DAMASCUS
DAMASCUS –Isaiah 17
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, June 2, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Isaiah 17: 1-2: “The burden of Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down; and none shall make them afraid.”
The prophecy of Aroer, an ancient city located in what is now Jordan has been fulfilled. However, Damascus has never been destroyed. Damascus is the oldest, continually-inhabited city in the world and is first mentioned in the Holy Bible in Genesis 14:15.
Damascus is the capitol of Syria. “Damascus” – Greek “Damaskos” has been rendered as “activity, alertness (with reference to trade or possessions), sack of blood, red sack, red sackcloth; silent is the sackcloth weaver.” There is only 133 miles distance from Damascus to Tel Aviv.
Scholars have not been sure as to the time line between the Psalm 83 war---the 10-nation confederacy against Israel; Isaiah 17 (the destruction of Damascus); and the Gog Magog war.
On March 18, 2012, I preached a message on Psalm 83- the 10 nation confederacy against Israel. The Lord spoke to me on March 17, 2012, “the war has begun”. Because I had been praying about the Psalm 83 war, it was and is my conviction that the Lord was speaking about that particular war.
To date, two of the 10-nations have not yet engaged in overt attacks on Israel. However, all of the other eight nations are actively, covertly or threatening war with Israel. I believe the two “sleeper” Arab nations are covertly conspiring against Israel. (See below for the 10-nation confederacy then and now).
The Gog Magog war as prophesied by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 is still unfulfilled prophecy.
This teaching today is exploratory as I search the scriptures in view of the present civil-war in Damascus. Before going to Isaiah 17, I will briefly re-cap the nations described as the Gog-Magog nations.
“Ezekiel 38 and 39 are one prophecy and tell of a coming northern confederacy of nations around the Black and Caspian seas with Persia and North Africa. These nations are ruled in the realm of the spirit by the spirit of Communism and the spirit of Islam.
These nations include Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, North West India and Russia; plus Persia 9iran) and North Africa (Ethiopia and Libya).” (See sermon by Carolyn Sissom Gog, the Land of Magog, and dated 5/15/08).
Neither Iran nor Russia is included in the 10-nation confederacy of Psalm 83.
However, since the Syrian Civil War began on March 15, 2011, both Russia and Iran have played a strategic role in the unfolding of the crisis on the world stage.
In view of this, it could be considered that the Psalm 83 war (10-nation confederacy); the destruction of Damascus (Isaiah 17); and the Gog-Magog war may over-lap.
At Wednesday prayer a couple of weeks ago, I received a Word of Knowledge that the U.S.A.’s current administration had betrayed Saudi Arabia; that the Saudi’s knew it and would respond in like kind.
The Sunni States of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Libya, and Qatar are allies with the Sunni rebels. The Alawite-Assad regime is allies with Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Russia.
John McCain enters the Syrian world stage front and center for the whole world to see---could this be an appeasement visit for our ally, Saudi Arabia? Just asking? John McCain and John Kerry have been long time friends. They may likely owe each other a favor or two.
Never mind that he met with known Al Qaida terrorists leaders and was photographed with them for political correctness. We must keep in mind that politicians do not discriminate between friends and America’s mortal enemies.
But God has said:
Isaiah 17: 1;3: …”Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap…The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria, they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord.
“The remnant of Syria” is the Christians in Syria. Many have already died or been imprisoned for their faith. Thankfully others have escaped.
All references to Damascus in the New Testament are associated with the apostle Paul’s conversion and ministry. Jesus Christ by visitation went to Damascus after His ascension to encounter Saul of Tarsus.
Acts 9: 3-5, 17: “As he (Paul) journeyed, he came near Damascus; and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
The lightning-swift light is brighter than Syria’s noon day sun and could only be the Shekinah Glory.
So the promise of glory in Isaiah 17:3 to the Syrian remnant at the time of the total destruction of Damascus can only be One Glory, the Glory of Jesus Christ. Our Savior is the “light from heaven” who has conquered the dark ignorance of man’s wisdom, political correctness, religious devils, and every other power of darkness in the world. He still knows his way to Damascus.
Isa. 17:7-8: “In that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. He shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.”
The civil war in Syria is a religious war between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. The Sunni royal families of the Persian Gulf Oil Sheikdom are supporting the Sunni Muslims.
Isa. 17:9: “In that day, shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough and uppermost branch, when they left because of the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation; because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength, therefore shall you plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips…(12) Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters; but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.”
This is meant to give courage to Judah when threatened by any and every foreign army; God will protect His own even if the whole world descended upon Jerusalem! How much more, then would He put the puny armies of Damascus to flight! They would disappear overnight.
It was David who subdued the citizens of Damascus.
1 Sam. 8:6: “David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts, and the Lord preserved David wherever he went.”
Jesus, the Greater David, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords has been exalted above all religious, military and intellectual activity,
In that day, the day of the fulfillment of Isaiah 17, God has spoken his plans to punish the inhabitants of Damascus for their idolatry, heathen worship, and neglect of the One true God. When calamity strikes, they will think again of their Maker.
God’s promises can never be produced by fleshly religious activity. We cast down every imagination and every “high thing that exalts itself” against the knowledge of God.
A religious spirit of antichrist opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God. We are not to make agreements with the pride of Damascus.
1 Kings 15: 18-21: King Asa of Judah took all the silver and gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants; and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, King of Syria that dwelled in Damascus.”
Syria had been growing more and more powerful and progressively encroached on the northern kingdom in the Galilee area. This is a treaty with Syria based on a gift or we should say bribe. The U.S.A. has a lot of bribes out among the nations. They do not respect us any more for our gifts to their nations and think nothing of betraying us.
I pray we will have the wisdom to not give silver and gold, weapons and supplies to terrorist organizations who will turn and use them on us.
Christians are to beware of the “couch” of Damascus. Amos 3:12: “Thus says the Lord; as the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.”
This translates to, “don’t get in bed with them.”
I believe this is a Word of Wisdom to the government leaders in the United States to stay out of Damascus. We are not to join with the “rushing of nations” (U.N.) “that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. God shall rebuke those nations.
This is the Lord’s war. He has spoken it. It is His work, his strange work. In Isaiah 17, he tells us clearly to not get into his business.
Amos 1: 3-5.
I am at peace to watch the Lord.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.
THE TEN NATION CONFEDERACY AGAINST ISRAEL
The ten kings are described in 83:6-8:
- The tabernacles of Edom---Mt. Seir, Southern Jordan
- Ishmaelites---Saudi Arabia
- Moab---Central Jordan
- Hagarenes--- Egypt
- Gebal---Lebanon/Syria
- Ammon ---Northern Jordan
- Amalek---Jordan/Palestine
- Philistines---Palestine/Gaza
- Tyre---Lebanon
- Assur ---The Assyrians/Iraq
SERMONS www.eastgateministries.com
2/3/13 - The Burden of Damascus
3/18/12 - Psalm 83 - Ten Nation Confederacy
5/15/08 - Gog-Magog