South Sudan was officially welcomed by the world as a new nation on July 9, 2011. I have an article on that day regarding its flag's (“ensign”) colors being a sign of the nearness of the sixth “trumpet” and vial.
Isaiah 18:1-3 “Woe [should be 'Ho'] to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia [kush]: That sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes on the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers [malak], to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning till now [haleah means far away]; a nation meted out [measured] and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled [baza means cleave]! All you inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see you, when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear you.”
God is providing the description of this nation to the south of Kush, which is now Sudan and has the White and Blue Nile “rivers” (verse 1) flowing through it. The headwaters of the White Nile are in Kenya's Lake Victoria, and flow north through the middle of South Sudan, “cleaving” the country in two, and continuing into Sudan 200 miles north of Malakal, South Sudan; “messengers” is malak in Hebrew. South Sudan's oil rich mountain areas are still being “meted out” regarding their northern boundary after a two decades of being “trodden down”. It is estimated the Muslim Janjaweed killed 1.5 million Christians in Darfur since 1984, but there have also been ethnic fighting between black and Arab Muslims.
These agricultural smooth-skinned Christians in South Sudan would be a “present” of support to Israel.
“In that time shall the present be brought to the LORD of hosts of a people scattered [mashak also means to sow] and peeled [smooth], and from a people terrible [frightened] from their beginning till now; 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 18:7)
Isaiah 18:4-6 were prophecies regarding an Ethiopian pharaoh in whom Israel would place their trust, and an Assyrian King. Pharaoh Taharqa met Assyrian Esarhaddon's troops at Ashkelon in 674 BC, and was able to fend them off. But in the “summer” of 671 BC, Esarhaddon conquered Taharqa in Memphis and pursued him back to Kush, taking his son captive. Both Taharqa and the king of Tyre were led away with hooks in their jaws (Ezekiel 29:2-4).
“For so the LORD said to me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat on herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before 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 to the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter on them. (Isaiah 18:4-6)
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