The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Thoughts on Israel and Gaza

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

After witnessing the violence in Israel firsthand, Jeff Cavins offers his insights on the war between Israel and Hamas. Jeff acknowledges the fear and anger that people are feeling in response to these horrific events. He offers insight and advice on how we can respond like Christians. Please be advised that in this episode, Jeff describes some of the horrific events that have taken place in Israel and Gaza. Some descriptions are graphic and may not be appropriate for young ears. Snippet from the Show There is something for us to do: pray and then pray some more. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is show 346, thoughts on Israel and Gaza. Welcome, my friend. While the world has changed, since the last time we got together, it has really changed. And I wanted to take some time this week just to share with you some thoughts that I have on this topic of Israel and Gaza and what Hamas did to the settlements around the Gaza Strip. Made me think a lot, pray a lot. My wife and I've had discussions. I've been in contact with friends in Israel talking to them at the same time. And I know that I'm in the middle of a series on important content for family formation, but I want to focus this week.

on what is happening in the world and everybody is talking about because I think that there are some things that we that we can use to respond to this and to put things in perspective as to what's happening in the world and I know that there are so many of you that were signed up to go to Israel with me in January I still have hopes for that and we'll be following that of course But the priority right now is the lives of people in Israel, in Gaza, the people who have been taken hostage and also the innocent in Gaza who are going through a horrific time right now as their lives are turned upside down. And so as Christians, our heart goes out to everyone there and we pray for them. We pray that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ would reach them, impact their life in a powerful way. I have five things that I want to share with you about this whole issue, and I've thought about them quite a bit.

I discussed them with my wife, and I thought, I just need to share some of this with you. If you would like some of the notes that I have for today's show in the scriptures, because I do have an abundance of scriptures, you can get those free. all you've got to do is text my name, one word, Jeff Kaven's, and you text it to the number 33777. That's 3377. We'll get you the notes, and you'll be on the list for future shows as well. And if this is the first time that you have joined us on the Jeff Kaven show, this is not what we normally talk about. We normally talk about things related to discipleship, reading the Word of God, studying, getting as much out of it as we possibly can. themes that are important to our life and everything that we've been learning over these last

few years together comes down to today and how do we respond how do we look at the situation that's going on over there in Israel and Gaza as it turns out I was going to Israel to work on a project and I landed on that Saturday a couple weeks ago I landed in Tel Aviv on the day the war broke out. And while I was in Paris getting on the flight to go to Israel, we all knew that there was something had happened, but we didn't know how severe it was. And when we arrived in Israel, there were markers for bomb shelters right away. And I looked at my phone and Israel had proclaimed war, declared war on Hamas. And I thought, wow. And I didn't know what to do at that time. And so I called one of my very good friends that was going to be with him, stay with him for a day before we started to work on a project.

And I went to his house and I'll tell you what, I got a good dose of what it's like to live in Israel because that day, they put an app on my phone called Red Alert. And every time that a missile was launched from Gaza, they had the technology to measure the trajectory. the speed and they knew where that particular missile would land basically and they warned those parts of the country and so all day long my phone was the alarm was going off and uh and then the the great big siren went off we had to go into the bomb shelter at that point into the safe room of that place and and so that night it was all night long just uh every hour dozens and dozens and dozens of these missiles. And so I thought, well, maybe I need to get out of the country. And I thought, well, I'll get out Tuesday. I can, I know I can get out on Delta on Tuesday.

Then everything started shutting down. And I managed to get a ticket on El Al, which is the national airline. I managed to get a ticket out. I just needed to go to Germany and or anywhere in Europe, to be honest, anywhere. And then I'll worry about it. And I got to Munich. And then I flew to Amsterdam and then I flew home from there. My story is not even hardly worth noting because I was not really in danger. I didn't feel that way at all, even though we had to go in the bomb shelter and you could see the Iron Dome and all that. But I didn't feel like there was anything for me personally to worry about, but my attention was drawn to the state of the situation and the suffering people there. Well, I got home and it was so funny because I had this sense in my heart that,

you know i mean i'm not a survivor of that in in by any stretch of the imagination but i had this feeling of almost guilt like i should i should be back there i should have volunteered i should have helped but my i guess my my my responsibilities as a father grandfather as a son trumped all of that and i thought i really need be back with my family they don't need to be worrying about me over there so i i ended up coming back and like i said uh since then i've been thinking about the topic quite a bit. And I do have some thoughts on it that I want to share with you, as I'm sure you have many thoughts as well. And you can share those with me. If you'd like, you can send me an email at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. It's the Jeff Kaven show,

