The Harbinger, page 11
“It was the third year after 9/11. The pieces of the ancient puzzle were falling into place. In late November of 2003, the Erez Tree was lowered into the earth to replace the fallen Sycamore. On the following Fourth of July, 2004, the Gazit Stone was, in turn, lowered to the floor of Ground Zero to replace the fallen Bricks. So by the summer of 2004, every object mentioned in the ancient prophecy had manifested, and each at Ground Zero. Less than three months later would come the manifestation of the Eighth Harbinger.”
“But not at Ground Zero.”
“No, in the nation’s capital where the nation’s leaders reside. According to the mystery, it would have to involve at least one leader, one who could speak on behalf of the nation . . . a figure of national prominence. He would have to utter words paralleling the ancient vow.”
“And all this would have to take place publicly.”
“Yes. In the autumn of 2004, the nation was in the final stage of a presidential election. The candidate campaigning on the Democratic ticket for the office of vice presidency, a member of the Senate, was, at that time, among the most prominent of the nation’s leaders. It was September 11, 2004. The vice presidential candidate had been invited to speak at a gathering of a congressional caucus in the nation’s capital on the anniversary of the calamity. It would be an eloquent address, designed to inspire its hearers. It would also be a sign. What would proceed out of his mouth would be even more precise and more eerie than that which had been spoken over the stone at Ground Zero. September 11, 2004, the third anniversary of the calamity, these are the exact words spoken that day in Washington DC, the nation’s capital city:
“Good morning. Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s word to get us through:
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.”4
“My God!” I said. “That’s too . . . ”
“It is,” said the prophet. “Nevertheless, it happened.”
“I can’t believe . . . ”
“But it happened.”
“He said those exact words?”
“Those . . . exact . . . words.”
“But it’s a prophecy of judgment! What was he doing proclaiming . . . ”
“That’s the point.”
“He proclaimed Isaiah 9:10 . . . ”
“The code to the Harbingers.”
“It’s too much . . . ”
“But it’s real.”
• • •
Ana had been silent up to this point, just trying to take it all in. But she could no longer contain her reaction. “It’s totally unbelievable . . . ” she said. “It’s like something out of a . . . ”
“I know,” he replied, “but it’s all real.”
“When the prophet told you all these things, did you check them out to verify them, to make sure they actually happened?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“And they all checked out?”
“Yes, they all checked out.”
“It’s so hard to believe it. Now it’s the vice presidential candidate saying it outright . . . this ancient mystery. It’s beyond real.”
“I know. I told him that. But it’s all true.”
“But why would anyone proclaim that vow?” she asked.
“I asked the same thing of the prophet.”
“And what was his answer?”
“His answer was that it happened for the same reason everything else happened. It wasn’t about the motive or the intention of the one doing it, but the fact that it was done . . . that it happened. It happened because it had to happen. It was another replaying of the ancient mystery. What the speaker intended to say was irrelevant. The words came out because those were the words that had to be spoken. The vow had to be proclaimed, the words of the ancient leaders over the ancient calamity had to be proclaimed by an American leader over 9/11. And by doing so, the two nations, the ancient and the modern, were bound together. The utterance would join the Assyrian invasion to 9/11 and America’s post-9/11 defiance to Israel’s defiance in the face of God’s judgment.”
“But how,” she asked, “did it happen that the vice presidential candidate could end up saying those words?”
“That’s the same thing I wanted to know. I asked the prophet how many verses there were in the Bible.”
• • •
“Over thirty thousand,” he told me.
“So,” I replied, “out of over thirty thousand verses . . . that’s the one he chose? And you said it was obscure . . . that even people who read the Bible every day would probably have no idea it existed.”
“That is correct,” he replied.
“So how on earth did he end up choosing that particular verse?”
“How was the Sycamore cut down?” he asked. “Through a series of twists and quirks. But now the twists and quirks take place in the realm of speech writing, in the searching through quotations deemed most appropriate for such occasions, in the borrowing of passages and quotes from other proclamations and speeches. It doesn’t matter how it happened; the point is it happened. One of the most prominent of American leaders had now proclaimed the ancient vow—one of the most obscure verses in the Bible and one of the most ominous.”
“And he too had no idea what he was doing . . . or saying?” I asked.
“If he had, he never would have done it.”
“It’s stunning . . . ”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s stunning enough for Isaiah 9:10 to appear in a speech centered on 9/11. But that wasn’t the end of it. It wasn’t only that the ancient prophecy appeared in the speech . . . ”
“What else was it?”
“It was that the entire speech actually emanated out of the ancient prophecy and revolved around it.”
“The whole speech revolved around Isaiah 9:10?” I asked.
“It was the cornerstone on which the speech was built.”
“So an American leader built an entire speech on an ancient vow spoken in defiance of God by the rebellious leaders of a doomed nation?”
“And lest the connection be missed, he proceeded to join the ancient words of judgment to America.”
“How?”
“He said this:
“Let me show you how we are building and putting cedars in those three hallowed places.5
“And again:
“And in a place where smoke once rose, you and I, we will see that cedar rising.6
“And yet again:
“You will see that while those bricks fell and the sycamores cut down, our people are making those cedars rise.”7
“He’s actually linking the fallen bricks of Ground Zero to the fallen bricks of Israel’s judgment!”
“Yes, Nouriel. That’s exactly what he’s doing. But he doesn’t stop there. He speaks as well of fallen sycamores and rising stones . . . ”
“The Gazit Stone.”
“Yes, and rising cedars.”
“The Erez Tree.”
“And all referring to America’s campaign to defy the calamity of 9/11, as he links it all to the judgment of ancient Israel. And then he crowns the address with a dramatic conclusion in the form of a final vow:
“The cedars will rise, the stones will go up, and this season of hope will endure.”8
“And he never realized it?” I asked. “He had absolutely no idea what he was doing?”
“His only intention was to deliver an inspiring speech, a word to encourage a nation. But instead . . . ”
“But instead, he was pronouncing judgment on a nation.”
“Yes,” said the prophet. “Without realizing the ramifications of his words, he was pronouncing judgment on America.”
“Amazing!”
“But so it was in the ancient case as well. Without realizing what they were doing, the leaders of ancient Israel were pronouncing judgment on their nation.”
“But now it’s two and half thousand years later,” I said. “Now there’s a context—the Book of Isaiah. It’s clearly not a word of encouragement. So it means nobody took the time to look even two verses back or ahead to see that it was actually a proclamation of judgment?”
“No, because it had to be proclaimed. And yet notice, Nouriel, the senator made a subtle change. The original vow speaks in the future tense—‘We will rebuild.’ ‘We will plant cedars.’ But in the speech, it becomes, ‘We are building.’ ‘We are making those cedars rise.’ Only at the end does it go back to the future tense, ‘The cedars will rise.’ ‘The stones will go up.’ Why do you think that is?”
“When he speaks in the future tense, he’s vowing . . . it’s the vow. But when he speaks in the present tense, he’s bearing witness to the fact that the vow is being carried out.”
“Exactly. He’s bearing witness that the vow is being carried out. And to do that, he takes hewn stones and cedars, the symbols of Israel’s defiance in Isaiah 9:10, and transforms them into the symbols of America’s campaign to rebuild itself after 9/11.”
“Just as the actual physical harbingers were literally transformed into the symbols of American resurgence.”
“Correct.”
“Did he know it was happening?”
“Did he know what was happening?”
“Did he know that what he was declaring, figuratively and symbolically, was actually taking place in reality? He spoke of the falling of the sycamore as a symbol of 9/11. Did he know that it had actually happened, that a sycamore had actually been struck down on 9/11? And when he spoke of Americans putting up stones and cedars, did he realize that too had actually taken place? Did he know about the Gazit Stone or the Erez Tree?”
“He was only speaking poetically. He had no idea. And even if someone was to report it to him, he still would have had no idea what it all meant, no more idea of what he was doing than those who actually replaced the fallen Sycamore with the Erez Tree, and bricks with stone. Everyone was unknowingly performing their part of the mystery. And his part was to take the ancient vow and transform it. In his address, it ceased to be a quote. It was no longer Israel boasting in its cedars. It was now America. It was thus now America’s vow. Everything was being transposed—the Bricks, the Quarried Stone, the Sycamore, the Cedar, and now an American leader was publicly proclaiming the exact words of the vow and bearing witness of its fulfillment, a Harbinger to seal the other Harbinger, and to reveal America as a nation under the shadow of judgment.”
“An American leader pronouncing judgment on America!”
“Without realizing it . . . yes . . . as the manifestation of the Harbinger.”
“So on the anniversary of 9/11, an American leader proclaims the ancient vow . . . pronounces judgment on his own nation, and he has no idea what he’s doing or saying. As with all the other Harbingers, he doesn’t intend it or realize what he’s doing. Nobody does. And yet it still all happens according to the ancient prophecy. . . . Every piece of the puzzle falls into its exact place, but no one intends it to happen. No human hand directs it. It just happens. I still can’t fathom it.”
The prophet paused before responding, then spoke, almost in a whisper. “The Almighty,” said the prophet, “has His own purposes.”
• • •
He reached into his coat pocket and handed me the next seal. “This is the last one,” he said, “the seal of the Ninth Harbinger and the last of the Harbingers.”
“Do I get a clue?” I asked.
“You already have a clue.”
“Not like the other Harbingers . . . and yet like all of them?”
“Yes.”
“So then the Ninth Harbinger is like the Eighth Harbinger?” I asked.
“Like and unlike it.”
