Just a couple weeks ago, rebel forces entered Damascus, the capital city of the nation of Syria, and overthrew the government of Bashar al-Assad. Since then, I’ve read or heard numerous “experts” telling me that the fall of Damascus last week was the fulfillment of some Old Testament prophecy or another. You may have even heard some such thing on this or that popular Christian network.
Please get your thoughts about Bible prophecy from your Bible, not your television or your smartphone. When you are reading your Bible, let the New Testament explain the Old, and let Jesus be the cornerstone of every theory you build or buy into.
The ancient land of Syria and city of Damascus are mentioned scores of times in the Bible, beginning with Genesis and including several references in the prophets. The prophets are normally talking about Syria, its capital, and its kings as either the enemy of the northern kingdom of the Israelites (called “Israel”), or the ally either of Israel against Judah (the southern kingdom of the Israelites), or of Judah against Israel, depending on who was paying the Syrians off at the moment. The prophetic passages are in Isaiah 7, 8, 10, and 17; Jeremiah 49; Amos 1; and Zechariah 9. If you look up these references to Syria and Damascus in your Bible, and consider them in their clear and correct context, you’ll see quickly enough that they have nothing to do with recent events. They were threatening judgments against the ancient enemies of God’s people. They are not addressed to the people who live on the same land 2500 years later. The “experts” are either deeply confused or just trying to sell more books and get more clicks.
There is one reference to Syria and Damascus, though, that does have a massive intersection with the Advent of Christ, nestled in God’s messages to those ancient kings and kingdoms. We are told in Matthew 1:10-23 that Isaiah 7:14 is a prophecy of the virgin birth of the Christ. We sing it and quote it joyously every Christmas.
Of course, many unbelievers are quick to point out that the Hebrew word we usually translate as “virgin” actually just means “young woman.” They also notice, correctly, that all of chapters 7 and 8 were addressed to Judah about the threat of invasion by an alliance of Israel and Syria, and with the promise that God was going to use the Assyrian Empire to save Judah from the invasion. The baby boy of Isaiah 7:14 was to be the newest son of Isaiah and his wife, to be named Mahershalalhashbaz, and the fact that Assyria would wipe out both Israel and Syria by the time the boy was old enough to tell right from wrong was to be God’s sign to Judah’s king that the prophet was speaking truth, and that God was, indeed, still with them. That’s why the boy’s other name was to be Immanuel (“God with us”). The skeptics are right that this is what the prophecy says.
What they don’t understand is that Bible prophecies often have multiple fulfillments. This is one of the most famous examples. Matthew, inspired by God, uses the Greek word parthenos (“virgin”) to translate the Hebrew word almah (“young woman”) from Isaiah’s prophecy. I could cry “inspiration” and rest my case, but I don’t have to. Matthew was quoting verbatim from the Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament out of Hebrew and into Greek done by Jewish scholars in Alexandria 200 years before Christ. They weren’t trying to prop up a Christian doctrine! Apparently, they were giving voice to a belief, common among second-temple Jews, that the ancient prophecy, although it was originally targeted at ancient geopolitics, was giving a foreglimpse of the virgin birth of a Messiah. His coming would be the ultimate proof that God was with his people. Matthew wasn’t making it up. He just added the seal of Holy Spirit inspiration to an idea that was already making the rounds a couple of centuries before Jesus came. For Matthew and for other Christians, Immanuel is a promise, not just of God’s approval and blessing, but of God’s very presence among us as his incarnate Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
So yes, Damascus is mentioned in the prophecies. And yes, it’s in an astonishingly, gloriously hope-filled and world-changing context. But no, it does not have anything to do with the fall of Bashar al-Assad and his regime in Damascus, Syria on December 7, 2024. That is its own issue.
If you’re a Christian, pray for your Christian brothers and sisters in Syria. No one can say what the new regime will do for or to them. Persecution might get far worse under the new authorities. And certainly, pray for Christians in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and the modern nation that we call “Israel” (including its Palestinian residents). Both persecution and Christian evangelism are going forward in those areas this Christmas. I’m praying for less persecution in the new year, and more people coming to Jesus.