TODAY's TUESDAY MESSAGE:
GOD TALKS AND ACTS TODAY©
Category: Bible info
Damascus Destroyed Forever  #458
© November 28, 2006 Joe Burkey, OK to forward intact
also Kislev 7, 5767 original calendar
 
Much prophesy includes mixed information about the same subject during different periods of time. You can understand this passage with a little extra knowledge and with your own wisdom (read message #040 link about The Bible's instructions about how to study The Bible.)
 
I list the instructions in reverse order because praying about Bible study is a strange idea to most people, but it is one of our instructions in the Word of God. You pray and I will help you with the rest of Isaiah's passage about Damascus.
 
BIBLE VERSES (from Amplified Bible unless noted)
Isaiah 17:1 "The MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Damascus [capital of Syria, and Israel's bulwark against Assyria]. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins."
 
Most Bible studies today teach that this verse tells about the Assyrians defeat of the Arameans and their capital, Damascus, in 732 BC, but this is wrong. That battle and victory by the invaders did not cause Damascus to "cease to be a city" as Isaiah said would happen. The city was very badly damaged, but the people who were not slaughtered continued to live there and rebuilt Damascus. It is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Verse #1 is about the future and you will probably see it happen in real life.
 
Isaiah 17:2 "The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid."
 
This verse is about cities of the Amorites who were independent nomads between what today is Israel and Damascus. The biggest city in their area was Aroer which was mostly Arameans. Fighting has continued in this area often from then until as recently as the modern warfare of 1967. The United Nations truce line today crosses the highway from Israel to Damascus at al Qunaytirah which is near the center of the Ammonite kingdom. I have been in this area and can tell you more than you want to know. The sheep there are the most nervous and likely to panic I have ever seen anywhere. This verse is also about the future because the sheep have always been afraid and will continue to be afraid until JESUS comes back to rule as The King of kings.
 
Now you read on through the rest of the passage of verses and you will see they tell about very difficult times for this whole area of the world including Israel. The few remaining people will "look to their Maker" (JESUS) and "regard the Holy One of Israel (JESUS). Jews and Muslims will die or suffer terribly because  "Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation (JESUS) [O Judah] and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength" (also JESUS).
 
Some of the information in these verses apply to events which have already happened, but following the Bible's own instructions shows us this passage is about the future. You must not pick and choose some parts of some verses. You must look at the whole passage of verses and learn enough to understand the details of the verses to learn the truth.
 
This violence begins with the destruction of Damascus and ends with JESUS' return.
 
Isaiah 3His bulwark [Syria] and the fortress shall disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the [departed] glory of the children of Israel [her ally], says the Lord of hosts.
4And in that day the former glory of Jacob [Israel--his might, his population, his prosperity] shall be enfeebled, and the fat of his flesh shall become lean.
5And it shall be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain and his arm harvests the ears; yes, it shall be as when one gathers the ears of grain in the fertile Valley of Rephaim.
6Yet gleanings [of grapes] shall be left in it [the land of Israel], as after the beating of an olive tree [with a stick], two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of the fruitful tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.
7In that day will men look to their Maker, and their eyes shall regard the Holy One of Israel.
8And they will not look to the [idolatrous] altars, the work of their hands, neither will they have respect for what their fingers have made--either the Asherim [symbols of the goddess Asherah] or the sun-images.
9In that day will their [Syria's and Israel's] strong cities be like the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountaintop, as they [the [a]Amorites and the Hivites] forsook their [cities] because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.
10Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation [O Judah] and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, your Stronghold--therefore, you have planted pleasant nursery grounds and plantings [to Adonis, pots of quickly withered flowers used to set by their doors or in the courts of temples], and have set [the grounds] with vine slips of a strange [God],
11And in the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom, yet [promising as it is] the harvest shall be a heap of ruins and flee away in the day of expected possession and of desperate sorrow and sickening, incurable pain.
12Hark, the uproar of a multitude of peoples! They roar and thunder like the noise of the seas! Ah, the roar of nations! They roar like the roaring of rushing and mighty waters!
13The nations will rush and roar like the rushing and roaring of many waters--but [God] will rebuke them, and they will flee far off and will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, and like rolling thistledown or whirling dust of the stubble before the storm.
14At evening time, behold, terror! And before the morning, they [the terrorizing Assyrians] are not. This is the portion of those who strip us [the Jews] of what belongs to us, and the lot of those who rob us.
 
Chapters 18 and 19 continue to talk about what is still future, then chapter 20 shifts to prophesy which has now happened. This shift is common among old testament prophets. I will explain this in another message. I will also show you another amazing example of this by Isaiah.
 
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