In April, our editor in chief asked what the immediate future held for Ethiopia. He wrote, “Until now, I have not understood much about why the two nations of Libya and Ethiopia are mentioned in [Daniel 11,] verse 43, along with Egypt. These two nations are the key that unlocks the strategy of radical Islam. That strategy is going to shake the U.S. and Europe to their foundations!”

“But he [the king of the north] shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps” (Daniel 11:43). Why did God inspire the mentioning of Ethiopia? Remember, every word in God’s inspired Bible has vital significance. This verse emphatically states that Ethiopia will soon be closely allied with Iran.

Here is how the Soncino Commentary defines at his steps: “Either joining his army, or placing themselves at his beck and call.” The Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines that expression as “in his company.” The Moffatt translation reads this way: “following in his train.”

Gerald Flurry went on to challenge readers to watch Ethiopia, in light of this biblical prophecy, as it soon falls under the heavy influence or control of Iran, the king of the south.

Why is radical Islam, led by Iran, so interested in an alliance with or control over Ethiopia? Mr. Flurry went on to note, “Whoever heavily influences or controls Ethiopia will undoubtedly also control the small areas of Eritrea and Djibouti on the Red Sea coastline. These areas only recently became independent of Ethiopia. Also, I believe the Bible view is that these small areas are included as a part of Ethiopia.”

Wedged between Sudan to the west, Eritrea to the north, Kenya to the south and Somalia to both south and east, Ethiopia is landlocked. Following the secession of Eritrea in 1993, Ethiopian naval facilities remained in Eritrean possession. The poverty-stricken land of Ethiopia hosts an economy largely based on agriculture. In 2005, the International Monetary Fund forgave the country’s vast debt, with per capita income ranking with the lowest in the world.

The cia factbook says this about the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict:

Torn by bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought and massive refugee problems, the regime was finally toppled in 1991 by a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front. A constitution was adopted in 1994, and Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections were held in 1995. A border war with Eritrea in the late 1990s ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. In November 2007, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission remotely marked the border by geographical coordinates, but final demarcation of the boundary on the ground is currently on hold because of Ethiopian objections to an international commission’s finding requiring it to surrender territory considered sensitive to Ethiopia.

Our Connection to Ethiopia

To understand the Ethiopia of today, we need to grasp some of the background to this country’s amazing past. Our readers may be stunned to learn that this work has a history with the emperor and the country of Ethiopia!

Just months after accepting Emperor Haile Selassie’s invitation in March 1973 to visit at his Jubilee Palace in Ethiopia’s capital, Herbert Armstrong asked (Plain Truth, December 1973):

Did not this man, who claims to be a direct descendant of the ancient King Solomon of Judah and the Queen of Sheba, prophesy [in 1935] that if they did not stop the fascist armies before they invaded Ethiopia, that all Western Europe would be invaded?—that the British Empire would cease to be an empire—that nothing but trouble would come upon the democracies of Western Europe and the United States?—war troubles, economic troubles—political troubles? But the League of Nations had no power! And the democracies didn’t think any such big war would come. So they left helpless Ethiopia to her fate. And Mussolini took Ethiopia. He added it to Libya and Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. After having previously made a concordat with the Vatican, he now proclaimed another resurrection of the fascist Roman Empire! And Hitler went on building his fascist-Nazi blitzkrieg forces. And Hitler began making his demands. Prime Minister Chamberlain of Britain yielded to Hitler’s demands, saying he (Chamberlain) had “won peace in our time!”Hitler did invade and hook up with the strutting Mussolini in the Nazi-fascist Axis. And all Western Europe was lying prostrate and helpless until the United States was brought in—and until Hitler made the mistake of trying to invade Russia, whose vast territories and manpower began swallowing him up.The British Empire did disintegrate, and the United States did lose all pride in her power—even though she had the power. And economic and political distress did come upon Britain and America, and those defeated in the great war began to rise to great industrial and economic power.

Mr. Armstrong continued:

The fascist Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935. He was saying, “The time has come to make the fascist voice heard!” Hitler was to follow on his heels in organizing the fascist-Nazi armies in Germany. Emperor Haile Selassie went before the League of Nations in Geneva in person. He pleaded with it to stop this fast-mounting fascist threat to world peace at Ethiopia, before the fascist armies invaded France and Britain and started the greatest conflagration of world war in history. … Emperor Selassie was forced into exile. He went to England and did not return to his capital, Addis Ababa, until May 5, 1941, at the head of his resistance forces, and with British troops. They had fought their way into Ethiopia from Sudan. From the time of his personal appearance before the League of Nations in 1935, Emperor Selassie become one of the best-known heads of state in the world. He ascended his throne in 1930, and had the longest tenure as head of state or head of government of any man in the world.

