otisaiah18

Caution to students of God's Word - Please remember two things when using our studies: #1. Our commentary is not God's Word. It is only our interpretation or understanding of "His Word" and even though we try our best to be accurate we may or may not be correct. #2. The King James translation, or any other translation, of the original Hebrew text has some words which were given different translations at different places probably because of the interpreters preconceived ideas of what they think God meant to say. For example: According to the notes in the "Dake's Annotated Reference Bible" the Hebrew word hayah in the KJV is Trans. (became) 67 times, (becamest or came to pass) 505 times, (become) 66 times, and (come to pass) 131 times, but for some reason in Genesis 1:2 it is translated (was)! That sure changes the way a person perceives the original creation of the earth, doesn't it? Gen. 1:2 And the earth was (became) without form, ... Having said that, let us continue with our "Key Knowledge" lessons. These are pamphlets containing knowledge, we believe, you must have to fully and accurately unlock and understand the Word of God.

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:13-14
[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

This Bible Study was originally written by Roger Christopherson,
published at http://www.theseason.org/

Without the leading by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding of the truths, for all the truth of the Scriptures are revealed to us by God's Spirit.

Prophecy concerning a Woe to a land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (The United States) "The Stone Kingdom" Isaiah chapter 18

God many times places within His Word beautiful things, and many times people don't believe that the United States is not mentioned in the Word of God. This chapter will give us something to ponder on as we see the discription in the end times of the warning given to this nation beyond Ethiopia. Why? That is where those ten tribes would go from their captivity of the prior chapter.

Isaiah 18:1 "Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:"

Isaiah was in Jerusalem, or a neighboring area, when he wrote this. Ethiopia is west of Jerusalem, and the settlements of the lost ten tribes were west of the Nile, and of Africa, and if you continue far beyond the Nile and cross Africa, the next land mass you will come to is the Americas.

If you stand in Jerusalem and look beyond, or west of, the White and Blue Nile rivers of Ethiopia you will see no great country until you come to the east coast of the United States.

"Shadowing with wings" in the Hebrew is "zalal", and means "rustling" or to "tinkle" with wings. Flying air craft was invented in the United States, and we have produced more aircraft, and rustling wings then any other nation or continent in the world.

Again, in your mind's eye, could this be referring to North and South America loosely resembling the expanded wings of a great eagle? or, could it suggest a country "shadowed" or concealed until God was ready for its discovery? or, could it be foretelling "the spread eagle", the symbol of Americanism.

Note: While Mexico, Germany, and Russia all have eagles in their nation emblems, no other country except the United States has the eagle on its emblem with spread wings; therefore "the land of outstretched wings."

Isaiah 18:2 "That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, "Go, ye swift messengers, to the nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation melted out of trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!"

"vessels of bulrushes" is the steam boat.(call a steam boat, a vessel of bulrushes 2800 years ago) They didn't have steamboats at this time, for the shipping was done by sail or oars. The "nation scattered and peeled" translated from the manuscripts reads, "tall and clean shaven" as Professor Sayce describes them. (think American indian)

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!

"...ambassadors by the sea, ..." Being located across the Atlantic from Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa; American ambassadors for 150 years traveled by sea when on government business. Even to South America, Mexico, and Canada they traveled by water.

In the "nation melted out of trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!"; "trodden down" in the Hebrew text is 1409 in the Strongs Hebrew dictionary; "Gad, (a sense of distributing) fortune and troops." In the phrase "rivers have spoiled", Would be better translated from the Hebrew text; "rivers have divided, to cleave, a booty".

"...Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning..."

"scattered" H4900 îù?ê ma?shak maw-shak' A primitive root; to draw, used in a great variety of applications (including to sow, to sound, to prolong, to develop, to march, to remove, to delay, to be tall, etc.): - draw (along, out), continue, defer, extend, forbear, X give, handle, make (pro-, sound) long, X sow, scatter, stretch out.

"peeled" If as peeled in Ezekiel 29:18 H4803 îøè ma?rat? maw-rat' A primitive root; to polish; by implication to make bald (the head), to gall (the shoulder); also, to sharpen: - bright, furbish, (have his) hair (be) fallen off, peeled, pluck off (hair.)

