“The Jubilee of 1917 would continue to shape the history of the Middle East and the world for decades to come. It would dramatically open the gates for the exiles of Israel to return home in unprecedented numbers. By the mid-1930s the number of Jewish people in the land was over six times larger than what it had been in 1917. At the time of Israel’s rebirth it was over ten times larger, and just two years later, over twenty times larger. Before the eyes of a world that had just entered the Cold War and the nuclear age the words of the ancient prophecies were being fulfilled:
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labors with child, together; a great throng shall return there. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. . . . Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’” 1
The Oracle paused, looked into the distance, then turned to me. “So then,” he said, “according to the mystery, when would the next Jubilee come?”
“The fiftieth year after 1917. . . ”
“Which is?”
“1967.”
“So if the mystery continues . . . ”
“It doesn’t have to?”
“The mystery continues as long as He wills it to. So if it continues, the appointed year will be . . . ”
“1967.”
“And so the mystery ordains that 1967 will be the year in which a prophetic event will take place. And if we take what the mystery has revealed thus far, what would it tell us about what would happen in 1967?”
“It would involve a return, an event of restoration, the regaining of an inheritance . . . the coming home of those who were separated from their ancestral possession.”
“And what would that regaining and restoration be? In the late 1940s Israel regained its nationhood. But there was still a crucial part of the ancestral possession that was missing.”
“Jerusalem.”
“Jerusalem,” he repeated. “And so in your vision the symbol on the fourth door and on the ram was the Hebrew letter kof. It stands for the Hebrew word kiryah. It means city. So the coming Jubilee would concern the city.”
“Jerusalem.”
“So if the mystery continues to manifest, it would ordain 1967 as the year in which an event of prophetic restoration would take place, when that which was lost would be returned to those to whom it belongs . . . and the event would be connected to Jerusalem.”
“Was it?” I asked.
“That,” said the Oracle, “we shall see.”
“So what did you see?”
“A mountain on which was a prophecy waiting for two thousand years to be uncovered. And the moment it would be uncovered, the prophecy would be fulfilled.”
“And how would it be revealed?”
“Through the ten men with torches.”
Chapter 35
THE PARCHMENT
I RETURNED TO the garden. The Oracle was now sitting under a low and wide-spreading tree, something I could picture growing in the plains of Africa. I sat down beside him.”
“It’s an acacia tree,” he said. “It grows in the desert.”
“The vision of the men with the torches who entered the mountain and stood in front of the tombs . . . what did it mean?”
“In the year AD 70 the armies of Rome destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem, the city, and the nation. But there was one last stronghold. It was called Masada. The word means fortress. Masada was a mountain fortress built by King Herod the Great and then taken over by Zealots, Jewish revolutionaries central in Israel’s war against Rome. When Jerusalem fell, Zealots, soldiers, and refugees fled the city and joined the resistance in Masada. So the center of the Jewish struggle moved from Jerusalem, now in ruins, to the desert mountain fortress.
“Eventually the Roman army, under the command of Flavius Silva, laid siege to Masada. According to the ancient account, when the Roman soldiers reached the top, they found the fighters and resisters dead, slain by their own hand. Rather than be taken captive by Rome, the soldiers had decided to take their own lives and die as free men. So they drew lots to appoint the executioners, ten men, who in turn drew lots to appoint the final executioner, who would then in turn die by his own hand.” 1
“Ten men, the band of ten men in the vision.”
“So Masada,” said the Oracle, “was the place of Israel’s last stand.”
“In the vision there were tombs. Are there tombs in Masada?”
“Masada itself is the tomb . . . the tomb of ancient Israel and the resting place of the last soldiers of that war. The nation’s ancient grave stood abandoned for ages in the desert wilderness as the Jewish people wandered the earth. But after two thousand years the nation that vanished with Masada was resurrected. The last of the ancient Israelis to stand on the mountaintop were the soldiers that had perished in Masada’s fall. So according to the Jubilean dynamic of reversal, the first Israelis to return to Masada . . . ”
“Would be soldiers. Did that actually happen?”
“In the first years of the nation’s rebirth, Israeli soldiers were drawn to the ancient fortress. They began making pilgrimages to the desert mountain.”
“Each shall return to his own possession,” I replied. “Masada was the possession of the Israeli soldier. So that’s where they returned to.”
“And not only these but soldiers in the Israeli army, having completed their basic training, would be taken to the top of the mountain to be sworn in as they vowed, ‘Masada shall not fall again.’ But Masada wasn’t the possession of the Israeli soldiers alone. It belonged to the nation.”
“So then Israel had to return to Masada?”
