We do not know what will happen. But at least at this moment, it appears that the horrors that began with Hamas’s frenzy of murder, followed by the heartbreaking deaths of thousands in the resulting war, including a tragic number of children, may at last be coming to an end. This ceasefire points, however imperfectly, toward the peace that Jesus promises to bring to fulfilment in the age to come. Scripture teaches that the Messiah, when he returns, “shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isa. 2:4).

The ceasefire is an answer to the prayers of millions around the world for an end to bloodshed and the return of hostages.