Chapter 1: Al Sham
The entity now known as the Islamic State was earlier known as ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. The concept of Al-Sham is crucial to understanding the significance of what’s going on in jihadist thinking. This area includes the historical Assyrian empire, the land promised to Abraham [which is the focus of Bible prophecy]… including the land of Israel.
What’s Happening in Syria
There’s a complex civil war going on in Syria, as various factions seek to overthrow the Assad regime. It must be viewed in the wider context of the ‘Arab Spring’ throughout the Arab world, whereby established regimes were overthrown and replaced with populist leadership. But in every case, from Tunisia to Egypt, the new leadership was more radically Islamic and more determined than the previous regimes to exterminate Israel. Israel is now more than ever before surrounded by an Arab world united by one common theme- to overthrow Israel and establish an Islamic state in Palestine. And that’s where the whole scene becomes so significant in terms of Bible prophecy, which predicts an invasion of Israel from her neighbours which will lead to a minority turning to Jesus Christ in repentance- and then, He will return. At no other time since the feet of the Lord Jesus were upon this earth has His return looked more imminent. Because there was no previous time in the last 2000 years when Israel existed as a nation and was surrounded by such well armed and capable enemies.
The West clearly doesn’t know what to do about Syria. They can’t support the undemocratic and abusive Assad regime. But the opposition is radically Islamic. If they support them, then they will make the same fool of themselves as they did when they backed, armed and trained the muhajedeen groups in Afghanistan against the USSR in the 1980s- and now those same groups have morphed into Al Qaeda and now the IS, and become the West’s greatest enemies. Clearly, the Assad regime will not hold out much longer. A new king must arise in Syria, known in Daniel 11 as “the king of the north”. And Syria has powerful weapons, located right on Israel’s northern border.
One feature of the civil war is the bitter disparity between the various Islamic groups opposed to Assad. And the same is true in much of the Arab world. The only factor which can unite them is their joint hatred of Israel and desire to destroy her. The bitter disunity between the Arab factions is great indeed- tens of thousands of deaths in Syria bear witness to it. They are aware of their problem- and the classical resolution of such a situation is to focus upon an agreed external enemy and unite in a military endeavour based around religious and ideological principles that all factions are totally agreed upon. And there is indeed such a solution, right on their doorstep- an invasion of Israel.
Al-Sham- Greater Syria
The significance of what’s happening in Syria is that this solution is becoming the more obvious. And further, there is much talk amongst the opposition groups about the concept of Al-Sham, the formation of a ‘greater Syria’, incorporating not only Syria but the territories formerly in the Assyrian empire- including Israel. This is not a new idea; it is one of the tenets of faith of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), who were the largest opposition party to the ruling Ba’ath party even before the current civil war broke out. The Wikipedia article about this party gives a good overview of their vision of a ‘Greater Syria’. In continuity with this, one major body of factions fighting against Assad in Syria have given themselves the official title of الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام - “The Islamic state of Iraq and Greater Syria”. Or to quote the aims of another group: “On the goal of Katībat al-Muhājirīn the spokesman is quite frank: the defeat of the al-Assad regime and the establishment of an Islamic state in the Levant (Greater Syria; the medieval Bilād as-Shām)” [source: http://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com/category/syria/]. Further, “On January 31st 2013, Syrian Islamist groups announced they would unite in one single group; known as Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Movement of Freemen of Greater Syria)” [Source: http://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/ahrar-al-sham-the-greater-islamist-union-in-syria/]. From the same source we read: “’We thank Allah for the affection between the believers ...Here are your brothers from the Islamic Groups, who are fighting the criminal Nasiri ['Alawi] regime to overthrow and remove it from our beloved Levant and to form a Muslim society under Shari’a Law... [we] were united completely under the name of Harakat Ahrar al-Sham.[This organization] belongs to the same group in obedience to Allah’s order to the believers to unite and reject to be divided. As Allah says “hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you) and be not divided among yourselves” and “obey Allah and His Messenger; and do not fall into dispute, lest ye lose heart and your power depart”. Your brothers of Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya want to announce to all the Muslims in Levant their unity. [They] give them the glad tiding (that will please them) and will establish the moral strength of the believers’. In its first audio address, Ahrar al-Sham stated its goal to replace the Assad regime with an Islamic state governed by the Shari’a".