“Yes, and it would happen in the early 1960s. The resurrected nation would return to its ancient grave to excavate it. After two thousand years it would be uncovered.”
“So Israel was opening up its own grave . . . as were the men of the vision.”
“The leader of the ancient Israelis on Masada was a military commander. The man who led Israel’s return to Masada was also a military commander. His name was Yigael Yadin. He had been a general in the newborn Israeli army, its head of operations in 1948, the war of its birth, and after that its chief of staff.
“So the commander of Israel’s last army would be linked to Masada’s loss and the nation’s end. But the man who led Israel back to Masada would command its first army and be linked to the nation’s resurrection. In fact Yadin had been hailed as the architect of Israel’s War of Independence, the war that brought Israel back from the dead. 2 And as Masada’s last leader was central in the end of Israel’s army, Yadin would be instrumental in the resurrection of that army. He would be credited as the creator of Israel’s standing and reserve military forces, its resurrected army.”
“So the one who was central in the nation’s resurrection would be the one to uncover its grave.”
“It could be said that he was born to uncover it. His original last name was Sukenik. His father was Eliezer Sukenik . . . ”
“The man who uncovered the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
“Yes. And now his son was about to uncover another ancient mystery.
“So in the mid-1960s Yadin led thousands of volunteers from Israel and around the world back to the desert fortress. Central in that expedition was the Israeli army. The military provided Yadin with equipment, support, and men to help with the excavation. The modern Israeli soldiers represented the resurrection of the ancient Israeli soldiers . . . and they were now returning to their ancient graves to open them up. They had no idea that hidden in the sands of Masada was a mystery that had been waiting for two thousand years to be uncovered. It was buried in the mountain’s ancient synagogue. And the one who uncovered it was also an Israeli soldier.”
“What was it?”
“The word of God . . . parchments of Sc
ripture, the most prominent of these being a prophecy . . . from the Book of Ezekiel.”
“What was the prophecy?”
“It came in a vision.” The Oracle then began reciting the word hidden for two thousand years on the desert mountain:
“The hand of the LORD . . . set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.” 3
“The valley of dry bones! The prophecy of Israel’s resurrection!”
The Oracle continued:
“And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’” 4
“So hidden in the nation’s grave was the prophecy of its resurrection!”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, who then continued reciting the words of the ancient vision:
“So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone . . . and flesh came upon them. . . . And breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. . . . “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel . . . ’”’” 5
“And that’s exactly what they were doing,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“They were opening up their own graves. And as they did, they uncovered the prophecy hidden in their graves prophesying that God would cause their graves to be opened!”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “and the prophecy had been waiting there for ages just for that moment. From ancient times through the fall of Rome, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the voyages of Columbus, the rise and fall of empires, the persecutions, the Holocaust, two world wars, the modern age . . . it had been there all the time . . . waiting.
“So when the Jewish people were led captive into the nations, when it looked as if they would be wiped off the face of the earth, when there was no hope, God had embedded His promise into the sands of their ancient grave. It was all there, waiting for two thousand years, waiting for the day of their resurrection and their return to that place. For when God makes a promise, it doesn’t matter if it’s a day or a thousand years; He won’t forget it. He’ll bring it to pass.”
“Amazing!” I replied. “So the return to Masada was a Jubilean event. And yet it didn’t take place in the Jubilean year. So how does it relate to what would happen in the coming Jubilee?”
“The fall of Masada is part of what the Jewish people lost at the beginning of the age. But it happened only after something else had likewise fallen and was likewise lost.”
“Jerusalem . . . It happened after the fall and loss of Jerusalem.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle. “But the Jubilee brings the reversal of the loss. So if the loss of Jerusalem led to the loss of Masada, then the return to Masada would lead to . . . ”
“The return to Jerusalem.”
“And if the Jewish soldiers of ancient times left the gates of Jerusalem to come to Masada . . . ”
“Then if the Jewish soldiers of modern times return to Masada, then . . . ”
“Then what?”
“Then Jewish soldiers will also enter the gates of Jerusalem. And the Jewish people would return to Jerusalem.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle. “So as the loss of Jerusalem was followed by the loss of Masada, the return to Masada would be followed by the return to Jerusalem. And it would have to happen in the year appointed by the mystery. It would have to take place in the year 1967.”
“It would be in the next mystery that I would be shown how all these things would come to pass.”
“And how would it all come to pass?”
“It would all begin with a song.”
Chapter 36
THE PROPHET’S SONG
I RETURNED TO the garden and found the Oracle sitting under a willow tree. I joined him there.”
“The song that I heard in my vision, the song of the man with the harp . . . what did it have to do with the Jubilee of 1967?”
