ISRAEL’S WAR
“. . . till the end of the war” (Daniel 9:26b)
(Part IV-The Prophetic Sequence)
By
Doug Krieger
His
eighty-third birthday brought with it a strange set of circumstances.
Shimon Peres, Israel’s Deputy
Prime Minister, stood before a small audience in
Washington
D.C. in mid-August, 2006,
after Israel’s lackluster performance in the seemingly unending saga of the
Arab-Israeli War, to garner financial support before North American Jewish
Federations garnering assistance to pay off her $2B recent war debt.
As I viewed the Peres speech and media exchange on CSPAN, there was an amazing sense of the prophetic—indeed, I was stupefied by the brilliance of the dialogue coming from the lips of Israel’s senior portrait. On the one hand Peres put on the “happy face” of Israel’s invincibility as a military power; but on the other hand the grave consequences of her shabby performance against the Syrian-Iranian surrogate was easily surmised between the somber and methodical tones of the elder statesman.
“ISRAEL’S SIXTH WAR” – Shimon Peres
“In that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob will wane . . . in the day of grief and desperate sorrow . . . woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters” (Isaiah 17:4a, 11b, 12).
Our series on the “Prophetic Sequence” purposefully pauses to capture Isaiah’s amazing prophetic projectiles in his “Oracle against Damascus” and Zechariah’s amplifications of that same theme (Zechariah 9:1-8), and their astounding insertion into Daniel 9:26b: “. . . and till the end of the war desolations are determined,” prior to the infamous “Covenant with Death, your agreement with Hell (Sheol)!”
The Arab-Israeli Conflict—THE WAR—absorbed graphic detail by Shimon Peres at this media event. One would be hard pressed to conclude he understood the magnitude of his remarks as he spoke of the Syrophoenicia Conflict of mid-2006 as “Israel’s SIXTH WAR.” But, one thing is most certain, the continuity of that struggle—just as World Wars I and II were clearly understood as bookends by historians of a similar geopolitical confrontation—is naught but the SAME CONFLICT played out as a sextuplet contest with interwoven interludes wherein tranquility and unease catch a breath before the acne of “the war” repeatedly erupts.
“It is not always easy to untangle these different motifs either in popular thinking about the conflict or in policy decisions of governments. It is fair to say that over the years the conflict over Palestine-Israel has evolved from an Arab-Jewish conflict into a Palestinian - Israeli or Palestinian-Jewish conflict and a Muslim-Jewish conflict. It would be foolhardy, however, to ignore the existence of a genuine conflict between the Arab countries and the West that has only a peripheral relation to the Palestinian issue, or to dismiss aspects of the Arab-Zionist and Muslim-Jewish conflict that always existed, were never fully resolved, and may very likely return to the fore after the basic needs and aspirations of the Palestinians are met.” (Which Conflict ??? Arab-Israel, Palestinian - Israeli or Muslim versus the West? The evolution of the Palestine Issue in Arab and Western politics and policy: MidEastWeb, 2005)
It evolutes—but it is the same war! Peres alluded to:
(1) 1948 – Israel’s War of Independence
. . . (as Israelis term it) or “The
Catastrophe” as Arabs entitle it,
pitted
Egypt,
Syria,
Transjordan,
Lebanon and
Iraq against early Zionists and the survivors of the European Holocaust.
This war is also known as the “Arab-Israeli War.”
(2)
1956 – The SUEZ CRISIS (Sinai Campaign) 
The conflict pitted Egypt against an alliance among the United Kingdom, France and Israel. This confrontation dramatized another flashpoint in the Cold War which resulted from Anglo-Franco economic concerns when
Egypt’s President Nassar nationalized the canal and Israel sought to end guerrilla incursions into Israel from Egypt.
(3) 1967 – THE SIX-DAY WAR
“Six-Day War, armed conflict in June 1967 between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In six days, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights, which became collectively known as the Occupied Territories.” (Encarta)
The consequence on this part of THE WAR expanded Israel’s territory which became collectively known as the “Occupied Territories.” The most significant acquisitions were the resignations from Jordan—the so-called West Bank and, of course, the entire environs of Jerusalem; and, in particular, the Temple Mount, the sacred site of Solomon’s Temple which is of immense significance to both Moslems (the Night of the Sira’a and Miira’aj, the night Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on a Bourak) and Christians (site of Pentecost and Solomon’s Porch—the first large gathering place of the Nazarenes).