Is Isaiah seeing a vision of a land possessed by men who were tall like trees with the bark peeled off. i.e. "tall and clean-shaven people"

"...terrible from their beginning hitherto..." is this a true description of the fierce and warlike Indian tribe found in the new world?
Also, America has never been defeated in defense of her own lands or in the freedom of the seas. (a pretty terrible I would say)
The word, "hitherto" in the prophecy also suggests that America will never be conquered from without, throughout the future ages.

"...a nation meted out and trodden down,..."

meted H6957 ÷å ÷å qav qa?v kav, kawv From H6960 (compare H6961); a cord (as connecting), especially for measuring; figuratively a rule; also a rim, a musical string or accord: - line. Compare H6978.

trodden downH4001 îáå?ñä mebu?sa?h meb-oo-saw' From H947; a trampling: - treading (trodden) down (under foot).

Put together this could translate "measured out under the treading" that is a land measures out by lines and feet. This is a description of how the United States and only the United States is surveyed and divided into literal checkerboard sections. Surveyed by the North Star; a base line run east to west, and all land marked up into mile squares. These sections then sub-divided into quarter sections of half mile squares. No other nation was so "meted" out into blocks before. All the other countries of the earth have surveyed and marked their land by local boundaries.

"...whose land the rivers have spoiled!"

"spoiled" H958 á?æà ba?za?' baw-zaw' A primitive root; probably to cleave: - spoil. This is a term used to describe an animal killed, hung up and quartered. The United States is divided in half by the Mississippi River. The halves are again divided east to west from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi by the Columbia River to the Snake River to the Missouri River in the west. and the from the Atlantic Ocean by the Ohio River to the Monongahela River to the Younghiogheny River which becomes the Castlemen River to the Potomac River and runs into the Bay and unto the Atlantic dividing the eastern half into two parts. Thus the whole land is "quartered by rivers". No other land on earth is divided by rivers this way into four sections: northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest.

Our entire United States is a land divided by rivers, and is the life blood of our cities, and provide the commerce and wealth of our agriculture base. America has become a nation of plenty feeding the world, and sending out wealth around the world. On the whole, the American is a people that is tall and clean shaven, and a people that has invented the steamboat and the airplane, and the blessings from God have poured out of our nation, just as God made the covenant with father Abraham some four thousand years ago.

Our motto is "In God we trust", "One nation under God". There is liberty and justice for all those that desire to partake of their rights, with knowledge.

Isaiah 18:3 "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."

Stop and think, Where is the United Nations located? Of course in the United States of America. Ambassadors from all over the world are sent here, and when you stand outside the United Nations and their buildings, you can see the ensigns or flags from every nation "mountains" proudly displaying their colors. When one man speaks from the floor of the UN, his words are trumpeted around the world. When an act is passed, and military forces are sent out to foreign lands, every news agency in the world from China and Russia, to the small nations in the outlining areas hear the trumpet sounding immediately.

It is hard to see the prophecy coming to pass when you live right in the middle of those signs taking place. Just like the old frog sitting in the pot of water when the fire is turned up: He is being cooked, and he doesn't notice it until it is too late.

Even when we are hearing of the "new world order", the United States, with Canada is the only real superpower of superpowers, this nation is the stablization force for the entire world. Do you think, for one minute, that our Heavenly Father would allow this to take place and not even mention it in His Holy Word? When you see how we were settled, claiming the power of God, and seeing the blessings of God being poured out upon our nations; though the multitude seem to be ignorant of this biblically, we are in the middle of it and are blind to God's prophecies of the end times.

Isaiah 18:4 "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."

God is saying now, "I am going to watch this." "Clear heat upon herbs" causes the plant to ripen real good. And the "cloud of dew in the heat" makes that plant ripe and ready for harvest. What God is saying is that He is going to provide exactly what is necessary to prepare this nation for the end times, to make them ripe and ready for His harvest. God has instructed us throughout His entire Word of all the signs that would take place for the coming of the false christ, and how the entire earth would be deceived. How the conditions, teachings and doctrines would be such that all those that were not of the elect, and sealed in their minds would be deceived by Satan at his coming. My fellow Christian, the heat is being turned up, and the clouds of dew are at work preparing the world for that coming, and making ready for the harvest.

Isaiah 18:5 "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."

When "the bud is perfect", it is getting ready to bring forth the fruit; and the "sour grape" is a green grape that is not ready yet for picking. This is just before the time of the harvest when this pruning back the sprigs takes place, it is those things that are not quite right. Cutting down the branches has been going on since world war one, and today it is even more evident. The Lord is the vine and we are the branches, and God is the pruner of those branches.

