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The Roar of the Lion
Dear Friends and prayer partners
Last Shabbat morning at 8:15 AM, we awoke here in Israel to the eerily familiar alarm tone of the Home Front Command app. We were instructed to stay close to a safe room, as missiles from Iran were expected at any moment. By that time, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and 40 other top leaders surrounding him were already history, and the war to finally topple the rest of the Iranian terror regime had begun. Although many anticipated that early March could bring an escalation, none of us quite expected it on that quiet Shabbat.
In the first minutes, the military spokesman announced that the operation was named Magen Yehuda — “Shield of Judah”. It sounded fitting. I was reminded of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15: “Fear not, I am your shield.”
Yet less than an hour later, in an unprecedented move, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a new message: the campaign would instead be called Sha’agat HaAryeh — “The Roar of the Lion”.
I was amazed. That name could not have been closer to the theme of this year’s Feast of Tabernacles: “The Lord Roars from Zion,” taken from Joel 3:16. I sensed that God Himself was speaking through this moment — that 2026 would be a year when His roar would be heard clearly. Amos said it equally as well:
“A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8)
The prophetic image of the roaring Lion is not the gentle whisper of love but the voice of judgment and divine intervention. Joel 3 warns of God’s response to nations that “divided My land” (v 2).
Likewise, Jeremiah declares: “The Lord will roar from on high… for He has a controversy with the nations.” (Jeremiah 25:30)
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