Isaiah 17 The beginning of the end

The Beginning of the End

Taking another look at Isaiah 17

Isaiah 17 (Amplified Bible)

¹THE MOURNFUL, inspired prediction (a burden to be lifted up) concerning Damascus [capital of Syria]. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.

Damascus, Syria has been conquered, destroyed and then rebuilt many times but it has never ceased from being a city. Therefore, while there is a historical fulfillment of this prophecy when the Assyrians attacked Damascus, which was allied with the northern kingdom of Israel, it is very probably that there is a future destruction that has yet to occur.

Possible fulfillment:

We start this story with the complete, sudden destruction of Damascus, Syria. We can surmise that it is destroyed by a military attack.

Some of the following prophecies have been partially fulfilled in history, but since the primary prophecy about the complete destruction of Damascus has never been fulfilled and these other prophecies are associated with this destruction of Damascus, we can safely assume that the complete fulfillment of all of these prophecies is yet in the future.

²The cities of Aroer [east of the Jordan] are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

The cities of Aroer are cities that were on the northern banks of the river Arnon in Jordan, in the original land of Rueben. There was also an area in the land of Gad near the current city of Rabbah (Amman, Jordan) that was known as Aroer. These cities are forsaken or deserted and become grazing land and it will be a place of no fear. Because the area becomes grazing land, it is unlikely that they are destroyed with nuclear weapons (they are destroyed by fire, conventional weaponry – Jer. 49).

Possible fulfillment:

This verse tells us that Jordan will be involved at the time that Damascus is destroyed. Jer. 49 reveals to us that Amman will be destroyed and the neighboring cities burned with fire (conventional weaponry). The prophecies against Moab and Amman (Jordan) are given in Isaiah 15-16 and Jer. 48-49. These prophecies tell of great destruction and cities destroyed in the areas east of Israel.

³His bulwark [Syria] and the fortress shall disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the [departed] glory of the children of Israel [her ally], says the Lord of hosts.

The fortress of this area of Ephraim (northern Israel) shall cease or be destroyed and the kingdom from Damascus or the power of Damascus will end (the sovereignty, royal power and authority will be removed). Those left in Syria, the remnant, will be like the remnant of Israel after the Assyrians had devastated the northern kingdom of Israel.

The land of the tribe of Ephraim is today what we know as Samaria or the West Bank. The fortresses or strongholds could refer to terrorist strongholds that exist today in the West Bank. So we see that when Damascus is destroyed, the West Bank will be cleansed of strongholds, which implies that Israel will attack the terrorists in the West Bank as the have just done in Gaza.

Possible fulfillment:

These verses tell us that the Palestinian strongholds of the West Bank will also be destroyed or removed as a player in the coming events. They also tell us that there will be a remnant in Syria that will be much like the remnant of Israel after the historical earlier Assyrian invasion.

The picture being painted here is of an attack on Damascus and the terrorists in Samaria. Given the current situation of the growing threat of Iran gaining nuclear weapons, and the fact that the leading terrorist organization are headquartered out of Damascus, an Israeli attack on Iran and Syria and on the terrorist camps in Samaria seems not only possible, but highly likely. The response to this attack will most probably be counter attacks on Israel’s key cities and their military bases.

⁴And in that day the former glory of Jacob [Israel--his might, his population, his prosperity] shall be enfeebled, and the fat of his flesh shall become lean.

Israel will suffer during these events. There will be poverty, privation and desolation. Israel will also suffer much with deaths, food shortages, poverty and fear.

⁵And it shall be as when the reaper gathers the standing grain and his arm harvests the ears; yes, it shall be as when one gathers the ears of grain in the fertile Valley of Rephaim.

It will seem that Israel has been abandoned like fields after the harvest. The valley of Rephaim is the area west and southwest of Jerusalem (would include the Tel Aviv-Joppa area).

Possible fulfillment:

This tells us that the area west of Jerusalem including Tel Aviv will suffer during this time of military activity, stripped bare and abandoned like fields after the harvest.

⁶Yet gleanings [of grapes] shall be left in it [the land of Israel], as after the beating of an olive tree [with a stick], two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of the fruitful tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

There will be great destruction in Israel and only a remnant or gleaning will remain. Only those in "the highest branches" will survive. Israel will be stripped bare of people.

Possible fulfillment:

Here we learn that there will be a surviving remnant in Israel. The surviving remnant will be in a "high place". The only safe and high place that I can imagine in such a time as this will be in the Lord. I believe that the believers in the land will survive.

