Realignment of the Middle East

“Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city, and will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer are deserted, they will be for flocks … The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 17:1-3, ESV).

The October 7, 2023 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists killed 1200 and took over 250 hostages. It began a sequence of events reshaping the Middle East. Before the attack, Israel was a divided nation with thousands of Israelis protesting against judicial reforms proposed by the Netanyahu government. Some military reservists boycotted training. The defense minister threatened to resign. The government felt it had secured the Gaza border through electronic surveillance.

In November, Haaretz news published a story stating that “An Israeli Military Intelligence NCO (non-commissioned officer) issued three warnings in the months before October 7 that Hamas was preparing an attack on Israeli communities near the Gaza border, but her words were brushed off.” The Modern War Institute at West Point reported: “On October 9, Egyptian intelligence said publicly that it had given Israel repeated high-level warnings of a pending attack — ‘something big’ — before Gaza-based Hamas struck, including a direct phone call from Cairo’s intelligence minister to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late September.” The article reported that “in 1973, Israel did not respond to intelligence warnings that attacks from its Arab neighbors were imminent.”

What began as an attack by Hamas expanded to a regional war that included Iranian proxies, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and Houthis in Yemen. Missiles and drones bombarded Israel. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: “We are in a multifront war. We are being attacked from seven different arenas: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran.”

Realignment of Power in the Middle East The Mossad once used a motto taken from Proverbs 24:6, “be-tahbulot ta`aseh lekha milkhamah,” which translates “By way of deception you shall engage in war.” Unknown to its enemies, Israel had created a fake company which over 10 years sold 5,000 modified pagers and 16,000 modified walkie-talkies to Hezbollah which exploded simultaneously on signal, killing or disabling the users. Top leaders were assassinated in bombings, leading to a leadership vacuum and reducing the attacks on Israel.

The weakening of Hezbollah and Iran (through attacks on air defense systems), along with the preoccupation of Russia in Ukraine, helped trigger events in Syria where the fall of President Assad left the country in economic and political uncertainty. Various groups are now vying for power in Syria, including a hostile Turkey-backed “Sunni Islamist” force in Damascus. According to one Israeli official, this threat could take the form of an extreme Sunni force that would also refuse to recognize the very existence of Israel. The problem could intensify if the Syrian force effectively became part of Turkey’s ambition to restore the Ottoman Empire to its former glory.

The following quote from a December 16 article in the Jerusalem Post summarizes well the past 15 months in the Middle East. “The dramatic fall of the Assad regime, with barely any resistance, creates a new reality for the entire region and raises many questions that will only be answered in the coming weeks and months. In the short term, the events have taken Syria out of the Iranian axis in a strategic blow to the Shi’ite Ayatollah regime. The rapid advance of the rebel forces took the entire region by surprise, including the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate and the Mossad. It had been expected that Tehran, Hezbollah, and the other Iranian proxies would come to the rescue of the regime as they had in the civil war, but the opposite happened. A direct line connects the Israeli airstrikes against Iran and Hezbollah’s crushing defeat in Lebanon with the events in Syria. Iran’s position as a regional power had been undermined, it was left without an effective air defense, and Hezbollah was left battered and bruised. The fall of the Assad regime was another crushing blow to Tehran, cutting off its land route to Lebanon, Hezbollah’s oxygen supply line.”

Bible Prophecy Being Fulfilled

Our theme text in Isaiah describes both recent and future events in prophetic language. “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. And the fortress 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 Jehovah of hosts” (Isaiah 17:1-3 RVIC).

This delightful prophecy points to a time of great peace in a land that has seldom seen peace. The ruined lands of Israel’s enemies will become pasturelands and places of rest. In today’s world, describing Syria as the glory of Israel seems unthinkable, but God’s Word is sure.

Zechariah 14 describes an observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths, after Israel’s final deliverance from its enemies at God’s hand. That feast of rejoicing commemorated the ingathering of the year’s crops. The entire nation dwelt in temporary shelters, reminding them that now they were prospering in the Promised Land and the troubles of wandering were over. Can we picture such a rejoicing today after the difficulties of the past nearly 2,000 years of wandering through the world?

Ezekiel 39 describes a seven-month period when Israel will bury dead in the land now freed from its enemies. Perhaps this represents the time when all evil policies, practices, and principles will be eliminated in preparation for the work of the Millennium. “And they that pass through the land shall pass through; and when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. And Hamonah (Multitude) shall also be the name of a city. Thus, shall they cleanse the land” (Ezekiel 39:15, 16 RVIC).

Ezekiel 45 describes a time during which the land will be apportioned amongst the inhabitants and dedicated to Jehovah. The land promised to Abraham will then be complete and the cleansed inhabitants permanently placed for future use in the Kingdom of God.

People of many nations will travel to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. The entire world will see Jehovah’s glory beginning in Israel. “Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of the LORD … In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zechariah 8:22-23 ESV). Let us rejoice to see the nearness of God’s holy kingdom!