Messenger's Dawn

by Lior Akerman

  “May I see what it is?” Mike asked.

  The priest turned around and signaled for him to follow. They headed towards the southern side of the cathedral to Father Mathew’s small isolation room. The priest opened the door and signaled Mike to follow. He took one step inside, lifted his eyes and looked at the wall in front of him. His mouth dropped open in shock. On the brown stone wall, opposite the entrance, long and crowded lines were engraved in English. They seemed to have been written in a great hurry and under pressure, using something sharp. He read the words and stood there, unable to move.

  Despite being shocked and amazed at what was written, he knew that what he was reading had significance and was related to the things directed at him in the last few days.

  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

  On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals.

  ‘For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.

  On the wall next to this, there was a piece of paper torn from his notebook. On it Father Mathew wrote:

  “The voice is the voice of Moshe; the messenger is our savior Jesus and the guiding hand is that of God. The penalty is coming soon, the blow will be painful and then the messenger will appear. His voice will be heard and his power will rise from the ruins and he will prevail. He is already here; his mission has begun.”

  The writing was the same as in the letter Jeffrey had handed Mike last night, sitting in his pocket.

  Father John added:

  “The police assumption is that father Mathew went mad or had an anxiety attack before his death and that is why he wrote this unclear prophecy of the wrath.”

  Mike listened to him and tried to accept what he was saying but deep inside he knew that there was no madness or anxiety here. It was all coming together.

  12

  Israel, Zfat, July 23rd

  After his conversation with Avraham, Rabbi Yaacov knew exactly where he was heading. He got dressed, left his modest house on the second floor in a row of old buildings on Arlozorov Street, near the Agudat Yisrael school, and got into his old Citroen. He did not like driving and preferred public transportation but this time he had no choice. The car resisted at first but eventually gave in and he was ready to go.

  Yaacov knew the way well. The old car creaked as it winded down the narrow streets of Zfat, the city he loved so dearly. Every evening he would walk through the city by himself for an hour or two. This was his meditation time. He would walk through the streets and alleys of the old city, passing the Torah learning centers and synagogues and listening to the children learning together. On Thursday nights he would take an extra-long walk. He combined it with his Talmud studies at the Agudat Yisrael synagogue, in the traditional “Mishmar” all night Torah learning.

  The Citroen was old and noisy, but it had no trouble driving down the hill towards Route 85 and from there south to Route 65. At the Golani junction, Yaacov turned right, heading west on Route 77, until he came to the turn to Kfar Kana. He crossed the village from north to south, passing the famous Wedding Church where Jesus performed his first miracle, curing the son of the king. He continued towards the southern exit, where he turned right on to a short dirt path, reaching the white tomb.

  The tomb of Raban Shimon Ben Gamliel, the Head of the Sanhedrin in the period after the Bar Kochva Revolt, was a site many Jews visited. The grave was surrounded by a low stone fence, with an opening for entering and exiting the burial cave. Thousands of notes were placed inside the cave, with requests for assistance. Strangely, fate had brought the Head of the Jewish Sanhedrin and Jesus of Nazareth to this small village.

  Rabbi Yaacov Cohen parked his car and entered the burial cave. The only people there were two young ultra-orthodox worshippers. He looked at the walls, in an attempt to find a clue or a sign but he found nothing. He sat down on the stone bench against the wall and held his head in his hands, trying to figure out what to do next. A few minutes that felt like an eternity had passed and he returned to his car. He opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat. As he was about to start the engine, he noticed a piece of paper beneath the windshield wiper. He got out of the car and removed it. When he saw the handwriting, he was shocked. After reading what it said, his face turned white and he was trembling uncontrollably. His brain could not grasp what his eyes had seen.

  “God bless you, my dear brother Yaacov:

  I was here and received the news and the mission. I received the message for the messenger and I transferred it to its destination. Suddenly, it all came together for me - the faith, thoughts, the love of man, justice and most of all the future. Heresy became belief, belief in God became belief in man and religion became one, containing all people. It is not spirit and commandments I saw but the wonders of human action. I realized that we have lost the most important belief, believing in ourselves, in the humanity in us. Instead, we have placed our faith in unknown and distant sources. Everything I have believed in has changed, the power I thought was above us, is not there. It is inside us. I know that you too will find the truth, my dear brother.

  The angel has asked me to write the following words to you:

  “Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

  “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

  The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

  “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

  The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

  The angel also asked me to write these words:

  “Here come the days of the signs of Messiah, days of the beginning of salvation. The Messiah, the son of David will appear and with him the Gospel. Before he appears, there will be calamity, followed by the remedy introduced by the messenger and a new covenant will be reached with the people of the land. He will overcome his obstacles and beat his enemies. No one will stand before him. He will possess unknown power, so the land has peace. The messenger is here, the mission has begun.”

