BIRTH PANG NUMBER 21
Chapter 23 – God Forms a Dry Highway
November 2, 2001
Isaiah 11:15,16 -- [15] And the Lord shall utterly
destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake
his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men
go over dryshod. [16] And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his
people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day
that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
In Isaiah’s day the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” is what we identify as the
Gulf
of Suez, a northern extension of the Red Sea that slithers between Egypt and Sinai like a long wet
tongue. Since Isaiah’s writings man has
dug out a northern extension of the “Egyptian Sea” to link the Mediterranean and Red Seas together. This extension is known as the Suez Canal. The two words “utterly destroy” come from
“charam,” which means “to be cut off” or “to shut up.” We are advised by God, through the prophet
Isaiah, that He intends to completely shut-up the waters of what we identify
today as the Suez Canal. He will do
so by crushing the western and eastern banks together by movement of two
tectonic plates.
In Birth Pang Number 18, Chapter 20, the division of
the Mount of Olives into two remaining halves was described, with one half
being carried northward on the extreme southern edge of a newly created Gaza
Plate, while the other half drifted south on the northern tip of a newly formed
Sinai Plate (See Figure 33). In Figure
34 you may observe the consequences of the movement of the Sinai Plate as it
floats southward on an underground liquid sea of magma. As the southward drift occurs, the Sinai
Plate will be jammed against the massive African Plate. Dry land will crunch against dry land, and
the “tongue of the Egyptian Sea” will be “completely shut-up.” It will be possible to walk across this area
on dry land throughout the millennial reign of Christ.
When the expression “the river” is used in Hebrew,
if there is no context above or below to identify it specifically, always means
the Euphrates River. The term “the
river,” found above in verse fifteen, is “hannahar,” and it applies to the
Euphrates River. When it states that the
Euphrates should be smitten “in the seven streams,” the Hebrew construction
does not mean that it was already existing as seven streams, and that God
smites all seven. Instead, it states
that God shall smite a single river and, when he has performed that action, it
will have divided it into seven streams.
That single river is none other than the massive Euphrates River. This drying up of the great Euphrates is also
echoed by John in Revelation.
Revelation 16:12 -- [12] And the sixth angel poured
out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried
up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
We are advised in verse sixteen that the drying up
of the great Euphrates creates a dry highway, a highway for the millennial
return of Israelite tribulation survivors from lands east of the
Euphrates. The latter portion of this
verse also indicates that the dry highway will extend into Egypt. The “Israel” of verse sixteen represents the
descendants of the man Jacob, hence the personal pronoun “he” is used, even
though it refers to the entire nation that came forth from him through his
twelve sons. When the nation of Israel
“came up out of the land of Egypt,” God parted the waters of the extreme
northern extension of the Red Sea, the extension that Isaiah identified as “the
tongue of the Egyptian Sea” in 700 B.C., but which is identified as the Gulf of
Suez today. On the day Israel crossed
the “yam cuwph” extension of the Red Sea, while fleeing from the Egyptian
Pharaoh, it could be said that God created a highway of dry land from Egypt to
Assyria. But God closed his dry land
bridge to destroy the Pharaoh’s mighty army with a flood of closing walls of
water, however, the dry land bridge he describes in Isaiah will last a thousand
years.
Because of the drying up of the Euphrates, and the
shutting up of the Suez Canal, it will be possible to walk all the way from
Egypt to Assyria without passing through waters that cannot be waded in
sandals. When God jams the Sinai
Peninsula against the extreme northeastern tip of Africa, a sea-free highway
will be created, a highway that will last for a thousand years. Two great continents, the African and the
Eurasian, will be fused together by God.
Throughout the millennial reign of Christ the many nations of these
massive continents will move up and down this dry land bridge to worship Christ
in Jerusalem, the new capital of the world.
The commerce of Africa will flow through Israel to Eurasia, and the
products of Eurasia will flow through to Africa. Israel will sit at the crossroads of the
world’s land and sea commerce. She will
be the center of the world. God will
destroy those who came against Jerusalem during the Tribulation Period. And the city of Jerusalem will be the place
where all the nations of the world come up to worship the King of kings, Jesus
Christ, the Messiah of Israel.
Zechariah 14:2,3,16 -- [2] For I will gather all
nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the
houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into
captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
[3] Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he
fought in the day of battle. [16] And it shall come to pass, that every one
that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up
from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast
of tabernacles.
Luke 1:30-33 -- [30] And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and
the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [33] And he shall
reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no
end.
Daniel 7:13,14,27 -- [13] I saw in the night
visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven,
and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. [14] And
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
[27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High,
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey
him.