Starvation in Gaza Meant to Save the Israeli Hostages

Who is more important?

In physics, the absence of light is darkness. In spirituality, the absence of the light of agapé (unconditional love) is blindness, meaning that there is never an absence of agapé, only blindness to its light. Can this explain the forced starvation in Gaza to save the Israeli hostages?

What blinds us to the light of agapé is self-importance, for in unconditional love, we make others more important without being against ourselves. In the teachings of the law of Moses, it says that Name will sacrifice nations to save Israel. To paraphrase the point, one good person’s life is more important than the lives of a thousand bad people.

In the teachings of Word, which is based on agapé, the life of one bad person is more important than a thousand good people. For Word said that there is no reward in loving those who love you. Name only rewards us for loving our enemies because He considers them more important. This is the idea of the prodigal son, whom the good father makes more important than his good son to win him back.

Israel is following the law and has been blinded to the light of agapé, just as the members of Hamas, who follow the law although Muslims, are blind, and the same for the Palestinians who approve of Hamas. But what about the Palestinians who do not follow the law and their children who do not know any better? They along with Israelis who follow Word, in essence, the principle of agapé, are the good, who are not as important as the bad in the eyes of Name for good reason.

So if we follow Word, we should accept being less important in Name’s eyes, but that does not mean that He expects us to be against ourselves. He expects us to be for ourselves and resist the bad. But if we resist the bad thinking we are more important than them, we are not the good, at least not yet. We are still thinking as children.

We think that Name sees us as more important because we chose to follow Word. But until we know how to love our enemies, we have faith in Word but do not follow him. When we do follow Word, we understand that Name seeing us as less important is true to the nature of collective agapé.

But when we think it is just too hard to love our enemies, we hold too tightly to our faith because we know that we are not following Word. Don’t we know that he completely expects us to learn how? For he said, “Will I find you doing what I told you to do when I return?” Interpreted symbolically by nonbelievers, this means that our conscience (suneidesis)¹ will hold us responsible at the end of the learning cycle. But remember, the reward is great, just as the reward of a woman seeing her newborn is great, the pain of childbirth soon forgotten.

During the learning cycle, we learn that we cannot follow the law and Word at the same time. Sooner or later we must completely give up one and completely follow the other. For they govern our world suneidesis in opposite ways.

In Word’s teaching, the law is subject to agapé, meaning we make others more important without being against ourselves. In the teachings of the law, agapé is subject to the law, which means we make ourselves more important and are thus against ourselves—in the blindness we create turning everyone against us.

Israel, using the law, has made itself more important than those in Gaza, using the same premise that the Israelis taken hostage by Hamas are more important than Hamas and the Palestinians. The teachings of Word say not to judge, for Israel does not know what it is doing. Israel is indeed more important than us in the eyes of Name, but for many of them, not any longer for the reason the law of Moses states, that of being God’s chosen people.

Apply this to citizens around the world who see Israel as more important for the wrong reason and those who see it for the right reason. Israel and Hamas are prodigals sons, just as citizens who think their side is more important for the wrong reason. All will be judged for not following the light of agapé, to the delight of none who follow agapé and love them.

On the other hand, the Palestinian children who suffer, along with those who have already been killed, are all less important in Name’s eyes but for a good reason. When their present suffering ends or their glorious rebirth in heaven occurs, interpreted as occurring in spirit by nonbelievers, all their suffering will soon thereafter be forgotten.

And for those of us who follow agapé, seeing its light in those more important for the wrong reason, who are completely blind to it, is like seeing the beauty of the face of Name in them, our great reward.

The Eyes of Democracy (Introduction and Index of Articles)

1. Suneidesis, pronounced soo-NAY-day-sis, is a Greek word that joins our natural awareness with our sense of conscience. Click on the link for a detailed explanation. It is central to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive working in our awareness itself. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness of all things.

If I understand that my awareness of something as simple as a cup includes co-conscientiousness, I do not allow myself to get blinded by the cup alone but know it as part of all creation at the hands of the Creator or the universe, depending on one’s beliefs. Spiritual maturity does this naturally.