OUR FATHER WHO JUDGES HIS PEOPLE BUT PROTECTS THEM NONETHELESS

The book of Isaiah chapter 17 verse 9 says this;

In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.

In this verse, the prophet Isaiah foretells of a time when Syria, a rival nation to Israel and also a buffer nation against the Assyrians, would be laid waste and their cities abandoned and left desolate.

At that time, Israel, facing judgment of her own,  would be but a remnant in the land and vulnerable to invaders but in this weakened condition and with Israel's buffer kingdom,  Syria,  destroyed, the Assyrian kingdom would take the opportunity to invade Israel but the Lord intervenes to protects them.

As Isaiah chapter 17 verse 14 says;

At evening time, now look, sudden terror! Before morning the Assyrians are no more. This is the portion (fate) of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who pillage us.

This prophecy was fulfilled when Senacherib's Assyrian army of 185,000 men was destroyed overnight by the Lord recorded in Isaiah chapter 37 verse 36;

Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 

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