2 Chronicles 26:15 . ‘And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong’
- DAILY READING Mark 10:1-31; 2 Samuel 23; Hosea 3
In 1976 Three of Israel’s greatest leaders: Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin planned and pulled off one of the most astonishing military operations in history. It was Israel’s rescue of its hostages from Entebbe named ‘operation thunderbolt’. It has become celebrated as the most daring rescue mission of a generation.
On June 27, 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by a group of Arab and German terrorists who demanded the release of 53 terrorists. The plane was forced to divert to Entebbe, in Uganda–ruled by the dictator Idi Amin. But rather than negotiate, Israel leaders decided to carry out a daring rescue. Four Hercules planes, accompanied by two Boeing 707 jets, flew 200 soldiers, undetected over 2,500 miles in an 8 hours flight to Uganda. To avoid radar, they flew extraordinarily low. Arriving in the dead of night to Entebbe capital of Uganda, they overpowered the Ugandan soldiers, killed the terrorists, rescued over a hundred Israeli hostages and flew them back to Israel.
The audacity of that rescue operation astounded the world and put Israeli military in a class of its own. However, although many saw the rescue at Entebbe as a show of the military strength of Israel, in truth it was the doing of The Lord. It was another miracle signature of The Lord’s hand over His people. Israel did not just embark on a rescue, the nation was praying and the Rabbis were calling upon God and He answered. The fact that Entebbe was a miracle and not just about Israel’s military prowess was made glaringly clear when America decided to imitate Israel’s tactics. In 1980, when 52 US embassy staff in Tehran Iran were held hostage, president Jimmy Carter planned an Entebbe-style rescue mission of his own. But despite the high level military and technical preparations, the mission failed. It was aborted amid mechanical failures and a midair collision before America’s aircraft got anywhere near the US hostages. Eight US servicemen lost their lives; it was a catastrophe. The botched raid on Iran was a humiliation for the US president, and government. But it also fed the myth of Entebbe, as it suggested that Israel had managed a feat that was beyond the capacity of even the mighty US.
Psalm 71:7 says ‘I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.’
When God is with you, you become a wonder to your world. It is His grace that makes great. We have to learn to continually acknowledge the help of The Lord in our affairs. The inexplicable favors we sometimes experience are not our doing, it is The Lord’s doing. Some of the things we survived was what easily killed other people. We must therefore learn not to take the doings of The Lord for granted so that we do not become grounded. To see the outstanding success and progress we desire, we must heavily rely on help from above. .
2 Chronicles 26:15 speaking about King Uziah says . ‘And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.’
Marvelous help will always generate marvelous strength. The help of God does for us exceedingly, abundantly, above all we could ever ask or imagine. Indeed when strengthened through Christ, we can do all things. When you have God on your side, you have the majority on your side. It is through divine help that we are elevated above our peers. Through the help of God, we are able to achieve what others find impossible to accomplish. And divine help is accessed through coming daily to God, to fellowship with Him in prayer and in His Word. Let us therefore learn to always come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need in Jesus Mighty Name.
PRAYER: Lord, I thank You for doing for me exceedingly, abundantly above all I could ever ask or imagine. Indeed I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me in Jesus Name.
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There is something that God has placed within you that the world is eagerly awaiting to see.