The French Tragedy

At the end of the Amidah (the central prayer in Judaism) is the prayer known as “Sim Shalom,” meaning, “Grant Peace.” It’s a plea to God to grant us peace, happiness and blessing. Yesterday, as our small group, Adonai Shamah, concluded the Amidah prayers with Sim Shalom, we were immediately led to pray for the people of France, who underwent horrific terrorist attacks, to grant them peace and comfort in such a terrible hour. We also prayed that this secular country would turn to God at such a time as this. There’s no good explanation for how such evil can be perpetrated in this world.

Once again radical Islamicists attacked innocents in Europe. This was only a few weeks after a likely bomb planted by similar folks brought down a Russian commercial airliner. More and more radicalized Muslims have received training and experience from the wars in Iraq and Syria and are spreading their violence to the rest of the world. This was the fear of many Western intelligence agencies. There seems no end in sight as the wars rage on, more people are killed, maimed and dislocated and more countries get involved on multiple sides. What seemed hopeful at the beginning of the Arab Spring has degenerated into the world’s greatest crisis since World War II. Unfortunately, in my view President Obama’s policies have contributed to this tragedy. See articles I wrote for Kehila News called, “Obama’s Middle East,” http://kehilanews.com/2015/09/15/obamas-middle-east-part-one/ and http://kehilanews.com/2015/09/29/obamas-middle-east-part-two/.

While Western nations refuse to call these religious wars, the perpetrators claim to do these acts in the name of their god, Allah. The Apostle Paul declares, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The pervasiveness of this evil is the sad reality for the Muslim world, which is now spreading to the rest of the world. We must pray for spiritual revelation for these people that they will cast off a faith that binds them and find liberty in the one true God and in his Messiah Yeshua.