1) Introducing the 'Land shadowing with wings'

Isaiah contains some very specific prophecies about such places as Babylon and Tyre which have been fulfilled in detail. The cities and nations are addressed by name. One notable exception is

Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush: (Isaiah 18:1)

The 'land shadowing with wings' is not named like others. It is a description. Why doesn't Isaiah name them? Who is that land?

Even more intriguing they,

send out on the sea ambassadors and on reed boats on the face of the sea (Isaiah 18:2)

We will show that this short prophecy in Isaiah began to be fulfilled with a land not known of in the time of Isaiah, with that land's establishment of the League of Nations, and the British Mandate of 1922 and the subsequent United Nations. It is a prophecy of “woe”. Since 1969 there can be certainty as to who was meant, because the impossible happened; for the first time in over 2,000 years ambassadors went out in a reed boat. They did it again in 1970. And then they went forth again in 1978. These voyages illustrated Isaiah's prophecy.

The next page is some heavier historical reading of context you may wish to skip to 'Beyond Cush'

2) Isaiah's world

Isaiah lived from approx. 740 to 690BC. His death pre-dates the rise of Babylon as a superpower.

In the book of Isaiah chapters 7-12 inclusive are a section. Chapter 13 opens a new theme, which is the warfare and destruction of Babylon in general and absolute terms. In verse 17 the Medes are named as conquerors after which it was to never be inhabited. At the time Isaiah wrote that Babylon was under Assyrian control. It was destroyed in 690BC near the end of Isaiah's life by Sennacherib. However, it was not until after Isaiah's death that Babylon rose to be a great city. There is no reason to locate this chapter late in Isaiah's life, as the next chapter (14) has the same theme and is dated at the death of King Ahaz which was somewhere between 727-723BC.

The context of Isaiah's 'land shadowing with wings' gives us an understanding for the world at this time. Chapter 14 begins with a future image of mercy on Jacob & Israel where the strangers shall be joined with them, then speaks of the destruction of the king of Babylon. It is greater in scope than Chapter 13 indicating a latter day application. It goes on to speak of the Assyrian being broken in the land and Palestina suffering from 'a fiery flying serpent' power from the north that came out of the Assyrian.

At this time the Philistines (Palestina) were yet to suffer the onslaught of the Assyrians who would conquer them about 40 years later in 689BC. It was some time later that they rejoice at the Assyrian destruction which came after the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem (where Isaiah was in 701BC). Though Sennacherib is silent about the loss of his army in Israel, there are 2 pieces of evidence that confirm the Bible. He was murdered by his sons (about 681BC) and Greek historian Herodotus writes of a divinely-appointed disaster destroying an army of Sennacherib. The last great Assyrian was Asnappar dying about 627 BC.

Assyrian kings

740

Isaiah

690BC

745BC

Tiglath-Pileser III

727BC

Ch 18

727BC

Shalmaneser V

722BC

722BC

Sargon II

705BC

705

Sennacherib

681 BC

681 BC

Esarhaddon

669 BC

Chapter's 15 and 16 focus on Moab's fate of being laid waste, soldiers fleeing, people mourning, crops failing and that their glory would end within 3 years. This dates the prophecy to about 725-727 BC just after Ahaz's death. Tiglath-pileser III began the Assyrian conquests in 732BC continuing to 727BC. There are records of Moabites being tributaries to Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC). Sennacherib's prism says the King of Moab brought tribute to Sargon II (722 – 705BC). In 711 BC an uprising in the Philistine city of Ashdod, supported by Judah, Moab, Edom and Egypt, was suppressed, and Ashdod became an Assyrian province and Samaria Israel was captured.

Chapter 17 speaks of Damascus, arguably the most ancient (nearly) continuously occupied city in the world. But Isaiah says Damascus would be a ruinous heap and its kingdom cease. From 1100BC Damascus had been the centre of Aramaean state named Aram Damascus. Tiglath-Pileser III the Assryian captured and destroyed the city in 732 BC. But the Assyrians did not retain it and they invaded Damascus again in 722/721BC. It is possible this prophecy was given about 722/721BC. In 720BC the year Sargon II gained again control of Damascus he rebuilt Samaria as an Assyrian City. Truly in 720BC Israel was 'very lean'.

Isaiah Chapter 18, introducing the land shadowing with wings, was written sometime after 727 to 721BC. The entire context leading up to Chapter 18 speaks of prophecy regarding Assyria, Babylon and the region about Israel to the North. We may take note of this as this area was also known in ancient times of Genesis as 'Cush'.

