Christ had given precious gems of truth, but men had bound them up in the rubbish of superstition and error. He had imparted to them the words of life, but they did not live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He saw that the world could not find the word of God, for it was hidden by the traditions of men. He came to place before the world the relative importance of heaven and earth, and put truth in its own place. RH February 18, 1890, par. 3
WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
Tue, May 27, 2025 at 8:23 AM GMT+34 min read
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Mideast Wars Gaza Eating from Garbage
In a sign of growing desperation, Islam Abu Taeima, a 40-year-old mother of five, grabs a piece of bread from a pile of garbage in Gaza City, Sunday, May 25, 2025.(AP Photo/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — With flies buzzing all around them, the woman and her daughter picked through the pile of garbage bags for scraps of food at the foot of a destroyed building in Gaza City. She found a small pile of cooked rice, a few scraps of bread, a box with some smears of white cheese still inside.
I hope you will regard this as a most precious opportunity to <pray and> counsel together; and if the injunction of the apostle to esteem others better than ourselves is carefully heeded, then you can in humility of mind, with the spirit of Christ, search the Scriptures carefully to see what is truth. The truth can lose nothing by close investigation. Let the Word of God speak for itself; let it be its own interpreter, and the truth will shine like precious gems amid the rubbish 5LtMs, Lt 20, 1888, par. 1
Islam Abu Taeima picked soggy bits from a piece of bread and put the dry part in her sack. She will take what she found back to the school where she and hundreds of other families live, boil it and serve it to her five children, she said.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she said. “If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Christ was the originator of all the ancient gems of truth. Through the work of the enemy these truths had been displaced. They had been disconnected from their true position and placed in the framework of error. Christ’s work was to re-adjust and establish the precious gems in the framework of truth. The principles of truth which had been given by Himself to bless the world had, through Satan’s agency, been buried and had apparently become extinct. Christ rescued them from the rubbish of error, gave them a new, vital force, and commanded them to shine as precious jewels and stand fast forever. Christ Himself could use any of these old truths without borrowing the smallest particle for He had originated them all. He had cast them into the minds and thoughts of each generation, and when He came to our world, He re-arranged and vitalized the truths which had become dead, making them more forcible for the benefit of future generations. It was Jesus Christ who had the power of rescuing the truths from the rubbish and again giving them to the world with more than their original freshness and power. 6LtMs, Ms 25, 1890, par. 10
Her rummaging for food is a new sign of the depths of desperation being reached in Gaza, where the population of some 2.3 million has been pushed toward famine by Israel’s nearly three-month blockade. The entry of a small amount of aid in the past week has done almost nothing to ease the situation.
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.Isaiah 24 : 11, But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.Luke 5 : 38, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:Ephesians 6 : 17
Before the war, it was rare to see anyone searching through garbage for anything, despite the widespread poverty in the Gaza Strip.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.Ephesians 6 : 12
We have an infinite Redeemer, and how precious are the gems of truth that testify to this in God’s Word. But these precious jewels have been buried beneath a mass of rubbish, of tradition, and heresies, which Satan himself has originated. His schemes are working with a strange power upon human minds to eclipse the value of Christ to those who believe in Him. The enemy of God and man has cast a spell over those who profess to be the followers of Christ until of many it can be said, They know not the time of their visitation. 6LtMs, Ms 21, 1890, par. 10
Since Israel launched its military campaign decimating the strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, it has been common to see children searching through growing, stinking piles of uncollected garbage for wood or plastic to burn in their family’s cooking fire or for anything worth selling — but not for food. For food, they might search through the rubble of damaged buildings, hoping for abandoned canned goods.
But Abu Taeima says she has no options left. She and her 9-year-old daughter Waed wander around Gaza City, looking for leftovers discarded in the trash.
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“This is our life day to day,” she said. “If we don’t gather anything, then we don’t eat.”
Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.Exodus 16 : 26
It’s still not common, but now people picking food from trash are occasionally seen. Some come out after dark because of the shame.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.John 3 : 2, And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.Luke 2 : 8
“I feel sorry for myself because I’m educated and despite that I’m eating from the trash,” said Abu Taeima, who has a bachelor’s degree in English from Al-Quds Open University in Gaza.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?John 3 : 10
Oh, what a lesson is this wonderful story of Bethlehem! How it rebukes our unbelief, our pride and self-sufficiency. How it warns us to beware, lest by our criminal indifference we also fail to discern the signs of the times, and therefore know not the day of our visitation.