  To this Rabbi Yochanan added:

  “Please quote the tractate of Yoma chapter 3, verse 6 and chapter 7, verse 4 before the messenger and continue my mission.

  I love you dearly, my dear brother.

  Yours, Yochanan.”

  Yaacov read the letter over and over again and every time he did, he trembled. He looked around him to see if someone was playing a trick on him but he knew that the letter was authentic. It was written to him by his brother. How did it get here? When was it written? Where is Yochanan?

  Yaacov folded the letter and put it in his pocket, he took one last look at the tomb and returned to his car. The drive home went by without him noticing. All he knew was that he found himself on his doorstep. His wife Rochale approached him, with terror and asked:

  “What happened Yaacov? You are so pale.”

  13.

  Iran. Bazargan, July 26th

  As evening fell on Bazargan, everything seemed to be in order. Families were in their homes, the streets emptied, the last trucks from the border crossing were on their way out and a light eastern breeze was blowing from the hills east of Route 12, along the border.

  In the Jerondy family house, dinner had just ended. No one was at the table except for
Samal and Charnbog. There was no sound of little children in the house, as there usually was. The women were not chatting in the yard. Haider and Ardashir had disappeared several days earlier and the family gas station was closed. The sound of the ignition of Takshan’s old Nissan pickup was sounded for the last time in town. Samal and Charnbog left. They headed towards the Sha Ganbary lake and disappeared in the dark. A short while later, they were on “the other side.” Their other home was in the semi-deserted town of Gravolak on the Turkish side of the border.

  This home was a brick building that was falling apart, surrounded by similar buildings that had been abandoned years before. The entire town had just a few houses with inhabitants, mainly workers of the border terminal. This building had been serving Samal and Charnbog well for years. It was the base from which they set out and to which they returned from their destructive missions. They had a lot of experience and were responsible for many natural disasters by which they punished humanity. Just two years earlier, they had created one of the worst disasters in history - the huge earthquake and the tsunami that followed, killing tens of thousands in Japan. A year earlier, they were the cause of the death of hundreds of thousands in the massive earthquake in Haiti. They also were responsible for the earthquakes in China in 1556, in 1920 and 1976, killing millions. The two were also behind hundreds of cyclones and floods, destroying entire countries and burying millions of people.

  This was the third time that they had formed their catastrophe in the shape of a world war between humans. They did so well in the two previous times and knew that, in the final war, they would once again prevail. They knew that this mission would take longer and be more catastrophic. That night, the final stage of their mission began and they had a lot to do.

  Exactly an hour later, a series of events began that would change the world. That was the plan. The huge explosion that occurred at midnight found all of the residents of Bazargan in their beds. The terrible thrust and heat waves that were a result of the explosion of the gas station left no chance for anyone in the town to survive. The satellites in outer space recorded the huge light that came from the Iranian border. A much smaller explosion occurred at the same time in the town of Gravolak, across the border. Five houses burned to the ground.

  Samal and Charnbog were no longer there. Their plan was already in motion. All the messengers were on their way. On the following day, they were expected to be elsewhere, at a place where everyone could see them. Somewhere, the entire world would observe their power and accept their rule. As far as they were concerned, no one could stop them, at least not anyone or anything they were aware of. They knew they were going to face a serious obstacle they would have to overcome to complete their mission but they did not know what it was and were not troubled by it. They trusted their power. This new place they had come to was just another stop on their way to their final destination, a final and important stage before victory.

  The whole world, August 2nd

  In East Jerusalem, Muhamad Kaadan arrived at the Al-Jamaya School, on the main road, behind the Augusta Victoria Hospital. He found a large and heavy vest that was placed there. He put it on indifferently and then he sat down by the hospital fence, leaning on it and waiting for the morning to rise.

  In Tel Aviv, Sharon Kedem left the pub at which he had been drinking alone that evening. He headed on foot to his home in Givatayim, through Menachem Begin Street and the Hashalom interchange. After walking two kilometers, he stopped at the entrance to the Nahalat Yitzchak cemetery and entered. To the right of the gate he found the heavy vest, put it on and sat down by the fence. He stayed there until morning.

  In Haifa, George Saman completed his shift in the family bakery, changed his clothes and walked out to the main road crossing the Carmel hills. He headed west on Hanasi Street towards Stella Maris, where his family lived in an elaborate three-story house. After 500 meters, he suddenly stopped, his facial expression changed. He looked to the left, crossed the street and walked into the park. He walked down the stairs and headed towards the edge of the park. He found the big heavy vest under a tree and he put it on. Then he sat down under the tree and stayed there until morning.