Previously from 745- 727BC the Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III had been expanding their control over the fertile crescent past Babylon down to the Persian Gulf and though Syria, Israel and then Judah towards Egypt. But the death of Tiglath-Pileser saw a challenge to the Assyrian rule backed by the southern power of that era, Egypt, in 725BC. As a result the next Assyrian ruler Shalmaneser V. invaded Syria and besieged Samaria (capital of Israel) for three years. He dies suddenly in 722BC and Sargon II takes over.

Sargon II ends the Northern kingdom of Israel and deports many placing most of the 10 tribes in diaspora. He re-conquers Babylon. Sargon also built his new capital at Dur Sharrukin (Korsabad) near Nineveh, with the tribute of the nations. Isaiah's prophecy in Chapter 18 of the 'nation shadowing with wings' is written as Assyria gains ascendency in Isaiah's world, just as Sargon II begins his conquests.

The symbol of Assyria was a winged bull with a man's head. Archaeology has established Sargon II had many huge images of this figure made at his new capital at Korsabad.

3) Beyond Cush

In Isaiah's day the great power was Assyria. Their emblem was the winged bull. They were the ascendant empire overshadowing the holy land, having subdued the northern kingdom of Israel from 732BC and they threatened the kingdom of Judah. Sennacherib would soon come in 710BC to attempt to subdue the king of Judah. It is reasonable to read the KJV translation 'Ethiopia' as more correctly 'Cush' which described the Assyrian founders of Nineveh.

And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, (Genesis 10:8-11)

So why doesn't Isaiah call the land of the shadowing wings 'Assyria'?

The key may be that in the prophecy next in chapter 19 he speaks of 'the burden of Egypt.' The section concludes with Egypt, Assyria and Israel

In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: (Isaiah 19:24)

In this verse there is the hint of the scope of the prophecy is a land forming a broad arc. The prophecy is identified by its location beyond 'Cush' (as the word 'Ethiopia' is in the Hebrew).

Two nations of Cush – how they are related

There were therefore two places called 'Cush'. The first was the Cush of Nimrod whose kingdom began beyond the Euphrates, the ancient Tigris civilization and the other Cush was south of Egypt at the headwaters of the Nile, corresponding to Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and perhaps including Somalia.

Both of these areas of Cush are characterised by reeds, and both peoples historically used reed boats. Both have people who still use boats made of reeds (bulrushes). There is a strong case for the land being beyond both rivers of Cush, beyond both the great flooding rivers, the Euphrates and Nile, but overshadowing both areas.

4) Two wings

The land shadowing has more than one wing. In Hebrew the word is the plural kanaphim כנפים

Also the word for 'rivers' in Hebrew is nahari נהרי. It only occurs one other time in Job 20:17 where is it translated as the plural “floods.”

He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter. (Job 20:17)

The word translated 'shadowing' is more like the sound a bird's wings make. Also there is a preposition before 'the rivers'

Woe to the land whirring/flapping wings which is beyond to the flooding- rivers of Cush

The 'birdlike' land (singular) with two flapping wings so described must exist beyond the great flooding rivers that defined the Middle East and be facing towards them. Even the ancients must have known that the sea connects the red sea to the Persian Gulf.

We might draw this land with its two flapping wings facing towards the two great rivers in the following way. In this way we might see that the land spoke of by Isaiah that sends forth ambassadors is not Assyria, and it is not Egypt. It overshadows but is located beyond them.

It looks like it might be the modern Tarshish, which is Britain and India. Certainly Britain was a major protective power in these areas and even had Indian troops with them. But as Isaiah knew of Tarshish and wrote of it in seven places and the people from that time might have understood Tarshish, why was the land not called 'Tarshish'? Every other nation and land to which woe is pronounced is named. So it is not directly Tarshish. It is another land that was not possible to describe in any other way that would make sense in every generation.

In principle it is easy to understand. The woe is pronounced on a land beyond those two rivers with two wings flapping over both nations of Cush, Nineveh and Ancient Ethiopia. These two are connected by the sea. The land beyond these overshadowing them would be be known at the time of the fulfilment of the prophecy.

5) The lands of Reed Boats

This land is identified by what the land does. With the shades of meaning included, the land

appointed/ sent-out on sea ambassadors/ envoys (those who pressure/ constrain)

and/even in/on apparatus/ thing/ vessel reed/ bulrush/ papyrus upon-the-face-of-the-waters.

They send out Ambassadors and also these ambassadors even go on vessels of reeds.