Al-Sham, ‘Greater Syria’, ‘the Levant’, refers to an area including Syria, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon. Here’s how it’s envisaged:
SadheeSYRIA.jpg
This map is taken from Wikipedia, and as of April 2013 the comment is attached: “Antun Saadeh's and the SSNP's vision of a unified "natural Syria", corresponding closely to the maximum extent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire”. Notice in the declaration from Harakat Ahrar al-Sham the rhetoric of unity amongst the disparate, the religious appeal, and the intention to unite Iraq into this ‘greater Syria’. Syria and Assyria, despite their similarity as words, referred to different entities in Bible times. Syria was part of Assyria, but was then better known as Aram. But what is envisaged within the new Al-Sham is the creation of a latter day Assyria. Compare the map of the envisaged Al-Sham with this map of the Assyrian empire in Biblical times:
Map_of_Assyria.png
What’s happening before our eyes is the preparation of a restored Biblical Assyria- even if the significance is lost to Western observers because they generally don’t know Arabic or appreciate the significance of the Al-Sham rhetoric.
Shaun Waterman in the Washington Times of April 9th 2013 in his article, “Al-Nusra comments: "the Syrian extremist militia Jabhat al-Nusra admitted to being a branch force of al-Qaeda's coalition in Iraq – and has been all along!This was acknowledged by the Islamic State (not the Democratic State) of Iraq early in April. No less a personage than the Emir of the Iraqi coalition group, Abu Bakr al-Hussayni al-Qurayshi al-Baghdadi, issued an audio message avowing this heretofore hidden fact: “It's now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and world that Jabhat al-Nusrah is but an extension of the Islamic State of Iraq and part of it... Iraqi intelligence officials... [said] that the border between Iraq and Syria is not even a real thing" (Quoted in Harold Lafferty, Present Day Events April 2013).
The Biblical Perspective
Daniel 2
Daniel chapter 2 contains an outline of the powers who were to dominate the people of Israel within the land of Israel. It begins with a head of gold (Babylon), then breast and arms of silver (Persia), thighs of brass (Greece), two legs of iron (the two halves of the Roman empire) and then feet part of iron, part of clay. Each part of the image corresponds in proportion to how long each empire dominated the land of Israel and the Jewish people- thus the legs were longest because the Romans dominated the land for longest. After AD70, the Jewish state ceased to be a nation. But now, it is once again, for the first time in nearly 2000 years. The final part of the image therefore represents a group of nations (perhaps divided into two groups, symbolized by the two feet) who will dominate Israel in the last days. A stone cut out of a mountain without hands (representing the Lord Jesus Christ) then hits the image on its feet, growing into a mountain which fills the earth. The interpretation is given, and it clearly refers to the second coming of Christ to destroy the kingdoms of men who have dominated His land and His people, and to establish God’s Kingdom on earth: “In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people; it shall crush to powder and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44).
nebim.gif
Arab Unity and Disunity
Who, then, are these nations who were represented by the feet partly of iron and partly of clay? Some will be strong, others weak. “Then you saw the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, that shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. As the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. Whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cling to one another, even as iron does not mingle with clay” (Dan. 2:41-43). One only has to look at the various groups currently fighting Assad in Syria to see how deeply divided is the Islamist group. Most of the names of the factions would be unfamiliar to Western readers, but the following at least are almost general knowledge to any who read Middle East news:
Palestine Liberation Front
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Muslim Brotherhood
Hamas
Hezbollah
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Fatah
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Abu Nidal
The situation in Syria could actually lead to a fragmentation of the country into a group of smaller states, all united under the Al-Sham concept and a desire to drive Jews out of Israel. The same is true for Iraq and other Moslem states bordering Israel. Writing on the Al Jazeera website in May 2013, Murtaza Hussain wrote a penetrating article "Iraq, Syria and the death of the modern Middle East" (at http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013567200437919.html ). The following sounds exactly like the ten toes of Daniel's image, formed out of larger powers but now weak and yet united against Israel:
"The countries of Syria and Iraq, formerly unified Arab states formed after the defeat of their former Ottoman rulers, exist today only in name. In their place what appears most likely to come into existence -
after the bloodshed subsides - are small, ethnically and religiously homogenous statelets: weak and easily manipulated, where their progenitors at their peaks were robustly independent powers".
