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The United States
in Bible Prophecy
Part 1
by Steve Ashburn
In Isaiah 18, we
read about a mysterious nation of “whirring wings” that lies
to the west of Israel:
“Woe to the land
shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of
Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in
vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift
messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people
terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out
and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! All ye
inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye,
when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he
bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the Lord said unto me, I
will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place
like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the
heat of harvest.
“For afore the
harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is
ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs
with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains,
and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer
upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon
them. In that time shall the present be brought unto the
Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a
people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation
meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have
spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the
mount Zion.” (Isaiah 18:1-7)
The timeline for
this prophecy is “For afore the harvest, when the bud is
perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower” which
can be understood in terms of tribulation judgments:
“And another angel
came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and
cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle,
saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters
of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And
the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered
the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress
of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without
the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the
horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred
furlongs.” (Revelation 14:18–20)
The judgment of God
is seen here as trampling grapes in a great winepress; in
Isaiah 18 the grapes are still “ripening in the flower.”
Grapes are symbolic of sin, and trampling grapes is symbolic
of God’s judgment on sin. Therefore, Isaiah 18 is set in a
time when sin is not yet “ripe”; this would be before the
tribulation but in the end-times period. Since war is not
mentioned, the timeline most probably is after the nuclear
war in the Middle East but before the rapture. This would be
in a period of complacency, as verse 4 indicates: “For so
the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest.”
The phrase “in that
time”—which includes the millennium—further defines the
chapter setting as end times; this phrase is similar to the
usage of “in that day” in Isaiah 19 and Zechariah 12–14,
which includes the end times and millennium. This phrase is
used four other times in the Bible (Jeremiah 50:4, 20; Joel
3:1; Amos 5:13); in all but one case (Amos), it refers to
Israel in the end times. In Jeremiah and Joel, “in that
time” is combined with “in those days” to indicate a
two-part period for the regathering of Israel as a nation
and then for their testing: the first part (“in those days”)
represents a drawn-out migration of the Jews back to their
homeland starting in the late nineteenth century; and the
second (“in that time”) refers to their testing in the end
times proper.
Thus “in those
days, and in that time” can be construed as meaning a slow
regathering of Israel until the end times, followed by a
forty-year period of testing, which culminates with the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the
tribulation. Afterward Israel—as a pardoned people—will
continue “in that time” into the millennium.
The subject of this
prophecy is “the land shadowing with wings.” The Hebrew word
translated “shadowing” (tsiltsal) occurs only this
one time in the Bible, and also can be translated
“whirring”; therefore, our text verse can be translated,
“the land of whirring wings.” This land lies “beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia” implying that it was unknown in Isaiah’s
time, but lay far to the west of Israel. (Since this nation
sends “ambassadors,” Isaiah would have named it had it been
known in his day.)
Look at the map of the United States at the top of
this page. Which
geographic features appear prominent to you? One feature
that stands out is the Great Lakes! Look closely at the
Great Lakes. Do they resemble any kind of animal? (These
features can be seen more clearly on the following satellite
photograph.)
In fact, the westernmost three lakes (Superior, Michigan,
and Huron) resemble a wasp. This wasp appears to be flying,
and dominating the two minor lakes (Erie and Ontario) which
appear to be lying in a supine position.
What does the
acronym “W.A.S.P.” stand for? Of course, as most people
know, it stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Doesn’t
this describe what our nation was from its very beginning:
white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant with a couple of
minorities—blacks and Hispanics? Is it possible that God
knew what our nation’s ethnic makeup would be before our
nation was even founded, and designed the Great Lakes to
resemble a wasp, knowing that animal would represent our
ethnic majority in our native language of English, and that
our country also would have a couple significant groups of
minorities, and designed the two minor Great Lakes to
symbolize them?
What kind of motion
do a wasp’s wings make when it’s flying? It well could be
described as a whirring motion. Isaiah 18:1 can thus be
translated: “Woe to the land of whirring wings, which is
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” What major industries is the
United States known for worldwide?
