Do Not Rejoice, O Palestine

In the year that King Ahaz died, this oracle came to Isaiah concerning the land of the Philistines. One of Israel’s oldest enemies and perhaps their most persistent ones had judgment coming to them. Ever since God brought the Philistines to the Gaza region, they had been a warring people, fighting against every nation they could reach. The enjoyed times of great strength and also faced many battles that destroyed their ones cities. Every major nation fighting against Egypt or coming out of Africa to fight others would come through this region and many have fought against it for spoils, since it was on a major trade route.

The message from God against Philistia was simple - Do not rejoice because it appears that the ones who have afflicted you are broken. Worse enemies are coming.  For a time, the needy and helpless among Philistia will eat, but famine would destroy them all and kill off the survivors of war. From the North smoke of war was coming with no stragglers in their ranks. Destruction was prophesied and it came in the form of the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. 

Those Philistines who survived to see it would cry at their gates and melt away in fear. While God did indeed bring the Philistines out of captivity in the Aegean Sea region as the Sea Peoples invaded the Levant, the land they lived on was not theirs. That entire region was promised to Abraham and his descendants. This was the major core issue between Philistia and Israel. The Philistines took land from Israel constantly as God allowed Israel to be conquered due to their sin, but that would not stand forever. 

Gaza and the five cities of the Philistines would face destruction as judgment from God. There would be few survivors. They would be reminded that their land belongs to Israel, for God gave it to them. God set the nations in their appointed places so that they might seek and find Him. Assyria would come, the Babylonians would follow. The Medes and Persians would rise, then the Greeks, Parthians, Egyptians, Nabateans Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs would come in succession to conquer them. Christians, Jews, and Muslims of various places would rise and fall as they warred through the Levant and took over Israel and Philistia.

Even the wars of today are fulfillments of this and other prophesies against Philistia and its inhabitants. The promised desolations have arisen, people are facing starvation and famine, destruction and loss. They might seek to rejoice for momentary days of peace, but the smoke of destruction still rises. And the central issue is again that the land they live on belongs to God, who gave it to Israel. This will continue until Jesus returns and settles the whole problem entirely. Every word of God will be fulfilled. 

How will one answer the messenger of the nation? That the LORD has found Zion, and the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.