In ancient times reed (or papyrus) boats were well known in the waters of Egypt, both on the Nile and the Red sea. Remains of what is thought to be the oldest reed boat were found in Kuwait. Moses was set afloat in a reed ark. The reed boats had a distinctive shape in Egypt the ends tied together. Reed boats were (and are still) used on Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

Also in the marsh area of the Tigris River in Iraq, the reeds of that area were, long before the time of Isaiah, and still are, used to make boats.

In addition Totora reeds are used still in South America, especially on Lake Titicaca, to make boats.

The Egyptians and Ethiopians may have sent out ambassadors. And also the Assyrian city of Senacherib at Nineveh (Kouyunjik) shows carved reliefs with typical reed boats.

But as these nations of Cush, Assyria and Ancient Ethiopia were on their respective mighty rivers, it seems peculiar to describe the land as being beyond or over the rivers.

An examination shows that over the long history since Isaiah, that reed boats specifically do not seem to have been sent out on the face of the waters carrying ambassadors for specific famous diplomatic missions by either of the reed boat-building Cush civilizations. No doubt trade occurred between the Tigris and the Red Sea about Arabia, but it seems there was no reason to send ambassadors on the sea, rather than by land.

The Hebrew translated 'ambassadors' implies the people who run these errands are levered, constrained, or pressed by or to apply pressure by the land who sent them. The word seems not to be used for envoys sent in the ancient world. It is only used in Isaiah in this one passage in this way. In context there can be no doubt that this word means a constrained envoy, or a modern ambassador sent to achieve an outcome.

But in the modern world, remarkably, and famously, ambassadors went out on the face of the seas.

6) The Modern Reed Boat Ambassadors

Thor Heyerdahl was already famous from his work with the Kon Tiki expedition where he built a balsa raft to prove ancient migrations from South America to Polynesia, when he felt constrained from 1965 to begin to prove a connection between the sun worshipping culture of the Nile, and the sun worshippers of Peru, South America. He noticed the strikingly similarity of reed boats drawn on walls in the Valley of the kings and those he had seen on ceramic pots in North Peru. Heyerdahl saw his first papyrus boat on Lake Chad, and it was similar to those on Lake Titicaca.

But to build the boat he used Papyrus reeds from Lake Tana, Ethiopia (as at the time the Papyrus reed had disappeared in Egypt) and brought via the Red Sea, reed boat builders from Lake Chad and he built it near the pyramids in Egypt. He gained permission to build it so prominently as Egypt had just lost the Six Day War and was keen to be seen as peaceful. In the end, due to timing, the boat that was made was transported on the back of a Swedish cargo ship to Moroccan port of Safi to sail the Atlantic.

But the most remarkable thing was that the crew to sail the boat was not a bunch of six Norwegians and Swedes, but as Thor himself writes he was,

“tempted to assemble..as many nations as space would allow..I myself from the northernmost part of Europe, the southernmost.. Italy. It would be logical to take one of the Papyrus experts with us... Since the experiment was meant to demonstrate the contact between the ancient civilization of Africa and America, it would be symbolic to take an Egyptian and a Mexican on board. And in order to have contrasting ideologies..one from the USA and one from the Soviet Union. All the other nations..could be symbolise by the flag of the United Nations.”

In a time of tension, when Thor himself had seen military jets over the Sphinx, Thor wished to show people could work together. He managed to include a Jew in his American representative. They sailed from Safi in Morocco on 25 May 1969. Pictures show that the 7 flags of the crew on the boat were bookended by two blue flags of the UN. Thor noticed how polluted the surface of the Atlantic ocean was. They also found by experience that the ship they had copied from tomb paintings was designed for the open sea, not the Nile, as they had left off a tie detail which caused the boat to sag in the deep ocean swells. So the voyage ended closer to America than Africa.

But Thor did not give up, he built another reed boat in Morocco using Papyrus reeds from Lake Tana but builders from Lake Titicaca. The multi national crew was the same but Abdullah from Chad was replaced with a Berber, and a Japanese cameraman joined. On 17 May 1970 the papyrus boat again left Safi, Morocco. In 57 days they had crossed the polluted Atlantic to Barbados. A photo near the end of the voyage shows they were flying the UN flag, and Thor Heyerdahl notes that when a pigeon landed on the mast it did so below the “blue flag of the United Nations” (The Ra Expeditions p327) indicating the reed boat RaII sailed the voyage under that flag.

