2 U.S. service members missing after military exercises in Morocco
Two U.S. service members have gone missing during multinational military exercises in Morocco, underscoring the ever-present peril and instability that characterizes an era of global military mobilization — a pattern Scripture explicitly names as a sign of the last days.
Mark 13:7
Prophetic Fulfillment“And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.”
Why this passage
Christ's Olivet Discourse catalogues the birth pangs of the age before His return. 'Wars and rumors of wars' encompasses not only declared conflicts but the full spectrum of military activity — exercises, mobilizations, deployments, disappearances — that characterize a world in which nations perpetually prepare for war.
The force of Jesus's command 'do not be alarmed' presupposes that such events will be frequent enough and alarming enough to tempt disciples toward despair. The sign is precisely the normalization of military peril.
The prophet Jeremiah, watching the war machine of his age roll across the horizon, cried out: 'I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled.' Even in exercises of peacetime posturing, soldiers vanish, families wait, and the machinery of war reminds every generation that human strength is fragile.
Scripture does not call the faithful to fear these reports, but to lift their eyes — for 'when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.' The missing are known to God before they are found by man.
Pray, watch, and hold fast.
Today's Prayer
Pray for the two missing U.S. service members and their families — that they would be found swiftly and safely, and that those who wait would know the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.
Further Scripture
Additional passages that illuminate this event, each grounded in a distinct interpretive lens.
“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Crash follows hard on crash; the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment.”
Why this passage
Jeremiah 4 is the prophet's anguished witness to an age of unrelenting military alarm — the drum of war never fully silenced even in 'peacetime.' The original context is the foe from the north descending on Judah, but the broader pattern Jeremiah identifies is an era in which crash follows crash and even the ostensibly stable moments of military life unravel without warning.
This verse speaks to the cumulative weight of a world perpetually mobilized for conflict — exercises, deployments, drills — in which even routine maneuvers produce sudden loss and anguish.
How it applies
Two service members present for routine multinational exercises — not combat, not declared war — have nonetheless vanished, exemplifying the 'crash follows hard on crash' pattern Jeremiah named. The age of wars and rumors of wars does not pause for peacetime exercises; its weight presses on soldiers and families whether or not a formal war is declared.
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?”
Why this passage
Psalm 2 opens with a rhetorical question that frames all geopolitical and military activity outside of God's reign as inherently futile striving. The nations 'rage' — the Hebrew (רָגַשׁ, ragash) connotes tumult, massing, and agitated assembly — and the peoples 'plot in vain.'
The plain sense is that multinational military mobilization is a recurring feature of human history, and the psalm judges it from the throne of God as ultimately vain apart from submission to His anointed King.
How it applies
The annual multinational exercises in Morocco — representing the coordinated military posturing of multiple nations — reflect exactly the kind of ceaseless geopolitical tumult the psalmist surveys from above. Even in the absence of declared war, nations mass, train, and mobilize, and in the process their own personnel are lost.
The Lord who sits enthroned in heaven sees the whole theater of human military ambition.
Related by Scripture
Other events we've interpreted through the same passage or hermeneutical lens.
UK on verge of joining EU's £78bn loan for Ukraine as Starmer seeks reset with Brussels
Wars & Rumors of WarsShares Jeremiah 4:19-20Sirens in Misgav Am: Interceptors launched at suspicious aerial objects
Wars & Rumors of WarsShares Jeremiah 4:19-20Lebanon family 'feared they would die' and think Israel could bomb at any moment
Wars & Rumors of WarsShares Jeremiah 4:19-20In Tehran, money is short and a return to war looms over daily life
Wars & Rumors of WarsShares Jeremiah 4:19-20
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Source: npr— we link to the original for full context.