| After the worldwide flood mentioned in Genesis, Noah’s son Shem became the father of Aram, whose descendants became the people known as Arameans (Genesis 19:22). They settled in Mesopotamia, within the Tigris–Euphrates river system – also known as the Fertile Crescent. Later, God called Abraham from that area (Ur in Mesopotamia). In Canaan, Abraham sent his servant to find Isaac a wife, and he sent the servant to his brother’s family, who lived in Aram Naharaim, near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Also, in Genesis we read that Rebekah and her brother Laban both lived in Aram, and Jacob is later recorded as fleeing to Paddam Aram. (Some translations of the Bible use the word Syria, and others use the word Aram, but both names refer to the same nation.) The Arameans fought against Israel frequently. One of the earliest conflicts with Aram was during the time of the Judges, when the king of Aram Naharaim was used by God to subject the Israelites for eight years because of their idolatry (Judges 3:7-8). When the Israelites repented, God raised up Othniel, to free them from the Arameans. During the times of the Kings, the Arameans often fought against Israel, especially during David’s reign. Ben-Hadad, one of the more powerful rulers of Aram, fought against the northern kingdom of Israel, but he failed in his attack because the Lord promised to give the vast Aramean army into King Ahab’s hands (1Kings 20:12-13). Later, it was at the hand of the Arameans that the wicked Ahab met his ruin, as the prophet Micaiah had prophesied (1 Kings 22:28, 37-38). Throughout ancient times, Syria was occupied and ruled by several empires, including the Egyptians, Hittites, Sumerians, Mitanni, Assyrians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Amorites, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Damascus was the largest city in Syria, the oldest continually inhabited capital city in the world. “The head of Aram is Damascus” (Isaiah 7:8) In the Christian New Testament, we read that Saul’s conversion experience happened in Syria, controlled by the Romans at that time. He met Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he was traveling to persecute Christians. – It was also in a Syrian city, Antioch, where believers in Christ were first called Christians. After the Roman Empire fell, Syria became part of the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. – In 637 A.D., Muslim armies defeated the Byzantine Empire and took control of Syria. The Islamic religion spread quickly throughout the region, and its different factions rose to power. Damascus eventually became the capital of the Islamic world, but was replaced by Baghdad in Iraq around 750 A.D. This change led to economic decline in Syria, and for the next several centuries, the region became unstable and was ruled by various groups. In 1516, the Ottoman Empire conquered Syria and remained in power until 1918. |
| During World War I, French and British diplomats secretly agreed to divide the Ottoman Empire into zones, as part of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, most Arab lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire were divided into British or French spheres of influence with the conclusion of World War I. British and Arab troops captured Damascus and Aleppo in 1918, and the French took control of modern-day Syria and Lebanon in 1920. These arrangements put an end to roughly 400 years of Ottoman rule in the region. Western empires used the Middle East as a surgery ward over the last two centuries, dividing lands and then sewing territories together – creating countries out of thin air. Many of the nations created in this way have become ticking time-bombs in our day. Sitting down at a table in France, they divided up the territories soon to be conquered into parcels of land and regions of political control. Yet both Britain and France were entirely ignorant of the ethnic, tribal and religious dynamics of these new colonies. They had no interest in preserving the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire – but these newly carved-up colonialist creations would need more than diplomatic crazy glue to hold them together. The creation of these new countries (like Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) at the hands of Britain and France has shaped much of the Middle Eastern and world history. Today the whole world is dealing with the fallout of these hasty decisions. In the 19th century Muslims started to call the area of Syria Bilad al-Sham. The modern English word used today for Bilad al-Sham is ‘the Levant’, coming from the French ‘levant’ (‘rising’), referring to the rising of the sun in the east. It includes the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, as well as the modern Turkish regions of Hatay, Gaziantep, and Diyarbakir. The Islamist group which has just conquered Syria calls itself ‘Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’; ‘Organization for the Liberation of al-Sham/the Levant’. The use of the Arabic term ‘al-Sham’ here indicates that the group’s goals include turning all of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Israel, Judea and Jordan, Turkey, Israel, Judea and Samaria into a jihadi Islamist Caliphate. This much is clear to every Arabic speaker who knows his own language and regional history. – (Remember when Obama said ISIL instead of ISIS? As a Muslim he knew to include the Levant.) Throughout biblical history, Syria has been viewed as the cruelest enemy of the Jewish people. In our day, Syria is considered the most violent of Israel’s enemies. Recent developments in Syria have not changed that. |
Standing with Israel 