The Downfall of Damascus

Ever since Damascus was founded as a city before the days of Abraham, there have been people living there. It has been conquered many times and faced destruction on several occasions. The closest time for Isaiah would have been during his ministry, when Tiglath Pileser III conquered Damascus in 732 BC. But even that was not the total desolation that Isaiah describes in this prophecy against Damascus.

The Word of the LORD came to Isaiah and showed him what would happen to that city. Damascus would be removed from being a city and become a fallen ruin. The surrounding region would be forsaken and left for flocks to dwell in because there would be no humans living there anymore. Sovereignty would be removed from Damascus altogether. The surviving remnant of the Arameans who lived there would cease to exist. 

God states they will be ‘like the glory of the sons of Israel.’ Then He states that when this happens, the glory of Jacob would fade, the fatness of their flesh would become lean, likely from starvation. The imagery of a reaper going out to the field for harvest is used, with the reaper cutting down the standing grain. Gleanings would be left, but they would be few. Perhaps two or three olives left on the topmost bough, four or five on the most fruitful branch. The LORD has declared this.

In that Day, man will have regard for His Maker. Those who remain will look to the Holy One of Israel. They would reject the man made altars and no longer follow their false gods. Their cities would be like forsaken places in a forest. The land would become a desolation. All of this would happen because they forgot the God Who Alone Saves. This is as much an indictment against Israel as it is against Damascus. King Ahaz had recently died and had enamoured himself with an altar to a false god in Damascus built by the king of Assyria, so much that he sent a craftsman to copy and build one for himself in Jerusalem. God would destroy them both!

Because they forgot the God of their salvation, they had turned to worshiping false gods. So they would plant crops and reap nothing. Their harvest would be sickly. The uproar of many peoples would rush over them like many waters. The chaff would rise away with the wind, like whirling dust before a gale. When evening comes, there would be terror and none would survive until morning. 

Isaiah ends this prophecy with these words, ‘Such will be the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who pillage us.’ The nations who get involved in Israel, either to be their support instead of them relying on their God, or to take advantage of them and plunder them, will face this type of desolation decreed for Damascus. God will not take this lightly and He will fulfill His Word again them. 4000 years of being a city will not matter when it will be no more.