the Jeff Kavan Show at ascensionpress.com. The first insight that I had as a result of this experience was, number one, man, I love the gospel. Oh, I love the gospel. Oh, I love the gospel, the basic truth of what we believe as Catholics, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is so refreshing and so life-affirming. It is so dynamic. It is so good. It is the good news. And when you hear about what has happened to those villages down by Gaza and the killing of children, the taking of women and elderly into as hostages into Gaza. You look at the gospel and what Jesus taught and it is so good. And this is going to be related to a point I'm going to make at the end about your children. But this is, I love the gospel. And I remember getting back and saying to my

wife, I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is so good. This is so good. You know, I'm reminded of scriptures like John 146 where Jesus said he said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but by me. And Pope John Paul II said that all

of life is a pilgrimage to the father's house and there are people that are desperately trying to get to the father's house but it's all going wrong and it sometimes becomes perverted and becomes very, very hurtful. But this gospel is the

map to our father's house. John also said in John 1334, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And so that's a new commandment that the Lord gives us as Christians, as his followers, is that our goal is to love each other. And that's what's different about us, isn't it? It's different. We love those who hate us. we give even what we have to them if they steal from us. We're not ignorant, we're not doormats, but our first move forward is to love, is to love people. And I know that during the Roman times, those early saints, the Roman soldiers were converted

just by watching the way they loved each other and the way they were different than the Roman Empire that used people and abused people. And they saw these Christians in the way they. act and it had a profound witness and impact on the Roman soldiers. Paul says in chapter four, he says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all lowliness and meekness with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. That's different than Hamas. That's different than these groups around the world.

It's beautiful, it's loving, it's kind, it's merciful, it's different. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and you probably have read this many times. If not, you probably heard it at a wedding. He said to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 1313, so faith, hope, love, abide. Faith, hope, and love abide. These three, but the greatest of these is love. And that's what we're called to walk in is agape, that is God's kind of love, willing to lay your life down for someone else, for their eternal good.

And in Luke's Gospel, chapter 6, verse 31, and as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them, the golden rule. We live by that. This is who we are. It really is who we are. And I think about the basic tenets of the gospel, which is the charygma. And it's basically, number one, is that God. God loves you, and he has an amazing plan for your life.

Number two, sin has disrupted this plan, broken the plan. Oh, my gosh, has it ever. Oh, look at what sin has done. I remember seeing those movies and those news clips about the Hindenburg, and the guy says, oh, the humanity. And as I watch what's going on in Israel and down by Gaza, in Gaza, I think, oh, the humanity, what sin has done. But the good news is that Jesus Christ has died.

for our sins. He's paid the penalty for our sins, and he asks us to radically reorient our lives to him. And so we have, number one, that God loves you and has a plan for your life. Number two, sin broke the plan. Number three, Jesus loved you and died for you. And number four, he wants you to repent or radically reorient your life to him. And then you have Jesus telling us that he wants us to be baptized and to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, to live this life that we have been introduced to in Jesus. And then to find a wonderful church, to be a part of the Catholic Church, where you can heal and you can receive direction, encouragement, consolation, and correction, as well, I might add. And then number seven is that you are one day going to go out and you're

going to make disciples yourself. This is a full circle. This is, this is. This is. This is the good news, and man, is it different? Walk in love, walk in humility, walk in mercy, love your enemies, pray for those who hate you. How different this is. Oh, we need to tell our children about this. We do. Number two, the second thing that really struck me was the battle behind the scenes. The battle behind the scenes, Paul said that there are principalities and powers in high places. And that is a reality behind the scenes that you are watching on the news over in Israel and Gaza. There are powers and principalities. And I'll explain what that means there. There's two different ways of looking at it. But there are powers and

principalities at work influencing man, influencing our lives, and it shows up in the news. And it's not good. It's not good. But Paul contends that with the death of Jesus on the cross, there was an overcoming of the principalities and the powers. And so there's a certain influence that they have in the world. But there's good news, and that is that Jesus, in his death burial and resurrection, has disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing, triumphing over them in the cross.

Now, when we talk about principalities and powers, there is no doubt in my mind that there are principalities and powers at work in Hamas. I don't doubt it at all. And you can take any group that is headstrong on killing, destroying, that there is something behind that. There are two aspects to principalities and powers. The first, I ran into an article by Richard Bledsoe, and he, He wrote an essay on Principalities and Powers.

I'll just use a little bit of that to share with you. He said the Principalities and Powers are not themselves personal demonic figures, but are rather elements of the creation that in and of themselves bring order, authority, symmetry, and method to the world. Pause there. He's saying that he doesn't believe that these are personal demonic figures. but they are related to personal demonic figures. He's going to get to that.