We live in a hemisphere that produces more food then we can eat, and we should be so wealthy as a nation that there should be no hunger in our nation. However, the pruning goes to those ambassadors that come and go in the flying wings, and shipping to and from our nation. They come with their hand out, and we fill their hands, pockets, and anything else that we can force them to take. It goes under the name of trade agreements, foreign aid, United Nation aid, lend-lease and any other name they can attach. God has blessed America and Canada so much that there has to be a pruning so that He can bless us all the more.

This has gotten so much out of hand that we are almost to a state nationally of bankrupcy, and yet we can not fix in our mind that the end is right around the corner. The time of harvest is upon us, and our people are blind to it. What then is the answer? Our nation is being prepared to accept a new world monetary system, to enter into that end time where all the world will live in a one world system, and beg for it. We are being pruned to the point where Christians will accept Satan's [the Antichrist's] system, and think all the time that it is of God, and Jesus Christ is at the helm.

The Federal Reserve System is a private corporation, and not of our Government, but it is a private system to put complete controls over the citizens of our nation, and indirectly over the entire world. God is using these Kenites to do His work, and do the pruning back for Himself, so that all those that desire to follow the traditions of men will march right into the five month time of Satan's rule, with his fallen angels, and think all the time it is of God.

It is time to wake up, and get your borrowing habits under control, and clean up your thirst for the things of the world. Your paycheck is being altered, and if you don't become money smart in these end times, it will over take you. Our government is turning its back on the ways of God, it is blessed beyond reality, and foolish beyond the point of sanity. Millions come in and billions go out, and they are dumb and happy. They can't see beyond the next quarter statement, or election, and "God is taking His rest", to let it all happen, Why? Because people refuse to read, and study His Word to see the warning, and prepare themselves for it.

Do you think for one moment that God would leave America out of His great book of warning to His people of the end times? I think not. Of course not, especially when it is the nation that protects God's truth around the globe at this time. Our laws actually allow our citizens to teach the truth to anyone around the world to anyone that will listen.

Isaiah 18:6 "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."

It seams that our nation supports every government that falls into trouble, that we must bale them out. Even Russiah comes to us as a common begger, and expects the American taxpayer to support their welfare system, and buy their inferior goods. We have built up a world bank, with the help of other Christian nations, and through it, governments around the world can get the wealth to continue their ways of life. It is because of this prophecy concerning this nation, God goes on to say:

Isaiah 18:7 "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 hetherto; 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."

Remember that "scattered and peeled" means tall and clean shaven. "Terrible from their beginning", is revered from their beginning, and we know that People from all over the world risked their life and life's savings just to have the opportunity to come to our blessed land. Our nation has been metered out, or very well planned even to the smallest plot of land in the most remote corner of the land. Our nations rivers have been the dividing lines of our land, and provided the soil and commerce for the wealth of our land to progress. Our rivers divide the states of our land, stop and take a look at a map of the United States and Canada, and you can appreciate the prophecy of this chapter.

"In that time shall the present be brought..."; this word for "present" is used only three times in the entire Scripture. The word is # 7737 in Strong's Hebrew Dictionary; "Shavah, shaw-vaw'; a prime root, to equalize, to counterbalance, to adjust, equal, behave, bring forth, make plain, profit, reckon." These are all the things that the founders of our nation were trying to present themselves to our Heavenly Father. These are also the things that they have written into our laws, and our constitution, with it's Bill of rights.

This nation is a present from almighty God that is a counterbalance to the world, and for this reason alone it is no wonder that it is the superpower to the free world. It is one nation under God. The present that is presented to God is His elect, that are able and protected to operate from this geographical location, that brings forth the Gospel to the world. God will continue to use our nation to the very end, even though there will be a time when the Assyrian, Satan the Antichrist will control the minds of the people, except for the elect and those sealed with the truth, for a short while.(Five Months)

Ultimately the end of this earth age will end on Mount Zion, as it is given here in verse seven. This is because that is where Jesus Christ will return to earth to set up his one thousand year Millennium kingdom, and it is from Jerusalem that He shall rule. That is God's favorite place, and we read in Ezekiel 16 that it is of His choosing.

Also, Please read our earlier study of Isaiah 18. Live Link to ->>>> our 2004 study