Does Isaiah 17 Say Israel Will Nuke Damascus?

Isaiah 17 tells of the ruin of Damascus, the world’s oldest city. Is this prophecy fulfilled completely in the past or is it future: pretrib, postrib soon, or when? Is Israel’s War with Hezbollah in Lebanon It?

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I think Isaiah 17 about Damascus' disappearance is one of the easiest prophecies to understand and figure out its place in the End Times timeline. It starts:

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

Damascus Oldest City, Clear Unfulfilled Prophecy

Damascus is famous for being the world's oldest city. Therefore, it is obvious we have an unfulfilled prophecy here. Another thing is immediately obvious as well: this prophecy is telling us that Damascus will be nuked, as nukes are the only way in modern times that a city would become a ruinous heap and cease from being a city

But, when? Armageddon? The Millennium? Post-Millenium? Well, there will be no nukes (or other weapons) left once the Millennium starts and why would anyone nuke Damascus at Armageddon—a battle centered around Jerusalem—or during the Tribulation (the Beast's armies will dominate the entire earth, so why resort to non-conventional weapons on Damascus at any time?). After a little thought, the only time frame left that seems likely or even possible is during the pre-tribulational period we are in now. Well, why would anyone nuke Damascus at all? Who would do it? Who is capable of doing it? There is only one nation that fits. Israel has nukes and has in fact threatened to nuke her enemy Syria due to her sponsorship of terrorism in Israel. Israel has even sent a fighter jet up with nukes to be seen on her wings to show Syria she was playing with fire.

The Next and Final Arab-Israel War

So...if Israel has threatened to do this but so far has not, then why will she finally? See verses 12-14

Isaiah 17:12-14 — 12 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!
13 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.
14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

Sound familiar? Another Arab assault on Israel to wipe her from memory and steal her land (compare with Ps 83, another unfulfilled prophecy that describes the same war on Israel by the only people in the world that want to "cut her off from being a nation that no one remember the name of Israel anymore"). The Samson Option has long been talked about as Israel's nuclear response if she were ever overrun again like in 1973's Yom Kippur War. The only deterrence to her enemies that outnumber her is the threat that she would nuke those nations whose armies are invading her. Notice in verse 14 that when this option is invoked, it takes only from one evening until the next morning to achieve decisive victory. With very short distances for fighter jets to fly to deliver these nukes, its very easy to conceive of this.

So, Damascus may be obliterated by Israel in response to the next Arab alliance war move.

Is Israel's War with Hezbollah in Lebanon It?

I'm adding this section to the article in July'06 because so many people have asked me if Israel's war with Hezbollah is the beginning of the fulfillment of the Damascus prophecy. The answer is I'm very sure it's not, for a couple of reasons. This is not World War III (and saying so really minimizes what a world war is).

The Isaiah 17 war involves all the nations around Israel going at her. This is only a skirmish between Israel and Hezbollah, and I do not see a reason any other countries would dare to get involved yet. I believe they are all biding their time until they can neutralize the nuclear trump card that Israel holds. Iran is working on that. Once Iran has Shehab-3 missiles with nuclear payloads, then I will be concerned about them using them soon, before they can be taken away or destroyed as Jerome Corsi of the book Atomic Iran predicts, and Jeff Nyquist concurs:

Iran’s leaders are foolishly determined to get nuclear weapons. They have talked about using those weapons on Israel. Whether or not they are crazy enough to unleash a nuclear war in the Middle East, the Israelis cannot afford to find out. In the not-too-distant future Israel or the United States will have to bomb Iran, despite the consequences, and that is when the real oil crisis will begin. If President Bush has appeased Islam, generally, by calling it a “religion of peace,” he cannot appease the Shi’ite clerics in Iran. Theirs is not a religion of peace. Any attempt to normalize relations with Iran, or open trade with Iran, will accelerate the country’s military build-up and convince the Iranian clerics that “the Great Satan” is weak and rotten.

Here we find, at long last, the strategic dead-end toward which the U.S. is headed. Given the financial instability of recent months, any significant disruption of energy supplies will send the global economy into a tailspin. The United States will not suffer a military catastrophe, but a financial catastrophe due to military-related disruptions. The Iranians cannot defeat the U.S. Air Force, but they can damage the U.S. economy by triggering a financial implosion. The timing of a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran depends on the progress of Iran’s nuclear program. If the Israelis determine that the Iranians are dangerously close to becoming a regional nuclear power, the Israelis will insist on a strike. The United States will have to support the strike with silence, or participate in the strike – and ultimately take the consequences of a strike.

So, I expect the raid or war on Iran to preempt her nuclear weapons or the surprise unprevented possession of those nuclear weapons to directly lead up to the Isaiah 17 war.

The other reason I expect nothing now is that on the prophetic timeline I see in Revelation with the sabbath year cycle factored in to assign Gregorian years to its events, we have a ways to go before the Great Tribulation can "legally" arrive. And I do not expect this prophecy to come too many years before the tribulation does or it would severely handicap the fulfillment of other prophecies regarding the preparation and gathering of God's servants, sometimes called "the remnant."

Hezbollah "Surprised" At Israel's "Disproportionate Response" And Israel's Hidden Reason

I heard Aaraon Klein of WorldNetDaily on an interview saying that Hezbollah expected just another limited strike in response to their typical border raids. They were surprised that Israel went to war over it, determined to destroy Hezbollah's ability to make war. Aaron offered a reason for this.

He suggested that Israel may have been planning this as a preparatory move ahead of their expected run to take out Iran's nuclear threat. Rather than leave Hezbollah in position to strike at Israel in the future when Israel is dealing with Iran, they are wisely taking them out preemptively now, in classic Israeli fashion. So they may have been waiting for just such a kidnapping episode to justify carying out their plans.

After Damascus Gone, Next In Prophecy

The scariest part about this war when it does come, then, is that it is one of the last prerequisites I see in Bible prophecy to the 6th seal fulfillment which directly leads to the Great Tribuation. The 6th seal is when Star Wormwood begins to cause havoc on earth, according to a plain literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

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