Damascus in the News
In addition to the scripture I referenced in my last post regarding the fall of Damascus, the capital of Syria, let’s check out Jeremiah chapter 49:23-27. I believe this passage is speaking to the same events discussed in Isaiah chapter 17, adding more detail to the prophesied event. Verse 23 mentions two ancient Syrian cities. Hamath (now referred to as Hamah) and Arpad (15 miles north of modern Alepo) are ancient cities to the north of Damascus, Ben-Hadad (son of Hadad) is the name of a king of ancient Syria that waged war against Israel around the time of this writing.
Jeremiah 49:
23 Concerning Damascus:
“Hamath and Arpad are dismayed,
for they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
troubled like[d] the restless sea.
24 Damascus has become feeble,
she has turned to flee
and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
25 Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
the town in which I delight?
26 Surely, her young men will fall in the streets;
all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”
d: or onfor they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
troubled like[d] the restless sea.
24 Damascus has become feeble,
she has turned to flee
and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
25 Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
the town in which I delight?
26 Surely, her young men will fall in the streets;
all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”
(New International Version)
I don’t know if you noticed (I didn’t at first), but in neither Isaiah 17 nor in this passage do we see an invading army. It seems that if this were speaking of a foreign invasion of Syria, we would see a reference to “a king from the North” or something like that. Rather, we get the impression in Jeremiah that this event seems to just come upon Damascus. The current, troublesome civil war that is raging seems to fit right into this passage.
Let’s go
through this verse by verse. The King James Version reads verse 23 as:
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they
have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted ; there is sorrow on the sea; it
cannot be quiet.
If this is interpreted as troubled
like the restless sea this certainly fits what is going on right now in
Syria. For over two years now the uprising in Syria against the dictator Assad
has brutalized the country, killing over 100,000 people by most estimates. If
this is interpreted as there is sorrow on
the sea, we can look to recent news reports to see a possible explanation of
the statement. Where would a US strike on Syria be staged from? Our ships
located off the coast of Syria. Over the past couple weeks we have been
building up our US Navy presence in the Eastern Mediterranean from which we
would launch our attack. Furthermore, several Russian ships are coming down to
provide a Russian presence in the situation (they currently oppose strikes
against Syria, their ally).
In verse 24, there is a prophecy about Damascus growing feeble. I
believe this is probably referring to Damascus as the capital city of Assad’s
regime. If someone were to say “Washington has grown feeble”. Americans would immediately
know that this person is saying that the US government is weakened. Assad is
barely holding on to power; all his defense is turned towards protecting
himself and his regime. However, as a city Damascus has grown feeble as well.
Citizens are fleeing in droves into Lebanon and Jordan. An estimated 700,000 of
its 1.7 million people have left the city already. The exodus from Damascus has
increased greatly recently, since the chemical attacks (which number in the
teens, according to a US official) on Damascus suburbs in late August 2013.
I believe that this is recently fulfilled prophecy from verse 24:
Damascus has become feeble,
she has turned to flee
and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her
As for the comparison of Damascus’s pain being like that of
a woman in labor, think of what child labor is for women. It starts slowly, and
gradually (or sometimes rapidly) gets worse and worse, more and more painful,
and there is no stopping it or escaping the eventual end, child birth. In the
past two years the pain has been building and building, starting with some
protests, then riots, then open violence, then all out civil war and now
chemical weapon use. What is the climax? What is the inevitable end? Read my
last post to see what will happen to Damascus.
Remember, the Bible is TRUE, my analysis of the text
compared to current events is subject to human limits. I don’t know if what is
happening in Syria right now is the fulfillment of the prophecy, or if the fulfillment
is 200 years away. But with a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other,
it is hard to ignore the similarity. We are told by Jesus that if we can
observe the weather and determine what the weather will do, we need to be doing
the same in regards to the times in which we live (Matthew 16:2-3). This is
what I am trying to do.
Back to the passage: Verse 25 asks why Damascus, a city that
has favor with the Lord, has not been abandoned. Perhaps it really should be
abandoned by its citizens right now, with danger looming. Right now we see her
young men, fighting in the streets (verse 26) and they (soldiers) will all be
silenced in a coming day. If Assad makes the mistake discussed in my lasted
post, swift destruction could fall on the city of Damascus.
The last verse (26) says that God will kindle a fire in the
walls of the city and consume the fortress of Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad was the
ruler of Syria at or around the time of this passage’s writing, just as Assad
is now. It sounds as if this fire is figurative and could be a reference the uprising
that is weakening Assad’s power (the walls mentioned in this verse). Or it
could be a literal fire that destroys the city and all of its defenses (Nuclear
detonation?). Only time will tell.
As we continue to
watch what happens in Syria, we need to pray for them, especially the innocent
civilians. It is very dangerous right now due to the abuse of power from their
dictator, and also the influx of rebel fighters who only want to set up an Islamic
state. Let’s not be easily alarmed or unsettled by what we see, but at the same
time let’s also keep our eyes open to what is going on around us!