During the first Ra voyage, Heyerdahl wrote his first letter to the UN about the fact that the oceans of the world were becoming polluted. He was asked, or pressed, by the Secretary-General of the UN to make daily pollution observations during the RA II voyage. Heyerdahl presented reports about the pollution problem to the UN’s first conference on oceanic law.

In effect, Thor Heyerdahl sought to embody the ideals of the UN in the first voyage of the Ra. The Ra II voyage was then made with the men aboard acting as ambassadors of the UN. Significantly, as they approached Barbados the ship sent to find them could not, and they were first found by a UN ship.

“The big fast trawler came close and saluted us by lowering and raising the blue flag of the United Nations...Norman hurried over ..and replied with out own UN flag. Only two thirds of it were left: the rest had ripped away in a storm....yelled in Swedish: 'Welcome to the American side of the ocean”

There was something unreal about the whole meeting: that a UN boat should actually be first to meet us on the other side. I had never seen a boat flying the UN flag before, apart from the Ra.” (The Ra Expeditions p352)

When they reached Bridgetown, in the Americas the whole city appears to have welcomed them.

A few elements can be taken from this. Isaiah specifically speaks of beyond the rivers of Cush, a 'vessel' “apparatus/thing/ weapon/tool/ vessel” made of the absorbent 'gome' גמא, specifically the papyrus. The papyrus was from Lake Tana, Ethiopia or Cush, the source of the Blue Nile. According to Thor from the beginning of his Ra expedition to the end all commented on how absorbent the papyrus was. The vessel was not a ship, and barely a boat. It was a 'thing'. Thor observed,

“some were laughing themselves silly, shouting and asking if we had really come from Morocco on “that thing”. Seen from outside we were just a wickerwork cabin floating on the water behind a majestic Egyptian sail with two shorn-off tufts of reed sticking out of the water at either end”. (The Ra Expeditions p357)

They were floating on the face of the waters (unlike displacement ships), taking samples of pollution literally on the face of the waters. And because of this activity and Thor's desire to promote the ideal of nations working together, they were ambassadors for an entity. They flew the flag of the UN.

The name 'United Nations', is a very poor description, and to the ancients it would not make sense. It makes no sense even today. There is nothing united about the nations of the UN. But the 'UN', whatever its name, has a presence, has bodies of governance, a flag and a land (the significance of which we will return to), and it has a land its headquarters sit upon.

But there is more.

The other Cush – the Tigris & Euphrates

These expeditions had made Thor famous in 1970/1, but Thor had more ideas about migration to test. In 1977 Thor turned to the Tigris and Euphrates, the rivers of the other Cush that became Nineveh. He moved into the Garden of Eden Resthouse on the banks of the Tigris, Iraq and began interviewing Marsh Arabs to build a new reed boat. He admits he wasn't sure why or where, but was hoping a theory would emerge. He noticed first that the moon was like a reed ship. The new reed ship was called 'Tigris'. They were first to dock in new facilities in Bahrain and the pictures show once again they were flying the UN flag. They were greeted by a British archaeologist. From there they voted to go to Oman. They docked even though forbidden. Thor wrote,

“So much for their United Nations Flag”

From there chance was to take him to the Indus Valley and then across the Indian Ocean to Africa. They had intended to sail up to Egypt, connecting three reed buildings civilizations together. The Israelites called the Red Sea the sea 'yam suph' the sea of reeds. But there was war between Somalia and Ethiopia and in Yemen, so the expeditions London backers sent a message telling them they had no co-operation and the course was hazardous. They navigated into the island of Djibouti 28 March 1978. There Thor hoped to go to North Yemen, but they were banned 'for security reasons'. This prevented the journey. The commentator notes that the “frail little reed boat had taken on the semblance of an armed warship”

But Thor had a comment to make, and he made it to the UN,

“Tigris will have a proud end, as a torch that will call men to reason...” and

'Tigris was towed to a safe anchorage outside the harbour but well within sight of the town. Before lowering the United Nations flag, a telegram was despatched to the Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim....”Today we are burning our proud ship with full sails, and the rigging and hull in perfect condition, as a protest against the inhuman elements of the 1978 world of ours..” ' Kon Tiki Man p280

Thor Heyerdahl felt pressed as a hinge, as an ambassador to make a point to a leader, the secretary of the ambassadors of nations, to the nations. The Tigris expedition’s members also sent a unanimous appeal to the UN asking it to stop arms deliveries.