We of course are reading the Bible through translation. But take a closer look at the original Hebrew and Chaldee translated “they shall mingle themselves” (Dan. 2:43). They were to be a mingled people- and that’s exactly who Syria and the nations of ‘Greater Syria’ are. The original word translated ‘mingle’ is arab. One easy way to check that is to use an online concordance to poke under the surface of Dan. 2:43. And you will see it- Strong’s number H6151. Arab. Surely there is a reference here to the Arab peoples! Here’s what you see in Strong’s concordance:
H6151
ערב
‛ărab
ar-ab'
(Chaldee); corresponding to H6148; to commingle: - mingle (self), mix.
The ‘feet and toes’ section of the image is proportionally not a very long part of the body. The domination of Israel by this group will not be for long- perhaps the three and a half year period which occurs in several latter day prophecies.
Psalm 83
The way the Islamists will seek to bind together their divided state is made clear in Psalm 83, where we have ten Arab nations, mostly in Al-Sham, Greater Syria, who unite themselves with a common aim of capturing the holy places in Jerusalem and blotting out the name of Israel:
“They conspire with cunning against Your people, they plot against Your cherished ones. Come, they say, and let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more. For they have conspired together with one mind, they form an alliance against You. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also is joined with them” (Ps. 83:3-8). Note that ‘Philistine’ and ‘Palestinian’ are the same word…
This ‘conspiring together with one mind’ and ‘forming an alliance’ is exactly what we see coming out of the uniting of the disparate Islamist factions in Syria and elsewhere. “Form an alliance” translates a Hebrew phrase more commonly translated ‘to cut a covenant’ (Ps. 83:5). The Palestinian Covenant unites these groups, and that covenant emphasizes the aim of overrunning Israel. Psalm 83 mentions ten nations- perhaps corresponding with the ten toes of Daniel’s image, and the ten horns on the beast which will dominate God’s people in the last days (Daniel 7, Revelation 13). Joel 3:9 is another prophecy of the invasion which happens just before Christ’s return, and it speaks of how the invaders will make a ‘proclamation’ to “sanctify war”- a jihad, a holy war. And that is exactly the rhetoric of the groups now calling for Islamist unity based around a jihad against Israel in order to establish Al-Sham.
Syria, then known as Aram, frequently invaded Israel in Bible times. The invasions under the Syrian king Rezin were a result of 'taking evil counsel against' Israel (Is. 7:5), just as Assyria and her Arab supporters are to do in Ps. 83:3: "They have taken crafty counsel against Your people”. The double emphasis on "Damascus" as being the nerve centre of Rezin's operations (Is. 7:8), may also be significant in that this very city is now a centre for Arab terrorism against Israel.
I’ve written more about Psalm 83and the Palestinian Covenant in Unrest In The Arab World: The Perspective of Biblical Prophecy [an appendix to chapter 8 of The Last Days]; and in the same book, Digression 7: The Palestinian Movement In Bible Prophecy. You can get a free PDF from www.heaster.org/ld.pdf .
Ezekiel 38
Ezekiel 37 and 38 predict that when the Jews have returned to their land, then there will be a ten nation invasion by a group of surrounding nations, headed up by ‘Gog’- which is to be destroyed by the direct intervention of God to establish His Kingdom. This invasion is to be after the Jews have returned to their land, and will begin with an incursion onto “the mountains of Israel”- which are bordering Syria, the Golan heights:
“In the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations” (Ez. 38:8).
Only since 1948 and the uprise of serious Arab powers around Israel could this prophecy come true. All we’re waiting for is the Arab confederacy to push into the Golan Heights. And we could view the news on the internet or turn on the telly- and find it’s happening. Any moment now. And the next step will be the actual return of Christ to earth.
Al-Sham- A Reborn Assyria
Zechariah 9 is clearly a prophecy of the return of Christ to earth and the establishment of His Kingdom (see Zech. 9:1,9-11 especially). But this worldwide Kingdom will be established after judgments are executed upon Damascus, Hamath, Tyre, Sidon, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod and Gaza- a collection of peoples likened to a beast with a mouth and teeth which have enclosed Israel (9:7). These areas are geographically exactly where the 'greater Syria' is envisaged as being. They surround present day Israel, from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon. And they are likened to some latter day beast descending upon Israel, which must be destroyed before God's Kingdom can be established. This encourages us to see the beast of Daniel and Revelation as referring in its final form to Israel’s Islamist neighbours who now surround her. Is. 9:12 uses ‘beast’ imagery when it speaks of the Syrians and Philistines [same word as ‘Palestinians’] as being the mouth of a huge beast, closing around Israel: "The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth". This image of an Arab beast devouring Israel is repeated in Joel 1:6 concerning the later Assyrian invader.