One such industry
for which we are highly respected is aircraft manufacturing.
What kind of motion do jet turbine engines (and propellers)
make when they’re running? It well could be described as a
whirring motion. Therefore, what kind of wings could a
twin-engine aircraft in flight be said to have? It well
could be described (e.g., by an Old Testament prophet) as
having “whirring wings.” In addition, propellers (and
helicopter rotors and turbine blades) themselves are
airfoils, and therefore are “whirring wings” by definition.
Is the picture now becoming clearer?
This nation
“shadowing with wings” sends “ambassadors by the sea, even
in vessels of bulrushes”; Isaiah here was describing very
strong ships. In modern terms, this would be equivalent to
sending ambassadors by sea in steel ships. This nation is
“scattered” (across a large land area) and “peeled”
(clean-shaven); they are a people “terrible from their
beginning hitherto” (highly respected from their beginning
to the time of this prophecy); they are “a nation meted out”
(surveyed) “and trodden down” (settled); and “whose land the
rivers have spoiled” (rivers are a source of irrigation and
transportation of goods to market).
The United States
indeed has a large foreign-service corps, and before the age
of air transportation, they traveled by ship. In addition,
the US Navy has fought in two world wars and many other
conflicts in its history—most of which have been for good
and just causes—and have been our ambassadors in the cause
of freedom and in opposing evil tyranny. Today we are
militarily the strongest nation on earth, and have used our
influence to support the rule of law, fairness, and
equality. We also have sent more missionaries to other
countries and planted more churches than any other nation,
and in that respect have been ambassadors of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because of all these things, we have been highly
respected from our beginnings as a nation to the present
time.
In 1824, Congress
passed the General Survey Act, which mandated that all
public land be surveyed by the North Star and divided into
sections, and then subdivided into quarter-sections. We were
the first country to survey our land by the North Star in
this manner. Thus, all our land from the western edge of
Pennsylvania to the Pacific Ocean, and from Canada to
Mexico, was surveyed by line and divided into sections and
quarter sections; much of this land then was farmed
according to these sections.
As a pilot, I used
to fly over the Midwest and continually be amazed how the
land below was divided into one-square-mile sections
oriented north-south and east-west, with each section
generally subdivided into quarter-sections, and each piece
neatly farmed in corn or soybean fields. That made it easy
to navigate—not to mention that it provided lots of
emergency landing fields in case the engine ever quit!
Isaiah said this nation would be “meted out” (lit. “measured
out by line”) into sections and “trodden down” (settled into
farms, towns, and highways) more than two thousand years
before Columbus discovered America!
Today our nation is
“scattered” from coast to coast, and generally speaking is
clean-shaven (“peeled”)—this applies to women as well as
men. (Yes, it’s true that women outside the US generally
don’t shave certain areas of their bodies like American
women do!) Our nation also is divided by rivers large and
small, which have a multitude of uses. They serve as
transportation corridors for people and goods; they provide
water for irrigation and drinking; they provide food; they
provide drainage; they provide hydroelectric power; and they
are an important source of recreation. In particular, the
Mississippi River and its tributaries have opened up the
interior of our country to high-volume shipping, without
which it would be sort of desolate, like Siberia. We are
indeed the nation “whose land the rivers have spoiled.”
The word translated
“spoiled” can also be translated “divided,” and the United
States indeed is divided by rivers as much as any other
nation; in fact, the Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande, and
Saint Lawrence rivers form several state and international
boundaries, and it’s hard to drive very far on an interstate
highway without crossing a bridge over a river!
We’ll cover more
about the United States in Part 2 of this series, especially
a description of what I believe to be the rapture actually
happening in our country. You read that correctly. So stand
by for Part 2!
I provide more
details of this and many other end-times prophecies in my
recently published book, END TIME DAWNING: Get Ready!
(available from
www.endtimesrecord.com). Please read it! Also if you
would, please like my Facebook page at:
www.facebook.com/endtimesrecord.
Yours in Christ,
Steve Ashburn
[This article was published on September
4, 2020] |