And that's going to be the second aspect of what we're looking at here when we talk about principalities and powers. He goes on and he says examples of principalities and powers would be the state, the family, the clan, and tribe, a nation. In the modern world, new examples of principalities could be industry and the media, entertainment, sports. Each of these entities in a fallen creation ceases to be subordinate to God. The nation, the city, the activity, the media, ceases to be subordinate to God as the creator in attempts to establish their own absoluteness.

And in each of these cases, the principalities are linked to and become subject to personal demonic figures. okay and with the coming of christ and with his death and resurrection the principalities and powers are disarmed and triumphed over and again are called to take their right ruling place under the power of the now triumphant king jesus while the war has been decisively won this also initiated new phases of radical rebellion on the part of the powers and the church now lives by constant warfare and battle against these powers throughout history. And that's the way, that's the situation that we find ourselves in. So what are principalities and powers?

Well, the principalities and powers are, their goal is really to damage human beings. It is to destroy human beings as much as possible. And these beings are part of a rank of the kingdom of darkness. and they do include fallen angels that were booted out of heaven with Lucifer long ago, and their intent is to hinder the purpose of God in a city, in a corporation, in a village, in a family. It is to hinder the purpose of God on earth and to take as many people as possible to hell with them, right? Obviously.

I spoke to an exorcist once, and I said, what do you think the enemy is really up to at this time? And he said, well, the enemy, his number one goal is to delay intimacy with God. It's to delay union with God. And he'll do anything he can to delay that union. He'll do anything he can to keep your children from intimacy with God. Much of what these spirits stand for is really glamorized in the media, in Hollywood, in books and songs, and so many other outlets, it is glamorized.

the power of spirits and the killing and the destruction. I've always been confused by that, how people can stand up against guns and everything else, and yet they sit and watch movies and in one movie, hundreds of people die. It's an outlet. Christian materials, though, like the beautiful music that we have

and some of these films that are coming out, beautiful magazines and publications, they can counter a lot of this. But that's up to you and I, whether we are involved with it and we pass it on. Very, very important. So principalities and powers are certainly these areas around the country. These being over territories, their presence is felt in cities. In some cities, they have a principality of murder hovering over them. Another city might have a spirit of rebellion or rioting over them. Another can have principalities and powers

of racism or sexual perversion. Some may have a gang, a gang mentality or kidnapping, like sometimes in Central America operating over their region. One sociologist noted that when it comes to sexual dysfunction, it tends to show up in pockets, densely populated areas, and not in places like cities in the country's interior. Very interesting observation. Now, the second part of this is that Principality,

and powers in the Bible are levels of demons or the presence of demonic activity. The first explanation is territories, areas of influence, the principalities and powers. But the second is that we're talking about demons themselves, the presence of demonic activity, and these beings are as real as the weather is in your city today. And their goal is to kill, is to destroy, it's to injure. It's to harass people and to confuse human beings. And this gets back to being kicked out of heaven. And their fate is sealed.

And there's going to be that day where they are thrown into the lake of fire, key thrown away, and they're causing as much havoc as possible. So the intent of these spirits is really to hinder God's purposes here on earth. the plan of sheer goodness, as the catechism calls it. God loves you and has a plan for your life. These principalities and powers, these fallen spirits want to confuse that. They want to hinder you.

They want to delay that intimacy with God. But Paul wrote to the Colossians, and he said in Colossians 2.15, the intent of the spirits is to hinder the purpose of God on earth. And to take, he said this, that when it comes to these spirits here on earth, He said he disarmed the principalities and powers here on earth. And he made a public example of them triumphing over them with the cross.

I wanted to give you that because I know that you want all of these citation. That's Colossians 215. But in 2nd Corinthians 1114, he talks about the enemy and says, you know, about how he disguises himself. Like I'm talking about, you know, Hollywood and the movie industry and so forth. He says, and no wonder for even Satan disguises. disguises himself as an angel of light, an angel of light. And so we are dealing with principalities and powers, but I want to encourage you, and that is this, Jesus has overcome. We walk in the authority of Jesus. We do not have to be afraid. But in prayer, we can stand

against these principalities and powers. And in the name of Jesus, bind the power of the enemy over our cities, our homes, our nation, this is spiritual warfare, spiritual warfare that we are involved in here today. I've got more for you, but we're going to take a break. You're listening to the Jeff Kaven show. Did you know that your personal style can aid in understanding your worth? My name is Lillian Fallon, and I am the author of Theology Style expressing the unique and unrepeatable you. And in this book, I dive into this very topic where we discuss how personal style is something that can actually help you grow in understanding in your worth and how you're made in the image of God. You can buy my book at ascensionpress.com

