Psalm 124:6-8
‘Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth”
• DAILY READING: 1 Corinthians 9; 2 Kings 1-2; Amos 7.
It has been called the most daring rescue mission of all times. In July 1976, the Israeli military carried out a daring rescue operation that has become the reference point for many military operations around the world.
It all began on Sunday 27 June 1976, when terrorists hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris, carrying 247 passengers and 12 crew. The hijackers were terrorists affiliated to the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO].
Taking over the plane from the pilot, they flew to Uganda, where the Israeli passengers were held hostage by the Ugandan president Idi Amin. Non-Israeli passengers were released to go home, while the remaining 94 Israeli passengers were held captive.
As soon as news of the hijacking broke in Israel, the military brass gathered in Tel Aviv, to find a solution. Since the Israeli government had a policy of “no talking to terrorists”, therefore the only option was to plan an immediate rescue operation. The hijackers had given Sunday as the deadline, after which they would start killing the Israeli passengers.
However, in a matter of hours a daring rescue plan was formed. The future Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, was the military intelligence officer who led the planning, while Yonathan Netanyahu, elder brother to the Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would lead the main operation. Divine providence began to play out, when it was discovered that Israeli soldiers had trained the Ugandan military including Idi Amin. Also an Israeli engineer who had been involved in the building of the Ugandan airport, where the hostages were kept, provided the blueprint of the airport.
On Saturday afternoon a force of more than 200 Israeli soldiers took off, bound for Entebbe, Uganda. To avoid radar, they flew extraordinarily low – at one point no more than 35ft off the ground. Arriving at Entebbe they had to land in the dark on the unlit runway.
In a daring move, the Israeli soldiers overran the Ugandan soldiers guarding the hostages at the airport. With their understanding of the airport’s blueprint, they were able to move quickly, shooting down the hijackers and reaching the hostages in time before any one of them could be killed. In all, the raid had lasted a total of only 99 minutes. The hostages were loaded into a plane and flown back to Israel.
The Israeli operation at Entebbe drew global admiration for the Israeli military. And from then on, Entebbe would become a byword for military daring. It is a subject taught and studied by armies around the world. And it motivated three blockbuster movies.
However, it was a display of God’s divine wisdom and guidance upon His people. Though the terrorists had a water tight plan, what they didn’t know was that God had gone ahead to arrange a rescue. Crucial to the rescue operation was the information provided by the soldiers that trained the Uganda military and the engineer who had the blueprint of the Ugandan airport.
Indeed it takes the wisdom of God to escape the trap of the wicked.
Psalm 119:98 says ‘Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:’.
When the wisdom of God is at work in your life, you will be wiser than your enemies. It doesn’t matter where, how or when they gather against you, as long as you are guided by God’s wisdom you will always escape any trap.
Psalm 124:6-8 says ‘Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth”
We need the wisdom of God constantly operating in our lives, for us to successfully navigate through the narrow corridors of this world. The bible lets us know the whole world lies in wicked and that the hearts of men are desperately wicked. That means, you cannot afford to walk only by sight or draw conclusions merely from facial expressions. We need the wisdom of God to escape and excel.
And one of the ways of accessing divine wisdom is when we call unto God in the place of prayer. God has told those that lack wisdom to ask Him for it.
Jeremiah 33:3 says ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’
In 2 Samuel 5:19; when the Philistines gathered against Israel, David stood up to the task and asked the Lord for wisdom on what to do. He said : Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand.’
Through the wisdom of God David prevailed and won the victory. Also through divine wisdom David was able to escape many traps set for him.
When Saul was after David’s life, he escaped through divine wisdom. 1 Samuel 18:14-15 says ‘And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him. Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him.’
Also through divine wisdom Jesus severally escaped the many traps set for him by the Jews.
Divine wisdom will always cause you to escape the enemy’s trap.
In Daniel 2:12, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered the execution of all the wise men in Babylon because they couldn’t tell him his dream or the interpretation of his dream. Daniel on the other hand was spared. His life was not cut short because he had the wisdom of God to know the king’s dream and the interpretation of the dream. Calamity overtook the wise men of Babylon, death knocked on their doors, but in the midst of all of this, Daniel was at ease without fear of harm because he had something they didn’t have. He had divine wisdom.
Because divine wisdom is from above, it is above all, and is superior to all other kinds of wisdom. Divine wisdom is also drawn through meditation in God’s Word. In fact, it is impossible to flow in divine wisdom without genuine commitment to the Word. This is because God’s Word is His wisdom bank where we draw the virtues of divine wisdom.
In conclusion, divine wisdom is a highly valuable virtue, which we must seek after for us to excel and make the most of our destiny in Christ.
PRAYER: Lord, I need Your Wisdom daily as I go through this journey of life. Please grant me the wisdom to escape every trap and to excel in life in Jesus Name.
QUOTE
When God places His hand upon a man in life nothing can come against him, this is because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK DIVINE ORDER FOR A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS]