Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #12 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are going to read Genesis 2:13-14:

And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we saw in verse 10 that a river went out of Eden and it was parted into four heads. The first was Pison, which compassed the whole land of Havilah. We saw in Genesis 25, verse 18 that Havilah was related to Egypt. It was in close proximity to Egypt and Egypt is a picture of the world in the Bible.

We saw that the land had gold, bdellium and onyx stone and these precious stones all relate to God’s elect and His salvation program.

Now we see in verse 13 that the second river is “Gihon.” This is also a name that identifies with the kingdom of heaven. It says in 2Chronicles 32:30:

This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

So, we have a river called “Gihon” and we have a watercourse in this verse that came into the city of David. Again, the river identifies with the going forth of the Word of God into the world, as represented by Egypt, and now this second river of Gihon compasses the whole land of Ethiopia. In the Bible Ethiopia identifies with Egypt, just as Havilah identifies with Egypt. You may have heard me mention before that Ethiopia, spiritually, identifies with Egypt, a picture of the kingdom of Satan in this world. That is why the Israelite captivity in Egypt under cruel bondage to Pharaoh typified the bondage of sin and Satan that all sinners experience until God sets them free. The deliverance from Egypt was a picture of the salvation of God’s elect, spiritual Israel.

Ethiopia carries this same kind of meaning because Ethiopia is often related to Egypt. The word “Ethiopia” or “Ethiopian” is found 41 times in the Old Testament and 14 of these times you will find it mentioned right along with Egypt. For instance, it says in Psalm 68:31:

Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.

Here, God mentions Egypt and then He follows it by mentioning Ethiopia. It says in Isaiah 20:4-5:

So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

It also says in Isaiah 43:3:

For I am JEHOVAH thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

Or, we can go to Isaiah 45:14:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia…

Let us look at one more place in Ezekiel 29:10:

Behold, therefore I am against thee, and against thy rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia.

As I mentioned there are a number of other verses that are very similar. Egypt is mentioned with Ethiopia because, spiritually, they both represent the kingdom of Satan.

The word “Ethiopia” is the same Hebrew word as “Cush.” It is Strong’s #3568. It says in Isaiah 11:11:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

The word “Cush” is the same Hebrew word translated as “Ethiopia.” Here, God speaks of recovering the remnant of His people and He mentions Assyria, Egypt and Cush. He also mentions Elam and Shinar which identify with Babylon. When we look at the Bible we find that Assyria, Egypt and Babylon are the “big three” that represent the kingdom of Satan. They are used in a very similar way in the Bible and we will see that in our verse in Genesis 2:13:

And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

Again, this spiritually represents the world, just as Egypt and Havilah represents the world. The first river was coming forth from Eden, the kingdom of God, and is going out into the world and this is illustrated by these two rivers.

Then it says in Genesis 2:14:

And the name of the third river is Hiddekel…

The word “Hiddekel” is only found in one other place. Strong’s concordance relates it to the Tigris River, but I do not know if that can be confirmed from the Bible. The word “Hiddekel” is found in Daniel 10:2-4:

In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel;

This is the only other time the river Hiddekel was mentioned and we know that Daniel was in Babylon, so Hiddekel would be a river that identifies with Babylon, which is a type of the kingdom of Satan in this world. Then it goes on to say in Genesis 2:14:

… that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

The Euphrates River is easy because we have seen that river several times before in the Book of Revelation and in other places and we know it also identifies with Babylon. So we have Havilah that identifies with Egypt. We have Ethiopia that identifies with Egypt. We have Hiddekel that identifies with Babylon. We have the Euphrates that identifies with Babylon. Then it mentions Assyria, so in these few verses God is setting up the spiritual picture of the Gospel flowing forth from His kingdom (Eden) to target Egypt, Babylon and Assyria, the three main nations that God identifies with Satan’s kingdom of the world.

As far as Assyria, God relates Assyria with Babylon in a couple of places. It says in Jeremiah 50:17-18:

Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

We know that God first destroyed Samaria (Israel in the North) through the Assyrians. Afterwards the people of Judah were destroyed by the Babylonians. God is referring to both judgments and He is making them synonymous with one another. When we read the Bible and we find the Assyrians coming against Israel and defeating them it is a picture of God’s judgment on the churches by raising up an evil king (Satan) to conquer the people called by God’s name, just as the God raised up Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to conquer Judah in the South. They are spiritual pictures of the same thing and, here, God relates the two.