Perhaps more than any other particulate of this singular struggle, the incitement wrought by “Secular Zionism” within the Moslem world, enflamed the region—never again to subside.
Likewise,
and in particular, American evangelical Christianity saw in Israel’s retaking
of the Temple Mount, a precursor to the coming of the Messiah, and the
fulfillment of numerous Biblical prophecies—including, the rebuilding of a
Third Temple, the coming of Antichrist, and the “Final Conflict” (a.k.a.,
leading to the Second Coming of Christ).
What followed in the wake of the 1967 victory for Israel was a prolonged “War of Attrition” (June, 1967 through August, 1970) – although considered a separate campaign by some, it could be considered an elongation of the conflict commenced in 1967. It was more a stalemate-trench-warfare slugfest which eventually erupted into the “real thing” . . .
(4) 1973-1974 – THE YOM KIPPUR WAR
“It was apparently during spring 1973 that Egyptian President Sadat determined to redress the balance of power in the Middle East by means of another war with Israel (Laquer, 44). Following a summer of mending relations with the USSR, receiving massive shipments of Soviet offensive weaponry, and negotiating with Syria and Jordan during September, Sadat launched his attack on 6 October 1973, an important religious holiday for both Jews and Moslems. Strong Egyptian armored thrusts across the Suez Canal were initially successful in pushing Israeli forces far back in the Sinai, and a coordinated attack from Syria was simultaneously successful in the Golan area. Jordanian units fought under Syrian command, and the northern Arab attack was also strengthened by Moroccan motorized units and Iraqi armored and air forces.”
Events leading up to these hostilities were, as well, reflections of the Cold War, with the former Soviet Union arming Egypt to the teeth, along with Syria, while Israel’s pre-emptive strike on the Egyptian Air Force all but crippled Sadat’s intentions, resulting in the now famous United Nations Resolution 242.
Furthermore, it was this war which led up to the Camp David Accords of 1978 between Israel and Egypt, as well as the subsequent resolution of hostilities between Israel and Jordan (October, 1994)
On June 6, 1982 the Israel Defense Forces under the leadership of General Ariel Sharon (hero of the 1973 War with Egypt) stormed into Lebanon under “Operation Peace for Galilee” to extinguish the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and Yasser Arafat’s leadership of incitement against Israelis. It was sparked by the assassination attempt on Shlomo Argov, Israel’s
ambassador to the UK, by the Fatah-Revolutionary Council and incessant
artillery attacks by the PLO on population centers in Israel’s north. It ended
in Israel’s nigh twenty-year occupation of Southern Lebanon, the PLO’s
leadership expulsion from Lebanon, and the infamous massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese allies of Israel, the Lebanese Christian Militia, also known as the Phalangists who were responsible for the massacre at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, causing between 700 and 3500 victims.
Worse yet, for Israel, the birth of Hezbollah in the aftermath of the 1982 incursion; along with solidifying Lebanon’s Civil War (1975-1990); and, of course, the Hezbollah suicide bombing of the US Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen, and 10 French soldiers).
(6) 2006 – SYROPHOENICIA WAR (Medal Pending?)
This
most recent outburst involved both the Palestinians (Hamas) and Hezbollah (Lebanon).
The players of the former Soviet Union vs. the USA—both using the Arabs
(Soviet Union) and the USA (using Israel)—were replaced by the Iranian-Syrian
nexus vs. the USA-Israel Strategic Alliance, although China and Russia
provided technology and weapons to the Iranians who in turn armed Hezbollah
via Syrian cooperation.