The great invasions of Israel by the Assyrians are prototypes of the latter day invasion. Micah 5 is specific that the Lord Jesus will appear to save Israel when "the Assyrian" invades them in the last days. Balaam's prophecy about Israel's final destiny speaks of how finally both Assyria and Eber ['the other side', a similar meaning as the words 'Syria' and 'Aram' in Hebrew, and effectively referring to Syria] will be judged for their abuse of Israel in the last days. They are mentioned together because they will be operating together- and now we see that they actually are coming together (Num. 24:24). Whilst we must remember that Syria and Assyria were historically different, the current talk of a ‘Greater Syria’ and ‘The Islamic state of Iraq and Greater Syria’ is nothing less than Biblical ‘Assyria’ born again. Assyria invaded Israel in waves, initially just attacking the Northern part of Israel (2 Kings 15:29), commented upon in Is. 9:1 as a 'light affliction' compared to the fury of the main invasion. And it is the northern part of Israel which borders with modern day Syria. This is where any land invasion from Syria would naturally begin.
At least four waves of Assyrian invasions are recorded:
- under Menahem (2 Kings 15:19) - bought off
- under Pekah (2 Kings 15:29) - northern Israel affected
- under Hoshea (2 Kings 17:3) - Israel carried captive
- under Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:9) - took fenced cities of Judah and destroyed by God’s direct intervention.
The gap between the third and fourth invasions was around six months. The third invasion took three years: "Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years" (2 Kings 17:5). This three-year period of domination followed by six months rings bells with the three and a half years of the (latter-day?) Elijah ministry, and the same period spoken of in the 1,260 days, the 42 months and " a time, times, and an half" (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 11:2,3; 12:6).
The final Assyrian invasion is the seedbed from which the language of Gog in Ezekiel 38 is taken. Look up these Bible passages at your leisure:
Ezekiel 38 / Gog
Assyria (Isaiah)
:4
37:29
:7
8:7
:8
8:8
:9
28:2; 8:9,21; the Assyrian “strong one” of Is. 28:2 is the ‘Gog’ figure
:11
37:24
:12
10:6
:19
30:27
:22
29:6 RV; 30:30
:19,20
29:6; 30:25
39:10
33:1
The Assyrian is to be “broken in pieces” (Is. 30:31 RV), just as the whole image of Daniel 2 is to be. That image symbolizes a latter day confederacy of nations under the leadership of Babylon / Assyria, which will dominate the land / earth of Israel in the last days.
And so I repeat my basic point: The historical Assyrian invasions of Israel form the prototypes of the latter day invasions which the Bible prophesies, and which will immediately precipitate the return of Christ to the earth. The re-formation of ‘Assyria’ which is being called for by the groups coming to power in Syria today, along with the clear demand for a jihad to destroy Israel and Islamize Palestine, means that the Bible prophecies of the last days are being fulfilled before our eyes. It would seem that the return of Christ will be soon. Jerusalem is truly “compassed with armies”, exactly as the Lord Jesus said it would be just prior to His return in glory has this in mind when He predicted that Jerusalem would again be like this in the last days:
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation is at hand... For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled... Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles [three and a half years of Gentile domination?] be fulfilled... And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Lk. 21:20-28).
For most of the last 2000 years, Jerusalem has been surrounded by Bedouin tribes- not nations with armies and oil wealth behind them. Only in our times has the whole jigsaw started to come together.
The Faithful Remnant
Isaiah opens his prophecy by stating that once all Israel has fallen to the Assyrian invaders, only Jerusalem will be left- and will only be saved because of a "remnant" within the city (Is. 1:7-9). But the rest of Isaiah chapter 1 goes on to state that Jerusalem as a whole is as sinful and far from the true God as the rest of Judah. The size of this faithful remnant may have been very small indeed. They were " I (Isaiah) and the children (prophets - Is. 8:16) whom the Lord has given me" (Is. 8:18); and this is quoted in Heb. 2:13 as referring to Christian believers. That small group centered around Isaiah perhaps point forward to a small remnant of faithful Jewish believers in Jerusalem, for whose sake the whole race is not destroyed completely. And it seems that this part of the latter day jigsaw is already in place, thanks to a number of baptisms there recently.
We’ll now look in more detail at the emergence of Assyria redivivus.
