An historic week of firsts
The first Day of Unleavened Bread opened with a striking juxtaposition. At 6:24 p.m. EDT on April 1, four astronauts aboard the Artemis II spacecraft thundered skyward on 400,000 pounds of thrust, accelerating past 500 MPH in under two seconds toward a rendezvous with the Moon. It was a breathtaking moment of human achievement.
At the same hour, 6,500 miles away, Iran and Hezbollah rained more than 140 missiles on innocent Israeli citizens celebrating their Passover Seder. Hezbollah then fired dozens more rockets through the night on both civilians and military. On the day after the first Holy Day, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem would pay “a very heavy price” for the “intensified fire toward Israel civilians” as they celebrated Passover.
Back in the United States, as Artemis entered pre-lunar earth orbit, President Donald Trump delivered his first formal address to the American people on the Iranian War — one month into the conflict. The speech said little new but featured contrasting claims that the President never sought regime change, although his initial social media video announcing the war encouraged Iranian citizens to seek same.
He later declared that “all Hell will reign down” on Iran if the Hormuz Strait remained closed. The strait’s closure was already strangling economies across both the Western and Asian worlds, sending oil prices surging above $100 per barrel and rattling stock markets throughout the week as contagious remarks about economic recession surfaced.
By Sunday, the President had escalated further, resorting to profanity on social media in demanding that Iran reopen the strait. Originally emphasizing in his April 1 speech that the critical Hormuz conduit would simply “open up naturally” following the end of the war, the President dramatically dialed up the temperature. Resorting to public profanity, he openly demanded on social media that the Iranians release their grip: “Open the F*****’ Strait, you crazy b******s, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH.”
On April 7, The President took things to an even higher level of angst, warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if his demands were not met — threats the United Nations Secretary General called “alarming,” cautioning that an entire people should not be made to bear the consequences of political and military decisions. Many openly speculated whether the proposed American attacks on civilian targets would possibly violate international law to the point of war crimes.
That same day China and Russia – both of whom are benefitting from the Iranian oil market turmoil and essentially prosecuting a growing proxy war — vetoed a UN Security Council resolution urging international coordination over the Hormuz crisis. The markets continued to anxiously totter back and forth as the Days of Unleavened Bread continued, finally setting a new “Freak Out Indicator” record in trader volume.
A situation that “can’t be controlled”
Before the President’s self-imposed 8 p.m. deadline, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman anxiously offered a chilling assessment: “Escalations left unchecked will get us to a situation where it can’t be controlled — and we are very close to that point.”
Then, in the early evening of April 7, President Trump announced he was postponing military action against Iranian civilian targets. Markets, however, remained deeply unsettled. One senior portfolio manager summarized what many felt: “I’m on pins and needles, like everybody else.”
Realignment – “Stand up to the U.S. and China”
Earlier, President Trump excoriated European leaders for not jumping into the fight to untangle the blocked Strait and its resulting oil shock. “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump taunted in a post on his Truth Social channel. Speaking on CNN, Kamil Zwolski, a fellow on terrorism and conflict studies at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said: “Trump has been astonishingly inconsistent in his criticism…He is going from ‘we don’t need the support of European allies’ to ‘why won’t they help us, they are ungrateful.’”
The tremors rattling throughout the week extended well beyond the Hormuz. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in South Korea, called on secondary powers to unite and “stand up to the U.S. and China,” declaring: “Our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers.”
Meanwhile, concerns about NATO’s future grew acute. Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said bluntly: “This is the worst moment that NATO has faced.” The Economist noted that the President need not formally withdraw from the alliance to effectively dismantle it—simply recalling American forces from Europe would suffice. “I have spent the past five years telling people not to worry about Trump and NATO,” says one European diplomat in Washington, DC. “Now I am genuinely quite worried about Trump and NATO.”
“The one thing the Europeans have understood is that we are dealing with a bully,” said Carlo Calenda, an Italian senator and former economic development minister, in the Wall Street Journal. “You can give him everything he wants, you can pretend you don’t hear his insults, but he will keep trying to bully us, and so at a certain point we must stop him.”
Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead summed it up on April 7: “Not every war matters to the whole world. The Iran war does.” Every great and near-great power, he observed, “is now adjusting its foreign policy in response to a conflict that is reshaping global politics.”
When Trust Is the Currency and Leaders Are Broke
Across the political spectrum, a near-total collapse of institutional trust became the dominant theme of the week. Pope Leo XIV — an American from Chicago — called the President’s threats against Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable.” He earlier took the remarkable stance that from his perspective, no one could use Jesus to justify war: “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
Prior to the Iranian War, outreach in the Middle East produced numerous advancements. Now America’s reputation has bottomed out, with leaders openly speculating — as noted in Foreign Affairs magazine — whether America has completely lost the Arab world. Wars in Gaza, Iran, and elsewhere have sunk Washington’s reputation—perhaps permanently.
In a world spinning on such a turbulent axis, where does a disciple of Jesus Christ plant his or her feet?
What the Bible says for times like these
The irony is not lost that these Days of Unleavened Bread — a season marking the death and resurrection of the King of Kings and a period of self-examination and spiritual change — should unfold against such a backdrop of human conflict and upheaval. The season is, at its core, a rehearsal for something far greater than any earthly power struggle.
What is our hope? The Bible is clear that God is not a distant observer of national affairs. He is the divine Sovereign who holds all governments accountable — meting out grace to those who act righteously and consequences to those who forget Him. These are not abstract principles. They are absolute laws that one can build a life around.
Scripture also anticipates a coming moment when a charismatic and savage human leader — a Thērion, the prophesied “Beast” — will unite ten otherwise unstable nations into an unprecedented political and economic bloc, triggering the very events that will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ. The present turmoil, as alarming as it is, may well be a taste of the coming prophesied time of Revelation 13. A political vacuum opened by the unraveling long-time partnership of NATO may draw in unexpected players, sooner than than one might think.
Yet for disciples tuned into the arc of God’s revealed plan, there is no need to live in the grip of a “Freak-Out Indicator.” The same Christ who governs history is described in Colossians 1:16-17 as the one through whom all thrones, dominions, and authorities were created — and “in him all things hold together.” Nothing is spinning beyond His reach as the plan and purpose of God unfolds.
“My counsel shall stand”
And for those whose faith wavers in turbulent days like these, a promise from Isaiah 46 remains unbreakable:
“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose… I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it'” (Isaiah 46:9-11, ESV).
For the world, these are days of unleavened war. But for those who know their God and His marvelous plan for all of humanity, they are the days of unleavened hope — grounded in the unshakeable certainty that God is still enthroned, still sovereign, and still working out His purpose with perfect precision.
As the world continues its race to its destiny, the Therion will one day have his moment.
But our sovereign God and the King of Kings will have the last word – for all eternity.
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