forward slash theology of style. Welcome back. While we're talking about some thoughts in relation to what's going on in Israel with Gaza, specifically with Hamas, and at the time of this show, we are hearing that there are 199 people hostage. We're going to pray for that at the end of this show. There have been thousands who have died. We want to pray for the families. And we also want to deal with principalities and powers. The third thing that I had been thinking about,

and this entered my mind while I was in Tel Aviv a week and a half ago. In Tel Aviv, they have what's called the Iron Dome. And it's quite the thing to see that when rockets are launched from either Gaza or Lebanon with Hezbollah, this Iron Dome goes into action and it launches these small missiles that go up and track down these deadly missiles and explode in midair. It is a wonder to behold of what mankind has created. But this Iron Dome is very, very effective. And so any time that there is an incoming missile, your phone goes off.

In fact, yesterday, while I was teaching at the seminary, my phone went off twice. Not my phone, but my watch. It went off twice, warning of those two missiles that were coming towards Jerusalem. You might have, you saw that in the news where Secretary Blinken was had to go undercover at that point into a bomb shelter. So when an attack comes, these missiles are intercepted and destroyed, and this got me to thinking that in our lives today, knowing that we are in spiritual battle, knowing that you have responsibility for your children, knowing that you have a responsibility for the safety of loved ones, what do we do when incoming missiles from the enemy are coming into our lives?

spiritual powers in high places that want to influence your daughter, your son, your grandchildren. What do we do? Well, praise God, Paul says we have been given a full, a full armor. And he talks about this in Ephesians chapter 6 in verses 10 through 20, and he even goes into what to do when the fiery flaming darts of the enemy come at us. Listen to what he said. He says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the devil's wiles. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth.

This is part of the armor that we have been given by God. Stand, having girded your loins with truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth in the life, the scriptures, the tradition that we've received, is the truth, and the truth will set you free. Gird your loins with truth. and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, that's the second one, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, make sure that your vital organs, that your heart is protected with righteousness. You go to confession, you're right with God, you are taking care of business when it comes to your spiritual life and your children. Get your children to confession, the breastplate of righteousness.

and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace. What are we talking about there? Every single Christian, when faced with warfare, needs to walk in the gospel of peace. We need to know the gospel. We need to know the charygma. And we have to be prepared to any time to give an answer for and a reason for the peace that we have and the hope that we have in our lives. besides all these he says taking the shield of faith with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one listen this is good this is good thank you paul thank you lord for giving

us this you my friend as a christian have been given the shield of faith the shield of faith now the romans which no doubt paul is getting these ideas as he's imprisoned and he's seeing all of the Romans, and he sees all their weaponry, and he sees how they're armed, their armor. And he notices that they have a shield, and that shield is for the purpose of quenching, flaming darts from the evil one. Now, the shields were quite heavy because they were, they were covered with a thick layer of leather. And that leather was soaked in water. And so you had to be strong to carry that shield, and then when the flaming arrows hit your shield, they were quenched. That's what we need with a spiritual iron dome. We have a spiritual iron dome. That's the

third thing that I've been thinking about, is that we have a spiritual iron dome. And what is it? It's the shield of faith. What's faith? Faith is when we agree with God. And, we personally entrust ourselves to God. This is how we fight in warfare with the shield of faith. We don't just stick up the shield and say, oh, protect myself. We do. We do what Jesus told us to do.

We walk in faith. Faith without works is dead. And we walk in faith. We got to teach our children to walk in faith, right? Teach our children to walk in faith. So I want to encourage you today, take the shield of faith, make sure there's a lot of water from your baptism on there and the flaming darts of the evil one stand at the door of your house and protect your family by walking in faith do what the

Lord told you to do and then Paul goes on and says and take the helmet of salvation in other words think the helmet of salvation think and the sword of the spirit the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God, the Bible. You know the Bible in a year took off. The Great Adventure Bible has been going crazy around the country and people are getting a hold of the sword of the spirit and they're walking in it. And then he says, pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints, and also for me that utterance may be given to me in opening of my mouth to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. So I want to encourage you as we look at our spiritual Iron Dome

and the weaponry that we've been given by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to remember one other thing from 2nd Corinthians 10-5. Paul says, take. He says, here's what we do with the thoughts that we have, and you're in warfare. We destroy arguments in everything. proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. That is so good. All of it, part of the gospel. Number four. Number four. We are horrified by the killing of babies and the beheading of babies. We are horrified by the destruction of the children that took place in these settlements outside of Gaza. I watched the news.

