“And with America?”
“The first harbinger, the breach, manifested on American soil on September 11, 2001, when America’s hedge of protection was lifted.
“The enemy was allowed to strike the land in the form of nineteen hijackers. The strike brought destruction in New York and Washington, DC. And yet it was limited in its scope and duration. But it shook the nation. 9/11 was a wake-up call to an America that had grown so hardened and deafened to God’s voice that only such an event would get through. And 9/11 was a warning to America and the call to return.”
“The second harbinger . . . ”
“The terrorist. The strike on ancient Israel was carried out by the soldiers of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians were the world’s first terrorists, the first to employ terror as a means to a political end. They were fierce, brutal, and merciless. They would bring terror to the people of any land they chose to invade. So it was when they invaded Israel. The second harbinger was the sign of the terrorist. The destruction is masterminded and carried out not only by the nation’s enemies—but by terrorists.”
“And with America?”
“The sign of the terrorist appeared on American soil on 9/11. The attack was masterminded and carried out not only by America’s enemies but specifically by terrorists. The Assyrians were the fathers of terrorism, and those who carried out the attacks of 9/11 were their spiritual children. Beyond that, the terrorists originated in the same region of the world from which the Assyrians came, the Middle East. And when the Assyrians carried out their strike against Israel, they did so by communicating with each other in Akkadian, a long extinct Middle Eastern language. The closest language in the modern world to ancient Akkadian is Arabic, the same language spoken by the terrorists of 9/11 and by which they carried out their attack against America.”
“And what comes next in the template of judgment?”
“After the attack, things returned to normal, or they appeared to.”
“And why do you say they appeared to?” he asked.
“Because things didn’t really return to normal. The warning had come. The nation was now given a reprieve, a window of time, a chance to change its course and return to the Lord.”
“And if they didn’t return?”
“Then, at the end of the window would come greater shakings and calamities.”
“And how did Israel respond to the warning?” he asked. “And what did they do in the window of time given them?”
“They refused to listen. They refused to take warning. Instead, they hardened themselves and responded in defiance. They made a vow. The vow was recorded in Isaiah 9:10. And from that vow and verse come the seven other harbingers. They said this:
The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.”
“And what does it mean?”
“They wouldn’t repent. They wouldn’t be humbled. They wouldn’t change their course or relent from their apostasy. Instead, they would come back stronger and greater than before. It was a vow of defiance.”
“And what happened to America in the wake of 9/11?”
“America followed the same path of ancient Israel. It responded to the calamity not with humility, not with any return to God, but with defiance.”
“And the third harbinger . . .”
“‘The bricks have fallen down.’ When the Assyrians invaded the land, they caused bricks to fall. The sign of fallen bricks speaks of destruction, the breaking down of walls, the fall of buildings, and the heaps of ruins that were left in the wake of the Assyrian destruction.”
“And with America?”
“The attack of 9/11 specifically involved the fall of walls and buildings. And the most iconic image in the wake of the calamity was of the heaps of ruins at Ground Zero. And within those ruins were fallen bricks.”
“And the fourth harbinger . . .”
“‘But we will rebuild.’ They vowed to replace the bricks of clay with hewn stone. Hewn stone would allow them to build stronger buildings than before, bigger, higher, greater. Their buildings would embody the nation’s pride. When Isaiah recorded their words, he wrote that they were being spoken in pride and arrogance.1 In Hebrew, the word he used for arrogance is linked to the word for tower. The fourth harbinger is the rebuilding of what had fallen, the rise of the tower.”
“And how did the fourth harbinger manifest in America?”
“After 9/11, American leaders vowed to rebuild the fallen towers, and not just rebuild them, but rebuild them bigger, better, stronger, and higher than before. The rebuilding of Ground Zero would focus on a single object—a tower. The plan was to build the tower of Ground Zero bigger, stronger, and higher than the towers that had fallen.
“It was to reach a height of 1,776 feet, the number that marked the nation’s birth. As in ancient Israel, their rebuilding was to become the focal point of the nation’s pride and defiance and the embodiment of the nation itself.”
“And the fifth harbinger . . .”
“‘But we will rebuild with hewn stone.’ The project of rebuilding began with the laying down of hewn stone. The Hebrew word behind hewn stone is gazit. The word gazit refers to a stone quarried from mountain rock and used for constructing buildings of strength and magnitude. The gazit stone was most often a massive rectangular block of quarried rock. So the people of Israel went to the mountains and quarries and brought back the gazit stone to the ground of the fallen buildings. The gazit, or quarried, stone became the start of the nation’s rebuilding, the embodiment of its vow, and the symbol of its defiance.”
“And how did the fifth harbinger manifest in America?”
