that had ever been waged over that soil.
“Soon after Allenby arrived in Egypt, he sent word to the British War Cabinet that he needed a revitalized air corps, new planes, better planes, and many more planes. When Allenby took up his command, the skies of the Holy Land were dominated by enemy forces. German airmen, supporting Ottoman troops, had attained total supremacy in the air. 1 If the British were to successfully take the land and the city of Jerusalem, they had to change that. They had to overtake their enemies in the air.
“In the summer of 1917 the revitalization of the British air corps was well underway. New brigades and squadrons were formed; new planes, deployed; new pilots, commissioned. The tide began to turn. The British soon gained supremacy of the skies over the Holy Land. The planes proved to be critical to Allenby’s campaign. The British pilots flew reconnaissance missions and would report on enemy strength, enemy movement, and enemy strategy. It was the enemy who was most familiar with the land, not the British. But the intelligence that the air force provided changed all that. But it wasn’t just the intelligence. The planes would also provide cover for British troops on the ground in the midst of battle. They would wage war, bombing enemy positions and strongholds. Allenby’s integration of air and land forces would become a model for future warfare and would be critical in his success.
“But it wasn’t just what Allenby’s air force did but what it stopped from happening. It prevented the enemy aircraft from going on bombing missions, from providing cover for enemy troops, and from providing reconnaissance intelligence to enemy headquarters. The British pilots in effect drove the enemy out of the sky. The end result was that the Ottoman and German soldiers were forced to fight blindly. And by this Allenby’s forces were able to maximize the element of surprise. All these factors helped enable the British-led forces to ultimately drive the Ottoman Empire out of the land.
“But Allenby’s air force played a part as well in a more specific objective, the liberation and protection of Jerusalem. The last thing the British War Cabinet wanted was for Jerusalem to end up in ruins. But by driving the enemy from the skies, the chance of the city suffering massive destruction was greatly minimized. And on December 9, the central day of Jerusalem’s liberation, even in bad weather the No. 14 Squadron managed to take the air to patrol the skies and run missions against the enemy. 2 Even after the British entered Jerusalem, Ottoman forces were ready to fight to take it back. So there remained a danger that Jerusalem would again become a battle zone.
Allenby’s air force would perform a critical function in helping to defeat the Ottoman army in the days following Jerusalem’s liberation as well. Thus, in the end, for a site so zealously contested, more than any other in the world, Jerusalem emerged from the war largely unscathed.
“There is a Scripture,” he said, “that prophesies of Jerusalem’s being kept safe, preserved, and delivered on a day of war. The immediate context of the Scripture is that of a war involving the Assyrian Empire. But the word of God is such that one Scripture can hold several levels of meaning and application, and God can work and act in modern times according to biblical patterns and templates.”
“So the prophecy, or the biblical template, speaks of Jerusalem being preserved intact in the midst of war . . . which happened in the war of its liberation by the British.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “but it’s more than that. The Scripture mentions the means by which Jerusalem would be protected and preserved. It would come about this way:
As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.” 3
“As birds flying,” I repeated.
“He could have given those words to speak of the protection of a mother bird to her nest, to give assurance to that generation. But God’s knowledge stretches forth to all ages, to every event, every situation, every danger, and every war yet to come. He would certainly know that after two thousand years of hostile occupation Jerusalem would be delivered in that war.
“Beyond that is the prophecy’s unique imagery, ‘as birds flying.’ God’s preserving and deliverance of Jerusalem will come ‘as birds flying.’ In all the ages of its long history Jerusalem had seen countless armies,