Hidden in Our Heart?

As Israeli hostages recently returned to their loved ones and their land, several stories emerged with a common denominator—Gaza tunnels made many former secular Israelis more devout than ever. Stories of this transformation were often marked by a common thread—the reciting of passages of Scripture.

Take Matan Zangauker, for instance. He shared how one day under the tunnels, he found a Tehilim (the book of Psalms) under the rubble. From then on, Zangauker began to pray daily, which, according to him, made his captivity more bearable. “In a place with little air and almost no daylight, the steady rhythm of those verses became a routine, then an anchor,” he shared.[i]

Or consider Omer Shem Tov. Every morning his mother, Shelly, entered his empty room and recited Psalm 20 from a prayer card. According to all reports, she came by that psalm randomly. A group supporting hostages’ families handed out cards printed with chapters from the book of Psalms, and that psalm happened to be the one that had Omer’s name on it, she shared. “The line ‘May the Lord answer you on a day of distress’ gave me comfort,” she later shared.[ii]

Reports explained how, unbeknownst to her, in the tunnels of Gaza Omer was reciting the same psalm each morning, from a similar card probably dropped by soldiers.[iii] According to other hostages, they found help in reciting such psalms such as psalm 27—“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (verse 1). Still others, looking forward in hope, recited Psalm 126, anticipating their eventual liberation: “When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (verses 1, 2).[iv]

Other hostages, such as 23-year-old Omer Wenkert, who was held captive for 505 days, found a moment to recite scriptures even when told he would soon be free. As he and other hostages sat handcuffed with their eyes covered, they began singing a verse from Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (verse 1, NIV).[v]

Before Disaster Strikes

As Seventh-day Adventists who consider themselves “people of the Book,” how would we fare in a similar situation? How many Bible verses would we be able to recite if we were suddenly prevented from accessing our Bibles? How ready are we for facing a life-or-death crisis with the invaluable help of God’s Word?

Sapir Cohen is one of the hostages that found solace and strength in reciting Psalm 27. Interestingly enough, a month before October 7, 2023, she felt that something was not right in her life. With a sense of impending doom, she even had some health screenings and tests done, but doctors couldn’t find any issue with her.

To calm her uneasiness, Cohen began to recite Psalm 27 daily—“In the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me” (verse 5). Unbeknownst to her, those comforting words would sustain her on October 7 as she was violently dragged to the tunnels in Gaza and for every day on until she was liberated.

After her ordeal Cohen shared that “the words that had seemed distant before” “now offered me the only sense of stability I could hold on to.”[vi]

Preparing for the Ultimate Challenge

When describing some of the challenges of the end and contrasting them with the experience of the early Christian disciples, Ellen G. White never focused on how the faithful should learn to better answer their eventual captors and accusers. The focus, White said time and again, is not the trial, but the daily preparation leading up to it. She wrote, “The servants of Christ were to prepare no set speech to present when brought to trial. Their preparation was to be made day by day in treasuring up the precious truths of God’s Word, and through prayer strengthening their faith.” Then, when brought into trial, “the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance the very truths that would be needed.”[vii]

White further explained that “the knowledge obtained by diligent searching of the Scriptures would be flashed into the memory at the right time.” On the other hand, “if any had neglected to acquaint themselves with the words of Christ, if they had never tested the power of His grace in trial, they could not expect that the Holy Spirit would bring His words to their remembrance.”[viii]

Today is the time for a kind of preparation that is made “day by day in treasuring up the precious truths of God’s Word.” We are still privileged to do it in the open. Tomorrow it could be in a tunnel.

[i] “Psalms in Tunnels: How Scripture Steadied Israel’s Hostages,” Jerusalem Post, Oct. 15, 2025.

[ii] “Learning From the Hostages About Beginning Again,” Jewish Standard, Oct. 30, 2025.

[iii] “Finding God, and Nietzsche, in the Hamas Tunnels of Gaza,” New York Times, June 10, 2025.

[iv] “Finding G-d in Gaza,” in https://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/7068908/jewish/Finding-G-d-in-Gaza.htm.

[v] “Testimonies of Faith: God’s Presence in the Darkness of Gaza Captivity,” Christian Broadcasting Network, Mar. 20, 2025, available at https://cbn.com/news/israel/testimonies-faith-gods-presence-darkness-gaza-captivity.

[vi] “Sapir Cohen’s Search for Meaning in the Gaza Tunnels,” in https://aish.com/sapir-cohens-search-for-meaning-in-the-gaza-tunnels/. Incidentally, the word hamas appears in Psalm 27:12 with the Hebrew meaning of “violence”: “For false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence.”

[vii] Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1898, 1940), p. 355.

[viii] Ibid.