At least part of the surviving remnant will be in the High Place of the Lord's protection, the Rock, their hiding place.

⁷In that day will men look to their Maker, and their eyes shall regard the Holy One of Israel.

These events will cause those remaining to look to the Lord their maker and have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

These events will be the catalyst for a great turning back to the Lord.

Possible fulfillment:

All of these events are intended to bring God's people Israel back to him. The remnant will look to their God, their creator and have respect for the Holy one of Israel. These events drive the Jews back to God and in fact drive them to come to believe that Jesus is their Messiah. The believers in the land today will be a “voice crying in the wilderness, behold Jesus is the Messiah”. These events will be the catalyst of a great revival in the Land of Israel.

⁸And they will not look to the [idolatrous] altars, the work of their hands, neither will they have respect for what their fingers have made--either the Asherim [symbols of the goddess Asherah] or the sun-images.

The survivors will forsake their idol worship in whatever form they have made it. Humanism, false religion, spiritism in all its forms, and materialism will fall. The remnant in Israel will give up their idol worship of human greatness, money, power, pleasure, humanism and materialism.

⁹In that day will their [Israel's] strong cities be like the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountaintop, as they [the Amorites and the Hivites] forsook their [cities] because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.

Possible fulfillment:

The strong, largest cities west and north of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa will be forsaken. They will become just like the cities of the Hivites and Amorites abandoned when the Israelites (Joshua and company) came long ago. And there will be desolation.

What about Jerusalem? Looking to Jer. 49:25 NIV, it seems that for some reason Jerusalem is not "forsaken" or destroyed, and not abandoned.

Jer. 49:25 AMP - "How (remarkable that) the renowned city is not deserted, the city of my joy!"

Here we see that the large cities west of Jerusalem will be attacked. Tel Aviv and Haifa will be attacked but Jerusalem will not be. It would seem that the attacking armies and the terrorist organizations that are associated with those attacking Israel attack Haifa and Tel Aviv, the large cities of Israel, but not Jerusalem, where the great Shrine of the Dome and Mosque are located.

¹⁰Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation [O Judah] and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, your Stronghold--therefore, you have planted pleasant nursery grounds and plantings [to Adonis, pots of quickly withered flowers used to set by their doors or in the courts of temples], and have set [the grounds] with vine slips of a strange [God],

All of this will happen because Israel turned from the only God who could save them. They turned from the Rock that could hide them. They planted the finest imported crops but not to honor God and they did not give Him any credit or glory for the fruit of their plantings.

Possible fulfillment:

Israel planted their nation in 1948 and it grew quite quickly. But it was without their creator and despite his many blessing and help, they refused to acknowledge or honor him who created them and gave them the land in the first place.

¹¹And in the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom, yet [promising as it is] the harvest shall be a heap of ruins and flee away in the day of expected possession and of desperate sorrow and sickening, incurable pain.

These plants or crops grew very quickly (Israel grew very quickly from 1948 through lots of trials and tribulations) but in the end the harvest will be a load of grief and desperate, incurable pain and sorrow.

All of their political efforts to establish themselves as a respected nation in the international community fail. They refused to trust God, and relied on their own capabilities and contrivances. It all turns to grief, pain and sorrow.

But God's promises to them, His covenants, are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). So all of these last day's events are God's plan to bring his people back to him so that he can bless them and fulfill his covenants with them.

Rom. 11:25-32 - Lest you be self-opinionated (wise in your own conceits), I do not want you to miss this hidden truth and mystery, brethren: a hardening (insensibility) has [temporarily] befallen a part of Israel [to last] until the full number of the ingathering of the Gentiles has come in,

²⁶And so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.

²⁷And this will be My covenant (My agreement) with them when I shall take away their sins.

²⁸From the point of view of the Gospel (good news), they [the Jews, at present] are enemies [of God], which is for your advantage and benefit. But from the point of view of God's choice (of election, of divine selection), they are still the beloved (dear to Him) for the sake of their forefathers.

²⁹For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

³⁰Just as you were once disobedient and rebellious toward God but now have obtained [His] mercy, through their disobedience,

³¹So they also now are being disobedient [when you are receiving mercy], that they in turn may one day, through the mercy you are enjoying, also receive mercy [that they may share the mercy which has been shown to you--through you as messengers of the Gospel to them].

³²For God has consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike].

Back to Isaiah:

¹²Hark, the uproar of a multitude of peoples! They roar and thunder like the noise of the seas! Ah, the roar of nations! They roar like the roaring of rushing and mighty waters!

