Prophecy Update: Never Forget October 7

Three Years Later, Israel Mourns, Rebuilds, and the Nations Choose Sides

From Feast to Funeral

It started with a holiday. On Simchat Torah, October 7, 2023 - the day Jews around the world rejoice over God’s Word - terrorists poured out of Gaza at 6:29 in the morning. By the time it was over, about 1,200 people had been murdered, thousands wounded, and 251 dragged into Gaza as hostages, as JNS recounted this week. It was the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Three years later, Israel stopped at that exact minute. President Isaac Herzog lowered the flag at his residence to half-mast at 6:29 a.m. on Monday to open the national day of remembrance, and the flags at the Knesset followed. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said it in one line: “an entire nation bows its head and mourns.” He also admitted that the army failed in its most important mission - protecting the civilians of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the state ceremony on Mount Herzl that Israel is stronger than ever, and vowed there will be no Hamas rule in Gaza. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee compared the day to September 11 and said America stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel. For Americans, that comparison isn’t a stretch. CBN News noted that more than forty Americans were murdered that day.

The Ledger of Loss

The cost didn’t end when the shooting stopped. Israel’s Defense Ministry says 1,318 members of the security forces have been added to the nation’s roll of the fallen since October 7. More than 7,150 people have joined the bereaved - 2,143 parents, 355 widows, 880 orphans, and 3,772 brothers and sisters.

The National Insurance Institute counts another 1,029 civilians killed in terror attacks since that day, and 87,286 additional victims under its care, including 24 amputees. Of the disability claims it has ruled on so far, 34,955 are for psychological injury. Those are wounds you can’t see on an X-ray, and they’re still being counted three years later.

Remembering on Purpose

Scripture treats remembering as more than a feeling. The Hebrew word is zakar, and it moves. When Israel groaned in Egypt, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 2:24) - and what follows is deliverance. In the Bible, remembering leads somewhere.

That’s the kind of remembering Israel is doing now. At the Yad Ben-Zvi Institute, researchers are preserving thousands of personal items from the devastated Gaza-border communities - what they call “trauma objects” - so those belongings can serve as witnesses for future generations.

CBN’s Stephen Faircloth wrote it plainly for believers: “this day should never fade into distant memory.” Three years is exactly when a world starts to move on, and exactly when it matters most that we don’t.

Evil Called Good

Isaiah saw this one coming.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Within days of the massacre, the story began to flip. Gil Hoffman of HonestReporting told CBN News that the world tried immediately to make Israel look like the aggressor, even though more Jews were killed that day than on any day since the Holocaust. The accusations that followed, he said, were libels - that Israel deliberately starved children and deliberately killed journalists.

Then there’s the personal side. Rafaela Triestman survived the Nova festival massacre by taking refuge in a roadside bomb shelter, and her boyfriend didn’t. Afterward she faced a second ordeal - convincing people that what she saw really happened. Imagine surviving the worst day of your life and then being asked to prove it.

It’s still happening. JNS reported that the first line of Wikipedia’s October 7 entry says the terrorists came from “blockaded” Gaza, wording critics say seems to justify the attacks. And Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced the British Green Party’s “Zionism is racism” motion as going “far beyond the boundaries of legitimate political debate.”

The Tumult Rises

The psalmist describes a pattern that sounds like a news feed.

“For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’” (Psalm 83:2-4)

This week, two Iranians were charged in Britain over an alleged terror plot targeting Jews, with the suspects accused of preparing a chlorine bomb while scoping out a Manchester synagogue.

In the United States, the FBI charged a Haverford College associate professor with harassing and intimidating a Jewish Israeli professor, and the college’s president said he was heartbroken and furious.

A Very Heavy Stone

Zechariah put the end of the story in one picture.

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heavily burden themselves with it will be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:2-3)

Notice who’s doing the gathering - all the nations. This week Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that international pressure is aimed at forcing a Palestinian state on Israel. Europe is turning pressure into policy. JNS TV reported that the Netherlands is now searching Israeli travelers for products from Judea and Samaria, while Britain imposed new sanctions as the UK-Israel crisis deepens.

Israel’s resolve hasn’t bent. Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to eliminate all 2,000 remaining terrorists of the 6,000 who invaded on October 7 - 4,000, he said, are already dead.

I’m not handing you a prophetic calendar - Zechariah doesn’t give one. What the passage gives is a picture of a world that can’t leave Jerusalem alone, and a promise that the stone doesn’t move.

Sowing in Tears

CBN News recalled that days after the massacre it traveled to Kibbutz Be’eri, where about ten percent of the community had been murdered or kidnapped. This week JNS returned to the October 7 kibbutzim and captured the other half of the story - new construction rising behind broken glass at Be’eri.

At nearby Kibbutz Nirim, Adele Raemer and her son spent eleven hours in their safe room, certain they’d never see another sunrise. Now she says the support of Christians gives Israelis strength to rebuild - “ensuring that the desert will continue to bloom.” That’s Isaiah’s promise of a desert that blossoms (Isaiah 35:1) playing out in real time.

It’s Ezekiel’s promise too - that the nations will know the Lord is the One who rebuilds the ruined places and plants what was desolate (Ezekiel 36:35-36). Every farmer knows the hardest part of sowing is that it looks like loss. You bury the seed.

“Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:5-6)

Planting Flags Where Others Burn Them

Believers around the world are doing their own planting. i24NEWS reported that the third annual Flags of Fellowship campaign from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews will put some 3.5 million Israeli flags in the ground at more than 3,000 churches, universities, and synagogues this October 7 - each one a memorial to a life lost. As one voice in the campaign put it: “the enemies of Israel burn the flags; we’re going to plant them.”

In Jerusalem this week, more than 1,000 Christian leaders and influencers from 117 countries arrived for the Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit. CBN News watched them gather on the Mount of Olives to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). Pastor Jim Scudder called it one of those Esther moments - a time when the world is turning against Israel and Christians can gather and say they object.

Mordecai’s challenge to Esther fits the hour.

“For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

For believers, the reason goes deeper than politics. It’s covenant.

“I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

Stand, Speak, and Sow

Last week, on a flydubai flight bound for Israel, ordinary passengers and a wounded pilot refused to let a hijacking finish. JNS reported that Netanyahu praised the pilot, Smit Machchhar, who helped passengers and crew foil the attack. Evil didn’t win that flight because regular people stood up. That’s the model for the rest of us.

So here’s the challenge. First, stand. This week, set an alarm for 6:29 a.m. - the minute the attack began - and when it goes off, pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). Pray for a name: a bereaved family, a widow, a wounded soldier, a survivor like Adele Raemer. Seven mornings. That’s how remembering turns into action.

Second, speak. The next time you hear a lie about Israel or the Jewish people - from a coworker, a relative, your feed - answer it with one calm, true sentence: on October 7, 2023, terrorists murdered about 1,200 people. Don’t pick a fight. Just refuse to let the lie stand unanswered, because Scripture says to open your mouth for the speechless (Proverbs 31:8).

Third, sow. Pick one ministry that’s rebuilding the Gaza-border communities or caring for survivors, and give something this month. Love isn’t just in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Because the God who remembered His covenant in Egypt hasn’t changed. He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). The only question is whether we’ll be awake with Him.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV).