The Seriousness of Syria
By Steve Meehan
In the always volatile region of the globe that is
comprised of the nations that make-up the Middle East, the current hotspot
of Syria’s civil war is boiling away at a fever pitch and spilling into
neighboring countries, with the soon possible entrance into that quagmire of
even larger outside forces. The ongoing conflict between those rebel groups
seeking to overthrow the regime of Bashar al Assad and his loyal forces has
raged on for over two years, claiming the lives of upwards of 70,000 people
with no end in sight. Couple that fact with the now suspected usage of
chemical weapons into the theater of operations by either the insurgents or
more than likely, the Assad regime itself, has the international
community─including some concerned Arab league nations as well─chomping at
the bit to do something to end the violence and oust Assad from his reign of
power.
To further add fuel to the out of control conflagration
that is consuming Syria, the Israeli IDF over the past weekend felt
compelled to launch two strikes within the country to prevent a shipment of
Iranian missiles from being transferred to the nefarious terrorist group
Hezbollah, which has long been an Iranian proxy organization seeking to
destroy Israel. The nation of Israel has its own “red lines” in place. And
the transfer of such weapons─sophisticated missile systems and/or any
chemical or biological weapons is such a red line, or game changing event
that it would necessitate such an incursion into Syria as to stop those
movements. The coming days may reveal more required strikes by Israel, or
could portend a backlash of retaliation from Syria prodded on by their
Iranian counterparts.
The situation in Syria is a difficult one. The
international community is fed up with the carnage and loss of life, and is
not exactly sure which actions to take. Compounding the problem have been
the veto wielding countries of Russia and China to implement any worthwhile
procedures that might spell a resolution to the conflict, via sanctions,
intervention or other countermeasures. Most would like to see the downfall
of the Assad regime but now no one is sure which group would rise to power
in the absence of the present government. To make matters worse, the terror
group Al Qaeda is said to be among the rebel groups fighting Assad’s forces,
and no one wants to see them gain a foothold in the nation and then seize
control of the country.
Even the USA has backed down from its threats of how
the usage of chemical weapons in the war would be a game-changing event that
would entail strong repercussions, after it has been suspected by British
and French officials that indeed those weapons have been used; so far, in a
limited role. Just how to go about securing such an arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction is a vexing problem. A war weary America and for that
matter, the rest of the world also, does not want to see American or NATO
troops on the ground there. The cache of WMDs may be secreted in various
locations throughout the country and finding them all might prove to be
difficult. There is also the risk that bombing known sites might disperse
extremely dangerous agents into the air in and around populated areas. Given
all these factors, it is a problematic issue for the international community
to ponder and a lot of hand wringing has ensued.
There are prophetic verses all throughout the Bible
that deal mainly with the nation of Israel, but also portend judgment
against countries that decide to come up against the Jewish homeland. One
such foretold event recognized by students of Bible prophecy has to deal
with the country of Syria, and more precisely its capital city, Damascus.
The prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, the 17th chapter. It
starts off talking about the burden of Damascus:
“Behold,
Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap ““(Isaiah 17:1).
The prophecy concludes with this chilling prediction:
“And behold in
the evening, trouble; and before the morning, he is not. This is the
consequence of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us” (Isaiah
17:14).
The language of the prophecy seems to indicate that the
destruction of the city will be almost immediate and not requiring days,
weeks or even months to level the capital of Syria. There is only one device
that is capable of utterly devastating a city in such a fashion: a
thermonuclear weapon. The city of Damascus is said to be the longest,
continually inhabited metropolis in the world and has never witnessed such a
horrific demise. It is obviously still a future event. But what would compel
another power in wielding such force against a city and people to fulfill
such a prophecy?
Another verse of interest in Isaiah’s burden for
Damascus─ a burden given to him prophetically from the God of the Bible─is
the verbiage in Isaiah, verse 4:
“And in that
day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and
the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.”
