By Regan King, Pastor, The Angel Church in Angel, Islington, London

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended…”

These words recorded in Isaiah 40:1 were the first thing that came to mind on the morning of 4 October 2025. A gentleman had approached me in the lobby of the Yitzhak Rabin hostel in Jerusalem where the ICEJ Feast team members were staying. He enquired where I was from. On many occasions in the past two years, I have felt myself hesitate in almost apologetically responding “London”. Israelis and indeed Jews in the Diaspora are well aware that London has tragically become a hotbed of Jew hatred, with open calls for shedding Jewish blood a routine occurrence.

My new friend had seen my ICEJ lanyard and knew he could trust me. He thanked me profusely for coming to Israel and expressed how much it meant to know of our support.

“Have you heard the news?” he asked.

I faltered in my response. I had prayed, as many, that this Feast of Tabernacles would bring good news to Israel and her friends. I felt hopeful he was about to share something immense, but dared not assume.

“The war is over. The hostages are coming home. Hamas is willing to discuss it,” he exclaimed!

The past two years flashed before my eyes. The sleeplessness I had on the night of 6 October, the horrible news breaking on the 7th. The videos of unspeakable atrocities being livestreamed and the cries of civilians seared into my mind, along with harrowing eyewitness accounts.

Only weeks before, I had hosted Matan Angrest’s grandmother in our central London church. Could she be about to welcome Matan home? I struggled to keep from crying, as a mixture of immense joy and pent-up grief hit me.

I thought of my wife – a native Jerusalemite – and our beautiful children back in London and how much I wanted to embrace them at that moment.

The words of Isaiah 40 – a constant reminder throughout my life – reverberated in my mind, spoken in a particular context, but applicable in so many ways today.

This encounter at the Yitzhak Rabin hostel came on the eve of the Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles 2025 and set the tone throughout. As I served in pastoral care and support for the Feast Teams as Chaplain, every day I saw grief mingled with hope, producing joy, leading to worship of our great God!

From the first Feast night at Kfar HaNokdim, a tangible sense of the Spirit’s power and victory over darkness was present. The words sung and danced to by the Filipino dance group “Raise the Banner” had declared “Lord of hosts, You’re with us, with us in the battle, with us as a shelter, with us in the storm…” This testified to the prevailing power of God’s presence and steadfast nature of His promises, before a powerful message of Gospel hope came from Fijian evangelist Manasa Kolivuso.

This year’s Feast theme, “Ten from every nation”, was drawn from Zechariah 8.23. Seeing almost 2000 Christians from over 70 nations participate in worship of Yeshua during the Feast felt at times like a foretaste of that prophecy’s fulfilment and the universal feast to be observed in the coming Messianic Kingdom.

Witnessing Jewish and Arab believers unite in Christ served as a powerful witness of the redeeming and reconciliatory power of the Gospel. As a Christian attending the Feast from the United Kingdom, a nation that has been increasingly hostile to Israel, I thought of how such unity is almost always denied as existing in any form by many in the British public and certainly by our media, and questioned in our churches. And yet throughout the week, I spoke with Iranians, Arabs, ex-Muslims, and those of cultural Christian backgrounds testifying to how their Gospel transformation in Jesus led them to love God’s covenant people and to seek their good.

God’s truth and its power is often not in sync with human political spin and is certainly not bound by many people’s low human expectations!

As news of a pending hostage release deal broke on the Feast’s annual Israeli Guest Night, I was reminded of another passage in Isaiah 9 – a passage that speaks to the joy of both Christ’s first and second coming. “…they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.”

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, often called “the Great Feast” or “Feast of feasts” was historically the most joyous of the Biblical feasts and was specifically a thanksgiving harvest festival. It was said in the Talmud that one who had not seen the rejoicing in Jerusalem during the Feast had never seen rejoicing in his life.

This made the news of answered prayer and hostages coming home at this time all the more profound. Though the conflict between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours – and indeed the world – may be far from over, yet at this Feast there was joy in what God has done, is doing, and will continue to do.

Now back in the UK, I see Jew hatred continues unabated. Marches continue. My local university – 5 minutes from my door – saw students disrupt and threaten to behead two Israeli Jewish professors in the past week.

With a ceasefire now in place and a plan for Gaza being pursued, the rage against the people spoken of as the “Apple of God’s eye” (Zechariah 2:8) continues. And it will sadly get worse. Yet God is using it all to bring His people home to their God-covenanted land and – as testified by many at the Feast – He is using it to bring many to Himself.

God is clearly using ICEJ as a catalyst to this end. With reflection on present pains and past promises being and yet to be fulfilled, we look forward to the full realisation of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy that a joy greater than any in the here-and-now will come with seeing every warrior’s garment burned as fire fuel, and peace fully established by the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

God’s zeal for His people will make it happen!