Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

from around the world came to America, the land with fifty states, to find rest and release from oppression. In 1701, William Penn signed Pennsylvania's Charter. Fifty years later, a commemorative bell was cast. Known as the Liberty Bell, it has served as one of America's most beloved symbols of freedom. Before the bell was cast, a Quaker named Isaac Norris selected a portion of Scripture from Leviticus 25:10 to be inscribed on it. It read: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." This passage is found in the same Leviticus chapter that proclaims the year of Jubilee! In 1835 the bell was cracked and it never rang again. Thirty-eight years later in 1873, the beginning of the passage from Leviticus was inscribed on the bell. It read: "And ye shall hollow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty to all the inhabitants through the land." The Statue of Liberty has been a profound symbol for millions of immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island seeking freedom from oppression. Just as those who obeyed the Torah were given spiritual liberty and blessing, those who would pledge allegiance to America and its Constitution were guaranteed the right to experience liberty! In Hebrew, "The United States of America" means The Covenant Lands of America . Just as ancient Israel was the "Land of the Covenant," America is also "The Land of the Covenant." Consider this: • Both Israel and America were founded upon God's Word, the Bible. • Both Israel and America were given responsibility to teach the Word to the nations. • Both Israel and America share parallels that do not exist between other nations. Even the election cycle of the American presidency has a Biblical basis. In the book of Numbers, the twelve tribes were to be counted. The people were to "Declare their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward by their polls" (Numbers 1:18). This polling, or numbering established the number of men in each tribe. Today, on the second Tuesday in November, every four years Americans go to the polls to vote. The person receiving the highest number of

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