Jacob was the name of the son on Isaac, and his name
was changed to Israel: by the Lord Himself. This is an obvious reference to
the nation and people of Israel and the description fits what would happen
to a group of citizens if chemical weapons or biological agents were
launched against them. Saddam Hussein of Iraq used chemical weapons against
the Kurds in his country, and the vivid pictures broadcast to the world
after the attack mirror the end-result described in the aforementioned
verse: “the fatness of their flesh waxed lean.”
Israel repeatedly has been fired upon with salvos of
crudely made rockets from the terrorist elements of Gaza to the west and
from Hezbollah in the north. Israel has always responded by using
conventional weapons. If Assad in Syria, or any rebel group within the
country were to acquire and use such weapons against Israel and inflicted a
massive amount of casualties, Israel would more than likely exercise their
Samson option by using a tactical nuclear device against Damascus,
especially if they felt the very existence of Israel was being threatened.
Assad has in the past, threatened to use such chemical
or biological weapons against any force – foreign or domestic – that
imperiled his continuance to govern in Syria. According to outside
intelligence sources, he may have already used them on a limited scale. He
is now promising that if Israel conducts any more strikes within Syria’s
borders, that there will be retaliation. But how severe would those
counterattacks be?
There are some students of Bible prophecy who believe
that the Isaiah 17 prediction to destroy Damascus could be the fuse that
ignites an even larger war that is prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39. This
war, referred to as the Gog-Magog war, will most likely involve the nations
of Russia, Persia (or modern day Iran), Turkey and some other Islamic
nations of Africa that will ultimately invade the nation of Israel. What
would instigate such a mass invasion into Israel by these forces?
The prophecy foretells that they come to take
spoil─maybe the newfound gas fields off the coast of Israel or maybe even
all the land itself, as the Islamic nations want to take back all the
land─but almost certainly if Israel were to use a nuclear device against
Damascus, these enraged nations would attempt to rise-up and end the
existence of the nation of Israel. There will be no limit to the fury and
hatred against the Jewish nation after such an attack against the Syrian
capital.
Without a doubt, the seriousness of the situation in
Syria and the fallout from attacks and counterattacks by both sides cannot
be underestimated. One misstep by either party could ignite the entire
region into an all-out war; maybe even the start of a World War III. The
situation there bears very close watching. One last interesting piece of the
puzzle of the tensions in the region, a couple of more verses in Isaiah 17
and toward the end of the prophecy:
Isaiah 17.12-13:
“Woe to the
multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and
to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty
waters!”
The nations
shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and
they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains
before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.”
THEN, the prophecy concludes again with:
“And behold at
evening, trouble; and before the morning, he is not. This is the consequence
of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us” (Isaiah 17:14).
Are those verses regarding many people rushing into
Israel an indicator that the destruction of Damascus will be concurrent with
the Ezekiel 38 and 39 invasion─coming to take a spoil─or will the rushing
into the nation result in the aftermath in the leveling of the city? It
could very well be that Damascus will not meet its demise until the other
nations of the Gog-Magog battle have already begun their invasion of Israel,
which would be in agreement with the talk of rushing nations into Israel
proper, then the resultant destruction of the Syrian capital.
Or, one last scenario could involve the almost expected
strike by Israel against the nuclear facilities of Iran. Should Israel
launch an attack, Iran has threatened retaliation and could use its proxies
in Gaza (Hamas), Hezbollah in Lebanon, and their Syrian counterparts to
launch missiles into Israel. They most likely would not physically march
into Israel like rushing peoples, but could still inflict enough damage onto
Israeli cities and populations to warrant a huge response from
Israel─especially if chemical or biological weapons are deployed.
In any case or scenario, no matter what precipitates a
decisive blow to the Syrian capital by Israel, the days leading up to such a
conclusion are drawing near. The prophesied players are all in place; the
ever-increasing tensions are mounting. Any misstep or rash decision could
spark an inferno that engulfs not only the immediate region, but the world’s
leading superpowers as well. We could wake up any day now and it could have
already begun. The seriousness of what is transpiring in Syria presently
could be a world-changing event.
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