The oracle concerning Damascus. "Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin. "The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks to lie down in, And there will be no one to frighten them."The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 17:1-3 NASB
If you have followed this blog for awhile, you are probably aware that I began it years ago to address numerous questions I received from my lectures on the situation in the Middle East and especially my thoughts on what was next in Israel's prophetic future. My conclusion then, and now, is that the next major prophetic event will be Israel's destruction of the city of Damascus, and that the destruction described is most likely the result of the use of a nuclear device.
While that scenario seems abhorrent to most, it is my firmly held belief that the decision to use such a weapon comes only after Israel is first attacked by Syria with it's own WMD's, in this case almost certainly with their stockpiles of chemical warheads. The current situation in Syria is such that it comes as no surprise that this past week has seen the emergence of accusations that these weapons are in fact starting to be used.
President Assad of Syria has threatened to attack Israel if he feels his position as ruler is threatened, and it is the opinion of many that his days are in fact numbered. Russia is Assad's staunchest supporter but even they have begun to back away with the news recently that they would not hinder an “orderly” transition of power. It is the opinion of many that this scenario will never take place because President Assad will never relinquish his rule over the country.
We are but seven weeks or so from Tisha b' Av, or the ninth of Av on the Jewish calendar, which many know to be the day of fasting in Israel where they remember not only the destruction of their temple, but many other national tragedies which have occurred on the very same day throughout history. The account in Isaiah certainly makes it clear that the world will respond with anger against Israel for their destruction of Damascus, so it seems logical to at least consider the possibility that the events described in Isaiah could occur around this time.
Am I making predictions here? No, but as a watcher it certainly seems as if events in that part of the world are rapidly approaching a critical point where the prophecy revealed by Isaiah could certainly occur. Synchronicity can be defined as a coincidental occurrence of events that seem related but cannot be easily explained by normal causality, or in other words, too many coincidences are not a coincidence. That so many events are taking place at this point in time, in that part of the world, fitting into a scenario described more than two thousand years ago, seems much to much to be a coincidence.
Chemical warfare feared raising its head in the Syrian civil war
DEBKAfile
Special Report June 10, 2012, 7:50 AM (GMT+02:00)
Iran claimed, “Any report released on the Syrian Army’s alleged use of the chemical weapons is meant to pave the ground for the terrorists to use these weapons against the people and accuse the Syrian army and government of that crime.”
Three days earlier, on June 7, Syrian rebel sources charged that the Syrian air force planes had dropped poisonous substances over Deraa, Hama and Idlib which knocked people unconscious. This later proved unfounded.
Western military sources watching Syria’s flashpoint areas warn that the fact that both sides of the conflict are now talking openly about chemical warfare attests to their seriously getting ready for this deadly escalation - and the ultimate game-changer. If they indeed go through with it, say sources Washington, European capitals, Riyadh and Jerusalem, US President Barack Obama cannot possibly stick to his refusal to take military steps in Syria and will have to step in with limited force to stop the escalating horror.
In that case, the US would almost certainly be joined by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and possibly other Arab nations.
Official spokesmen in the West, Moscow and the UN are still warning that Syria is on the verge of civil war, refusing to admit that a sectarian war which they failed to avert is already fully fledged – certainly between Sunni Muslims and Assad’s Allawite minority.
The Christians are also involved because some members of that community occupy high-ranking positions in the military command. Defense minister Dawoud Rajiha, who manages government action against the revolt, is a Christian.
The conflict is no longer clear-cut between the Syrian army and the various armed rebel groups. The al Houla massacre in the last week of May was a tragic turning-point: Armed groups of Alawites and Sunnis living in the same neighborhoods are now turning on each other. Their battles go largely unreported. One of the most disastrous episodes of this kind erupted last week between Sunni and Alawite neighbors in Latakia. Many parts of southern, eastern and northern Syria had consequently spiraled out of control of military and security forces. Western and Israeli military sources report that regional commanders and the general staff in Damascus have lost track of the violence plaguing those regions and more massacres on the scale of al-Houla and Al Qubeir are feared.
The rebel Syrian National Council’s choice of a Kurdish exile Abdel Basset Sayda Saturday as its new head is a bad omen: More than a step toward resolving the differences among the various factions and unifying ranks, the appointment brings the Kurdish community, one-fifth of the Syrian population, squarely into the revolt. Syrian Kurds have stayed out of it until now.
A major concern for Jerusalem was sparked by recent comments in Iranian Revolutionary Guards publications. Friday and Saturday, the official IRGC mouthpiece Mashregh quoted a warning by Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazaeri that in the event of any Western or Arab force interfering in Syria, Assad’s allies in the resistance “would ensure that aggressors do not survive the conflict. The Zionist regime and the interests of the enemies of Syria are all within range of resistance fire.”
Saturday night, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined Moscow’s hard line on Syria: “Moscow would support the departure of President Bashar al-Assad, but only if Syrians agreed to it,” he stressed. He ruled out outside force and sanctions against the regime and proposed another international conference.
Moscow has now ranged itself solidly behind Assad and the pyramid that keeps him in power – family, Alawites and the top military echelon. Even if the ruler was himself ousted in a coup by his own army, the general who seized power could count on Russian backing.
Syria endured another day of slaughter Saturday with the numbers of dead in double digits and the Red Cross warning that more than a million Syrians are in dire need of aid. The Syrian tragedy is more intractable than ever.
Debka.com
The day is fast approaching where God
will allow His Son to return for His bride in an event we know as the
rapture. Once this occurs, God will again turn His attention to
Israel and show the world who is really in charge. The stage is set
for all these things to come to pass, so the question we as believers
should all be asking ourselves is “are we ready”?
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always [be] ready to [give] a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
1 Peter 3:15 NKJV
Keep watching.
