(Isaiah 14:24-27) 24 The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand. 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 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 the Old Testament the kings of Assyria and Babylon were major types of the Antichrist to come. We know that Nimrod, the first major type of the future Antichrist in the Bible sought to establish a kingdom that would reach the heavens through building the Tower of Babel. He became a mighty warrior and dictator and a man of war (Genesis 10:8).

In the English translation of his title we are told that “Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the LORD.” However in the Hebrew text we are told that “Nimrod was a mighty hunter in the face of God.” In other words he was a rebel (Genesis 10:9). We are also told that he founded the Ancient cities of Nineveh and Babylon (Genesis 10-12).

The kings of these nations were all modelled in the character traits of Nimrod and the empires of Assyria and Babylon historically were very vicious and cruel empires steeped in the occult whose kings accepted worship as deity and whose word was final in all matters related to the subjects within the realm of their respective kingdoms.

Flavius Josephus (37AD- 100AD), a famous first-century Jewish historian, in his literary work “Antiquities of the Jews.” conveyed the idea that Nimrod built the Tower of Babel to defy God and seek revenge for the flood. Josephus described Nimrod as a “bold man” and a “great strength of hand.” He portrayed him as a tyrant who led people away from the worship of God, encouraging them to believe that their happiness was due to their own courage rather than from God’s favour. Josephus undoubtedly had access to historic records of his own time. With all of these things in view we can be sure from the Word of God that Nimrod was “a mighty hunter in God’s face.”

In this text of Isaiah we have a prophecy concerning the future Antichrist revealed in the character of the King of Assyria. He is also referred to as “The Assyrian” in a future prophecy also related to the Antichrist and that God will raise up seven leaders of men to resist his empire as He resisted the empire of Nimrod (Micah 5:5-6).

The context of the Isaiah text we are looking at it is in relation to God’s judgement on the Antichrist and nations at the end of this present age and Israel’s triumph over them (Micah 5:7-15). The Ancient Assyrian Empire today encompasses the geographical regions primarily located in parts of modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria, all nations today hell-bent of Israel’s destruction. Let’s briefly look at this prophecy

(Isaiah 14:24-27) Exposition:

(Vs.24) “The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.

In God’s Word we are told that God’s purposes cannot be thwarted by man. As God says; “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it” (Isaiah 46:9-11). See also (Job 42:1-2) (Psalm 2) (Psalm 83). And so God’s oath stands…

(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.”

Today we see the same wicked principality that ruled over the Ancient kingdom of Assyria at work in the terrorist groups in Iraq, the despotic rule of Erdogan in Turkey, over the Ayatollahs in Iran, and the regime of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the self-proclaimed president of Syria, who is under the authority of the man from Turkey with his sights on resurrecting the Caliphate of his Turkish Ottoman forbears. Even though Erdogan and al-Julani are Sunni Muslims while Iran is Shiite Muslim, they are seeking to “bury the hatchet” and to unite against Israel.

This is why Erdogan wants to control Syria. Al-Julani may have swapped his military fatigues for a suit and a tie however, his forces are killing Jews, Christians, Druze and Alawites and if they can also eliminate the Kurds which Turkey has been seeking to destroy for decades.

We know that the armies of the Islamic Antichrist from Turkey with his vast military force will invade Israel and that these foreign armies will cover the land like locusts (Joel 1:1-7). It is this northern army spoken of in the prophet Ezekiel and in the prophet Joel that the LORD will destroy on the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 38:22-23; 39:1-6). What they cannot and refuse accept is that the Land and the mountains of Israel belong to the LORD and He calls Israel “My Land, My Mountains.” God will judge every nation that wants to carve up His real-estate (Joel 3:1-3).

God is going to drive this northern army far from His people, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the Dead Sea and those in the rear into the Mediterranean Sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise” (Joel 2:20). The Antichrist and his hordes from hell will be trampled down in the winepress of the wrath of God on the mountains of Israel See (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Joel 3:12-13) (Revelation 14:17-20) (Revelation 19:15-16).

The yoke of oppression and affliction pressing down the people of Israel will be removed by God, and we are told that when the Lord Jesus the Messiah returns to the Mount of Olives to liberate Jerusalem from its captivity and to take the fight to the armies of Islam, that Judah will also fight at Jerusalem under their commander in Chief our Lord Jesus (Zechariah 14:1-5, 12-15). This judgement has been determined by God for all of the nations of the world in rebellion against Him. As Isaiah continues…

(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 closing, there is an interesting text in the prophet Zechariah that in the English versions of the Bible reads like this, and it is God speaking; “I will bend Judah as I bend My bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons O Zion. Against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a warriors sword” (Zechariah 9:13) In Zechariah 14:14 we are specifically told that “Judah will also fight at Jerusalem.” In Zechariah 9:13 we can ask the question “will the sons of Zion (God’s people collectively) be fighting the sons of Greece?”

Now the Hebrew word for “Greece” is “Javan” or “Ionia.” In the time of Alexander the Great he had a western and a middle-eastern leg to his vast empire. Ionia was located in modern day Turkey. Erdogan of Turkey has made it clear that he wants to unite the whole Islamic world against Israel and destroy the Jewish nation. Through his practice of taqiyya with western political leaders he is fuelling this agenda.

In Ezekiel Chapter 38 Turkey will lead the end-time invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 38:1-6). Gog is the Antichrist. Magog, Meshech and Tubal, Gomer and Beth Togarmah shown on ancient maps of the Middle-East were all located in modern-day Turkey. Historically the Turkish Ottoman Empire has always wanted to keep control of Jerusalem which they lost after WW1 after lasting approximately 600 years of Ottoman rule over the whole of the Middle-East, North Africa, parts of Europe and the Holy land itself.

Now the Crusades lasted for nearly two centuries, from 1095 to 1291. This period encompassed a series of military campaigns initiated by European Christendom to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control. Jerusalem was the prized goal!

The last war that will be fought will also be over the status of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:1-9; 14:1-5). This time it will be the Empire of Islam accompanied by other non-Islamic nations that will come up against the Messiah our Lord Jesus and the people of Judah. However, once the dust of battle has settled the Messiah our Lord Jesus will stand on the Mount of Olives proclaiming victory! Islam will no longer exist! After this the Messianic age will commence! Indeed “This is the plan determined by the LORD for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations! For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him?” Selah!