“Nearly three years after 9/11, a massive object descended onto the floor of Ground Zero. It was a gazit stone. It had been quarried out of the mountains of upstate New York, twenty tons of hewn stone. As in ancient times, it was brought to the ground of destruction where the buildings had fallen. On July 4, 2004, American leaders and spectators gathered around the stone in a ceremony that was to mark the beginning of the tower. The leaders pronounced vows over it. One of them, the governor of New York, proclaimed that they were performing the act in the ‘spirit of defiance.’2 As in ancient times, the gazit stone became the embodiment of the nation’s vow and the symbol of its defiance.”
“And the sixth harbinger . . .”
“‘The sycamores are cut down.’ When the Assyrians invaded Israel, they brought destruction not only to the nation’s buildings but to its land. The fallen building spoke of the destruction in the cities. But the fallen sycamore epitomized the destruction of the land.”
“And in America?”
“On 9/11, in the last moments of destruction, the North Tower of the World Trade Center began to collapse. As it plummeted to the ground, it sent forth a metal beam into the air. The beam struck an object, a tree growing in the soil at the corner of Ground Zero. The tree was a sycamore as in the prophecy. It would be put on display and memorialized and known as the Sycamore of Ground Zero, the sixth harbinger of the vow.”
“And the seventh harbinger . . .”
“‘But we will replace them with cedars.’ The word cedar in the translation stands for the Hebrew word erez. The seventh harbinger is the erez tree. The word erez speaks of a strong tree, particularly a conifer and, more specifically, a tree of the Pinaceae family. The people of Israel would plant the erez in place of the fallen sycamore. As the erez tree was stronger than the sycamore, it was another symbolic act of defiance; the nation would rise up stronger than before.”
“And how did it manifest in America?”
“In 2003, at the end of November, a tree appeared in the sky at the corner of Ground Zero. It was being lowered into place where the Sycamore of Ground Zero had once stood and was struck down. People gathered around the tree and held a ceremony. They noted the symbolic meaning behind the planting of the new tree where the old had once stood. They gave the tree a name. T
hey called it the Tree of Hope and heralded it as a sign of the indomitable nature of human hope. The tree wasn’t a sycamore. It was a conifer tree. It was of the Pinaceae family. As in the prophecy, it was an erez tree. So they replaced the fallen sycamore with an erez tree. The ancient sign of defiance and judgment, the sign of the erez tree, that had manifested in ancient Israel now had manifested in New York City at the corner of Ground Zero.”
“And the eighth harbinger . . .”
“The eighth harbinger is the vow itself, the utterance of the vow. In order for the vow to have meaning, it had to represent the nation’s course.
And so its leaders had to give it voice. And since Israel’s leaders ruled from the city of Samaria, it would have been declared in the nation’s capital. The leaders utter the words of the vow.”
“And its manifestation in America?”
“On September 11, 2004, the third anniversary of the calamity, the Democratic candidate for the vice presidency, Senator John Edwards, gave a speech in the capital city. He opened the speech with the words
The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.3
“The ancient vow was uttered by an American leader in the nation’s capital city. And it wasn’t only those words; the entire speech was an exposition on that one verse, Isaiah 9:10. It was the utterance of the ancient vow. He had no idea what the words actually meant, or he never would have uttered them. He spoke of the striking down of the sycamore without realizing an actual sycamore had been struck down on 9/11. He spoke of the gazit stone without realizing an actual gazit stone had been laid on Ground Zero to begin the rebuilding. He spoke of the planting of the erez tree where the sycamore had been struck down without realizing that this had actually taken place. And he connected it all to 9/11. He proclaimed a verse that spoke of the warning strike of a nation in the form of a terrorist attack and connected it to 9/11—the verse that identified a nation undergoing the first stage of judgment.”
“And the ninth harbinger . . .”
“The prophecy,” I replied. “The vow was not only a declaration but a prophecy of things yet to come. And by appearing in Isaiah 9, it became part of a prophecy of national judgment as well as a matter of national record. So the vow was spoken not only by a national leader and in the capital city but as a prophecy of what was still to come and as a matter of national record.”
“And to America?”
“On September 12, 2001,” I answered, “the very day after the calamity, the American Congress gathered on Capitol Hill to issue its response to 9/11. The man charged to present that response was the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle. As he reached the conclusion of his address, he said,
There is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah, that I think speaks to all of us at times like this . . . . ‘The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.’4
“So on the day after 9/11, the nation’s response was exactly the same as the response of ancient Israel in the wake of the ancient calamity, the first strike of judgment. Daschle spoke of the fallen tree without knowing that there actually existed a tree struck down at the corner of Ground Zero that answered to the tree in the vow. He spoke of the rebuilding with the gazit stone, which would be fulfilled three years after he spoke it. And he spoke of the planting of the erez tree, an act that would manifest two years after he proclaimed it.
“From Capitol Hill and before the United States Congress, the nation, and the world, the Senate majority leader uttered the same words on the day after 9/11 that the leaders of ancient Israel had uttered in the days after their calamity—word for word. And without having any idea what he was doing, he connected the calamity of 9/11 with the calamity of ancient Israel, the opening moment in the judgment of a fallen nation. And so on the day after 9/11 and from Capitol Hill, the leader of the United States Senate unwittingly pronounced judgment on America.”
