Syrian military confirms rebels enter Aleppo, says dozens of soldiers killed

[Spartan Sprinter]

I think he has a shortage of soldiers to have to recruit North Korean soldiers to assist with the Ukraine war
But Russia does seem to be all over the place militarily, Europe, Asia, The Middle East, and regularly scoping the coasts of the US.
How he manages to do that is beyond me. Lol

I guess Putin will also crawl up to Xi Xing Ping now that China has just discovered billions worth of gold

 

[Margery]

Amir posted a summary of what has been happening today

Amir Tsarfati

A summary of what's happening tonight: - ✅ Aleppo has fallen to the rebels. - ✅ The USA has launched attacks in Syria. - ✅ Zelenskyy is ready to end the war. - ✅ In Georgia, there is unrest against Russia. - ✅ Turkey has stabbed Russia in the back. - ✅ The Assad regime faces the possibility of...

t.me

It should read like this

A summary of what's happening tonight:

• Aleppo has fallen to the rebels.
• The USA has launched attacks in Syria.
• Zelenskyy is ready to end the war.
• In Georgia, there is unrest against Russia.
• Turkey has stabbed Russia in the back.
• The Assad regime faces the possibility of collapse.
• There is fear of chemical weapons (present at a site inside Aleppo) falling into the hands of Sunni Jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.
• Israel's cabinet held an emergency meeting on Friday night.
• The Iranians can see the central part of their “ring of fire” strategy collapsing in Syria.

Further down the feed Amir says this:
Syria’s president, Bashar Al-Assad and his family aren’t even in Syria but in Moscow at the Four Seasons Hotel. His country is falling apart yet he is overstaying following his meeting with Putin days ago.

 

[Margery]

More from Amir's Telegram feed:

I’m sure many of you are confused about who is who in Syria, and even more so, how all of this relates to Bible prophecy.

To make a long story short: Damascus is a city that the Bible predicts will no longer exist. Furthermore, Syria, which has been a bitter enemy of Israel since 1948, isn't mentioned among the nations in the prophesied future war of Gog from the land of Magog described in Ezekiel 38.

The Bible predicts that:

• Damascus must fall.
• Israel must be strong, safe, and prosperous.
• The enemy will then attack from the north.

For Israel to finally be safe and prosper, we not only need a victory in this war but also a friendly US administration to expand the peace circle and stand strong against the axis of evil.

WE LIVE IN BIBLICAL TIMES!

and then this:

For those of you who are confused about Turkey and Russia, please remember:

- They have different interests in Syria.
- Turkey wants to control the northern part of Syria to secure its southern border.
- Russia prefers to keep Assad in power because it has strategic assets on the ground, like a warm-water sea port and air bases.

However, the Ezekiel war will unite them and Iran with a single target - the annihilation of Israel.

and importantly Amir asks for this

Please pray for the Christians in Syria
More than 30 churches in Aleppo and 20,000 Christians are now under the control of jihadists from lslamic groups in Syria.

 

[Spartan Sprinter]

Amir posted a summary of what has been happening today

Amir Tsarfati

A summary of what's happening tonight: - ✅ Aleppo has fallen to the rebels. - ✅ The USA has launched attacks in Syria. - ✅ Zelenskyy is ready to end the war. - ✅ In Georgia, there is unrest against Russia. - ✅ Turkey has stabbed Russia in the back. - ✅ The Assad regime faces the possibility of...

t.me

It should read like this

A summary of what's happening tonight:

• Aleppo has fallen to the rebels.
• The USA has launched attacks in Syria.
• Zelenskyy is ready to end the war.
• In Georgia, there is unrest against Russia.
• Turkey has stabbed Russia in the back.
• The Assad regime faces the possibility of collapse.
• There is fear of chemical weapons (present at a site inside Aleppo) falling into the hands of Sunni Jihadists linked to Al Qaeda.
• Israel's cabinet held an emergency meeting on Friday night.
• The Iranians can see the central part of their “ring of fire” strategy collapsing in Syria.

