Damascus, Syria in Bible Prophecy

The following article was written by Craig C. White from the High Time To Awake website.

Turkey will destroy Damascus and then invade Israel (Isaiah 17:1).

The U.S. is bombing Syria but Turkey will destroy Damascus!

“President Trump stressed the need to intensify cooperation with Turkey with respect to shared strategic challenges in Syria.”

Jeremiah 49:23-27 describes an invasion into northwestern Syria near the Turkish border. Jeremiah says that after the Syrian towns of Hamah and Arpad hear reports of a coming invasion then the residents of Damascus will flee and Damascus will be destroyed. Today the Syrian town of Apad is called Tell Rifaat.

Jeremiah 49:23 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.

The destruction of Damascus begins at Hamah and Tell Rifaat. The Turkish Army is amassed near Hamah and Tell Rifaat right now (April 2018)!

The city of Damascus, Syria may soon be destroyed as Isaiah 17:1 and Jeremiah 49:24-27 predicts. The destruction of Damascus is the next event to look for on the prophetic calendar. The Turkish led invasion into Syria, the destruction of Damascus, and the following Turkish led invasion into Israel put us on the brink of the Tribulation, and even closer to the Resurrection and Rapture.

Damascus is the capital of Syria and is its second largest city with about 2.6 million people in the metropolitan area. Today Syria is in the midst of a battle for its sovereignty. There is a movement to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. While most Syrians support the more westernized Assad, Al-Qaeda factions supported by Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood are fighting for control over the nation. Today foreign jihadists are fighting the Syrian Army near the city of Damascus. The Syrian war is basically a war between Shia and Sunni Muslim factions.

Much of the outskirts of Damascus have already suffered major damage but the downtown neighborhood of Old Damascus remains intact. According to Jeremiah the Old Damascus neighborhood must be destroyed. Old Damascus is where the capital of Syria sits. According to Isaiah 17:1 Damascus will be taken away from being a city. Today, fighting in Damascus is on the rise.

World governments are scrambling. Turkey, the UN, EU, and US leadership want Syrian President Assad gone. The CIA has been smuggling weapons to Al-Qaeda  in Syria as well as providing flour and funding. Russia and Iran want Assad to stay. The US is pushing for Middle Eastern led military action. That probably means that the US is willing to support a Turkish led conquest of Syria. The US, UN, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and other world powers are pushing for an escalation of force to oust the Syrian President. In July 2015 NATO gave its approval for the Turkish Army to enter Syria.

Turkey is directly supporting Al-Qaeda rebel groups in Syria. Up until now Turkey had hoped that the rebels would eventually overtake the Syrian Army. The key to victory is to capture of the seat of power in Damascus. However rebel fighters say that they do not have the military might to take Damascus. In July 2015 Turkey deployed 54,000 troops and heavy artillery along the Syrian border. NATO has deployed several Patriot missile batteries as well. The missiles are manned by 400 US soldiers. It looks like foreign military force will be brought to bear eventually.

In Isaiah 17 the city of Damascus is prophesied to be destroyed. Damascus was conquered once already when Assyria invaded Syria and northern Israel in 734 BC. Some Bible teachers say that the destruction of Damascus has already happened and that it is not a future event. However, the Prophet Jeremiah also predicted that Damascus would be destroyed. Jeremiah gave his prophecy one hundred years after Assyria conquered Damascus so the destruction of Damascus is definitely a yet future event. I think that Turkey will destroy Damascus in much the same way that Assyria conquered Damascus in 734 BC. Bible prophecy often represents two similar events usually separated by time. Conditions are ripe for a present day destruction of Damascus.

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

Jeremiah chapter 49 below suggests that Damascus (metro population 2.6 million) will turn to flee. Today many Syrians have already fled the fighting; seeking refuge in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and other regional countries. There are currently almost 4,000,000 Syrian refugees in surrounding countries. Over nine million Syrians have left their homes. Many Syrians have also taken refuge in Damascus. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have also fled from Damascus as the fighting drew nearer. Attention: High Alert! Bible prophecy is unfolding concerning Damascus.

Jer 49:24-27 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. 25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts. 27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

Note: In the verse above, Benhadad is the title of several Syrian kings who ruled in Damascus (1 Kings 15:18).

In Jeremiah 49:27 it says that God “will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus”. To “kindle a fire” means that God will send an army to invade Damascus. Turkish troops are lined up along the Syrian border. Tensions are heating up between the Syrian and Turkish Army. I think that God may be sending the Turkish Army against Damascus.

April 2018 update: The Turkish Army has been allowed to enter northwestern Syria unhindered. I estimate that there are more than 100,000 Turkish Army troops along with Turkish supported Free Syrian Army and Al-Qaeda troops in northwestern Syria today.

The Prophet Amos also condemns Damascus. This prophecy was fulfilled when Tiglath-pileser the Assyrian king conquered Damascus in 734 BC and carried the Syrian (Aramean) captives away to Kir, a mountainous region in western Jordan. However, like many Bible prophecies this may also refer to a future event. Today the region of Kir in Jordan is called Kerak. There are about one half million Syrian refugees in Kerak today. This is further evidence that the destruction of Damascus as described in the Bible is imminent. It is also evidence that the God of Israel is the one true God and that we all had better heed his word and we had also better humble ourselves before him while there is still time! In verse 5 the plain of Aven is a valley in the northeast part of Lebanon near the Syrian border. Today it is called the Bekaa valley. It has been suggested that Saddam Hussein hid WMD’s here before the US invasion of Iraq.

