The words in the headline aren’t mine but of Amjad Taha, a UAE journalist and political strategist who was commenting on the failed terrorist plan to cause massive casualties on five Israeli buses on Thursday, February 20 – in Bat Yam and Holon south of Tel Aviv – after timers were apparently set to detonate them at 9 or 10 at night instead of 12 hours later in the morning. Bombs exploded and destroyed three of the empty buses, and were found and diffused on the other two.
“When God chooses to protect you, He bends time itself, turning a.m. to p.m.,” Taja posted on X/Twitter. “Was it divine intervention or sheer blinding them? Palestinian Islamist terrorists from the West Bank set their bomb for p.m. instead of a.m., an attack meant to slaughter Israeli women and children during the morning rush, only to detonate in an empty parking lot. A mistake or a miracle?”
The observation is astounding, but not as much as when in 2014, even Hamas acknowledged that “their God changes the paths of our rockets in mid-air” (www.news24.com). When people in other countries – and even terrorists – state the obvious, it makes you wonder why these terrorists continue to plan their next moves to eliminate the Jewish state, after seeing miracle upon miracle by a God who is obviously fighting for us, thereby choosing a side.
Yet, while such events may seem like a modern-day phenomenon, things like this actually happened thousands of years ago. One such story is recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical book of Judges, centering on Gideon, who was called to fight Midian and the Amalekites. Before engaging in war, he took his servant, went to the enemy’s camp and overheard a man relating a dream he’d had to one of his friends.
“I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat” (v. 13).
Immediately, his friend responded by saying, “This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.” (v. 14)
There is a God, and he is present
WHAT IS clear from this story is the recognition, by the enemy, that there is a God, that He is involved in the events of mankind and that, in this case, He was siding with Gideon and Israel. It’s amazing that the enemy didn’t hightail it out of there even before the attack against them got started because, in the admission of the dream’s interpretation, it was a sure reckoning of what was about to take place.
On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced its most devastating and harshest moment. Although it may cause some to believe that we are in this fight alone, Thursday night’s failed attempt at multiple bus bombings might demonstrate otherwise. In fact, the likelihood of screwing up the detonation timer is so implausible, that you really have to wrack your brain in order to come up with another explanation as to how such a blundering mistake occurred.
The fact that a UAE journalist would go out on a limb and presume that this was an act of God, designed to protect His already hurting people, says a lot! Because Taha is not only crediting this miracle to God, but He is also boldly stating that God has literally bent time in order to divinely intervene in what was surely meant to be another horrific massacre.
By asking the question whether it was “a mistake or a miracle,” the Emirati journalist is not taking any possibility off the table, in his explanation that something else was going on here. Either the Almighty blinded the eyes and the cognitive abilities of the enemy who intended to do serious harm to our citizens, or He reversed whatever had been manually executed.
The contention is astounding, as it identifies a powerful variable that our enemies are forced to confront, should they continue to plot against us, knowing that we are being divinely protected in the midst of their evil attacks.
And if sides are being taken in the heavens, what does that say about them? Are they not afraid that instead of fighting Israel, they are fighting the God of Israel? That’s an awesome epiphany for anyone to have.
AS WE go about our daily routine, each one of us is aware that we are vulnerable to these deadly offensives that are coming at us with full force, in the hope of undoing a nation that has existed for almost 77 years. Nonetheless, most of us go about our day, unsuspecting, and maybe part of that is our own unspoken acknowledgment that, as citizens of the only Jewish homeland, we are also part of a miracle – one that turned from being a dream to a full reality.
This, too, constitutes a well-organized plan, but one which was intended to preserve life while allowing each of us to rise to our greatest potential, to also bless the world through our advanced technology, medical breakthroughs, creative solutions and so much more. We have taken the little we had and turned it into the unlimited possibilities that have resulted in the betterment of mankind.
Why would anyone want to put an end to that kind of bounty, which we are delighted to share with the entire world? There is only one explanation, and that is the devastating effects that intense hatred and evil can have on an individual, causing blindness and the inability to recognize good and the benefits that will enhance life, bringing about happiness, contentment and gratitude.
It is, apparently, this same blindness that caused the enemy to determine that p.m. was morning and not evening, when no one would be riding the buses. It is this kind of evil which assumed that such a heinous and dark plan would come about, killing and maiming hundreds of innocent Israelis who had the expectation that they could safely go from Point A to Point B, without having to confront an enemy set on their destruction.
What they didn’t plan on was the factor of divine intervention that was at play, proving that the God of Gideon is still the same God who continues to intervene on our behalf today!
The writer lives in Bat Yam, and her husband took the bus last Thursday morning.
Jesus Christ is King