Further down the feed Amir says this:
Syria’s president, Bashar Al-Assad and his family aren’t even in Syria but in Moscow at the Four Seasons Hotel. His country is falling apart yet he is overstaying following his meeting with Putin days ago.

Pure hypothetical here but what if this situation forces Israels hand to bomb damascus and this is what unites Russia, Turkey and Iran?

 

[Margery]

Pure hypothetical here but what if this situation forces Israels hand to bomb damascus and this is what unites Russia, Turkey and Iran?

That is one of the things inside the 2 big Damascus destruction prophecies. It's Isaiah 17:9 Maybe now is time to haul them out and check in.

Isaiah 17:
A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,”
declares the Lord Almighty.

4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day people will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles
and the incense altars their fingers have made.

9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.


10 You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.

12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.

So Isaiah Vs 9 tells us that it's something to do with the Israelites (other versions read children of Israel) which may refer to the IDF or something the IDF does. So this isn't the IDF, at least not yet. This is some rebels, who may become the govt of Syria

It happens in one single day starting in the evening, and before morning it's done acc to vs 14.

and vs 7-8 inform us that Israel will look to her Maker- they turn from their idolatrous stuff. Note that it doesn't say they completely turn to God, they simply turn to look to their Maker. V 10 carries that idea forward. They forgot God. Therefore all this is happening.

These verses suggest this happens around the time of the Rapture either just before or after because they have looked towards God again which might be what Paul referred to in Romans 11: 25 & 26 but it's a hint, not an exact time frame. We might still be here, we might not. But either way God and Israel are moving towards each other thru these circumstances. It's a foretaste of Ezek 38

It also suggests that Syria (Damascus) did something to try and loot or plunder Israel. (take back the Golan maybe?) and that something happens, sudden terror one evening, and by morning it's all gone.

There are consequences to Israel, particularly in the north (Ephraim and the valley of the Rephaim are mentioned, and that valley is the train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a very important corridor from east to west)

The remnant of Aram (Syria) is like the glory of Jacob- so that says both Syria and Israel will hurt.

But the purpose of all this trouble is revealed in vs 7-8 and 10. So that Israel turns back to God. That is also the purpose of Ezek 38 and the entire Tribulation.



Jeremiah 49:23-27 is the other big passage dealing with this event (if it is the same one and IF Damascus destruction is yet future. Not everyone agrees on that, I do but just saying- there's alternate viewpoints here)

23 Concerning Damascus:
“Hamath and Arpad are dismayed,
for they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
troubled like the restless sea.

24 Damascus has become feeble,
she has turned to flee
and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
pain like that of a woman in labor.

25 Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
the town in which I delight?

26 Surely, her young men will fall in the streets;
all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,”
declares the Lord Almighty.

27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”



Note the structure. It's a Chiastic or X shaped structure with verse 25 in the middle. ( I recently learned that about Hebrew stuff, and it's neat)

Verse 25 is JERUSALEM, and this is a rhetorical question. It's made to contrast the fate of Damascus above and below the Jerusalem bit in the middle. This means that V 23&24 are about Damascus, v 25 is contrasted with Jerusalem, and V 26&27 are back to the fate of Damascus.

So remembering Jerusalem in the middle as contrast the rest is all about Damascus.

Vs 23 is super important Hamath and Arpad are Homs (Hama province) and Aleppo today. So it's interesting that those 2 spots show up here and they are in the news.



But the last part of v 23 has a possible hint of something else. Not in the NIV above but

here it is in the NASB 1995 ed

Concerning Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad news; They are disheartened. There is anxiety by the sea, It cannot be calmed.

and NKJV

Against Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are shamed, For they have heard bad news. They are fainthearted; There is trouble on the sea; It cannot be quiet.

and KJV
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.



It's not brought out in all the versions. Some of them assume it's just the people in trouble like a stormy sea that can't be quieted, a simile like the NIV uses, but then other versions talk about trouble on or by the sea that can't be calmed or quieted. Instead of a simile we get a whole new sentence and a whole new idea. Something about the sea.