  In the bunker in Beirut, the Hezbollah leaders knew something was wrong. They had lost contact with their field unit. From partial reports that arrived, Ahmed Nagi, the commander of the bunker, understood that the soldiers guarding all the bases with missiles in Southern Lebanon had disappeared. At some bases, their bodies were found. In others, they simply vanished. Ahmed demanded the organization leader, Sheikh Hassan Hadrallah, be awakened and updated on the situation. The Sheikh was informed, and he ordered additional soldiers to be sent to the posts to find out what had happened.

  The initial assumption was that the Israeli military carried out a commando operation against their missile layout. However, the observation posts did not identify any military forces in the area and it remained a mystery. Several hours later, indications were received in the bunker that all the positions were activated and the missiles were launched at Israel. No one in the bunker and the office of the Sheikh understood what had happened and how.

  The Russian army and its commander were just as surprised with what occurred in the eastern missiles layout, along the Siberian hills in the Kamchatka peninsula. The posts were abandoned and contact with them was lost. The missiles were activated without anyone operating them. The deadly missiles were fired directly at their targets in North America. Russian President Magrayev was informed of this. He asked how this had happened and was told that this is impossible since the missiles were not fueled or ready for launching. That is exactly what he told the American president on the phone, after they were launched. North Korean leader Kim Il-Phong also acted uncharacteristically and called the American president urgently in order to apologize and explain that he was not responsible for the missiles launched from his country towards the U.S.

  These apologies were not accepted and the explanations made no sense. The electronic intelligence stated that the leaders were speaking the truth but the American missile system was activated and responded immediately.

  There still was no explanation for the terrible global tragedy that led to the death of hundreds of thousands around the world and to the destroying of entire cities in the Middle East and the U.S. World leaders spent the month in shielded bunkers and did not know what to do. Each leader was sure that the enemy that attacked them was lying and hiding behind apologies and the fierce battles continued. Messages sent from unknown underground factions announced that additional attacks were to take place in the coming days. State leaders were convinced that their enemies were the ones calling themselves the “world underground.” Masses of civilians hid in bomb shelters and other safe places, others gathered in churches, synagogues and temples around the world, waiting to hear from the religious leaders, who were just as clueless as their followers.

  The communication lines in many countries around the globe had collapsed, planes and boats were grounded, the banks and government institutions were closed and the stock markets not operating. The economy began to collapse in many parts of Europe, South America and Asia. The main problem was that there was no clear enemy to operate against.

  After three weeks of damage and destruction, it seemed to everyone that the end of the world was close. But then something surprising happened. The western countries managed to repair some of the communication lines through satellites and the social media and government sites were operating again. The Third World countries suffered less damage in the attacks and they, too, began to repair their computer and communication systems.

  September brought not only brought autumn but also the “image in white” - that was what he was called at first. It was his only identification mark. His nickname, “The Messenger,” was only given to him a month later, when the social, business and government media networks were flooded with millions of posts and biblical quotes. All over the world
, the media found and published the biblical quotations of Rabbi Yochanan Aharon Hacohen and Father Mathew who were no longer alive. Analysts and commentators explained the meaning of the verses the rabbi and the priest quoted and scholars offered in-depth analysis of these ancient prophecies and the descriptions of Armageddon.

  At first, the atheists tried to find military explanations for the global wave of terrorism but once the messenger appeared, they had no rational explanations. The religious figures, believing in the Messiah, finally had answers to all their questions. To them, the Messiah had materialized and redemption was closer than ever. That is what they told their millions of followers throughout the world.

  It was the only thing anyone could talk about. There were endless explanations and interpretations. Some explained why this was the end of the world, others explained why it was the start of a new and reformed world. The messenger said nothing. He preferred action. He knew he was not the Messiah, just a messenger.

  14.

  New York, July 24th

  When Mike returned home that evening from the St. Patrick Church, Jeffrey saw him at the entrance to the building and noticed that he seemed different. He was relaxed and at peace, uncharacteristically indifferent to his surroundings.

  The truth was that inside Mike’s head there was a storm going on. Strong winds threatened to undermine his usual pleasant and stable life. He had always taken pride in succeeding to remain modest, on his own, quiet and not socially involved. In spite of this, he was content with his life. He had no commitments to anyone and did not believe in anything except himself. He never had any desire to affect others or compete against them. He was on his own and perfectly happy this way. On that day, however, he realized that this part of his life was apparently over. Forces bigger than him were influencing him and guiding him to places he never expected. Inside him there was acceptance of this, although he did not quite understand what he was accepting. The puzzle was still incomplete but it seemed that soon things would become clear to him.