DAMASCUS
DAMASCUS
TUESDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
April 10, 2018, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The last time I taught on Damascus was in 2013. The civil war had begun and we were watching as end time prophecy began unfolding before our eyes and continues. The war in Syria has now reached the suburbs of Damascus.
Amos 1: 3-5: Thus says the LORD; for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, says, the LORD.
Prophet Amos took a machine gun approach to his work. He addressed all the surrounding territories adjacent to Israel and pronounced judgment by fire. “The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?” Amos was aware of the sequence, but many modern prophets lack understanding of it. Today, much is spoken in the name of the Lord with a huge desire that God will honor it and make the prophet credible, instead of holding ones tongue until the Lord actually speaks.
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.
Isaiah 17 is a sealed prophecy which has never been unsealed. Isaiah joined seven prophetic utterances from six prophets to declare that whole nations are sealed into the plan of God; they are either sealed in or sealed out---there is no middle ground.
Isaiah emphasized the certainty of God’s word. He used the term “in that Day” to point to a definite time in history. Isaiah knew God ordered “sealed events” which would be broken open in their appropriate time frame, just as the seven seals are shown being broken during Revelation’s domain. The book with seven seals is the last book of historical events to be opened.
Another phrase he uses often is “Day of the Lord” which is mostly referring to judgment, but it could also include blessing.
Isaiah 3:10: Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them.
The righteous are sealed. Our destiny was and is in Him; whether on the road to Babylon or standing among Revelation’s 144,000, we are safe.
God declared through His prophet his stance just in case some might imagine their judgment would be altered and he reiterated 4:24: And so it shall be.
Isaiah’s ministry was sealed when the Lord sent the angel with the coal of fire by his from before the throne. The sealed ministry is the only kind God will use, for true ministry does not exist apart from the seal of God.
The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand…this is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations, for the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14:24, 26-27).
Set times are not just for Israel and Judah; all nations are under the time frame of God’s order. Just as Jerusalem has always been synonymous with the protection of God, when the Lord lifted its seal, He temporarily took away its protection.
The Holy Bible is a book about Jesus Christ and the Lord’s dealings with nations spiritually and governmentally. It is foolishness for Christians to believe that we should not be involved in the government of our nation. All nations of the earth have been sealed either for judgment or blessing in God’s set time frame.
He removed the protection of Judah (22:8) because you did not look to your Maker, nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago. In that day, the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and for mourning.
Deception has sought to seal away God’s people from knowing Him and in that day, its seal must be broken. Isaiah saw no variation between the contemporary judgment which befell the cities and nations around him and the great judgment which will befall the whole world in order to usher in the Second Coming of Christ.
In the
latter days you will understand it perfectly are words spoken by the Lord which are sealed into the Latter Days. Revelation knowledge remains sealed until its
proper moment. God sometimes withholds,
as well as gives revelation. The Father
has designed spiritual understanding which will come to pass at designated
times.
Who will be the chosen nation to destroy Damascus? Israel is the only nation who has been given the authority from God to conquer Damascus including the entering in of west-central Syria. (Jos. 13:5).
What I bring today concerning Damascus is not new revelation, but a reminder of what has already been revealed to us.
When the Lord commissioned Joshua to possess the Promised Land, the parameters of the nation of Israel were laid out to its commander.
The Lord spoke to Joshua a particular account of the land that yet remained. To date, Israel has yet to posses all the land which was sealed to them. However, this is the WORD OF GOD to Joshua which in due time will be fulfilled. Several places are mentioned:
(1) The south the country of the Philistines, governed by the war-lords.
(2) The land that lay towards Egypt.
(3) Westward – that which lay towards the Sidonians (Lebanon)
(4) Eastward including all of Lebanon.
(5) North, entering in Hamath (west-central Syria including Damascus).
Why is this important today? Last week, Turkey, Russia and Iran met together to determine the fate of Syria. Never in the Word of God does the LORD give authority to those nations concerning Syria.
Joshua 13:6, the Lord says, “I will drive them out from before the children of Israel.
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.
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.
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 was a religious war between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. The Sunni royal families of the Persian Gulf Oil Sheikdom were supporting the Sunni Muslims. Now the war has escalated and Iran, Russia, I.S.I.S., Turkey, the Rebels, Kurds and the United States all occupy Syria. I read we occupy 1/3 of Syria. If this is correct, that is a prophetic number.
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.”
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.”
The nations which David subdued (8: 9-14) included Syria, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and of Amalek and Hadadezer. David got him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians (18,000 men) in the valley of salt.
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.
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 (tributes) to their nations and think nothing of betraying us. Donald J. Trump with Nicki Haley are making a strong stand against this wickedness.
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 wrote in 2013, the following: “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.” Perhaps this was the wisdom of the LORD in 2013, but I have since changed my mind because of the evil of the Assad regime against innocent people. I hope the LORD will use the authority He gave to Israel to bomb the air bases and military of the Assad regime.
Isaiah 17: At that day shall a man look to his Maker and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel…In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and uppermost branch, which 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; In the day shall you make your plant to grow, in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 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.
I am at peace to watch the Lord.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.
Damascus – Isaiah 17; 6/2/13
2Ki 14:25He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of
the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by
the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.
2Ki 14:26For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel,
that it was very
bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel
2Ki 14:27And the LORD said not that he would blot out
the name of Israel
from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
¶
2Ki 14:28Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his
might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for
Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Israel?