The events were not hidden in obscure journals. Everyone could know about it who might be even remotely interested, as each was filmed. The resulting film from the RA voyages was nominated for an Oscar, and the voyage of the Tigris was to be filmed to be televised in six different countries. Nobody could miss it as is well known,

The work of Heyerdahl first came to worldwide attention in 1947 with his Kon-Tiki expedition. http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/RAX.html

The film won an Oscar for best documentary. Thor’s popular book The Kon-Tiki Expedition was later translated into 70 languages.

Following the voyage of the Tigris

A popular book and four TV programmes resulted from the expedition. http://www.kon-tiki.no/E-Heyerdahl.php

Isaiah's prophecy was literally fulfilled in every particular in these events. Heyerdahl took the precise papyrus reed from the lake beyond the rivers of Cush, or Ethiopia, and in vessel/thing on the face of the polluted waters was blown to British America (Barbados), where he was met by a UN boat. Then in a reed vessel from beyond the rivers of the other of Cush of Nineveh, the Tigris in Iraq he sails on the face of the polluted waters to the Indus Valley also once part of Britain's empire and back to the Red Sea, where he burns the reeds in a message to the UN.

With these remarkable events, we see that there need not have been a fulfilment in the ancient past when they used reed boats. The order of the prophecy was that first the land would send out ambassadors on the sea (Hebrew: yam), then even some others on papyrus vessels on the face of the waters (Hebrew: mayim).

But you say, the UN is not a land. The UN is not the nations united either. However, the UN in the negotiations over Israel is given a status equal to Russia and the USA. The UN has a leader, employees and armed forces. In a peculiar way it is an organization that acts like any other country. It is a 'land' made up of 'citizens' who are all ambassadors and envoys. The most important point is that the UN is located in a land, the USA, and that country maintains it.

The ambassadors are sent out, as the Hebrew might be translated, 'on, in, at, by or with the seas'. The 'seas' in Isaiah also refer to the nations. In Isaiah 17:2 the seas are equated to “many people”. The UN does send out ambassadors by or on the ever-changing, often roaring, sea-like, movement of the nations.

The reed boat ambassadors of the modern world, Thor Heyerdahl and his crew, spoke English, then French, just as the UN does. There is another pointer as to who the land is. During World War II, Thor trained as a wireless radio operator in Canada, as the Norwegian government was in exile in London. The RA expedition was documented in 1971 by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, but the Tigris expedition became a BBC documentary in 1979. But it is to be noted that the navigator was an American.

There is a powerful symbol in the reed boat, the Egyptian (Cushite) RA ('sun') emblematic of the political power, travelling from the Phoencian port (symbolic of the great ancient sea trading power) in Africa and going to America. Yet they arrived in Barbados a place that had been under British control since 1627 but had negotiated its independence from Britain in June 1966. It was emblematic of the woe of the great sea power of the empire the sun never set on. A symbolic baton of power had travelled across the Atlantic. By the time of the voyage the Americans were dominant, as by 1969-70 most of the nations of the British empire had became independent. The very last voyage, the Tigris acted out how the 'land' overshadowed. Note the route of its voyage.

The intent was to reach Egypt.

We will further investigate the dual British American nature of the 'land' over-shadowing.

But the most amazing point of all is that Thor didn't know he would fulfil Bible prophecy, and had no thought of it, but in his book The RA Expeditions, he quotes his Egyptian crew member, a Coptic Christian, quoting Isaiah 18:2, to which Thor adds that the New KJV had added the note it was papyrus. (Penguin, 1972 p262). There is no doubt these were the reed boat ambassadors. It was 25 May 1969 when with huge fanfare the reed boat leaves Egypt for America under UN flags, but by 1979 much of the world could know of it. Something was to happen we were to take note of.

Shadowing wings

Both Assyria and Egypt were associated with over-shadowing wings, yet beyond but having power over both those lands of Egypt and Assyria there came to be another over shadowing winged world power. A world power that had as its symbol an Eagle. A world power known for it's aircraft.

The word in Hebrew for overshadowing implies also 'whirring' and 'clattering' which makes us think of aircraft. Though many nations were involved in the development of aircraft, two stood out, Britain and the US. Even before Leonardo's ideas for the propeller and parachute in the 13 century Roger Bacon, an English monk, performed studies supporting his idea that air could support a craft. http://www.globalaircraft.org/history_of_aviation.htm

Also the British Sir George Cayley was first to study the physics of flight. By 1799 he designed a modern looking glider and flew it as a model in 1804. He invented most of basic aerodynamics and introduced such terms as lift and drag. British Francis Herbert Wenham used wind tunnels in his studies and predicted the application of multiple wings placed above each other. John Stringfellow designed a steam-engine powered aircraft which was launched from a wire demonstrating lift. In 1891 Lawrence Hargrave, a British-born Australian inventor, created a rigid-wing aircraft with flapping blades which flew (95m). American Samuel Langley, created the first heavier-than-air, gasoline-powered engine which actually flew in 1903 days before the Orville & Wilbur Wrights' historic flight. Frank Whittle patented a design for a jet engine in 1930 allowing Britain to build jet aircraft by the end of World War II.

