(Isaiah 14:24-27) (Vs.24) “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. (Vs.25) I will crush the Assyrian in My land; on My mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” (Vs.26) This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. (Vs.27) For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
Earlier this month it was reported online in a well-known Middle-Eastern news outlet that the man from Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey will target Kurdish armed groups in two northern Syrian cities in an upcoming military operation. He told a meeting of his ruling party in parliament “We are taking another step in establishing a 30km security zone along our southern border. We will clean up Tal Rifaat and Manbij of terrorists”, Erdogan said Turkish forces would then proceed, “step by step, into other regions”. Since 2016 Turkey has launched three military operations into northern Syria.
There is no doubt that the man from Turkey wants to keep expanding his planned resurrected Turkish Ottoman empire “step by step into other regions.” One asks what “other regions” is he referring to and to what extent will he invade them? It seems NATO and other European nations seem to be indolent when opposing Turkey’s expansionist agenda for Syria. Even Russia with its focus on the war in Ukraine does not seem to be all that concerned about Turkey’s expansion into Syria.
Now in the Word of God the kings of Assyria, like the kings of Babylon, were all types of the Antichrist to come. The Antichrist, also known as the man of lawlessness, is called “the Assyrian” who will invade Israel in the near future (Micah 5:5). The Ancient kingdom of Assyria was located in the northern part of Ancient Mesopotamia, which corresponds to most parts of modern-day Iraq as well as parts of Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey. If Turkey can take out the Assad regime then Erdogan’s armed forces will take Syria and find allies in Iran and Iraq, and if he does turn out to be the prophesied Mahdi of Islam he will have no problems raising a 200 million strong army of remorseless killers for Allah to rally around his Ottoman war banner as they cross the dried up Euphrates River (Revelation 9:13-19). Their hatred of Israel and all things Jewish and Christian will be the cement that binds them together with a common goal to invade and to conquer Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount and subjugate the Jews to slavery and exile. (Zechariah 14:2)
In Isaiah Chapter 14:1-23 we see the final restoration of Israel as a nation, the demise of the Antichrist and the decent of his soul into hell to join the souls of the past rulers in torment who have attacked Israel and sought to usurp the sovereignty of God. Now in verses 24-27 we have the actual destruction of the Antichrist described who will meet his end at Jerusalem as also foretold by the prophet Daniel (Daniel 11:45).
Now let’s look at the text of Isaiah Chapter 14:24-27.
(Vs.24) “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.”
No wicked principality in the unseen spiritual realm in the atmosphere just above the surface of the earth, no ruler on earth or any entity or demon power from the bottomless pit in hell can stop the purposes of God. He does what He wants, when He wants and in the way He wants and with whomsoever He wants and asks no man’s permission (Isaiah 46:10) (1 Samuel 2:10) (Isaiah 43:15) (Revelation 19:6). It has also been said that man proposes but God disposes and this is true. He raises up kings and kingdoms and dethrones them after they have served His sovereign purposes as we see in the Bible (Daniel 2:20-22; 4:34-35).
“The Assyrian” or the Islamic Antichrist and his empire of global proportions will come out of Syria and attack Israel most likely from Israel’s north over the Golan Heights. Antiochus Epiphanies the Seleucid Greek General who invaded Israel and set up the abomination of desolation in the temple at Jerusalem was a major type of the Antichrist in scripture. Both Daniel and the Lord Jesus spoke about this historical event that foreshadowed a future event that will happen again at the end of this present age in the future (Daniel 8:11-12; 11:31; 12:11-12) (Matthew 24:15).
