Worthy News
In one of the most sweeping crackdowns on underground Christianity in recent years, Chinese authorities have formally arrested 18 leaders of the Beijing Zion Church, according to the Christian rights organization ChinaAid. The arrests finalize detentions that began in early October as part of a multi-province operation targeting unregistered Christian groups.
Israel has approved a multi-year plan to bring roughly 5,800 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community to the country by 2030, the government announced Sunday, calling the move both strategic and demographic in significance.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the United States has reaffirmed its pledge to preserve Israel’s strategic edge in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump advances a controversial sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may have lost its high-profile founder, Elon Musk, but its mission is still running inside the federal bureaucracy, according to Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the cases — Lindsey Halligan — was never lawfully appointed to serve as interim U.S. attorney.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Monday directing the State and Treasury Departments to move toward formally designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations — a policy shift that would mark one of the most significant counterterror actions taken by his administration in the Middle East.
Footage has emerged of evangelical Christians praying and singing between their destroyed homes in Ukraine as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he welcomed proposed changes to a controversial U.S.-backed peace plan for ending the war with Russia.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump now says he would “absolutely” live in New York under incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani, despite repeatedly calling him “a Communist” during the campaign.
India’s Muslim minority has plunged acter a bus blaze near Medina in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 45 Indian pilgrims, according to Saudi and Indian officials.
Tens of thousands of climate change delegates have failed to bring down the curtain over the use of oil and natural gas amid opposition from some countries led by Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States.
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Worthy Devotions
Elul is unlike any other month. As we mentioned yesterday, it is the 12th month on the civil calendar and the 6th on the prophetic calendar. This dual position gives Elul a unique character — it both closes a cycle and prepares for a new one. That is why the shofar sounds each day during Elul: it is a wake-up call, reminding us to reflect, repent, and return to the Lord before the great and awesome days of the Fall Feasts.
This begins a very special season on God’s calendar — the month of preparation before the Fall Feasts. The month of Elul is unique: it is the 12th month on the civil calendar and the 6th month on the prophetic/biblical calendar. Each day of Elul is marked by the blowing of the shofar, a trumpet call that awakens the soul. These daily blasts prepare our hearts for Yom Teruah (the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah) and ultimately for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).
We have come to the final meditation in this journey through the Z’roah, the Arm of the LORD. From the Arm that redeemed Israel out of Egypt, to the Arm that pierced the dragon, to the Arm that is coming with reward — all of these revelations lead us here: the Arm that brings His people into rest.
Isaiah’s vision looks ahead — not only to the Arm of the LORD revealed in the Exodus or even in the cross, but to the day when that same Arm will come again in glory. This is not a picture of brute force but of purposeful arrival. The Z’roah — the Arm of the LORD — comes clothed with strength to establish His rule, and He does not come empty-handed. His reward is with Him, and His work is before Him. The promise is sure: He is coming, and He is rewarding.
Isaiah recalls the Exodus as the supreme display of God’s Z’roah, His Arm of glory. Though the people saw Moses raise his staff over the Red Sea, it was not Moses’ power that split the waters. Behind the prophet’s hand was the Arm of the LORD — majestic, glorious, and unstoppable. The sea parted not to honor Moses, but to exalt the Name of the God who sent him. The Red Sea became a stage for God to reveal His glory, so that His Name would echo through generations as the Deliverer of His people.
Jeremiah uttered these words when everything around him looked hopeless. Babylon’s armies surrounded Jerusalem, the city was on the brink of destruction, and yet God told Jeremiah to buy a field as a prophetic sign that restoration would come. The prophet responded in awe: the God who created the heavens and the earth by His outstretched arm (bizroa netuyah) is not bound by human circumstances. The same God who set galaxies in place and boundaries for the seas is the God who still moves to redeem His people. Truly, nothing is too hard for Him.
Isaiah’s words summon one of the most dramatic images of God’s saving power: the Z’roah — the Arm of the LORD — cutting Rahab in pieces and piercing the dragon.
Here, Rahab is not the woman of Jericho but a poetic name for Egypt (Psalm 87:4), often symbolizing arrogant nations and the dark spiritual powers behind them. In Hebrew poetry, Rahab also evokes the sea monster of chaos, a stand-in for the forces that oppose God’s order. To say the Arm “cut Rahab in pieces” is to recall how God shattered Egypt’s pride and broke the grip of the powers that enslaved His people.
Psalm 98 is a victory psalm — a call to lift up a “new song” because the Z’roah, the holy arm of the LORD, has brought decisive triumph. In Hebrew thought, the arm is the active extension of the will, the power that brings intention into reality. To call it “holy” is to declare that it is set apart, dedicated fully to God’s purpose, incapable of corruption. The psalmist celebrates that salvation is not a hidden act, but an open demonstration — God’s righteousness revealed before the eyes of the nations.
This is one of the most intimate revelations of the Z’roah in Scripture. God looks for a human intercessor but finds none. No man can bridge the gap. So His own Arm accomplishes the work. In Hebrew, v’tosha lo zeroa — “His arm saved for Him” — reveals that salvation originates from within God Himself, not from any outside help. Isaiah adds that His own righteousness sustained Him — it upheld His resolve to save — and His fury upheld Him, a holy passion that would not rest until justice was accomplished.
To “bare” the arm means to roll up the sleeve and reveal the full readiness for action. In Isaiah’s prophecy, this is a global unveiling — no longer hidden, the Z’roah is on display for all nations to witness. This speaks directly of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) public ministry and, ultimately, His crucifixion.
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