The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Trump says war could last weeks; more than 1,000 targets have been struck (NY Times)
“The conflict in the Middle East sharply escalated Monday, the third day of a U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran, broadening into wider regional fighting. Hezbollah responded to the killing of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei with rocket and drone attacks on Israel, prompting Israeli strikes in the suburbs of Beirut and other Lebanese strongholds of the group. Iranian salvos continued against Persian Gulf states as the conflict reached European Union soil, with the U.K. reporting a drone attack on its military base in Cyprus.
“U.S. Central Command said Sunday afternoon that it has struck more than 1,000 targets in Iran in two days of operations, including ships, submarines, missile sites, communications links, and the command-and-control centers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… The joint operation with Israel that began Saturday killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. It is unclear who will lead Iran going forward, as Khamenei had no clear successor. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that an interim leadership council was established and had begun its work. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump continues to push for the Iranian people to overthrow the government.
“For many years, you have asked for America's help… Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let's see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”
You break it, you buy it? Pres. Trump’s remarks and actions align with the thinking of Anna Simmons in her work The Sovereignty Solution. “Logic suggests two ways to deal with radical adversaries who are uninterested in a secular peace: inflict so much loss and pain that none dares cross you again. And force those with the ambition to rule to have to rule.” Essentially, take out the current leadership and allow local leadership to fill the void.
Simmons rejects the idea “that there is an American lurking inside all non-Americans just waiting to be liberated by us also makes us surprisingly parochial.” Lacking centuries of social context necessary to grasp the intricacies of foreign culture, outsiders, Simmons observes, don't have the greater picture. “While being able to ask for tea in a local language is good . . . it takes a lifetime of drinking tea with locals to learn what is really going on beneath the surface.” So instead of both creating a void and attempting to fill it, Simmons argues that we can place “responsibility and accountability… back where they belong, at the feet—or on the heads—of those who claim the perquisites of office, whose nation-building and self-policing functions are supposed to mean they answer to their citizens so that no one has to answer to us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson described how a leader isn’t someone who walks down a path with a crowd, but someone who makes a path for a crowd. In this instance, a number of leaders have been taken out, but no one truly knows who remains. Like Zedekiah with Ahab, there is often someone waiting in the wings to assume leadership when a vacuum is created. Iran has lost a leader, but hopefully, they have someone who is willing to chart a new path. (1 Kings 22)
5. 3 US service members killed, 5 wounded, CENTCOM says (WaPo)
“Three U.S. service members were killed in action and five were seriously wounded, Central Command said Sunday morning, the first reported U.S. casualties in the joint attack with Israel on Iran. The military also said several other service members suffered minor shrapnel injuries and concussions.
“Strikes across the Middle East continued after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Israel said Sunday it launched a fresh wave in “the heart of Tehran,” and Iran mounted attacks on Israel and across the Persian Gulf. An Iranian strike killed at least nine people near Jerusalem, according to Israel’s national emergency service. In Iran, the state broadcaster, reported 201 dead and 747 injured in the country, citing figures from the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The Washington Post could not independently verify the report.”
Abraham Lincoln penned what is considered one of the best letters written in the history of the English language. To Mrs. Lydia Bixby, a widow believed to have lost five sons during the Civil War, Lincoln noted: “I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.”
He went on: “I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”
Pres. Reagan observed that the willingness of some to “give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery.” These brave individuals died sacrificially so that we might live freely. Their lives are like ambers of a divine fire, reminders of the One who gave his life so that we might live (1 Pet. 2:24). They rest in peace so that we might experience peace.
4. ‘It’s Surreal’: Iranians in Disbelief After Supreme Leader Assassinated (NY Times)
“A sense of disbelief fell over Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Sunday as the country came to grips with its new reality after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a day of American and Israeli strikes.
“Large crowds poured into the streets of Tehran and other cities across the country early Sunday morning to celebrate his death, amid fireworks, dancing and cheering. Hours later, scores more tearful mourners came out to the streets to grieve his death, waving Iranian flags and holding photos of Ayatollah Khamenei.
“By midday, as fresh waves of airstrikes hit the capital, a strange cadence was playing out across the streets of Tehran: First the booms from the renewed assaults, followed by the sounds of many people cheering on the strikes they hope will bring down the government.”
Bon Jovi is Living On A Prayer and Israel hacked a prayer… app. On Saturday, Israel hacked a popular Iranian prayer app to send notifications to potentially millions of phones, urging Iranians to defect from the regime and join a fight to liberate Iran. More than 5 million Iranians reportedly have the app and were notified with messages like “help has arrived” over the weekend.
Writing for The Atlantic, Graeme Wood highlights one of the reasons why help is needed: poor leadership. “No one familiar with the Islamic Republic will be surprised that the whole system was riddled with people who believed in nothing but their own enrichment and survival, and who achieved their exalted positions through mediocrity. Iran’s leadership was a soft target… And now all of those accomplishments are crashing down, because the best-planned defenses don’t count for much if the people you trust to run them are ready to sell you out."
Moses was a stuttering outlaw, David was a shepherd neglected by his family, and Gideon was hiding in a winepress. The odds were against them, but God was with them and had a plan for them. When the opportunity presented itself, these individuals seized the moment… and hopefully someone does the same in Iran over the coming days. As AW Tozer noted: “A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position of leadership by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of the external situation... I believe it might be accepted as a fairly reliable rule of thumb that the man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader.” (Ex. 3, Ps. 27, Judges 6)
3. FBI probing whether Iran attack motivated Austin shooter who killed 2 (WaPo)
“Authorities are investigating whether a man who fatally shot two people and wounded 14 others at a popular bar in Austin’s Sixth Street entertainment district early Sunday was motivated by the U.S. military campaign in Iran, according to two people briefed on the investigation. Police identified the gunman, who was killed by officers at the scene, as 53-year-old XXXXX.
“He wore a hoodie that read “Property of Allah” over a T-shirt bearing an Iranian flag design as he opened fire on weekend revelers at Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation. Officers later found a Quran in the SUV he drove to the area.
“XXX was a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal with a history of past encounters with state authorities for mental health episodes, the people familiar with the matter said, though the exact nature of those incidents was not immediately clear.”
There is nothing new under the sun… including Iranian sleeper cells. They attacked a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires back in 1994, killed 19 US airmen in Saudi Arabia in the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, and in 2015 had their sights set on causing terror in Kuwait City before being thwarted.
Potentially 700 sleeper cells here in the US? Last summer, Customs and Border Protection warned about the increased possibility of terrorist sleeper cells. Specifically, in a leaked memo, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott highlighted how more than 700 Iranian nationals were allowed to remain in the US after crossing the border illegally in the past 4 years. He cited “Iran’s hatred for the United States and their desire to harm America and Americans.” He went on: “Though we have not received any specific credible threats to share with you all currently, the threat of sleeper cells or sympathizers acting on their own, or at the behest of Iran has never been higher.”
They sleep, but God doesn’t. Like Haman, their ideas cannot stand against God’s plan. Writing on the power of God, Jerry Bridges noted: “This is the essence of God’s sovereignty; His absolute independence to do as He pleases and His absolute control over the actions of all His creatures. No creature, person, or empire can either thwart His will or act outside the bounds of His will.” And while tragically some people lost their lives, we can know that this evil person will be held accountable in the next one. (Est. 7, Heb. 10:31)
News You Can Use
2. THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH AREA
Watch it here. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12:2)
1. Hilarious! What the words to The Lion King song actually mean…
Watch it here. “Some in the crowd mocked the disciples' miraculous, spirit-led speech by saying, "They are filled with new wine.” (Acts 2:13)
