Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

the lion. To the east of the Mall stands the Capitol. In front of the Capitol is a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, who is memorialized upon a horse, overlooking a beautiful fountain. Surrounding this fountain are four stone lions that represent the authority of the lawmakers. Judah's emblem was a lion, and the tribe of Judah was known as the lawgiving tribe (Genesis 49:10). Out of the tribe of Judah came the eternal lawgiver, Jesus the Messiah, who will one day literally govern the nations. To the south was Reuben, whose emblem was a man. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial sits to the south of the Washington Mall. Jefferson was a Deist and a Unitarian. He believed in a Creator who retreated after creation was finished and left the affairs of men to themselves. He believed that only the good nature of men and their reasoning could be trusted. Jefferson was a Humanist thinker. His memorial shares the same relative position as Reuben in the wilderness camp, and Reuben's emblem was a statue of a man. It was Reuben who forgot God's laws and tried to act upon his decision making and strength. To the west of the wilderness camp was the tribe of Ephraim, whose emblem was a bull or an ox. The Lincoln Memorial stands on the western part of the Mall. Lincoln was the only president who shared his first name, Abraham, with the founder of the nation of Israel. God told Abraham, "I am your shield and reward" (Genesis 15:1). God revealed that He would bless Abraham in times of conflict. God also promised Abraham that he would become a great nation and that Abraham's seed would be delivered out of Egyptian bondage. To confirm God's covenant, Abraham took animals and divided them in the middle. Afterward a "deep sleep fell upon him and a horror of great darkness fell upon him" (Genesis 15:12). God shielded Abraham Lincoln's nation from destruction as it was split between the north and south. A "horror of darkness," the Civil War ensued. Abraham, the father of Israel, survived his test and Abraham Lincoln saw the end of the horrible Civil War. Joseph's sons were Ephraim and Manesseh. In his youth, Joseph's own brothers sold him into slavery. In the time of Lincoln, slavery was the spark that ignited the Civil War. During the Civil War, two brothers, the north and the south, fought each other. Ephraim and Manesseh were divided in Israel. Ironically, the first battle of the Civil War was at Bull Run, in the area of Manassas, Virginia. In the English translation of the Bible in Revelation 7:6, the tribe of Manesseh is called Manassas ! Bull 100