(Isaiah 10:33-34) “Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe; And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”
Last month in the online edition of the Jerusalem Post according to a report it was stated; “Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened an escalation of hostilities with Israel if the maritime border negotiations between Israel and Lebanon do not meet Lebanese demands. “Whether a nuclear deal with Iran is signed or not, if the US mediator does not give Lebanon what it asked for in terms of its rights, we are heading toward an escalation — we are heading toward a problem,” Nasrallah said in a televised address, adding that the US State Department mediating team led by Amos Hochstein is “still wasting time” which is “running out.” However, Israeli and Lebanese analysts are unconvinced that an escalation by Hezbollah is a real possibility right now.”
Israel and Lebanon have had a years-long, ongoing dispute on who has the rights to the maritime territories that contain natural gas fields in which the two sides have yet to agree on a border. The latest round of indirect negotiations held with the mediation of the US delegation led by US Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein, has so far achieved no results as yet.
For years Iran has been fighting a proxy war with Israel through Hezbollah by funding this terrorist organization. Back in 2020, the State Department estimated that Iran gave Hezbollah $700 million a year. By now the amount would have increased measurably. While it would seem that Hezbollah are to some degree “sabre rattling” their immediate threat to Israel must not be underestimated even by the analysts. Hezbollah possesses approximately 45,000 short-range rockets that can travel distances of up to 40 km, not including mortar bombs, in addition to approximately 80,000 medium- and long-range rockets, dozens of which are accurate.
According to current IDF estimates, approximately 1,500 rockets would be launched each day of fighting on average from the territory of Lebanon. Hezbollah has the Radwan Unit, which is a special ground manoeuvre force, whose mission has included penetrating Israeli territory through terrorist tunnels, and attempts to take over Israeli settlements, kill civilians, kidnap soldiers and disrupt supply lines or movement of IDF forces. Hezbollah also owns a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles and explosive drones. On top of that, Hezbollah might be expected to use advanced anti-tank and anti-ship missile launch systems. The current threat to Israel is very real.
With these things in view let’s now look at these two verses in Isaiah regarding the future of Hezbollah and Lebanon…
(Isaiah 10:33-34)
“Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash”; The Hosts are the armies of heaven, being the powerful angels that will accompany the Lord Jesus when He returns to this earth to judge the nations for their wickedness and rebellion against Him (2 Thessalonians 1:7) (Jude 1:14-15). It is clear from these verses that Hezbollah will be among those enemies of Israel and enemies of God that will be destroyed. We do know that in this last fight when the Lord and the hosts of heaven take their fight to the enemy that Judah along with their Messiah will also fight His enemies at Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:14). No army in the whole world will be able to match the hosts of heaven! God’s command is so powerful that it will lop off the boughs of Hezbollah, stripping them of their political power their military weapons making them powerless. And then we read…
“Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased.” Hezbollah’s leadership that have been “tall in their stature” in Lebanon will be cut down by the power of the Messiah and their loftiness, their pride and their arrogance exposed and summarily dealt with. They will be stripped bare of all authority and stand completely humbled before the Lord. All of their plans and military aggression against Israel will have been demolished. God always humbles the proud! And then we read…
“He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe,” The forests of Lebanon are very tall, stately and very strong. The thickets speak of a very condensed forest. Trees in the Bible can represent people (Mark 8:24). The thickets of the forest represent the armies of Hezbollah which will be numerous yet they will be felled as it were by an iron axe representing the command of the Lord releasing His awesome power against this ‘forest’ of armed men. Let’s continue…
“And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.” Hezbollah control the Lebanese government who are by and large powerless to stop Hezbollah’s terrorist activities. Now we are told that Lebanon will fall but does that mean the nation itself or just Hezbollah? It is interesting what we read in Psalm 29:5-6 about Lebanon and the Lebanese people who have not associated themselves with Hezbollah and its leadership. The psalmist writes; “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox.”
God will break the pride and destroy those ‘cedars’ of Hezbollah but spare the Lebanese people. Once Hezbollah has gone the people of Lebanon will once again be spiritually revived and energised in the Messianic reign of the Messiah when He rules the surviving nations from Jerusalem. Lebanon we are told will skip as a young calf when it has started its new life. Like all Islamic regimes the people of Lebanon by and large are repressed by the Mullahs of Islam and their personal armed forces. Even Iran is destined to be free of the brutal regime that rules over the Iranian people. In the Messianic kingdom in the age to come the Iranian people will worship the Lord as a saved nation (Jeremiah 49: 34-39).
Israel is yet to face their darkest hour and in their extremity will look to the Lord alone. The surviving remnant will cry out for their Messiah to save them and He will respond, and in that day “All israel will be saved”, not only from their sin, but also from their implacable enemies hell-bent on their annihilation as a nation (Jeremiah 30:1-10a). Hezbollah will be cut down along with all of the armies that have invaded Israel. As the prophet Isaiah also writes; “Like birds hovering overhead, so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it.” (Isaiah 31:5).
