Something's Up
And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Ezekiel 1:4
Now we haven't seen which way north was before but since we are about to go out on a journey ourselves, I figure it's a good time to check. There are several ways I can tell which way is north. First, there's the largest, brightest star in the sky which is called the North Star. I can usually navigate by that, or at least that's what sailors used to do. If you can't figure out the north star though, because sometimes it's cloudy, rainy, or strange weather, you can also tell by a number of other things. In the past, sailors and other strange wandering people liked to wait a few days for the weather to clear. Here Ezekiel is laid up by a river, which the size of the river is also debatable. That is why I have been almost reluctant to go to one up until now. Rivers by my calculations come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Perhaps yours is as wide as a sea and mine as big as this room, who knows. That's the one thing scientists haven't done though is assigned a width to the river. If I read Genesis right, the river Gihon should be right around Ethiopia somewhere. The only problem is though that it's many years later and of course cultural and political boundaries have changed. Let's look at a map of it really quick. Then, once we know where we are, we will make our own maps later.
Alright, that right there blue stuff that runs between the two tan colored lands is more than likely Gihon. It's awfully big for a river, isn't it? Then again, whoever said they had to have a certain width anyway. Think of all that land as part of what was once Ethiopia. Yes, I know the land has a lot of geographic and political boundaries and labels attached. Just disregard those for a minute if you can. If you can't, that's fine too. I'll understand, but I really need you to put those things aside for the moment to see what I'm trying to tell you.
Now, we roughly know where the Euphrates is, don't we? If not, it's right here. Yep, see that blue stuff right in the middle. It also trickles down to form a much larger river. Let's see that one too in a minute.
Then there's the third river, the - oh what? You wish to know who mines what, don't you? Let's take a quick look at it now. I am looking for known exporters of three things: gold, bdellium, and onyx. Several places each have two. Only one named India holds all three. The ancient name of Havilah also sounds somewhat similar, doesn't it? What if the floor caused certain areas of land to be broken off that were once attached to that kingdom and so floated away. Right, so here's all the known land we have at present which doesn't help us very much. Now I will zoom out and let you figure out the rest.
Now that's amazing. Imagine if I took this map and folded it in on itself. Then, the rivers would line up in their correct order, wouldn't it? Better yet, look at it like this. Take Africa, that long country on the left and bottom and rotate up half a turn. The land fits in a whole lot better with the outline, doesn't it? Now count from the bottom left: one river, two rivers, three rivers four. Perhaps though, I have to stand upon the land in order for it all to make more sense. Remember, because I'm seeing a picture, the image is reversed. Now imagine the stuff on the right coming in closer and getting all bunched up. Yep, that's one river, then go back the opposite direction. Two rivers, three rivers, four. In fact, you could almost make a compass, or something to tell direction on them from this point in the map. Notice, there's one river going in each direction, roughly with a few twists and turns of course. What do you think?