In point of fact as of this writing Shimon’s Sixth War of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and its pseudo peace arrangements set forth by the United Nations (Resolution 1559 and 1701), has now morphed into a wider expression of Moslem disgust toward secular Zionism and, for that matter, all things Jewish. Virtually all pundits consider the cessation of hostilities but a stopgap measure, a band aid applied upon a cancerous sore awaiting a far more explosive interruption! One only has to review the pungent actions and rhetoric spewing forth from all sides; in point of immediate fact:
“BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep in Lebanon on Saturday, engaging in a fierce gun battle, and the Lebanese government threatened to halt further troop deployments in protest as the 6-day-old U.N.-brokered cease-fire was put to a critical test. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the operation a violation of the U.N. truce, according to a statement from his spokesman.” (Annan: Israeli raid violates cease-fire; By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer, August 19, 2006).
Remember, according to Israel, the REARMING of Hezbollah is a direct violation of the UN Resolution calling for the disarming of Hezbollah; therefore, everything is “fair game.” In the same article Israel claimed their raid in Northern Lebanon was “to stop arms smuggling from Iran and Syria to the militant Shiite fighters (a.k.a. Hezbollah).”
THE SEVENTH WAR – FULFILLMENT OF THE ORACLE OF DAMASCUS . . . THE PRINCE OF PERSIA LURKS . . .
Now,
let’s just cut to the chase, and expose the UN Resolutions for what they are:
Nonsensical diplomatic claptrap—signifying absolutely nothing! They are but a
brief respite for the final showdown: THE ORACLE OF
DAMASCUS—Shimon Peres’ SEVENTH WAR! How
fitting that “7” is the precise numerological designation given “till the time
desolations are complete” and “. . . till the end of THE WAR!” (Daniel 9:26)
“‘If the Syrians and Iran continue to arm Hezbollah in violation of the resolution, Israel is entitled to act to defend the principle of the arms embargo,’ Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. ‘Once the Lebanese army and the international forces are active ... then such Israeli activity will become superfluous.’
“Defense Minister Elias Murr met with U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and threatened to halt the movement of Lebanese troops into the former war zone in the south if the United Nations did not intervene against Israel. That could deeply damage efforts to deploy a strong U.N. peacekeeping force.” (Ibid. AP, By SAM F. GHATTAS)
This confidence of destruction—the culmination of the “Demise of Damascus”—is all the more discernable by the missile build-up and the Syrian-Iranian determination to destroy Israel . . . indeed, “DESOLATIONS ARE DETERMINED” (Daniel 9:26b). And, to what extent does the “Prince of Persia” wish to pursue such nefarious pursuits in his quest to expel Israel’s illegitimate claim to the heart of Mohammed’s ascension? According to Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, much in every way.
Spencer
combines Syria’s interlocution with Iran to suggest we could soon face
IRAN’S DAY OF TERROR
. . . as The Prince of Persia deliberately moves toward full-blown nuclear
capability with delivery systems in place:
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has frustrated Western officials by refusing to reply to their offer of various incentives in exchange for Iran’s discarding its nuclear program until August 22. The Western governments had asked Ahmadinejad to reply by June 29; why would Tehran need two extra months? (Frontpagemag.com)
“Farid Ghadry, the president of the Reform Party of Syria, has offered a provocative explanation for this delay. He asserts that the Supreme National Security Council of Iran chose the August 22 date ‘for a very precise reason. August 21, 2006 (Rajab 27, 1427) is known in the Islamic calendar as the Night of the Sira’a and Miira’aj, the night Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on a Bourak (Half animal, half human), while a great light lit-up the night sky, and visited Heaven and Hell also Beit al-Saada and Beit al-Shaqaa (House of Happiness and House of Misery) and then descended back to Mecca.…”
Israel knows full well
that the current missiles now being tested throughout Iran immediately after
Israel’s sixth episode of THE WAR are bound for Jerusalem!
“TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Sunday test-fired a surface-to-surface short-range missile a day after its army launched large-scale military exercises throughout the country, state-run television reported. Saegheh (the missile’s name means lightning in Farsi) . . . has a range of between 80 to 250 kilometers (50 to 150 miles). . . in the wake of the Lebanon-Hezbollah fighting, seemed certain to create new tensions with the West . . . Iran said it launched the new military exercises Saturday to introduce a new defensive doctrine. They are being held in 14 of the country's 30 provinces and could last as long as five weeks, the government has said.” (Iran tests short-range missile Action could create new tensions with West, AP, August 19)
And, finally . . .