So these 2 cities in Syria are concerned either about Damascus, or some trouble by the sea or from the sea or on the sea. It may be something that affects Damascus but Damascus is nowhere near the coast. Lebanon sits between Damascus and the sea coast.

The coastline that is closest to Homs and Aleppo is Latakia, the Russian naval base.

And whatever happens, Damascus is at the heart of it. She turns to flee but the suggestion is that it's happening too fast.

In stark contrast God points out that Jerusalem is NOT abandoned, the city in whom He delights.

V 26 and 27 include that sudden destruction theme. In that day Damascus's young men die in her streets, all of them. In some kind of fire that consumes everything- the walls (fortifications) and the palace (govt structures).

So looking at the current situation it has some stuff with Damascus, Homs and Aleppo, and it's blown up quick, but not overnight. It's not the IDF, it's rebels. But it may yet set things up for the actual destruction of Damascus.

 

[Spartan Sprinter]

That is one of the things inside the 2 big Damascus destruction prophecies. It's Isaiah 17:9 Maybe now is time to haul them out and check in.

Isaiah 17:
A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,”
declares the Lord Almighty.

4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day people will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles
and the incense altars their fingers have made.

9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.


10 You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.

12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.

So Isaiah Vs 9 tells us that it's something to do with the Israelites (other versions read children of Israel) which may refer to the IDF or something the IDF does. So this isn't the IDF, at least not yet. This is some rebels, who may become the govt of Syria

It happens in one single day starting in the evening, and before morning it's done acc to vs 14.

and vs 7-8 inform us that Israel will look to her Maker- they turn from their idolatrous stuff. Note that it doesn't say they completely turn to God, they simply turn to look to their Maker. V 10 carries that idea forward. They forgot God. Therefore all this is happening.

These verses suggest this happens around the time of the Rapture either just before or after because they have looked towards God again which might be what Paul referred to in Romans 11: 25 & 26 but it's a hint, not an exact time frame. We might still be here, we might not. But either way God and Israel are moving towards each other thru these circumstances. It's a foretaste of Ezek 38

It also suggests that Syria (Damascus) did something to try and loot or plunder Israel. (take back the Golan maybe?) and that something happens, sudden terror one evening, and by morning it's all gone.

There are consequences to Israel, particularly in the north (Ephraim and the valley of the Rephaim are mentioned, and that valley is the train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a very important corridor from east to west)

The remnant of Aram (Syria) is like the glory of Jacob- so that says both Syria and Israel will hurt.

But the purpose of all this trouble is revealed in vs 7-8 and 10. So that Israel turns back to God. That is also the purpose of Ezek 38 and the entire Tribulation.



Jeremiah 49:23-27 is the other big passage dealing with this event (if it is the same one and IF Damascus destruction is yet future. Not everyone agrees on that, I do but just saying- there's alternate viewpoints here)

23 Concerning Damascus:
“Hamath and Arpad are dismayed,
for they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
troubled like the restless sea.

24 Damascus has become feeble,
she has turned to flee
and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
pain like that of a woman in labor.

25 Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
the town in which I delight?

26 Surely, her young men will fall in the streets;
all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,”
declares the Lord Almighty.

27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”



Note the structure. It's a Chiastic or X shaped structure with verse 25 in the middle. ( I recently learned that about Hebrew stuff, and it's neat)

Verse 25 is JERUSALEM, and this is a rhetorical question. It's made to contrast the fate of Damascus above and below the Jerusalem bit in the middle. This means that V 23&24 are about Damascus, v 25 is contrasted with Jerusalem, and V 26&27 are back to the fate of Damascus.

So remembering Jerusalem in the middle as contrast the rest is all about Damascus.

Vs 23 is super important Hamath and Arpad are Homs (Hama province) and Aleppo today. So it's interesting that those 2 spots show up here and they are in the news.



But the last part of v 23 has a possible hint of something else. Not in the NIV above but

here it is in the NASB 1995 ed

Concerning Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad news; They are disheartened. There is anxiety by the sea, It cannot be calmed.

and NKJV

Against Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are shamed, For they have heard bad news. They are fainthearted; There is trouble on the sea; It cannot be quiet.

and KJV
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.



