History is filled with examples of national or collective consequence, when entire populations suffer the results of ideologies or movements they have supported. After World War II, the German people endured immense suffering. Over 600,000 children were killed. Cities were flattened. Women were raped by the invading Soviets. Hunger and displacement were widespread. While not every German was guilty of Nazism, Hitler and his regime had broad popular support. That support had consequences, natural, inevitable, and devastating.

This was not divine retribution, it was the harsh outcome of cause and effect. When a society builds its identity around hatred, violence, or conquest, it will eventually face the very storm it helped create. This same pattern is unfolding in Gaza. Hamas is not simply a fringe extremist group acting independently. Repeated polling over the years has shown that a strong majority of the Palestinian population, at times over 80 percent, has expressed support for Hamas and its methods. This includes the targeting of civilians and the use of human shields. The suffering that has followed, while tragic, is not inexplicable. It is the bitter fruit of seeds long sown.

That said, two wrongs do not make a right. But when someone has a 100 percent record of only criticizing one side, when outrage is selective and never balanced, that outrage loses moral authority. It becomes ideology rather than truth. And ideology, not principle, is the root of most of the world’s injustices. We must speak differently as followers of Jesus. Our voice must not echo the rage or loyalties of the world. When we become partisan, we compromise our witness. That is how crowds are stirred to cry out, “Give us Barabbas,” choosing political allegiance over righteousness.

The law of sowing and reaping is real and impartial. Everyone is accountable. But in any violent conflict, especially one where survival is at stake, the party that initiates the aggression bears the greater weight of responsibility. The suffering of civilians is always a tragedy, but it does not occur in a moral vacuum. When a people support a movement that glorifies destruction, they must also face the consequences that naturally follow. That does not mean every individual is guilty, but it does mean that actions have repercussions, and movements supported by the many will inevitably shape the fate of the whole.

Yet as Christians, our place is not to take sides in the quarrels of men. Our loyalty is not to any earthly cause but to the Kingdom of God. When Joshua encountered the angel of the Lord and asked, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” the angel replied, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come” (Joshua 5:13–14, NKJV). This response reveals the true nature of heavenly alignment. It is not about whose side God is on, but whether we are on His.

We are not called to be partisan in the affairs of man. We are ambassadors from another Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. Our response is not to mirror the anger of the world but to weep over its hatred, to mourn the vengeance that devours the children of men, and to speak with clarity, compassion, and conviction from a place that transcends politics, borders, and ideologies.