“Iran is already equipped with the Shahab-3 missile, which means ‘shooting star’ in Farsi, and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. An upgraded version of the ballistic missile has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers and can reach Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East.
“Last year, former Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said Tehran had successfully tested a solid fuel motor for the Shahab-3, a technological breakthrough for the country's military.
“Iran's military test-fired a series of missiles during large-scale war games in the Persian Gulf in March and April, including a missile it claimed was not detectable by radar that can use multiple warheads to hit several targets simultaneously.” (Ibid.)
AHMADINEJAD’S LIGHT SHOW
Quoting
from the Qur’an:
“Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One who heareth and seeth (all things) (17:1).
Muhammad’s evening journey, called the Miraj, enables Islam to stake a major claim upon Jerusalem as the “third most sacred site of Islam.” A Burah, half horse and half human head, along with the angel Gabriel, carried Muhammad to the heavens via a stop off on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (hence the footprint of Muhammad on a rock within the Golden Dome from whence he ascended). (Note: Although there is no absolute clarity of the “farthest Mosque” with any mosque in Jerusalem, the Hadith is abundantly clear of the Jerusalem location.)
From the Temple Mount Muhammad ascended to the heavens—it was, according to Muhammad’s favorite wife Aisha, a “spiritual phenomenon” (for Muhammad’s physical body was present in her sight). Of interest, as well, Muhammad (in the sixth heaven) encountered the bemoaning Moses who is quoted as saying:
“I weep because after me there has been sent a young man (Muhammad, the Prophet), whose followers will enter Paradise in greater numbers than my followers (i.e., the Jews).” (Stories of the Prophet Muhammad)
It
is this backdrop which delay’s Iran’s President Ahmadinejad from
announcing—until the commemoration (August 22, 2006) of Muhammad’s heavenly
visitation—Iran’s response to the UN’s latest proposal to curtail her nuclear
ambitions (prior to some form of
sanctions if she does not comply to “disarm”).
“And now, according to Ghadry (Syria’s Reform Party), Ahmadinejad is planning an illumination of the night sky over Jerusalem to rival the one that greeted the Prophet of Islam on his journey. What the Iranian President, he says, is ‘promising the world by August 22 is the light in the sky over the Aqsa Mosque (the Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) that took place the night before. That is his answer to the package of incentives the international community offered Iran on June 6 (to cease her nuclear aspirations)’.” (Robert Spencer’s article appearing in Jihad Watch, August 20, 2006)
The Book of Esther records a most interesting segment regarding the Persian Haman, and his attempt to annihilate the Jews—a sort of get them before they get us approach. Haman saw his efforts to destroy the Jews, because of Queen Esther, coming not only to naught, but to his own execution:
“When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, ‘If Mordecai (the Jew) before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him . . . so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai” (Esther 6:13; 7:10a).
Perhaps another Persian, President Ahmadinejad, has read this piece of “Jewish propaganda” and is determined to fulfill Haman’s original goal of Jewish elimination by wiping them off the map—as he has so stated.
It is not altogether difficult to surmise what a nuclear assault against Jerusalem would appear in the eyes of the messianic Ahmadinejad: MOST BRILLIANT! Even so . . . what wild allusions may be forecasted from these recent remarks?
“‘Israel pushed the button of its own destruction by attacking Lebanon.’ By launching the military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon . . . he suggested Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers, led by the United States.
“‘Britain and the United States are
accomplices of the Zionist regime in its crimes in Lebanon and Palestine,’
Ahmadinejad said.
“He said ‘the people of the region will respond’ unless Israel and its allies
apologize for their policies . . . Arrogant powers have set up a base for
themselves to threaten and plunder nations in the region . . . But today, the
occupier regime (Israel) - whose philosophy is based on threats,
massacre and invasion - has reached its finishing line.’
“In Tehran, the government has sanctioned billboards showing Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and a message that it is the duty of Muslims to ‘wipe out’ Israel.” (Iran’s President Says Israel Doomed, by BRIAN MURPHY, AP, July 24, 2006)
At issue, again, according to Robert Spencer’s article in Jihad Watch:
“Will he attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj, illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed (the Syrian) Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?”
