The Burden against Damascus

 “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks
Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid.

Isaiah 17:1-2

It is my belief that the next event in the prophetic calendar is the Psalm 83 War.  The nations that immediately surround Israel will form a confederation  (verse 5) with the purpose to “cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more” (verse 4).  The news have been confirming that such a war may indeed take place before long.

The piece that didn’t seem to fit the puzzle was Isaiah’s prophecy of the total annihilation of Damascus.  Make no mistake, that prophecy has not been fulfilled yet.  Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.  It has been conquered, torn, rebuilt… but never destroyed to the point that human beings would not be able to live there.  Well, I thought, it must be part of the collateral damage from the Psalm 83 War.  I just couldn’t place the destruction of Damascus in the timeline for that war.  Not that it matter, the Lord has said that Damascus would be destroyed, and so it will.  But I couldn’t help wondering about the when and how.

The events of the last few days have brought some light to this matter.  Just yesterday Syria announced that, if attacked by the US, it will retaliate by attacking Israel.   Well, I don’t expect  the US, or any Western nation for that matter, to nuke Damascus.  I mean, that is not how we wage war, do we?  We follow the rules of engagement, the Geneva convention… We have forgotten how to wage a war with the intention of winning it.  But what about Israel?  For that tiny country, an attack from Syria would be an existential threat, they would strike back hard.  And if Syria dares to use chemical weapons on Israel, I don’t have any doubt that PM Netanyahu will use all means available to him to defend his people, even if that means using nuclear weapons.  The world won’t like it… big deal!  Has the world ever sided with Israel in its struggle for survival?

Let me suggest an scenario for the upcoming war.  The US, UK and maybe France attack the Assad regime and he retaliates against Israel.  So will countries that have followed Syria’s lead in the past: Lebanon, Jordan… maybe Egypt.  There you have it, the Psalm 83 War.  If in addition Syria uses WMDs on Israel, the response will be swift and hard.  Nuking Damascus would put an end to the Assad regime, and serve the other countries notice not to mess with Israel.  The war will be over, and Isaiah’s prophecy will be fulfilled.