It was not alone upon the hills of Judea, not among the lowly shepherds only, that angels found the watchers for Messiah’s coming. In the land of the heathen also were those that looked for Him; they were wise men, rich and noble, the philosophers of the East. Students of nature, the Magi had seen God in His handiwork. From the Hebrew Scriptures they had learned of the Star to arise out of Jacob, and with eager desire they awaited His coming, who should be not only the “Consolation of Israel,” but a “Light to lighten the Gentiles,” and “for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” Luke 2:25, 32; Acts 13:47. They were seekers for light, and light from the throne of God illumined the path for their feet. While the priests and rabbis of Jerusalem, the appointed guardians and expounders of the truth, were shrouded in darkness, the Heaven-sent star guided these Gentile strangers to the birthplace of the newborn King.
It is “unto them that look for Him” that Christ is to “appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28. Like the tidings of the Saviour’s birth, the message of the second advent was not committed to the religious leaders of the people. They had failed to preserve their connection with God, and had refused light from heaven; therefore they were not of the number described by the apostle Paul: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:4, 5. GC 315.1 – GC 315.3
the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and the biggest employer in Gaza.
Her family struggled to get by even before the war, she said. Abu Taeima has worked for a short time in the past as a secretary for UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees and the biggest employer in Gaza. She also worked as a reader for blind people. Her husband worked briefly as a security guard for UNRWA. He was wounded in the 2021 war between Hamas and Israel and has been unable to work since.
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Israel cut off all food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza on March 2. It said the blockade and its subsequent resumption of the war aimed to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. But warnings of famine have stoked international criticism of Israel.
“As the controversy extends into new fields, and the minds of the people are called to God’s downtrodden law, Satan is astir. The power attending the message will only madden those who oppose it. The clergy will put forth almost superhuman efforts to shut away the light, lest it should shine upon their flocks. By every means at their command they will endeavor to suppress the discussion of these vital questions. The church appeals to the strong arm of civil power, and in this work papists and Protestants unite. As the movement for Sunday enforcement becomes more bold and decided, the law will be invoked against commandment-keepers. They will be threatened with fines and imprisonment, and some will be offered positions of influence and other rewards and advantages as inducements to renounce their faith…. Conscientious obedience to the Word of God will be treated as rebellion.” RH April 27, 1911, par. 20
Aid trucks were looted or because of Israeli military restrictions on aid workers’ movements
It allowed several hundred trucks into Gaza last week. But much of it hasn’t reached the population, either aid trucks were looted or because of Israeli military restrictions on aid workers’ movements, especially in northern Gaza, according to the U.N. Aid groups say the amount of supplies allowed in is nowhere near enough to meet mounting needs.
Abu Taeima and her family fled their home in the Shati refugee camp on the northern side of Gaza City in November 2023. At the time she and one of her children were wounded in a tank shelling, she said.
They first headed to the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah where they sheltered in a tent
They first headed to the strip’s southernmost city of Rafah where they sheltered in a tent for five months. They then moved to the central town of Deir al-Balah a year ago when Israel first invaded Rafah.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.Acts 8 : 26
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During a two-month ceasefire that began in January, they went back to Shati, but their landlord refused to let them back into their apartment because they couldn’t pay rent, she said.
And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;Matthew 24 : 49
Several schools-turned-shelters in Gaza City at first refused to receive them because they were designated for people who fled towns in northern Gaza. Only when she threatened to set herself and her family on fire did one school give them a space, she said.
Charity kitchens, run out of food!
Abu Taeima said her family can’t afford anything in the market, where prices have skyrocketed for the little food that remains on sale. She said she has tried going to charity kitchens, but every time they run out of food before she gets any. Such kitchens, producing free meals, have become the last source of food for many in Gaza, and giant crowds flood them every day, pushing and shoving to get a meal.
No one is going to be generous with you!
“People are struggling, and no one is going to be generous with you,” she said. “So collecting from the trash is better.”
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.Acts 16 : 9
The risk of catching disease isn’t at the top of her list of worries.
Extremists? :Starvation is the biggest disease!
“Starvation is the biggest disease,” she said.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:Amos 8 : 11
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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