In the News….
We have seen last week how the nation of Syria has fallen into the hands of rebels. For 14 years, the government of the then president Bashar Assad was one of the most corrupted and cruel to its own people. We could see, throughout the week, on our TV screens the jubilation on the streets of Damascus as the people experienced their liberation.
This fall was a big blow to Iran who used this country to provide arms to Hamas and Hezbollah. It was also a blow to the Russians who have a strong presence in this country with naval and air bases.
As for Israel, they do not seem to trust these rebels because since the fall of the Assad regime, the Israeli Defense Forces carried some 500 strikes, taking out weaponry fearing that they will fall into the hands of this new government. After all the leader of the rebel army was a former Al Qaeda member and he had a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head.
But are there some prophetic significances to the fall of Syria? While, at this point, it is not completely clear how important this is, nevertheless, it seems to follow a certain trend. The fall of Syria comes after the fall of Hamas and Hezbollah and the lessening of Iran’s influence in the area. From our perspective, these recent events seem to be preparing the way to this peace treaty, the Abraham Accords which the U.S. President elect, Trump, who initiated this treaty some 4 years ago, promises to put on the table again.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also on board, as two months ago, when addressing the UN, he spoke of the blessings of the Abraham Accords. We remember that this treaty was interrupted by the war with Hamas in October 2003. So, the US and Israel are looking to revive this agreement.
A few Muslim nations have already signed on, including Morocco, Sudan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, both Saudi Arabia as well as Indonesia had showed interest. Why is Indonesia important? It has the largest Muslim population in the world. Egypt and Jordan already have a peace treaty with Israel.
Could the fall of Syria and could this peace treaty, the Abraham Accords, be an indication of the coming 7-year peace treaty that is to be signed in the future, a guarantee of peace that will be given to Israel, as Daniel the prophet and John in Revelation allude to?
It may very well be, for it will surely allow and give time for Israel to build the Third Temple which is needed for the very end time prophecies to unfold, as mentioned by Daniel, Paul, John and especially Yeshua Himself in his own end times predictions.
But what about Syria in the end times? Many prophecies see this country rising in the end times and taking part with others in the final wars and at the end invading Israel. Syria, or Damascus, will have a strong presence in the end times, according to three different prophets.
We have often spoken of the two groupings of ten nations, one for the war of Gog and Magog and the other grouping would be the countries geographically closer to Israel as we read in Psalm 83. But there are clusters or groupings of other nations that will come against each other and against Israel, and Syria or Damascus is mentioned in these last groups. These prophecies are especially given by three prophets: Isaiah, Amos and Jeremiah.
We of course do not have the time to go into details, but a first prophet to consider is Amos who begins his book by listing the judgments of the end times on 7 nations including Israel and the first nation that is mentioned in that list of seven, is Damascus. The prophecy relates to how this country will invade Israel in the end times and the prophet predicts its full destruction.
A second grouping of nations are given by Isaiah the prophet who includes many more countries that will be at Armageddon. Damascus is mentioned and there its final destruction is predicted as it will attempt to destroy Israel. Interestingly, right after Damascus, another country is mentioned, that of Ethiopia which in history included Yemen where the Houthis are situated and who, these past few days have sent missiles and drones against Israel. Today we see it rising against Israel. This is nothing new for the prophets. However, so far what we are seeing today is still far off from what the prophets are saying, but this is in preparation.
The third prophet is Jeremiah. In chapter 49 he mentions Damascus who he sees completely destroyed in the end. He also adds to this Elam, which is modern day Iraq which will also take part in the end times invasion of Israel along also Ethiopia or Yemen.
Notice that in these three lists and in the list of Psalm 83, two nations come back who are listed in all these 4 lists; that is Philistia and Moab which correspond to Gaza and the West Bank. These are two enemies who are endowed with this unnegotiable hatred that the Lord, in Ezekiel, calls eternal hatred. All these nations continue to be there, up until the Messiah’s Second Coming.
So today, while it could take a long time before the world gets to the Tribulation, on the other hand, it may also not take that long, for things can change very fast these days, as we have seen with Syria.
We surely do not know the day or hour even of this, but whatever the case, one thing we can be sure of is that our LORD is completely sovereign over the direction of this world. Whether it is Yemen or Syria or any other country, it comes as no surprise because of what the prophets have told us.
This is what the study of prophecies instills in us; peace and confidence: each movement of the nations of the world are closely monitored by the Captain of the Lord of hosts who is our Yeshua, as He is called in Joshua.