I saw the anchors crying when they saw the pictures, when they had to tell the story, it broke their heart across every network. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, Sky News, the BBC. see, I saw people crying while they were telling these stories about the babies all over the world. And that got me to thinking, why are we crying for the loss of life of these babies? And the babies being shot and the babies being cut apart. And it's so horrified the world that it shook us. then I started to think to myself, you know, we've been through this before in the Bible the killing of the holy innocence in Bethlehem. Their life meant something. Their life meant

something. The killing of the babies in Israel, their life means something. Their life cries out from the ground. In the news media, people are horrified at the cutting of these babies. Words like, how could they do that? That's so barbaric. That is not. even human. And then I got to thinking, shouldn't we look at ourselves, America? Shouldn't we look at ourselves? Why would you be so horrified at the death of these babies in these settlements outside

of Gaza and not be horrified when mothers themselves invade their own bodies and tear their children apart by the limb, crushing the skulls and burning. the skin. Why are you not horrified? Why? I don't get it. I don't get it. America needs to take a look at herself. You have been horrified, America. You have been shocked, America. Take a look at yourself. Take a look at yourself and dismiss all excuses, all reasons they don't work. And number five, talk to your children. If they're aware of what is going on, they've caught some of the stories. They might be scared themselves. Talk to your children. The scripture says in Deuteronomy 6, in these words which I command you this day shall be upon your

heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. And when you lie down and when you rise, and you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. I really encourage you to talk to your children. You don't have to expose them to some of the details

that will go against their innocence. But if they're asking you questions, I would contrast the ways of the enemy with the ways of Jesus. and share with them some of the things I mentioned in point number one of how good the gospel is and how opposite Jesus is and to make sure that you are imaging this in the family, that you are being an example of this in the family. Pray with your children for these people in the Middle East. Pray for them.

Lift them up to the Lord and pray with them from that perspective of we do have authority over the enemy. We don't have to be afraid. just have to be active and you can even pray over our own country. But let them know how good the gospel is. Give them a sense of safety and peace and that your home is different. Your home is different. They are safe. Those are some of the things that I have been thinking about. And I wanted to share those with you. And I really do believe that there's something for us to do. And we're going to do that in a moment here. We're going to pray. But remember, number one, that the, the, the, the, the, the, gospel is good. The gospel is very good. And number two, the battle is behind the scenes very powerful,

principalities and powers, but Jesus has overcome the principalities and powers. He's triumphed over them. He made a public example of them on the cross. And we need to be aware of the activity of these principalities and powers, even in our own city, in our own town. The third thing is the spiritual iron dome, we have been given the armor from God to fight the spiritual battle in our own place. Because I know this, if this was taking place between Hamas and those innocent people and those villages, I know one thing for sure. Behind the scenes, there is another battle raging that would cause your hair to curl. And we are equipped. You don't need to be afraid. Number four, America. America. Look at yourself. Look at yourself. Number five, talk to your

children. Let's pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, O Jesus, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the goodness that you have brought into our lives and what you stand for and that you are love and you are truth. And I pray, Lord, that all of us would grasp the gospel and live the gospel and pass it on to our children and highlight how different you are, how other you are Jesus. You are all together holy and lovely. And Lord, we are aware of the principalities and powers and we do take authority over powers and principalities in this battle. And we say, stop in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Not only, in what's happening in the Middle East, but in our own hometowns, stop. You are bound by the blood

of Jesus. In our own families, stop. You are bound by the blood of Jesus who has overcome and made an example of you. And Lord Jesus, Lord, we thank you for giving us this ability, this power to stand in your authority as we take authority over these powers. and they are disarmed. Lord Jesus, I pray that we will pick up our armor and fight. We will fight the fight around the world, the spiritual fight that's going on. But in our own homes, we will stand up

and we will be involved in the battle behind the scenes with our children, our grandchildren. And I pray, Lord, that there would be protection, protection for all of those in Israel. all of our Christian brothers and sisters, we pray that they would be protected. And I pray, Lord, for the hostages. Oh, God, preserve them. We agree on this in your name, Lord.

Preserve them. And just like in the book of Acts, when angels let people out of prison, Lord, I pray that there will be stories of people who have been let loose by angels to freedom. and I pray you would comfort all of the families who are just beside themselves with the loss of a loved one. O Lord, be their shepherd, be their counsel, be their husband, be their hope. I thank you for doing this, oh Lord, and I thank you, Lord, for protecting the innocence of our children as we try to communicate with them just how good the gospel is and how bad the enemy can be. we pray all of this in your name and we ask for the intercession of our dear mother,

the great Ark of the Covenant, the Gevera, the Queen Mother, the intercessor, an advocate given to us. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. I love you. And I'm looking forward to being with you on the next show.