Saturday, January 14, 2017

GOG'S ATTACK PT 2 - THE CONNECTION TO DAMASCUS AND THE PALESTINIANS

Another prophecy from Isaiah declares that the time is coming when Damascus will be completely destroyed, and some of the surrounding cities in Syria will become a place of grazing for animals.

Isaiah 17:1-2 “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.  The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”

The next verse states that there will be repercussions in other areas due to the fall of Damascus.

Isaiah 17:3 “The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.”

When I looked up Ephraim, it was defined as including Samaria and most of what is today’s West Bank, land that in conjunction with the Gaza Strip is commonly but erroneously identified as Israeli “occupied land.”  Hamas is the ruling authority in Gaza, and Fatah’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.  Though these two groups have been divided in government, they are unified in their desire to bring about the destruction of the state of Israel.  Consider the following quote from the New York Times on November 29, 2016, of comments made at a party conference that confirmed Mahmoud Abbas as leader of Fatah:  Ahmed Haj Ali, a senior Hamas legislator, was invited to address the conference.  ‘We are partners in this homeland, our cause, struggle and resolutions,” he told the delegates, “and we in Hamas are ready to fulfill all requirements of this partnership with you and all factions.’”

The relationship between Hamas and Iran has had its ups and downs, but consider this quote from www.al-monitor.com in June 2016:  Relations between Hamas and Iran never ended and were not affected during recent years. They diminished on some levels at certain times, but the relationship remained ongoing, at least on the military level.  The difference today is that Hamas and Iran decided to make this relationship public and saw no need for it to remain clandestine. Public rhetoric about the resumption of relations is now clear and explicit."

This event is also described in Jeremiah 49:23-27 and Zechariah 9:1-7.  When I read through these sections, there seemed to be a connection with the destruction of Damascus to Tyre and Zidon.  These cities were located in what is today known as Lebanon.  This event will bring sorrow to Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron (an area that includes the Gaza strip, the land occupied by the Palestinians today, and the area just north of the strip on the coast); these were all Philistine cities of Old Testament times.  Zechariah 9:5 seems to indicate that this will destroy all hope for a Palestinian state.

Zechariah 9:5 Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
“ashamed” = disappointed, wither away

From that point on there will be no recognized “king” of Gaza.  Ashkelon, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean just north of the Gaza strip, will not be inhabited after this. 


(to be continued…)

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