“Well done, Nouriel,” said the prophet. “You’ve laid the foundation. Now we can move to the next revelation. The signs of a nation under judgment . . . the same signs that appeared in the last days of ancient Israel now manifested in America. And to where do they lead?”
“To the window,” I replied, “to the time given for the nation to return.”
“And in the case of ancient Israel, what happened?”
“Instead of turning back, they turned away all the more. They went further and further away from God.”
“Yes,” said the prophet. “When a nation is given the chance to turn back and rejects that chance, it will become all the more brazen, and its fall will deepen and accelerate. The purpose of the shaking is to wake the nation, to turn it back, and to avert the greater calamity.”
“Then it begs the question,” I said, “it’s been years since we last spoke of these things. Since that time, has there been any turning back?”
“No,” said the prophet. “America’s overall descent from God has only progressed. And it was all set forth on the day after 9/11 on Capitol Hill. After the Senate majority leader finished proclaiming the ancient vow of defiance, he said, ‘That is what we will do.’5 He was proclaiming that America would follow in the path of ancient Israel, the path of defiance, apostasy, and destruction. It would respond to the calamity of 9/11 as had Israel in its last days as a nation. It was all there the very day after 9/11.”
“But did America have to follow in the ancient course?”
“No. But it did. That was its choice. And so the mystery continues.”
“So in the time since we last saw each other, America’s fall from God has continued.”
“Not only continued,” he said, “but accelerated and deepened and in virtually every way and realm . . . from abandoning the ways of God to increasingly warring against them, from tolerating immorality to brazenly championing it, by indoctrinating its children away from the ways of God, by vilifying those who refuse to join in its apostasy but hold true to the ways of God, by seeking to silence and punish them, by shedding innocent blood, by not only calling evil good and good evil but establishing it, legislating it, and executing it, by sanctifying the profane and profaning the sacred . . . ”
“So where does this all leave us with regard to the harbingers?”
“As the nation’s fall has continued, so have the manifestations of the harbingers.”
At that, he reached into his coat pocket; took out a seal of the same size, shape, and color as the others; and placed it in my hand. Then he rose to his feet.
“Until we meet again,” he said as he turned away from the ocean and began walking away.
“Do you need a ride?” I asked. “I have a boat, you know.”
He turned around and smiled and, within a minute, was gone.
“How do you suppose he left the island?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I learned not to ask or try to figure it out.”
“And the next mystery . . . ”
“A hidden mystery,” said Nouriel, “an ancient mystery hidden before the eyes of an entire nation.”
Chapter 18
The Babylonian Word
SO WHAT WAS on the seal?”
“It was hard to figure it out. The overall image seemed amorphous. But within it was a second shape, slightly less undefined, something of a rectangle, but irregular, with no absolutely straight lines. Within the rectangular-like shape were two symbols, two letter I’s or two number 1s.”
“So what was it?”
“I had no idea. But it wasn’t the only clue. I had a dream.”
“As with the city on the hill,” she said, “you were given a seal and a dream.”
“Yes,” said Nouriel, “that was the pattern now. Every revelation would be linked to a seal and a dream. The difference was that now the prophet wasn’t appearing in my dreams—but in reality. Maybe that’s why I was given a seal as well, because I needed m
ore to go on. I had to try to figure out the meaning of the mystery on my own—at least until the next time I encountered him.”
“So what was the dream?”
“It came soon after I returned from Massachusetts Bay. It wasn’t long or complex, but it was puzzling. I was overlooking a landscape of ruins. I saw what seemed to be a sheet of parchment covered with writing rise up from the ruins and stand upright on its edge. Then another parchment rose up from the ruins and stood edge to edge with the first . . . then a third and a fourth until they formed a square, and then a fifth that covered the top to form a box—but all of parchments. Then I noticed a stirring in the ruins under the box, more parchments, larger than the first, rising to their edges to form another square and box that lifted up the first box. The process repeated itself over and over again until it formed a tower, a tall, stepped tower of parchments.”
“A ziggurat,” said Ana, “a ziggurat of parchments. So what did you make of it?”
“The dream began in the ruins. The image on the seal was amorphous, like ruins. The rectangular shape, I believe, represented the parchment. So I figured it had something to do with the tower at Ground Zero.”
“The ruins and the tower, yes.”
“But beyond that, I didn’t know where to go with it.”
“But you went somewhere with it.”
“I went to New Jersey. I had just finished attending a meeting there and had about two hours of free time. I decided to go outside to go for a walk. I made my way to the waterfront, where I found a park. It was technically a park, but it looked more like a wooden pier or dock. Across the river were the steel and glass buildings of lower Manhattan now beaming with the orange light of the late afternoon sun. Most striking was the tower.”
“The tower of the World Trade Center.”
“Yes, the harbinger. I stood by the railing at the edge of the park and gazed across the Hudson. And then he appeared.”
“The prophet.”
The Harbinger II Page 12