Unshakeable Hope in the Darkness: A Year After October 7

An Israeli at a recent Jews for Jesus event in New York City told me, “I don’t see how people can believe in God after October 7.” I replied that I felt exactly the same way 30 years ago when I was serving with the Israeli military. Two of my close friends were killed—one was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Hamas. It was the darkest point of my life. And yet God reached through that darkness to give me hope that no one could ever take away.

Prayer Opens Us to Hope

I struggled to see how a good, all-powerful God could be at work in a world filled with hatred and war. After I was discharged, I fled to the US. I told myself that I was done with Israel, and I was done with being Jewish. If I heard people speaking Hebrew, I walked in the other direction.

Eventually, I directed my pain, anger, and questions to God. It wasn’t the most polite prayer, but God answered it through the kindness of believers I met and through the message of the New Testament, which I was finally willing to read. So here I am today, hoping in Jesus and offering that hope to others who are struggling with that same darkness and despair.

Attack on Hope

It’s been a year since Hamas invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping 240 men, women, and children. It’s no coincidence that they chose to do this during Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. God commanded our people to celebrate this week-long holiday with great joy (Leviticus 23:40; Deuteronomy 16:15). We were to remember and rejoice over God’s presence and provision during our wilderness wanderings. God wanted us to remember our past to help us hope in Him for our future.

Hamas seized the opportunity to interrupt celebrations and inflict maximum pain and fear. It was an attack on the very hope of God’s promise to be with us. And if that weren’t enough, amid the horrors of the ongoing war, levels of antisemitism have risen to shocking heights around the world. Many of our people are questioning God and what it means to be Jewish, much the same way I did.

God’s Love Rekindles Hope

But in the midst of darkness and doubt, I am seeing more Jewish people searching for hope than I have seen in my lifetime. During the first three months of the war, we received more than 600 requests for free Hebrew New Testaments—nearly twice as many as usual. The requests continue coming in from a wide range of Israelis, including Rinat.

Rinat is one of many Israelis who has been moved by the continuous outpouring of love and support from Christians since October 7. She was so moved that she began to question her assumptions about Jesus. Rinat was excited when our missionary Liz called to follow up her request for the New Testament. “Maybe Yeshua [Jesus] is the Messiah,” Rinat said, “and we just didn’t recognize Him.” Pray for her and the many others who have been moved to read the New Testament.

God’s Word Provides Hope

So here we are, a year out from the October 7 attacks, with Sukkot just around the corner once more.* This same feast that was horrifically interrupted last year can still remind us of God’s provision and providence in the wilderness and His promise to tabernacle among us.

Every Sukkot, Jewish people read from Zechariah 14, which prophesies a battle with many nations attacking Jerusalem. In Jewish thinking, Jerusalem refers not only to a geographic location, but also to Jewish people as a whole. The battle Zechariah predicts will inflict unprecedented fear and hopelessness. But then God will intervene. In the darkest moment of Israel’s history, “the Lord will go out and fight” (Zechariah 14:3). God’s victory will bring about restoration and,finally, lasting peace in the MiddleEast.And all the nations that once attacked Jerusalem will return to worship the Lord during Sukkot (Zechariah 14:16).

I do not know how God will bring all this to pass. But I know that God’s infallible Word promises that He is not done with the Jewish people nor with any of His creation. I urge you in this season to find hope in the fact that God has never stopped working in the darkness. And on behalf of all of us at Jews for Jesus, thank you for helping us to be messengers of that hope.

*This year, Sukkot begins at sundown on October 16.