In WW2 the output of American planes over the course of the war was extraordinary with 160,070 made with over 50,000 made in 1944 alone.

As we write there is no doubt at all that American and their allies' aircraft have great 'clattering', 'whirring' reach over the ancient lands of Cush, with current action in the area of Ancient Assyria.

Britain's History of Overshadowing the two Cush areas

The words of Isaiah 18 are located between a prophecy of Assyria and one of Egypt. Isaiah 19 ends with a powerful prophecy of the future linking Assyria and Egypt.

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom Yahweh of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. (Isa 19:23-25)

Isaiah 18 in context by using the world “Cush” כושׁ links Egypt and Assyria.

Not much is said in prophecy about the events in Holy Land over the years of desolation when Israel was not a nation. For example, Daniel 11 jumps from the ancient era to the modern era of 'the time of the end'. The centre of the world from ancient times shifted from the Middle East to Europe for hundreds of years. Then things changed. The great powers of Europe reached far beyond their borders, into the Middle East.

With the drying up of the Ottoman Empire, by 1850 Egypt had revolted, but in so doing fell under British influence, as the Suez opened a way to India.

In 1881 the Mahdi Revolt breaks out in Sudan and Southern Egypt, this brought the British in and by 1885 they control Khartoom. They make Sudan a British protectorate in 1899. In 1914 Egypt also became a British Protectorate.

The most unlikely event of all occurred when the Ottomans chose to side with Germany after the outbreak of WW1. As a result by 1918 the British Commonwealth and Allied forces controlled much of Iraq, and half of the Levant. The map below shows how by the end of WW1 Britain was the overshadowing wings over both areas of Cush.

Dark Pink British Controlled in 1925. Persia was British influenced.

Britain was not there in the role of the 'merchants of Tarshish', as their control was not for the reason of merchandise and trade, as in India, but rather for political 'protection'.

In this role Britain is granted two 'Mandates'. A mandate is an 'overshadowing' or a 'hovering' above. In April 1920 at the San Remo Peace Conference the Mandate for Syria created Syria and Lebanon. But of great interest was that the overshadowing by Britain was formalised in the Mandate for Mesopotamia, which created Iraq and the Mandate for Palestine which created a Jewish 'Homeland'. This brings us to what the Ambassadors were prophesied to do.

The instruction “Go ye to a Nation Scattered”

Isaiah said there was to be an instruction given to the messengers,

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! (Isaiah 18:2)

The 'rivers' are the nations who in successive waves overflowed the Holy Land. The Ottomans were symbolised by the Euphrates drying up, having overflowed Israel. But other nations had overflowed including the French with Napoleon, and the crusades had been fought there.

The Hebrews or Jews had been scattered over the world, and, unlike other peoples, had not assimilated and had retained their identity as scattered remnants of the Hebrew nation. The word for 'peeled' in Hebrew means also 'obstinate' and 'independent'. They were terrible or 'awesome' from their beginning due to the plagues on Egypt. Since that time they had brought blessing wherever they were treated well but most often cursing to the nations that ill treated them.

The pogroms in Russia from 1881 had led to an exodus of Jews, notably some to Palestine with many more going to America and Britain. The situation added to thoughts of Jews returning to Zion, which were evident from before 1876 when the mood was captured in a popular novel in Britain called Daniel Deronda. Just as the British were establishing a role in Ethiopian Cush on one hand, while digging the Ninevite sands on the other hand, the Jews as a nation scattered and peeled, established the Zionist Congress under the direction of Herzl in 1897. By so doing, they established they were a 'nation'.

From this point in 1897 the messengers sent out to fulfil the Divine instruction could go to Jews as a 'nation scattered'. The dried bones of Ezekiel had come together as one body as the whole house of Israel. Even though there was some support in Britain for a home for Jews, and the offer of Uganda was made and rejected, the focus of Herzl was the Ottomans, who controlled the Holy Land. But WW1 dramatically changed the situation. By January 1915 Herbert Samuel had support for a memorandum for annexing Palestine and making a Jewish national home. In March 1915 a new memorandum by Herbert Samuel with the support of others of the cabinet including David Lloyd George suggested that Palestine should become a British Protectorate until the Jews became a majority and could self govern.