Amos 1:3-5 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. 5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden: and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, saith the LORD.

Talk of a military conflict between Israel and Syria along with their ally Iran is also on the rise. In Ezekiel chapter 38 a Turkish led invasion into Israel is described. Turkey is joined by Iran, Ethiopia (The original Hebrew word Cush more accurately describes Sudan), and Libya. It may be that shortly after the destruction of Damascus a Middle East invasion into Israel will occur. Every nation that is mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 38 is fighting in Syria today.

In Ezekiel 38:4 below God is talking to the leader of Turkey.

Eze 38:4-5 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

I am convinced that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the modern day fulfillment of Magog the primary ruler of the land of Turkey described in Ezekiel chapter 38. So I expect the battle of Gog and Magog to happen soon! Turkey may destroy Damascus. Turkey may also then lead a Middle Eastern invasion into Israel. It is High Time to Awake and watch!

Ancient Israel and Prophecy

The following article is reprinted with permission from From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav).

Prophecy in the Biblical Sense

The authority of the traditions of the Bible in Judaism is founded upon the concept of prophecy. The Bible describes various people as having received direct revelations from God. The revelation to Moses is seen by later tradition as prophecy par excellence.

In the accounts of the patriarchs, we encounter God in relation to man, communicating directly with him. This is not prophecy in the strict sense, however, since the phenomenon of prophecy, in the biblical view, involves the prophet’s having been charged with a message to communicate. It is only with Moses, in the Book of Exodus, that we encounter a prophet who is sent to the people to deliver the word of God.

In other words, prophecy has a social dimension. It is not simply a personal religious experience. God sends Moses to deliver His word to the people. Yet Moses’ prophecy differed from that of the other prophets. First, he is described by the Bible as communicating directly with God, whereas the other prophets see God in a dream or trance. Second, he combines in his person the roles of priest, king, and lawgiver (if we may adopt the Hellenistic characterization) alongside that of prophet.

The History of Prophecy in Ancient Israel

The Bible allows us to trace the history of prophecy in ancient Israel. Not counting Moses, the earliest prophets described in the Bible were seers, charismatic figures who prophesied in a trance, usually induced by the use of music and dance. Often they banded together in guilds and were called "the sons of the prophets."

The guilds were based on the master‑disciple relationship and were intended to pass on a tradition of prophecy. There is no definite evidence that prophets of this kind were in any way involved in the moral and religious ferment of the times. They may have been foretellers of the future.

By the time of the first monarchs, Saul, David, and Solomon, the role of the prophet had begun to change. It seems to have taken on some of the charismatic qualities associated with the judges in the period immediately after the conquest, and simultaneously the kings inherited the political and military aspects of the judge’s role. In the early days of the monarchy, the prophet appears as a religious model in the king’s entourage, deeply involved in the life of the royal court but able, at same time, to castigate the ruler by means of pointed parables.

Other prophets, of lesser importance, may have been attached to the major cultic sites, according to some scholars. By the time of Elijah and Elisha, prophets were found in both the northern and southern kingdoms and were often in conflict with the kings. They had clearly taken on their well‑known role as critics of the Israelite society of the day, but had not yet developed into literary figures.

By the ninth century B.C.E., in both Judah and Israel, the minor prophets (so‑called because of the size of their literary output) were delivering scathing attacks on the two major transgressions of the time, syncretistic worship and the social ills besetting the country. These two issues would occupy the prophets for years to come. They demanded the extirpation of even minimal participation in idolatrous worship, and called for the amelioration of the injustices being perpetrated against the poor, unlanded classes, insisting loudly and clearly that the discharge of cultic duties was of no significance if it was not accompanied by a life of true moral and ethical principles.

Prophetic Literature

The earliest of the twelve minor prophets, whose numbers included such men as Amos and Hosea (eighth century B.C.E.), were the first to leave us written documents of prophetic discourse. They delivered their words in public and apparently recorded them in writing either for their own use or to circulate them more widely.

As the end of the monarchy drew near, and a complex admixture of political and religious issues presented itself, new horizons loomed for the prophets. Isaiah (c. 740-c.700 B.C.E.), Jeremiah (c. 627-c.585), and Ezekiel (593-571) confronted new political realities as well as the growing Mesopotamian influence on Israelite worship. The prophecies of these men are infused with the history of the time in which they lived, for all three of them were intimately involved in the affairs of the day and determined to bring to the people of Israel the messages they believed they had received directly from the God of Israel.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel brought to culmination the literary development of prophecy. These three great prophets composed poetry and prose that rank among the most beautiful achievements of Hebrew literature. The profundity, beauty, and lengths of the prophecies attributed to them rendered these men major figures in the eyes of later tradition.

As Judaism developed, the books of the prophets shaped many other aspects of the tradition, most especially the concept of the messianic era, which was rooted in the world of the prophets. Later on, Jewish mysticism took its cue from the prophetic visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel. Prophetic morality and its intimate connections with the ritual life of Judaism also had an enduring effect.