It's not brought out in all the versions. Some of them assume it's just the people in trouble like a stormy sea that can't be quieted, a simile like the NIV uses, but then other versions talk about trouble on or by the sea that can't be calmed or quieted. Instead of a simile we get a whole new sentence and a whole new idea. Something about the sea.

So these 2 cities in Syria are concerned either about Damascus, or some trouble by the sea or from the sea or on the sea. It may be something that affects Damascus but Damascus is nowhere near the coast. Lebanon sits between Damascus and the sea coast.

The coastline that is closest to Homs and Aleppo is Latakia, the Russian naval base.

And whatever happens, Damascus is at the heart of it. She turns to flee but the suggestion is that it's happening too fast.

In stark contrast God points out that Jerusalem is NOT abandoned, the city in whom He delights.

V 26 and 27 include that sudden destruction theme. In that day Damascus's young men die in her streets, all of them. In some kind of fire that consumes everything- the walls (fortifications) and the palace (govt structures).

So looking at the current situation it has some stuff with Damascus, Homs and Aleppo, and it's blown up quick, but not overnight. It's not the IDF, it's rebels. But it may yet set things up for the actual destruction of Damascus.

I see a lot of mention of the terminology"In that day."

Makes me think this is more likely to occur in the tribulation?

 

[Margery]

It helps to remember that the 2 big prophecies of Elam's destruction (southwestern Iran) occur next to the Damascus one above in Jeremiah 49 which might link the destruction of Damascus to the destruction of Elam.

AND AGAIN over in Ezekiel 32 which I sometimes joke comes BEFORE Ezek 38. The last half of Ezekiel 32 from vs 17 to 32 is all about the deaths of people who "caused terror in the land of the living". So the common link is terrorism.

And one of those people groups is Elam (south western Iran) and another is Assyria (Syria). Damascus is the capital of Syria. You can't separate Syria from Damascus in these passages. (others include Lebanon or at least Sidon which is in Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Southern Jordan as Edom, and a mysterious group known as the princes of the north. Since Turkey is already mentioned, the only thing north that isn't Turkey or Syria is Russia!)

So I am looking for a separate destruction of Damascus (overnight) that destroys part of Syria, and obliterates Damascus in a fireball. It takes out part of the northern area of Israel (which is still under evacuation due to the problem in Lebanon)

It's somehow caused by the IDF, but it's in response to some type of attempt to loot and plunder something that belongs to Israel (Golan Heights maybe).

AND I think it might be linked to the problem that Elam has in Jeremiah 49: 34-39 WHICH MENTIONS DAMASCUS ABOVE IT IN VS 23-27.

Elam is mentioned in Ezek 32:24&25 but that comes right after vs 22 & 23 which mention Assyria.

2 passages that include other players (Ezek 32:17-32 and Jeremiah 49 excluding Kedar and Hazor which happened under Nebuchadnezzar) plus Isaiah 17 that concentrates solely on Damascus.

Those are worth studying together as a group.

Worth keeping in mind as we see the news unfolding.

 

[Margery]

I see a lot of mention of the terminology"In that day."

Makes me think this is more likely to occur in the tribulation?

Yes.

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

Maybe, just maybe, very soon . . . the "ruinous heap?"
Time to go home (puh-leeeeeeeeeze!)

 

[Ghoti Ichthus]

I think he has a shortage of soldiers to have to recruit North Korean soldiers to assist with the Ukraine war
But Russia does seem to be all over the place militarily, Europe, Asia, The Middle East, and regularly scoping the coasts of the US.
How he manages to do that is beyond me. Lol

I still want to know where USSR professional Soldiers, etc. are.
I'm still not convinced they're not being held for something President Putin considers more important.
I think he wants to move south, but he's been stymied (Restrained? turned back?), so he's using whatever cannon fodder he can come up with to deplete and weaken Ukraine.

Turkey needs to take note. USSR has always wanted a warm-water port, and they're the gate-keepers, so-to-speak.

 

[Tall Timbers]

The Rebels possess Hama now which is only 128 miles from Damascus.