These suggestions were reliant on British victory, which was not certain in 1915, however after the battle of Beersheva, finally these moves bore fruit as the Balfour declaration was sent from Britain's government on November 2, 1917, in a letter from Balfour to Lord Rothschild, president of the British Zionist Federation. The main body of the letter quoted the decision of the October 31, 1917 British Cabinet meeting.

7) The League of Nations

Throughout the Great War there had been support in Britain, France and the USA for an international body to arbitrate to prevent war. Woodrow Wilson the US President received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his work to promote it. Lord Robert Cecil's ideal was taken up by Balfour and the British government in 1918. The League of Nations came into existence at the Paris peace conference in 1919. Its covenant included Jan Smuts' idea for Mandates for the lands won in the Great war.

The Balfour declaration regarding a Jewish homeland was accepted by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922 and embodied in the mandate that gave Great Britain administrative control of Palestine. This marked the beginning of the land with overshadowing wings.

There was no woe to this land shadowing, rather the shadow of success, until 1939 when a British White Paper preventing Jewish immigration to Palestine reversed the policy. World War 2 changed the situation.

8) The United Nations

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt first used the term "United Nations" in 1942 for the Allied countries of WWII under the Atlantic Charter. The first conference was in San Francisco on 25 April 1945.

The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946. In this we see the duality of Britain and America.

But the 'land' of the United Nations is in America. Four of the five principal organs are located at the United Nations headquarters on international territory in New York City.

Due to the Jewish push against Britain's policy of restricting Jewish Immigration Britain put a proposal to Partition Mandate Palestine to the United Nations. Many mistake this issue. The UN vote was in favour of Partition, true, and may Jews were content with half a loaf as being better than none. However, the partition was not in accord with the League of Nations endorsed Mandate or Article 80 of the U.N. charter. Since the partition plan was a General Assembly resolution, it is not international law either. Israel was not established by UN vote. Israel was established because there were enough Jews in the Jewish Homeland, as envisioned, to declare a state in 1948. Further though there were comparatively few Jews to fight for that state, a miracle ensured its existence, though some Jewish redeemed and bought land was lost to Jordanian or Egyptian control. In effect the UN vote was pointless (as the UN votes most often are), as the facts were established by the people concerned.

This UN vote to partition was one of the earliest decisions by the UN.

“Since then, it maintained a central role in this region, especially by providing support for Palestinian refugees via the UNRWA and by providing a platform for Palestinian political claims via the CEIRPP, the UNDPR, the SCIIP, the UNISPAL and the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The UN has sponsored several peace negotiations between the parties, the latest being the 2002 Road map for peace... Issues relating to the state of Israel, the Palestinian people and other aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict occupy a large amount of debate time, resolutions and resources at the United Nations...In recent years[when?], the Middle East was the subject of 76% of country-specific UNGA resolutions, 100% of the Human Rights Council resolutions. Wikipedia

Thus we can see that indeed the Jewish people 'scattered and peeled' and 'terrible' are since 1947 the object of the swift envoys of the nations, who fly to meet often in New York. Is it woe to the UN? The most important point is that the UN is located in a land, in the USA, and that country maintains it.

9) Anglo American involvement in the Middle East

As noted before there is a British-American duality. There would be a hairline of difference between the pro-Arab British establishment and the consistent policy of the USA State Department. In 1947 the US State department was following the Arab line, until re-directed by the President. There is a hairline of difference between the Bible believing support for Israel that allowed the Balfour declaration in 1918 and the American political support for Israel in 1967 found with Lyndon B. Johnson. Both Balfour and LBJ were unexpectedly in their positions. Both were a time of miracles.

On January 20, 1969 Richard Nixon succeeded Lyndon B Johnson. In that year for the first time in over 2,000 years ambassadors went out in a reed boat. They did it again on 17 May 1970 arriving in Barbados July 12. In September of 1970 the PLO emerges as it attempts to assassinate the king of Jordan and take control of Jordan, and later that month the PLO hijacks planes on flights to New York from Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich. Later that year Anwar Sadat comes to power in Egypt, and the Assad family in Syria. Nixon found not much good in the succeeding years, with the Yom Kippur war resulting in an oil embargo. His thoughts to bring about peace between Israel and Egypt was interrupted and his own personal reputation was lost in the 'Watergate' scandal in 1974.