And so we have the assurance that whatever man does and whatever empire or nation that asserts its sovereignty over other nations will be demolished and crushed at the Second Coming of the Messiah to destroy all opposition and set up His Messianic Davidic kingdom from Jerusalem (Daniel 2:34-35,44-45). And then we read…
(Vs.25) “I will crush the Assyrian in My land; on My mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”
This directly relates to Israel and after God has used the Antichrist and his forces to serve His prophetic purposes for Israel God will annihilate him and the armies of the nations that have supported him on the mountains of Israel and rescue the surviving remnant of Jews in Israel (Joel 2:20;3:1-312-21) (Zechariah 14:12-13) (Ezekiel 39:4-6). Now in the next two verses the focus shifts to the whole world because the Second Coming of the Messiah to rescue the surviving remnant in Israel and to deliver His beleaguered elect saints will also see His final wrath poured out upon the whole world because of its great wickedness and rebellion against Him. Let’s briefly look at this.
(Vs.26-27) “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
In both the Old and New Testaments we have this final universal wrath of God described in many Biblical references. The most startling one is found in Revelation Chapter six verses 12-17. When the sixth seal is broken there will be a great earthquake unlike anything before it. The sun will go dark and no longer shine and the moon will turn blood red. The stars will fall to earth. The sky will be rolled back like a scroll revealing the Messiah coming in great power and glory. The mountains and the islands will shift from the shock of the earthquake. Isaiah calls this day, “the “day of great slaughter when the towers fall” (Isaiah 30:24).
Can you imagine what will happen when huge skyscrapers in most cities around the world collapse? People from every level of society from the leaders of nations down to the average working man and women in the street will be shaken to their boots! They will seek to hide in caves and among the rocks and the mountains because the cities by and large will have been decimated or even destroyed. This shaking will scatter people in all directions as the earth is devastated by this judgement which will shake the religious world, the domestic world and the business world as the earth is completely laid waste and totally plundered (Isaiah 24:1-3).
At this time those who have sought shelter in the rocks and tried to escape into the mountains will be so terrified that that in their extremity and abject fear will even call on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb (the Lord Jesus) For the day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17). Indeed does not the prophet Malachi declare; “But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap” (Malachi 3:2). This is an appointment that everyone left alive on earth at that time will have to keep with no exceptions except for all those who have been spiritually reborn from above and are sheltering by faith under the protecting canopy of the Messiah’s blood. (Romans 5:9).
When the destroying angel once again passes through the Egypt of this world only those who have the atoning blood of the Lamb of God sprinkled on the doorposts of their heart will be protected from the wrath of God which is rapidly approaching for the world. All those not sheltering by faith in the Lord Jesus for salvation and sheltering under His blood will suffer the wrath of God! It is only through the blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus that we who believe and obey the Son are forgiven of sins, justified, redeemed, cleansed form all sin and set apart to God for His service.
Only through His blood do we as repentant sinners have access into the very throne room of God Himself. Only through His blood can our conscience be purged from all dead works of the fleshly self- life so that we may serve the Living God. Once again it needs to be said it will only be the blood of the Messiah and through our faith in Him for our salvation that we will never experience God’s wrath or the lake of fire! (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9).
No one then can thwart God because His hand will be stretched out over the nations and who can turn it back? And so we see the man from Turkey seeking to establish his resurrected Turkish Ottoman caliphate to engulf the whole Middle-east region, North Africa and sweeping up into Europe. While Russia and China are in the spotlight it is the empire of Islam that will come to be the greatest threat to Israel and by extension the faithful Body of the Messiah spiritually grafted into Israel, and to the very foundation of democracy itself in the western nations!
“The Assyrian” is coming and we know that Satan will be dwelling in this man personally and that he will have great supernatural power over many nations but we also know from God’s Word that at Jerusalem he will come to his end with no one to help him! (Daniel 11:45). As Paul writes; “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). God already has His plan determined for the whole world and is already stretching out His hand over the nations to bring to fruition what He has determined for the whole world from all eternity. No one will be able to thwart His plans.
As godly Job stated; “I know that you can do all things and that no plan of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). As the Psalmist also writes; “Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him” (Psalm 2:10-12).
It is only the blood of the Messiah and through the faith of obedience to Him and to his Word that we can be protected from the coming wrath and rescued Him out of this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. (Galatians 1:4). As the beloved apostle John writes; “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-18).
