Iran is wounded. Hezbollah is hunting. Antisemitism is climbing in cities that swore it never would. And in the middle stands one small nation — hated, hunted, and held by the God of Abraham.
The Twelve-Day War of June 2025 changed the Middle East in ways the world is still measuring. Israel struck Iran's nuclear program with a precision and reach that surprised even her allies. Iran responded with hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones, most of them intercepted, some of them not. The United States entered the conflict on Israel's side. The ayatollahs blinked. A ceasefire was announced. The headlines moved on.
But the headlines were never the story. The story is older.
A nation surrounded
Israel today is the size of New Jersey. Eight million Jews. Fewer than the city of London. Surrounded by hundreds of millions of people, in nations whose national charter or whose ruling clerics' theology calls explicitly for her destruction.
And she persists. She wins her wars. She turns her deserts into agricultural exporters. She innovates her way to one of the strongest economies and most advanced militaries on earth. The math does not work. The history does not work. There is no parallel in the human record for what Israel is, where Israel is, and how Israel survives.
Unless you read the Bible. Then it works perfectly.
The promise behind the persistence
"And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great… I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse" (Genesis 12:2-3). That promise to Abraham is the engine of every page of the Old Testament that comes after. It is also the explanation for what we see now.
God did not promise Israel an easy history. He promised her a permanent one. He warned her she would be scattered if she rebelled — and she was. He promised He would gather her again — and He has. He told her enemies would surround her — and they do. He told her He would not abandon her — and He has not.
What this means for us
Two clear callings for the believer in 2026:
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122:6 is a command, not a suggestion. Pray for Jewish lives. Pray for Arab Christians caught in the crossfire. Pray for the safety of the believers in Israel — both Jewish and Arab — who serve Christ in a society that has not yet recognized Him as Messiah.
Stand up to antisemitism, wherever it shows up. The synagogue down the street. The Jewish family in your son's class. The Holocaust survivor in your nursing home. The protests calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Antisemitism is the world's oldest hatred, and the moment the church goes quiet about it, the church has forgotten her own roots.
Israel is not perfect. No nation is. But the God who promised Abraham still keeps His word — and so should we.