Or, will the HATRED OF DAMASCUS, become the ORACLE OF DAMASCUS?
THE
SYRIAN RESPONSE TO ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION OF HEZBOLLAH
At the inconclusive stalemate of the current Israel-Lebanon conflict—and on the eve of Shimon Peres’ remarks regarding Israel’s SIX CONFLICTS—Peres also noticed the aggressive remarks of Syrian President Bashar Assad, to wit, major portions of Khaled Yacoub Oweis (KYO) Damascus, Aug 15, 2006, report via Reuters:
“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday (August 15, 2006) Hezbollah’s ‘victory’ in the recent war with Israel had destroyed U.S. plans to reshape the Middle East. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described Assad’s speech as a ‘negative contribution’ and cancelled a trip to Syria planned for later in the day.
“Assad also aimed sharp criticism at Israel and said peace in the Middle East would remain elusive for the foreseeable future.
“‘Their New Middle East, based on subjugation and humiliation, and denial of rights and identity, has turned into an illusion,’ Assad said in reference to Washington’s goal of helping to shape what it calls a new, democratic Middle East.
‘It is evident that after six years of this (U.S.) administration that there is no peace and there will be none in the foreseeable future,’ . . . Assad . . . said the Jewish state must return Arab land it has occupied since 1967, or face more insecurity.
In his speech Assad’s language turned hateful:
“Israel has been trying for decades to gain acceptance in the region. What Israel should know is that every generation has more hatred toward it than the generation before. Hatred is not a good word. We do not hate and we do not encourage hatred. But Israel did not leave room in our region except for hatred.”
These somewhat oxymoronic statements were designed, according KYO, to make “Israel think twice before pursuing ‘terrorist policies’ against Hezbollah in the region” (precisely what happened on Saturday’s, August 19, 2006, preemptive attack on Hezbollah units smuggling armaments/missiles into Northern Lebanon via Syria).
Wrapping up his skewed remarks toward Israel, Assad declared:
“Israel was defeated in its war on Lebanon. It was defeated on day one of its aggression.”
“THE NEXT INEVITABLE BITTER ROUND”
“In that day (i.e., when “Damascus will cease from being a city”) the glory of Jacob will wane, and the fatness of his flesh grow lean” (Isaiah 17:4).
One
of the most hard-hitting, yet typical, interpretations of Israel’s “defeat,”
is the unmitigated response from Yossi Klein Halevi, foreign correspondent for
The New Republic and senior fellow of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem:
Halevi goes immediately after Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Prime Minister—and advocates, through innuendo, his resignation, and perhaps the disillusionment of the Olmert-Peres alliance: Kadima.
“However hard Ehud Olmert tries to spin it, the U.N. ceasefire that began this week is a disaster for Israel and for the war on terrorism generally. With an unprecedented green light from Washington to do whatever necessary to uproot the Iranian front line against Israel, and with a level of national unity and willingness to sacrifice unseen here since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, our leaders squandered weeks restraining the army and fighting a pretend war.
“This is a nation whose heart has been broken: by our failure to uproot the jihadist threat, which will return for another and far more deadly round . . . even before the shooting stopped, the reckoning here had already begun. There are widespread expectations of dismissals for senior military commanders who -- when finally given the chance to end the Hezbollah threat they had been warning about for almost 25 years -- couldn't implement a creative battle plan. But demands for accountability won't be confined to the army alone.
Halevi draws striking comparisons to Israel’s past failures—but goes beyond the pale of reasonable failure in the Lebanon debacle, by bordering on outrage and immediate dismissal of those interior ministers who virtually brought Israel to her knees!
“Just as the post-Yom Kippur War period destroyed military and political careers and eventually led to the collapse of the Labor Party's hegemony, so will the post-Lebanon period end careers and perhaps even the short-lived Kadima Party experiment.
“A long list of reckonings awaits the Israeli public. There’s the scandal of the government's abandonment of tens of thousands of poor Israelis who lacked the means to escape the north and were confined for weeks in public shelters, their needs largely tended to by volunteers.
