts and removed from human contact (Revelation 20:1-3).
God will care for the people of Gaza when He restores the fortunes of His people Israel and fully restores them spiritually and nationally. In that day all Israel will be at peace under the reign of the Messiah and no one will ever make then afraid. As the prophet Micah writes; “And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken” (Micah 4:4).
Those Arabs in Gaza who have survived the Time of the Big Trouble and who were formerly under the tyranny of the PA and Hamas will also partake in the blessings of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. They will also be recipients of the salvation found in and through the Messiah our Lord Jesus who will be reigning over the nations of the world from His throne in Jerusalem. So then in the Messianic Kingdom Gaza is destined to become a delightful and fruitful pastureland. This is the future of Gaza!
