The Longest Year

The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.

Monday, October 7, 2024 marked the one year anniversary of the violent incursion and attack into Israel by Hamas, during which the terrorist organization killed more than 1,200, kidnapped approximately 250, and triggered a year of war and bloodshed in the region. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and citizens acknowledged the somber occasion with vigils and remembrances, including several dedicated to the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

A year after the spark of the Hamas attack, the war continues to expand. Israel and Hamas remain engaged in war in and around Gaza, while Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah are attacking on Israel’s northern border.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Peace for Israel and the surrounding region feels impossible to attain. Candidly, complete peace as you and I tend to think about it is not attainable on this side of eternity. But a deeper peace is not only possible, but in fact promised.

Our previous story offered a reminder from Is. 26:3 about the source of our peace, but it is instructive and encouraging to consider how thoroughly the concept of peace is embedded within the gift of Jesus.

First, the foretelling of Jesus in Is. 9:6 calls Jesus the “Prince of Peace.”

Thann Bennett

Thann Bennett is the Founder and President of Every Good Work, which exists to equip Jesus followers for a life of impact. His weekly newsletter, The Equipped, helps Jesus followers engage current events through a lens of the True and the beautiful. Thann and his wife, Brooke, are co-Founders of A Fearless Life, which works to find and fund a family for every adoption-eligible foster child in America. Thann has more than two decades of high-level public policy experience, with a particular focus on the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. He is the author of In Search of the King and My Fame His Fame. Thann and Brooke live in southern Maryland with their three children: Jude, Gambrell, and Hope, as well as a host of farm animals. The Bennetts are longtime members of the National Community Church family in Washington, D.C.

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Tension on the Korean Peninsula