“Everything,” he replied. “In the Jubilee everyone is restored to their possession. For the nation of Israel there is one possession in this world above all others—Jerusalem. But in AD 70 Jerusalem was destroyed. And for two thousand years the Jewish people longed to return there. In 1948 Israel returned to the world, but the Jewish people were still separated from their Holy City. Their exile from Jerusalem had never been undone.
“When the United Nations came up with the Partition Plan, Jerusalem was cut off from the newborn nation. The city was to be placed under United Nations control. In 1948 one of the Arab nations seeking Israel’s destruction, Jordan, seized the ancient city, along with much of the West Bank. Israel was able to take control of the city’s more recently built suburbs, known as West Jerusalem. But its ancient and biblical capital, the walled city, lay in the hands of its enemies. Jewish people were now banned from setting foot in their Holy City, and Jewish holy sites within the city were turned into garbage dumps and urinals.
“But the Jubilee ordains that everyone shall return. So if Jordan was banning the Jewish people from returning to Jerusalem and the word decrees that the Jewish people must return to there, then something would have to happen. One way or another something would have to happen . . . ”
“And it would have to happen in the appointed year,” I said, “in 1967.”
“Throughout the Bible there appear songs of prophecy, songs of the prophets, songs given by God to reveal His will or to prophesy of future events.”
“The man in the vision with the harp . . . was he a prophet?”
“He was a representation of the prophets, and the song, a representation of the prophet’s song.” The Oracle paused for a moment, looked up at the willow tree, then continued. “It was springtime and the anniversary of Israel’s birth. It was also the time of the Israeli Music Festival. A young Israeli woman, Shuli Natan, approached the festival stage with a song that its writer, Naomi Shemer, had given her. It was the first time the song would be sung in public. But the song was not of celebration but of longing and sorrow. It was called ‘Yerushalayim Shel Zahav,’ ‘Jerusalem of Gold.’ It would give voice to two thousand years of Jewish yearnings for the Holy City.
“So she would sing of how the ancient cisterns had dried up . . . how the ancient market square was deserted . . . how no one of Israel’s children was able to enter the ancient city . . . and how, unlike in ancient times, no one now ascended to the most holy place in the Jewish faith, the Temple Mount. And around the ancient city were the sounds of desolation, the howling of the wind in the mountain caves. 1
“It was a song of Jubilee, the longings of the separated for their long-lost inheritance. And it was the echo of a song sung in ancient times. In the sixth century BC, when the Jewish people were taken captive to exile in Babylon with Jerusalem left in ruins, a song of lamentation and longing went forth, the song of the exiles that would become known as Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song . . . saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ . . . If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! . . . ” 2
“The willow tree,” I said, “like this one . . . and the harp on the willows, as in the vision.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle. “The ancient lamentation spoke of the songs of Zion, the songs of Jerusalem, so ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ would specifically refer to the songs of Jerusalem. In the ancient lamentation the writer tells of the Jewish people hanging up their harps. No longer could they sing the songs of Jerusalem. In the modern lamentation the same word appears—kinor, the Hebrew harp. The writer writes that she herself has now become the harp yearning to sing the songs of Jerusalem.
“The ancient song contains the words ‘Eem eshkakhech Yerushalayim,’ ‘If I forget you, O Je
rusalem.’ In the song given to Israel in the spring of 1967 the same words appear, the same exact Hebrew words from the ancient song sung by the Jewish exiles by the rivers of Babylon.
“Psalm 137 was the song of the first exile. ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ was the song of the second. And it would be a song of prophecy. It would be a sign of what was about to take place. The separation of the Jewish people from Jerusalem had gone on for two thousand years. ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ was sung on May 15, 1967. Less than thirty days after it was sung, the exile that had begun in ancient times would come to an end. The song’s longings would be fulfilled.”
“What was the reaction to the song?”
“The audience was transfixed. When it was finished, there came an outburst of thunderous applause that wouldn’t stop. The song had struck a deep and ancient chord in the nation’s soul. It began rapidly spreading across the land among the religious and nonreligious Israelis alike. Children were humming its melody. Its author began performing it for Israeli soldiers. They had no idea that they would soon be swept up in a colossal whirlwind of events that would bring the song’s longings and the nation’s ancient prayers to fulfillment.
“In fact, on the very day that ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ was first sung to the nation, the events that would bring about its fulfillment were being set in motion. Enemy troops were moving across the desert to mass at Israel’s borders. The song would be a prophetic harbinger of the colossal events that were about to take place and that would lead to the gates of the ancient city.”
The Oracle Page 16