It was Tuesday June 24, 2025, and Israelis woke up at 5:30 AM to five volleys of Iranian ballistic missiles screaming through the sky, one after another, all deliberately aimed at civilian targets. And then, after twelve days of war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a ceasefire called by President Trump went into effect. The earlier roar of daily sirens, the blur of smoke and flashing lights diminished — and then, suddenly, stillness.

It was a strange kind of stillness, the quiet that follows endless Iranian missiles and the terrible sounds in Israel of blasted homes crashing amid cries and screams of the wounded and dying.

That morning, as Israel and Iran laid down their weapons, the quiet arrived like an unexpected guest. It wasn't yet a quiet peace. It wasn’t yet blessed relief. No, it was just the absence of immediate and harrowing violence.

The civilized world calls for a permanent ceasefire. But does the Ayatollah? Do the mullahs?

More to the point, does the Holy Bible call for one? What does the Bible teach us about ceasefires? It teaches us to measure them soberly. A ceasefire can be a tactical necessity. It can save lives in the short term. But it is not yet peace. Evil restrained is not evil defeated.

The Hebrew Bible is not naïve about war. It does not romanticize it, nor does it pretend that evil will willingly lay down its arms when asked politely.

In Ecclesiastes we read:

"A time for loving and a time for hating; A time for war and a time for peace." (Ecclesiastes 3:8)

The recognition that there are, at times, a time for war is a deeply Jewish understanding of the brokenness of this world. Not every conflict can be resolved with dialogue. Some enemies rise up again and again with an unrelenting desire to destroy. The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) names them.

King Saul learned this the hard way. In I Samuel, God commanded Saul to annihilate Amalek completely. But Saul hesitated. He spared the evil Amalekite King Agag. For this failure, God removed the kingdom from King Saul.

Quick Reference

The name of a tribe, the Amalekites, that savagely attacked the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai on their way to the God given Promised Land (Exodus 17: 8–16; Deuteronomy 25: 17–19). In the later Jewish tradition, the actual identity of this tribe is known as the Amalekites, but Amalek has become the symbol of wanton cruelty and murderous intent. The Jewish moralists speak of the need to eradicate the Amalek residing in the human heart—that is, hateful, aggressive tendencies.

The lesson is unflinching: incomplete victory against evil invites future danger.

Today, as the ceasefire takes hold, Israelis remain cautious. In one public poll, released just an hour after the ceasefire began, many were wary towards what the ceasefire will bring, whereas fewer were in favor. And yes, there were extraordinary military and miraculous achievements.

The Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear threat that has loomed over Israel and the Western World — threatening its very existence — has been set back. This was achieved without a single plane shot down, and with all aircraft returning safely — something few thought possible at the outset. Israel had earlier dismantled Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure and jet fighters so thoroughly that it may take years to rebuild. On Israel's home front, the civilian toll, though heartbreaking, was a fraction of what experts initially feared.

And yet, Israelis know that unfinished enemies don’t disappear. They regroup. They reload. The Bible gives language to that instinct. Evil must not be wounded; it must be dismantled.

There is nothing more dangerous than leaving a wounded lion. When you face a lion, you don’t simply injure it and turn your back. You finish the fight, or you will face it again — stronger, angrier, and more determined than ever.

As the Jewish prophet Jeremiah exclaimed: "Peace, peace. But there is no peace."

And of course, the prophets point us toward the ultimate vision of peace.

"Thus He will judge among the nations and arbitrate for the many peoples, And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall know war no more." (Isaiah 2:4)

There may yet be peace. It has been waited for many thousands of years in this our world. It will come only when the root causes of war are destroyed.

When Israel lays down its arms, it does so from bitter experience knowing that unfinished wars never stay quiet for long. But for now, the world is a better place for all its children.