“There's the growing bitterness between Jewish Israelis and Arab Israelis, many of whom supported Hezbollah in a war most Jews saw as an existential attack on the state. And there's the emergency need to resurrect the military reserves, which have been so neglected that a majority of men over 21 don't even serve anymore and those that do tend to feel like suckers."
Although Halevi celebrated IDF valor in the war, and national unity during the struggle, he concludes—confirming THE WAR as part and parcel of Israel’s desolations and national psyche:
“. . . last month's fighting is only one battle in the jihadist war against Israel’s home front that began with the second intifada in September 2000. Israel won the first phase of that war, the four years of suicide bombings that lasted until 2004. Now, in the second phase, we’ve lost the battle against the rockets. But the qualities this heartbreak has revealed -- unity and sacrifice and faith in the justness of our cause -- will ensure our eventual victory in the next, inevitable, bitter round. Such is the nature of consolation in Israel in the summer of 2006.” (Israel’s Broken Heart, FINAL RECKONING, by Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic On-line)
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Without hesitation it can be announced that Israel’s “END OF THE WAR” fast approaches—the “BURDEN OF DAMASCUS” is about to become the SEVENTH and final desolation prior to the most welcomed, but disastrously deceitful, Covenant with Death, Agreement with Hell, which shall appear as the world’s COMPREHENSIVE PEACE SETTLEMENT dearly anticipated by so many, especially the Israelis (Daniel 9:27; Isaiah 28:15, 18).
To
suggest that the United Nations peace keepers shall expand their “formidable”
presence in Southern Lebanon (the
49er French explain all of that), and that the pathetic Lebanese Army of
15,000 headed to their south can prohibit the rearming of Hezbollah is
altogether ludicrous—an exercise in futility, not a viable effort at keeping
the peace, for there is no peace!
Israel awaits the fulfillment of the Oracle of Damascus—indeed, the BURDEN of Damascus . . . the era of DESOLATIONS from her birth to the “end of the war” (Daniel 9:26b) approaches in earnest.
Verily—amen and amen—Isaiah’s predilections concerning Damascus, involve a “multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas” (Isaiah 17:12). It is upon them that “woe” is cast . . .
“God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind” (Isaiah 17:13).
How specific are Isaiah’s presuppositions when “Damascus will cease from being a city and it will be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1) when he declares:
“Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us” (Isaiah 17:14).
We view the waning of Jacob even now and witness the shriveling of secular Zionism’s beleaguered efforts (Isaiah 17:4) to conclude the desolations which “are determined” “till the end of THE WAR.” And yet though . . .
“The
cities of Aroer are forsaken (Jordan, and specifically the Palestinian
Diaspora) . . . and though “The fortress also will cease from Ephraim” (the
Palestinian presence on the West Bank), “the kingdom from Damascus” (the
complete fulfillment of the “Burden of Damascus”) . . . and though the Lord
“cast her (‘Tyre and Sidon’ - Lebanon) out” . . . and though “He will destroy
her power in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire” . . . and though
“Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall be very sorrowful; and Ekron,
for He dried up her expectation” . . . and though “The king shall perish from
Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited” (i.e., again, the Palestinian
presence in Gaza) . . . YET: “. . . they will be for flocks which lie down,
and no one will make them afraid . . . the remnant of Syria . . . will be the
glory of the children of Israel . . . in that day a man will look to his
Maker, and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel” (portions
from
Isaiah 17,
Zechariah 9).
This mosaic of Scripture, this panoply of prophetic possibility, leaves us a wondrous conclusion to the Oracle of Damascus and to the constellation of peoples who follow in her train: God Almighty will shower upon their desolate lot His divine presence and bring them to Himself in a glorious revival of grace and favor until they embrace “the God of (their) salvation” and become “mindful of the Rock of (their) refuge” (Isaiah 17:10).
This is the pure unadulterated Word of God who thundered His adumbrations through the Prophet Isaiah cir. 700-690 B.C. Their prescient pronouncements generate foreboding desolation, intrepid awe, and final hope . . . as millenarian recourse awaits the incredible prophetic enhancement:
“In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance” (Isaiah 19:24-25).
Blessings in Messiah . . . when all eyes shall see Him!