In Isaiah, chapter 23 we find that there is a very close relationship, historically, between Assyria and Babylon. It says in Isaiah 23:13:

Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

So even the land of Babylon (Chaldea) was founded by the Assyrians.

What is also interesting is the relationship between Assyria and Egypt, as it says in Isaiah 52:4:

For thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

How can the Lord say this? He does not say that the Egyptians oppressed them and, yet, we know that is what happened when the Egyptians oppressed them with cruel bondage. But God says the Assyrian oppressed them without cause and this is because the Assyrians and the Egyptians represent the same thing, spiritually, just as the Assyrians and the Babylonians represent the same thing. Here, in Isaiah 52, verse 4 God links the Egyptian with the Assyrian. Remember that we looked at this a while back, but it says in Isaiah 48:20-21:

Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

Verse 20 begins with the command to go forth of Babylon, but in verse 21 God makes reference to the time when Israel went forth from Egypt, not Babylon. It was when they came out of Egypt that the Israelites thirsted and God caused the water to flow out of the rock for them. Yet, God uses this type of language to connect these verses because they represent the same thing, spiritually. The coming out of Egypt was great deliverance and the coming out of Babylon was great deliverance from captivity to sin and Satan, spiritually. So, there is a close relationship with Assyria and Egypt and Assyria and Babylon. There is a close relationship with Babylon and Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and there is a close relationship with Egypt and Babylon and Egypt and Assyria. What this did was to give God options when writing to hide spiritual truths. He can draw on a reference to the wilderness sojourn and the coming out of Egypt and He can apply it to a time when Israel came out of Babylon. It adds to the Lord’s ability to paint a picture and hide truth.

In Ezekiel, chapter 23 all three are in view: Assyria, Egypt and Babylon. It says in Ezekiel 23:2-5:

Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

God said that Samaria (Aholah) doted on her neighbors the Assyrians and then God judged her, as it says in Ezekiel 23:8-10:

Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

In the spiritual harlotry that Samaria was involved with, God let them go and they were finally destroyed by the very ones they doted upon. God raised up the Assyrians in Isaiah 10:5-6:

O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

God is referring to His own people, the Samarians. He raised up the Assyrians to be the “rod” of His anger. Later God did the very same thing when He used the Babylonians to bring judgment upon Judah (Aholibah), as it says in Ezekiel 23:11-15:

And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:

Then God does the same thing. We know that He gave Judah up to the Babylonians that Judah had doted upon and King Nebuchadnezzar became God’s servant to destroy and bring judgment upon Judah in the South, exactly as He had done upon Israel in the North. Both of these historical events picture the New Testament churches that doted on the things of the world. The corporate churches were enamored with people of a “strange tongue.” Just as Israel did not understand the Assyrian language and Judah did not understand the Babylonian language, the New Testament churches did not understand the language of speaking in tongues. They went after that phenomenon and they lusted after it, just like their sisters of old lusted after those strange nations and God destroyed them. One of the main weapons of destruction against the New Testament churches was the “tongues phenomenon,” which was related to other charismatic doctrines like “falling over backwards.”

These things opened up all kinds of evil in the churches and it all related to God’s program. The rivers went forth from the outward representation of the kingdom of heaven and they separated into four heads, going into Egypt, Babylon, Assyria and the kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of Satan. But, beware, because God warned Israel and He warned the churches not to get involved in spiritual fornication and harlotry and not to lust after the things they see out in the world. Israel failed the test. Judah failed the test. The churches failed the test, so God destroyed them with a nation speaking a tongue she could not understand.

It goes on to say in Ezekiel 23:19:

Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

Israel played the harlot with Assyria. She played the harlot with Babylon. But it all hearkens back to their playing the harlot in the land of Egypt. In Ezekiel, chapter 23 God brings all three of these mighty nations that represent the kingdom of evil in into focus, just as the focus in Genesis, chapter 2 is on the Word of God going forth to the nations of the world. In our verses, God is not talking about fornication or harlotry, but He is simply giving us the process and He is drawing the picture of the arena the Gospel will target. The “four heads” represent the universality of the Gospel going into all the world.

But what will happen to this outward representation of the kingdom of heaven, the Garden of Eden? There will be a fall, just as Samaria fell and Judah fell and the New Testament churches fell. So, too, there will be a fall into disobedience and lusting after sin in the Garden of Eden.