Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 3, part 23 (supplement to Isaiah 17)

Having finished the oracle against Damascus in Isaiah 17, today I am seeing this prophecy in a little different light.

I had thought earlier that the destruction of Damascus was being contrasted with the fall of Samaria, especially in the prophet’s discussion about gleanings (i.e., the remnant). I had thought that there would be a remnant from Ephraim but not from Damascus. But I now see that I was wrong. My thinking needed some adjustment.

The Remnant of Aram

The transitional statement (from Damascus to Ephraim) is given in Isaiah 17:3 just before his discussion about the gleanings.

³ “The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and sovereignty from Damascus and the remnant [she’ar] of Aram [i.e., Syria]. They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Syria has a “remnant.” The Hebrew word is she’ar, the same word translated “remnant” in other places. So “the remnant of Aram… will be like the glory of the sons of Israel.” In what way? The answer is found in the next verses that describe the gleanings in the midst of the prophetic “harvest” (i.e., judgment). It now seems quite clear to me that the prophet was telling us that the gleanings law was to be applied equally to Ephraim-Israel and Damascus-Syria.

In other words, yes, God will claim gleanings (“the remnant of Aram”) from Syria as also with Israel itself.

It is amazing how clear it is today! It shows me once again how we cannot see truth until God opens our eyes to see it. I wish He had shown me this earlier, but God saw fit to withhold this from me until today. Perhaps someone out there needed to know that he/she is not alone. We are all dependent upon divine intervention by His sovereign will alone. No one can see anything unless it is revealed by Him. I am no different from anyone else.

Gleanings from Damascus

Damascus will indeed bring forth a remnant, or gleanings. There is no way to know who those gleanings were (or are), apart from the biblical record itself. Yet Scriptural history sets forth the prime example of these gleanings in the story of Saul’s conversion and baptism in Damascus. Saul (later called Paul) was confronted by Jesus Himself on the road as he traveled to Damascus to arrest Christians (Acts 9:1, 2).

Saul was blinded by the vision and led by his companions to Damascus. Acts 9:17, 18 says,

¹⁷ So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized.

This is a perfect illustration of the first fruits, or gleanings, because Paul later wrote in Romans 11:7 KJV that the remnant of grace was "the election" (i.e., “chosen,” NASB) and “the rest were blinded.” So Paul’s eyes were blinded while he was under the Old Covenant, and when he was healed through the prayer of Ananias, he became part of the remnant, the first fruits of Damascus.

But some will insist that the prophecy in Isaiah must be fulfilled by Syrians, not Jews living in Damascus. Recall the prophecy in Isaiah 9:1-3 regarding the people of Galilee seeing a great light. We have already shown how this was fulfilled when Christ came to Galilee. Isaiah had specifically identified the land of Zebulun and Naphtali as receiving this light, but those tribes had been in exile for 700 years and did not receive this light.

This shows us that the focus was not on the individual people themselves but on “the land” where those tribes had been located. New people resided there in Jesus’ day, mostly from the tribe of Benjamin which had settled north of Jerusalem after their return from Babylon.

So also is it in the case of Damascus. The fact that the Old Covenant Saul was healed of blindness in Damascus so that he could become the New Covenant Paul shows that he represented the gleanings of the Damascus “tree.” In that he was but a representative, it does not mean that ONLY Jews could fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. No doubt there were Syrians as well who qualified as gleanings, for it is not based on fleshly genealogy but upon whether or not God opens their eyes.

This is confirmed to me as well, for it is clear to me that God deliberately closed my eyes to this understanding of prophecy until today. It is as if I had to experience a portion of blindness until I had finished Isaiah 17, so that I could enter somewhat into Paul’s experience as confirmation of this revelation. Without experiencing this personally, it is not likely that I would have connected the prophecy in Isaiah 17 to Paul's story in Acts 9.

So when the book comes out, I will revise my study in Isaiah 17 to reflect this revelation. Meanwhile, you are able to get a glimpse of the process of revelation by reading about my own experience.