This destruction of Damascus and Amman causes a great uproar among the nations, the multitude of many people. The international community mounts a great protest and apparently their armies rush forward towards Israel like waves thundering towards the shore. This brings us to Ezek. 38 where we see armies from the north coming at Israel.

Ezek 38:1-9 (NKJV)

¹ Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶ Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops--many people are with you. ⁷ "Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them. ⁸ After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely. ⁹ You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you."

¹³The nations will rush and roar like the rushing and roaring of many waters--but [God] will rebuke them, and they will flee far off and will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, and like rolling thistledown or whirling dust of the stubble before the storm.

The nations of the world are in an uproar against Israel for attacking Iran and Syria. They seem to "rush" at Israel like breakers on a beach. But God silences them. They flee far off like chaff in a windstorm, like dust whirling before a storm. The international reaction to these events is extreme, off-the -scale outrage. As Ezekiel saw, these armies come against Israel but on the mountains of Israel, God defeats them.

¹⁴At evening time, behold, terror! And before the morning, they [the terrorizing Assyrians] are not. This is the portion of those who strip us [the Jews] of what belongs to us, and the lot of those who rob us.

Ezek 38:18-23 (NKJV)

¹⁸ "And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," says the Lord God, "that My fury will show in My face. ¹⁹ For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: 'Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, ²⁰ so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.' ²¹ I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains," says the Lord God. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. ²² And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. ²³ Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord." '

Israel waits in terror in the evening, but by dawn its enemies are dead. This is the reward of those who plunder and destroy the people of God.

Possible fulfillment:

All of this activity happens in a short period of time. This scenario includes Israeli attacks on Iran, Damascus, Amman, terrorist strongholds Samaria and perhaps even on Egypt (Jer. 9:25-26, Ezek. 29:1-32:32) and other Islamic neighboring nations (Jer. 48-50, Ezek. 38). This scenario also includes attacks against Israel and on Tel Aviv and Haifa from forces from the north including forces from the Islamic nations surrounding Israel. All of this is related to the first 6 seals of Rev. 6. This activity sets up a revival in Israel, but also a great falling away from the faith in the nations due to great persecution of Jews and Christians who support Israel. This war initiates political activities that enable a powerful world leader (really the Antichrist) to arrange a 7-year peace treaty between Israel and those attacking her. This will initiate Daniel's last week of years, the time of the tribulation, the days of the wrath of God.

Dan. 9:26-27 - ²⁶And after the sixty-two weeks [of years] shall the Anointed One be cut off or killed and shall have nothing [and no one] belonging to [and defending] Him. And the people of the [other] prince who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood; and even to the end there shall be war, and desolations are decreed.

²⁷And he shall enter into a strong and firm covenant with the many for one week [seven years]. And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and offering to cease [for the remaining three and one-half years]; and upon the wing or pinnacle of abominations [shall come] one who makes desolate, until the full determined end is poured out on the desolator.

With the breaking of the 6^th seal of Revelation 6, a great earthquake signals the coming of the wrath of God.

Rev 6:12-17 (NKJV)

¹² I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. ¹³ And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. ¹⁴ Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. ¹⁵ And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

The 7 years of tribulation are about to begin and the times of the Gentiles are coming to an end.

Romans 11:25-29 (NKJV)

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; ²⁷ For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." ²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Daniel’s last week of years, the 7 years of tribulation, deal with Israel and the Jews and the judgment of the kingdoms of the world. As God judges and cleanses the nations of the world, He completes His irrevocable covenant promises to Israel. These promises are a National Land forever (Gen 12:1; 13:14-15, 17; 15:18-21), spiritual blessings and redemption (Isa. 61:8; Jer. 31:31-40; 32:40; 50:5; Heb 8:6-13; 13:20), a dynasty (Kingdom of no end), a nation (the house of Jacob), and a throne (the throne of David, 2 Sam 7:11, 13, 16; Jeremiah 33:3-26; 31:35-40; 1 Chron. 7:12; 22:10; Isa. 55:3; Ezek. 37:25; Hosea 3:4-5; Ezek. 37:21-28; Amos 9:11-12; Jer. 30:7,11,18). They guarantee Israel a permanent national existence, perpetual title to the land of promise, material and spiritual blessing through the Messiah, and a King forever.

The climax is the Lord’s triumphal return to establish His Kingdom on earth and take His rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords over all the earth. And He will rule and reign for 1000 years from His throne in Jerusalem with His Bride, the true Church at His side.

But it all begins with a war in Israel!