Even the Darkness Will Not Be Dark to You

The events of October 7th and the subsequent war with Hamas in Gaza have led to a deep grief and mourning in Israel. A great darkness has come over the people and its hard to find hope.

For several years now, Chaya Mizrachi along with a group of Messianic women have been organising a conference for women primarily focused on healing and restoration. This year, they witnessed unprecedented numbers registering - women desperately wanted to be together - to worship, to pray together, to seek God’s face - this year’s conference was the largest gathering for Messianic Women in Israel, hosted by Messianic Women!

During the conference Chaya shared how on October 7th she was flat on her back, unable to move after back surgery had gone wrong. She was leaking spinal fluid and in a very serious condition. She had woken at 6am and by 6:30am the air raid sirens were going off. “..that was the day that brought such pain and grief to all of us... which intensified when the world started to turn on us. [The emotions were so intense] ...I’ve cried just about every day and I’ve been angry too. And then we knew our sons and daughters, our husbands, our fathers were now in a battle against evil. We knew deep inside of ourselves that this was a battle against evil... The Lord showed me something about darkness. We don’t often think about God and darkness, we tend to think about light, Yeshua is the light but in Psalm 139:11-12 it says:

“If I say: “Surely darkness covers me, night keeps light at a distance from me,” even darkness is not dark for You, and night is as bright as day— darkness and light are alike.”

(Psalm 139:11-12 TLV)

“Even darkness is not dark for the Lord. There was a family in Holland in World War II, called the Ten Boom family. This family paid a price saving the lives of Jewish people. The two sisters were in the death camps and Betsie said this to her younger sister, Corrie:

“There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still.”

So, even darkness is not dark for our God.

“My daughter, Devora called me and asked me if I remembered Kibbutz Nir Am and I said, yes. This Kibbutz is near the southern city of Sderot (about a mile from the border with Gaza), and they opened the doors of their Kibbutz during Covid-19 to this women’s conference and said that we could put up a tent and they would let us worship the Lord as Messianic women on their Kibbutz. [Other venues refused to have them because of their belief in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah but Kibbutz Nir Am said, yes.] We met there for two years running and we prayed over that Kibbutz - for God to protect them, guard them, take care of them. During the first meeting there at the Kibbutz as we were worshipping, suddenly all the power went out. The women continued to worship, clapping their hands and worshipping with all their might. I will never forget that day as I felt like I heard with every clap of the hand, the stomping of women, an army of women. What I could feel in my heart was I could hear a marching on the land, I could just feel it. There were marching women, an army of women going forth and then God really put it in our hearts to pray a blessing over this kibbutz, that we wanted to ask God to protect them, take care of them, watch over them, care for every child and family. We prayed in this Kibbutz and we asked God to take care of and watch over this Kibbutz.”

“When the October 7th attack happened, in the early hours of the morning, the head of security on Kibbutz Nir Am was a young woman. As the rockets came in and the people ran to the bomb shelters she called her superiors. They told her to stay in the safe room [a bomb shelter] but something inside of this young woman in her inner being, said something is wrong - something inside her said, “No! Call everyone in and get the weapons out.” And so she did. She got the weapons out, she called her security team in, she gave them their weapons and they were all in position around the perimeter when the terrorists attacked the kibbutz. The battle lasted several hours but they were ready. Also, when they asked her about turning the generator on, because the terrorists had cut the electric power throughout the whole area, she again felt inside of her a strong sense to say, “No, don’t turn them on.” Because of that, the terrorists couldn’t get the gate open and couldn’t enter with vehicles preventing further violence and kidnappings. The enemy could not enter inside.

“I looked back and I thought about those two conferences, how this Kibbutz had welcomed the followers of Yeshua. I thought about the sound of marching women and how strong the women worshipped with the clapping of the hands. There was a marching army of women who love Yeshua who prayed and worshipped at Kibbutz Nir Am.

“I want us all to know something. We prayed there and then we forgot about it, but God hears every prayer of our heart - he hears every cry, every utterance. Everything that is coming from us to Him, He hears. In Revelation 5:8, it says there are golden bowls in heaven. Incense is rising to the God of Israel and it says these are the prayers of God’s people. So a prayer from 20 years ago, is still rising as incense to the Lord. When we were planning this year’s conference, we were asking what should this year’s scripture be, for such a year as this year! There was a story about an Israeli mother who was doing the traditional Friday evening Shabbat meal blessing over the bread but her heart was breaking as her daughter had been kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza. As she was doing the blessings she found herself saying, “I love you, Adonai.” Despite all the heart-breaking circumstances she could still say, “I love you, Adonai.” and know the Lord had compassion and comfort.

“I was reading Psalm 18, “I love you Adonai, my strength.” Even though I was grieving, I was able to wake up each day and say, “I love you, Adonai, my strength.””

In the original Hebrew, the word translated ‘love’ here in this verse, means love and comfort, like a mother comforts a child. Its a rare word in Hebrew and is also related to the word compassion.

“In Isaiah 66:13 it says, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, so you will be comforted in Jerusalem.” Picture a mother with a new born baby because it means both love and comfort - but it goes both ways. It goes between the mother to the child and the child to the mother. The mother is comforted when the child is comforted. The child loves the mother, the mother loves the child. And that is how God is with us. He takes His daughter in His arms - it goes both ways this scripture.”

It was with that thought and confession that Chaya opened the conference as all the women declared: “I love you, Adonai, my strength!”

The theme for this year’s gathering was “In His Presence” and the scripture was from Psalm 18:1 when King David said, “I love you, Adonai My Strength.”

PRAY

Pray for the Lord to comfort these women with His compassion. That hearts would be healed and hope restored and strength renewed. That they would become a spiritual army praying God's plans and purposes into being. "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." (Ephesians 6:12)

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