And then a reed boat went forth again in November 1977, but could not reach Egypt. In that very month US pressure to broker a misguided peace deal between Israel and its Arab neighbours resulted in the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat making an official visit to Israel, to meet Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The US president Carter brokered the peace deal in which Israel gave up the Sinai, called the Camp David accords. These accords were rejected by the UN. Also as a result Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

The reed boat voyages had illustrated Isaiah's prophecy, and the events begun from 1969 illustrated just why it would be woe to the land of the overshadowing wings, where swift flying ambassadors gathered, as they continued to interfere in the Middle East making misguided attempts for Arab-Israel peace, while themselves increasingly becoming committed to involvement in conflict in the Middle East. In January 1979 the Persian Monarchy was deposed in Iran. By September 1980 Iran and Iraq were at war. In 1990 the USA led Britain and its allies into war in Iraq in the Gulf war.

The Gulf war and subsequent US troop presence in Saudi Arabia led to the terrorist attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001, which in turn resulted in the US leading Britain and other allies into an unwinnable situation fighting in Afghanistan in 2001.

Of interest is that on the other wing in Sudan the other ancient Kush during the 1990s Hassan al-Turabi reached out to Islamic fundamentalists. The US listed Sudan as a sponsor of terrorism and they bombed Sudan in 1998. Later Sudan leaders worked to appease international critics by expelling the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging Bin Laden to leave.

Back to the other wing of British American overshadowing, as a result of the Gulf war the United States established two "no-fly" zones in Iraq: one in the south, where the Hussein regime had persecuted the Shiite Arabs; the 2nd was in Kurdish northern Iraq. The Baghdad government was forbidden to operate any aircraft in these zones, enforced by US and Britain's adjacent air capacity. Thus they literally overshadowed this area. To further overshadow over the ancient Cushite area, Britain, USA, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction and for eight years had to watch as the opposition grew. On the removal of British and American troops, Iraq descended into chaos and violence.

With the advent of the recent Syrian Civil war to remove the Assad regime, the woe continues to the overshadowing Anglo-American power over the arc between the two ancient Cush areas from Assyria to Egypt and Sudan continues to fragment into violence.

That woe has come, and been determined on the US, and that it has been recognised is shown by the most extraordinary oft repeated quotation from Isaiah 9:10 by US leaders as a result of the loss of the World Trade Centre. The next day Sept. 12, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said,

“America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. ... But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this.

“The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. “

This was repeated by on the 3rd anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another U.S. senator running for vice president, John Edwards entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10:

On the 14 June 2012 US President Barak Obama wrote on a steel beam at the World Trade Centre site

“We remember,” he wrote. “We rebuild. We come back stronger!”

Cahn continued: “So now the now the tower will be crowned and finished with words paralleling Isaiah 9:10, the ancient vow of national judgment. The tower was begun with the laying down of a hewn stone, the very same object mentioned in Isaiah 9:10 which begins the rebuilding.”

http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/obama-fulfills-isaiah-910-prophecy-again/#v4iYQoFpE21eWHE6.99

America's leaders were knowingly quoting a passage that surely even a cursory examination of the context showed was quoting Ancient Israel's leaders rebellious words. The Assyrians had invaded Ancient Israel. The leader of Al-Qaeda causing the US to say this was bin Laden a Yemeni Kindite from Saudi Arabia, living at the time in exile in Sudan, in Cush, but with links to Afghanistan. The response Yahweh gave to Ancient Israel's words of pride was

The Syrians before, and the Philistines (Palestinians) behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. (Isaiah 9:12)

In a curious, and not insignificant, parallel both the Syrians and Palestinians have recently brought utter confusion and woe to US foreign policy.

That pointer to the land inheriting woe being the land of America, despite the British connection and the role of the UN, is that whereas Britain and the UN aren't in symbol associated with wings, America is.

Thor had hoped setting fire to the reed boat Tigris would bring mankind to see reason in the world at war in 1978, but in fact he was merely a witness that the state of war in that region was to continue from that point and bring the woe that went with it. Thor was 'thunder' to Heyerdahl the 'Protector -valley'

Isaiah 9 connects to Isaiah 18 not just in terms of Woe predicted to a far distant land, but in terms of the promise for the near future.

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. ... 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 18:3-7)

In 1967 the ensign of Israel was lifted up upon the mountains, when Israel re-claimed by miracle the land their fathers walked on including Jerusalem which is Zion. In the next year the reed boats went out. There will be no peace until the Prince of peace comes to Zion.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy...For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:2-7)

You may like The Holy Land to Israel: 1922 to 1967

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