“Of all the heads of nations or of great corporations, I think none could have triggered greater anticipation prior to meeting than this longest ruling of all rulers,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “All my life, from age 19, I have had more or less close contact with many of the great and the near great of the world—heads of large corporations, presidents and chairmen of major banks, publishers, educators—and in these recent years government heads and world leaders. But none had seemed a more outstanding personality than Emperor Haile Selassie” (ibid).

Archaeological Connection

At that time, Mr. Armstrong had been working with Dr. Benjamin Mazar in Jerusalem on a special archaeological project at which a very ancient seal, used by kings of Judah more than 2,500 years ago, had been discovered. A lion was engraved on the seal, representing “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”

After he had walked down the red carpet and been officially greeted by government and royal officials on his June 1973 visit to Ethiopia, Herbert Armstrong recalled, “I then presented the emperor with a gift of Steuben crystal, and also with the framed picture of the 2,500-year-old seal, with the engraving of the lion, ‘The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.’ This seemed to please him very much, as I explained about our archaeological project, and our mutual Israeli friends.”

After sharing their individual lineage tracing back to King Solomon, the general sum and substance of their conversation revolved around the fundamental causes of world conditions, evils and problems, and how we are putting solutions and true values into actual practice in our work, setting a living example of the way to peace and happiness. The emperor took a keen interest in Mr. Armstrong’s explanation of the two divergent philosophies or ways of life, which he called the way of “get,” practiced in the world, and the way of “give,” which leads to peace, happiness and success.

During his four-day trip to Ethiopia, Mr. Armstrong attended various functions and hosted a special luncheon attended by certain Ethiopian royals along with government officials, foreign ambassadors and dignitaries. “After making a toast to His Imperial Majesty, the emperor of Ethiopia, I stated that we were gathered in a world peace conference, proving that so many people from so many nations could gather together in jolly and happy friendship. I spoke briefly, some seven or eight minutes, on the way to world peace—the ways of God’s law, briefly proclaiming the coming world of peace—the World Tomorrow—the Kingdom of God” (ibid).

Sadly, within just over a year of Mr. Armstrong’s visit, Emperor Selassie was captured and imprisoned by the Soviet-backed Derg socialist rebels. He would later see much of his family killed and his health wear away until he died on Aug. 27, 1975, and Ethiopia would enter another dark, violent period of starvation and foreign abuse.

Archaeological Lesson for Ethiopia

As reported on The Trumpet Daily, early next year at Armstrong Auditorium, ancient seals of Jewish princes Jehucal and Gedaliah found at another archaeological project in Jerusalem with which Herbert W. Armstrong College is affiliated will go on display for the first time ever to the general public.

Eliat Mazar, Israeli archaeologist and granddaughter of the late Benjamin Mazar, has been excavating the ancient city of David since 2005. “We found the bulla of Jehucal inside the palace structure,” Mazar told theTrumpet.com in July 2008. “This time, we found the bulla of Gedaliah outside the wall, just at the foot of the same spot we found Jehucal.” The two must have been connected somehow, she said.

Jeremiah 38-40 chronicle how Jehucal and Gedaliah petitioned for Jeremiah’s execution and were responsible for his imprisonment. During Jeremiah’s second internment, the armies of Babylon besieged and decimated Jerusalem, and enslaved the Jewish people —including King Zedekiah. However, in this story, combined with the bullae and Jeremiah’s dedication to and deliverance by God, is found a pinnacle moment to inspire all Ethiopians.

Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian eunuch who served in King Zedekiah’s house at the time of Jeremiah’s imprisonment. Seeing the dastardly deceptions and intentions of the princes Jehucal and Gedaliah, he acted in wisdom and stealth in support of God’s prophet. “Ebed-melech went forth out of the king’s house, and spake to the king, saying, My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city. Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die” (Jeremiah 38:8-10).

What a wonderful moment in Ethiopian history! Jeremiah remained in captivity until Jerusalem fell, after which God sent him to Ebed-melech with a message of honor and praise. “Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 39:16-18).

There is a powerful message in Ebed-melech’s attitude and actions—because, as God said to this man, “thou hast put thy trust in me.” Jerusalem fell, the evil princes were slain, King Zedekiah was humiliated and later died in captivity. But out of Babylon’s crushing of Jerusalem came God’s Prophet Jeremiah and Ethiopia’s Ebed-melech! God does reward those who support His man and His work with a pure motive and genuine passion.

In the short term, Ethiopia will once more face foreign occupation. As Daniel 11 prophesies, it will fall temporarily into the hands of the king of the south and join with it in its clash of civilizations with Europe—after which it will be prey to the Roman empirical ambitions of the king of the north.

Ethiopia is accountable for its emperor inviting Herbert Armstrong to visit the capital and speak to top royalty and leaders about Christ’s soon-coming return, the establishment of the Kingdom of God and the peace enforcement that will ensue to ensure that peace, freedom and prosperity will finally come to Ethiopia once and for all.