Israel and Hamas agree to pause the Gaza conflict

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal to pause their conflict in the Gaza Strip, opening a pathway to end the fifteen-month war. The deal will begin with an exchange of some of the hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Negotiators, including Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s designated Middle East envoy, along with officials from Israel, the US, and Arab countries, reconvened in Qatar to finalize the draft.

As I noted earlier this week, the agreement will be implemented in three phases. The real test could come in the first sixteen days when parties begin debating whether to extend the pause into a permanent halt to the fighting. Later stages would include the release of all the hostages and an eventual plan to rebuild Gaza.

However, unless you live in the Middle East or care about someone who does, this news may not feel personally significant to you. That’s understandable. In a 24/7 news climate where bad news typically leads, compassion fatigue is a daily threat. Advice abounds on regulating our news consumption for the sake of our mental health and anxiety management.

So, here’s a Wall Street Journal headline that comes closer to home: “Nearly Half of Adults Worldwide Hold Antisemitic Views, Survey Finds.” The subtitle explains that antisemitism has surged, especially among the young, as “the Holocaust fades from collective memory.” The survey represented 94 percent of the world’s adult population; a fifth of those who responded haven’t heard of the Holocaust, while 21 percent believe it has either been exaggerated by historians or it never happened.

To me, these stories illustrate a fact that affects every dimension of our lives, every day of our lives.

Life in three circles

We experience relationships in a series of three concentric circles.

Those who are closest to us—family, dear friends, colleagues, and so on, live in the innermost circle. The next circle is comprised of people whose lives and experiences are relevant to our own—countries with whom we trade, conflicts that could spill over into our homes and lives, and so on. The third circle is made up of people who feel personally irrelevant to us. They make little or no economic impact on our way of life, and their issues are so far removed from us as to be distant from our thoughts.

Israel and the Jewish people live in my first circle. I have written and spoken often of my love for them. After leading more than thirty study tours to the Holy Land, it feels like a second home to me. Some of my favorite people in the world, both Jews and Palestinians, live there. As a result, today’s news, cautionary though it is, comes as great news to me. If my friends in the Middle East can return to some semblance of normal life, I will be deeply grateful.

Because of my love for Israel, antisemitism feels deeply personal to me as well. You can imagine how you would feel if such discrimination were directed at your dear friends, whatever demographic they might represent. When I read about attacks on Israeli soccer fans in the Netherlands, it feels as if they occurred where I live, for example.

Taiwan and the threats it faces from China constitute an example of my second circle. I am aware of the enormous significance of their chip manufacturing to the global economy. I don’t know anyone in Taiwan, so this is not an emotional issue for me, but it is nonetheless relevant. The conflict in Ukraine is another example: even though I don’t know any Ukrainians, I grieve for their unjust suffering and am conscious of Russia’s nuclear capacities.

The ongoing conflicts in Myanmar and Ethiopia are examples of my third circle. Each involves atrocities that affect innocent people, and each could affect superpowers in ways that affect America one day. But for today, they are not on my personal radar.

If you had children in Myanmar

Here’s my point: God has only one circle, and every person on the planet lives within it. As I wrote in my Daily Article earlier today, he loves us because “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and is thus a Father who can only want the best for each of his children.

If you had children living in Myanmar, would you not care about them as deeply as if they lived in your house? Jesus reminded us that the entire world is God’s “footstool” (Matthew 5:35), meaning that it belongs to him and is present to him.

The Bible tells us that “the Lᴏʀᴅ has an eye on mankind” (Zechariah 9:1). We also know that he “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). As St. Augustine noted, God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

But consider for a moment the unconditional nature of this love.

• He loved us before we loved him: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
• He loved us before he made us, determining that his Son would be “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 NIV).
• Paul, who persecuted Christians so severely that Jesus told him he was persecuting Christ himself (Acts 9:5), a one-time enemy of the faith who called himself the “worst” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15 NIV), nonetheless testified that Jesus “loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This means that no one can live outside the inner circle of his love, compassion, and grace. The only people who do not experience the gift of his love—even though they are still loved—are those who reject it or who do not know enough to accept it.

And this is where we come in.

Responding to all three circles

I believe God has an inner circle for each of us, people he wants us to love with his love and serve with his unconditional grace. We should especially take note of those in this circle who are not followers of Christ, as far as we know. We should then pray fervently for them to hear and respond to the gospel and do all we can to answer our prayer with our witness and ministry.

If you had children who were in danger of a dread disease, would you not do all you could to save them from it? The lost people you know are in danger of an eternity separated from God in hell. How should you respond to their condition?

I believe God wants us to respond to those in our second circle by praying for them whenever they come to mind and seeing if God moves them into our first circle. For many years, before I began leading trips to Israel, it was in my second circle. I cared about what happened there but had no personal engagement or investment. Perhaps God has an “Israel” in your future as well.

And the Lord would have us pray for those in our third circle as well when we become aware of their challenges. Perhaps they will eventually move into a second circle of relevance and even a first circle of personal engagement.

“There is no pit so deep”

All the while, let’s ask God to give us his heart for hurting people, wherever we find them. He is grieving for those impacted by the devastating wildfires in California. He is mourning with all who have lost loved ones in Ukraine. He feels the deprivation of those who are suffering in Cuba. 

Love is a “fruit” of his Spirit (Galatians 5:22), the result of the Holy Spirit’s unhindered work in our lives. It is also our natural response to God’s grace: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When we consider the cross and submit to the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), we love as we are loved and the world can never be the same.

Corrie ten Boom observed, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.”

What “pit” would he place on your heart today?