Isaiah 17 NIV

A prophecy against Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.  The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid.  The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty.  “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away.  It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms—as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.  Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.  In that day people will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made.  In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth.  And all will be desolation.  You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.  Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain.

Woe to the many nations that rage—they rage like the raging sea!  Woe to the peoples who roar—they roar like the roaring of great waters!  Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale.  In the evening, sudden terror!  Before the morning, they are gone!  This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us.

Do you see the importance and current application of the Word of God delivered by Isaiah, a prophet who was known to have never been wrong?  Have we seen this occur anywhere in history where Damascus has become a ruinous heap?  Look it up, ask the historians.  Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city of the this world and Isaiah prophecies that it will be uninhabitable.  When will this come to pass.  Has there ever been a time when chemical/biological or nuclear weapons existed in such quantity as to make such a  city ruinous?  Let us take a realistic look into the near future and we must wholeheartedly admit that we stand on the precipice of possibility.

The current saber rattling, posturing, politicking and second guessing is placing dangerously close to an episode that would leave Damascus in shambles.  God is foretelling the coming judgment against the City of Damascus and the ancient peoples of Syria for their trespasses against the Jewish Nation and consistent pillaging of the Jewish People.  All this will come about so that people will once again turn their eyes toward God, abandoning the symbols of idol worship and the power of royalty and kings.   The Lord will leave those trembling few so that they may choose to turn back to God, the rest will be lost to “sudden terror, disease and incurable pain, some tossed as chaff on the hills or tumbleweed at the coming storm.  I understand that people would want to take a positive look at the options going forward.  But those who believe that the Bible is God’s Inerrant Word must acknowledge the line upon we currently reside.  The end of Damascus nears and Egypt is in turmoil, the other part of the prophecies in the Book of Isaiah following Chapter 17.  We must prepare our hearts for what is coming and pray for the peace in Jerusalem.

God told us what must come to pass so that we might see that He stands Omnipotent, outside of time, knowing the end from the beginning.  He showed what we will see in the coming days, months, weeks and years so that we would have faith and prepare our hearts and minds for His Glorious Appearing.  I don’t know when Damascus will fall, but I know that it will.  I don’t know when Egypt will be conquered by Israel, but it will. Praise be to Jesus Christ