Countdown to Damascus' Destruction

by Michael G. Mickey
(9-21-07)

Isaiah 17:1: The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Are we well into the countdown to Isaiah 17:1's prophesied destruction of Damascus as a city? Personally, I can't see how can anyone doubt it given the events of the last few weeks.

While the now infamous air raid by Israeli Defense Forces on a target in northern Syria has drawn the majority of the international news media's attention recently, it's possible that an even bigger news story in the countdown to Damascus' destruction occurred several months ago, the magnitude of which is only now beginning to be realized.

A Haaretz report indicates that "a Syrian military installation rocked by an explosion in July was being used to develop chemical weapons, and Iranian engineers were among those killed."

The Haaretz report credits Jane's Defence Weekly with providing the following details of the incident:

At least 15 Syrian soldiers died; 50 were wounded.
Dozens of Iranian weapons engineers were killed.
The explosion took place during a test to fit a Scud C missile with a mustard-gas warhead.
The explosion dispersed VX and Sarin nerve agents, as well as mustard blister agent.

What could Syria and Iran be preparing to do with the missiles they're obviously tipping with all these horrific ingredients? There can only be three possibilities, in my opinion.

They plan to use the weapons on Israel.
They plan to target U.S. forces in Iraq with them.
They plan to attack both Israel and U.S. forces stationed in Iraq.

Any of these scenarios could rapidly result in the prophesied destruction of Damascus, particularly when we add to this information the recent and extremely secretive Israeli air raid in Syria, the target of which is even now being withheld as suspicions linger that the North Koreans and, potentially, nuclear weapons components were involved in that incident.

Whatever the target of the Israeli air raid was, it was a high value target. I say that because Israel literally risked war with Syria to take it out. As late as yesterday President Bush was stonewalling the press as to the nature of the Israeli attack and that, readers, is very ominous when we consider all these matters as a whole. How many times in recent years have we seen a military action of that nature undertaken involving Israel and heard little to nothing as to what it was all about? Think about it.

All of this leaves me to wonder how much time Damascus has left. Not only am I pondering that, Hal Lindsey is as well. In the following excerpt from a commentary he wrote for WorldNetDaily.com, Lindsey shares some of his insights as to why Iran may be playing such a prominent role in these frightening developments:

To Ahmadinejad's way of thinking, if somebody has to be martyred to the Mahdi's cause, why not Syria? Twenty-five hundred odd years ago, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah prophesied of the destruction of Damascus. This prophecy is made more fascinating by the fact it remains unfulfilled in history.

Damascus is the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. Although conquered many times, its status as an economic and cultural center of antiquity preserved it intact to this day.

But Isaiah predicted Damascus would one day face utter destruction: "Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city and it will become a fallen ruin," he writes in Isaiah 17:1.

The prophet also predicts Damascus' destruction will come at a time when "the glory of Jacob" had begun to fade (verse 4), at a time when Israel is in great peril of being "shaken like an olive tree," leaving only a few "on the topmost bough."

Isaiah prophesies that, when Damascus' destruction comes, there will be "an uproar of many peoples" and "the rumbling of nations" but that they will flee at God's rebuke.

It seems clear from recent events that Syria is preparing chemical and biological weapons, and possibly some form of nuclear weapon for use in some future war against Israel. Syria and Iran have been outfitting Hezbollah with the latest in offensive weaponry since the war of June 2006.

Israel is unlikely to sit back and wait for a first-use chemical or gas attack from Damascus. Neither is it likely to wait until Ahmadinejad can use Syria to flank them in the event of conflict with Iran. So the number of Israeli raids against Syrian targets is likely to escalate until either Israel has destroyed the threat or Syria responds militarily. If Syria attacks with weapons of mass destruction, it can expect a massive, in-kind Israeli response.

Bible prophecy doesn't make allowances for a full-scale unconventional war of annihilation of Israel by Iran, however. Ezekiel predicts Iran's participation of the Gog-Magog invasion as part of a Russian-led alliance, not a regional alliance with Syria. Both Iran and Israel are listed as participants in that future conflict.

But Syria isn't.

In that final sentence of the excerpt from Lindsey's commentary, which can be read in its entirety by clicking the link above, he touches on one of the key reasons I believe the Gog-Magog invasion attempt described in Ezekiel 38-39 will take place after the destruction of Damascus at the very least, whether the events occur on this or the other side of the Rapture of the Church! My take on this topic has always been that Syria would never, as long as it possesses the power to get involved in an effort to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, sit innocently at sidebar as all of Israel's other enemies assailed her!

Are we well into the countdown to Isaiah 17:1's prophesied destruction of Damascus as a city? I fear the answer to that question is a resounding yes which is why I ask that everyone who reads this pray for God to show mercy on those He is willing to and get them someplace far from there before Isaiah 17:1 plays itself out.

Lastly, there is absolutely no question that Israel stands ready, as I write this commentary, to annihilate Syria if necessary. A New York Daily News article's headline spells this out very clearly....

Israel to Syria: Use chem weapons & we'll wipe you off map

Tick tock....

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