Important Takeaways:
- Some see God’s divine intervention in an earthquake that struck southern Syria and Lebanon on the very day as an attack by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel was anticipated.
- Israel has been bracing for an attack by Iran and its proxy Hezbollah ever since the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on July 31.
- Some have felt the delay in a response may have been because the Islamic State wanted to wait for the Tisha B’Av, or the 9th of Av on the Jewish lunar calendar, which began on Monday evening and continued until nightfall on Tuesday.
- However, the Associated Press reported that a 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Hama at 11:56 p.m. local time Monday night. The official Syria state news outlet said it was a 4.8 magnitude quake. Aftershocks continued into Tuesday morning.
- “In Damascus and Beirut — the capital of neighboring Lebanon, where the earthquake was also felt — residents descended to the streets fearing a stronger quake that would collapse buildings,” according to the AP.
Read the original article by clicking here.
“Oh, God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.”
Harrison Odjegba Okene repeated those words as he spent three days trapped under a capsized boat at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A video of the man’s dramatic rescue went viral this week showing his amazing rescue.
A dive team working out of Lagos, Nigeria had been working to salvage a tugboat that capsized and sank. They had already pulled four bodies from the vessel when a diver noticed another hand on his video monitor. When he went to grab it, the hand grabbed him back.
“He was incredibly lucky. He was in an air pocket, but he would have had a limited time (before) … he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore,” Tony Walker of Dutch company DCN Diving told the Washington Post.
Okene says his life was saved only by divine intervention. He told reporters that he kept repeating a psalm that his wife had sent him via text message earlier in the day.
“I started calling on the name of God,” Okene said. “I started reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalms 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.”