“Is there a law,” I asked, “that if something isn’t confusing enough as it is, you’re required to make it more confusing?”
He didn’t answer that.
“So the Ninth Harbinger is like the Eighth Harbinger in that it’s a summation of all the Harbingers that went before it?” I asked.
“Yes and no,” he answered.
“Do you see what I mean?” I said, as if expecting him to commiserate with my plight.
“Yes,” he answered, “it is a summation. But no, not primarily of that which went before it.”
“Then of what?” I asked.
“Of that which came after it.”
“How could it be a summation of what came after it?”
“The clue you were given—One speaks of what is . . . and the other . . . ”
“The other,” I said, “the other of what would be.”
“What is it that you see on the seal?” he asked.
“It looks like . . . it could be some sort . . . some sort of document.”
“It is a document. It’s a parchment, the kind on which the Scriptures were written, the kind on which the prophecies of Isaiah were recorded.”
“So the Ninth Harbinger is a document?”
“It is,” he said, “but not primarily.”
“Then what primarily?”
“What is it that speaks of what would be, Nouriel?”
“A prophecy,” I answered.”
“The Ninth Harbinger.”
“Is a prophecy?”
“Correct.”
“Then we have to look for a prophet?”
“No.”
“Then for what?”
He rose to his feet and began walking down the steps. “Come, Nouriel, and I’ll show you.”
“Show me . . . ?”
“The place where it all happened.”
Chapter 13 The Ninth Harbinger: The Prophecy
We walked down the marble steps and then along the Reflecting Pool.
“A question,” I said, breaking the silence.
“Ask,” he replied.
“The Ninth Harbinger is like the eighth in that it doesn’t so much concern a piece of the mystery . . . of Isaiah 9:10 . . . but the whole . . . the whole prophecy.”
“Yes.”
“But it’s different from the eighth in that the eighth speaks primarily of what is, in the present tense, and the ninth speaks about what would be, in the future tense. Is that right?”
“Correct.”
“Why is that important . . . the distinction?”
“Because Isaiah 9:10 exists in two realms. In one realm, it’s the voice of a nation proclaiming a vow in defiance of God. But in the other realm, it’s the voice of a prophet, the voice of Isaiah, and of God speaking through him. It’s a prophecy. And as a prophecy it’s a judgment on the nation’s defiance and arrogance, and a warning, a sign foretelling its future. It’s a message sent from God and in such a way as to fall on the entire nation, so that all the people will know it.”
“So the Ninth Harbinger is a manifestation of Isaiah 9:10 in the form of a prophecy.”
“As both a vow and a prophecy,” he said, “and given in such a way as to fall on the nation.”
“So then to fall on America.”
“Yes.”
We walked on for a time in silence as I pondered his words. Then he came to a stop and asked me for the seal he had just given me. Upon receiving it, he began to reveal its mystery.
“The Ninth Harbinger,” he said. “In the wake of the calamity, the nation issues its response in the form of a vow. The vow sets the nation on a course of defiance, a course that ends in judgment. The words of the vow become part of a prophetic revelation given to the nation as a whole, an indictment of its rebellion, a foretelling of its future, a warning of its judgment. The Ninth Harbinger: the Prophecy.”
“Then according to the mystery there would have to have been a prophetic word given in the wake of 9/11 . . . to fall on the nation.”
He didn’t answer, but just kept walking.
“A prophecy given, but not by a prophet?”
Still he was silent.
“And the words of the prophecy came true?”
He stopped. “Look at that,” he said, pointing forward.
In the distance ahead of us was the massive dome of the Capitol Building.
“The center of the American government,” he said.
“Is that the place?” I asked.
He didn’t answer but resumed walking. We continued until we reached the foot of the Capitol steps, where we came to a stop.
“Nouriel, when do you think the leaders of ancient Israel first uttered their vow of defiance?”
“Probably right after the calamity.”
“And what would right after the calamity be with regard to America?”
“The time right after 9/11.”
“Like September 12?”
“That would be right after. Why?”
“On September 12, 2001,” he said, “the morning after the attack, the United States Senate and House of Representatives convened to issue a joint resolution responding to 9/11. It was to be the nation’s first official response to the calamity.”
“So it was here,” I said.
“The vow must be spoken on behalf of the entire nation. Here where the nation’s representatives gather, the two representative bodies of the American Congress, here would be the most perfect place for it to happen.”
“The House of Representatives and the Senate.”
“And of the two, the Senate is the upper or highest of representative bodies. And the highest representative of the highest body is the Senate majority leader, the highest representative of the nation’s highest representative body, in position to deliver the nation’s response to the calamity.”
We began ascending the marble steps.
“On the morning after September 11,” he said, “America would issue its response to the calamity in the form of a joint resolution of Congress. The one appointed to present the nation’s response was the Senate majority leader. The act would be critical. For as a nation responds to a divine warning, its future is determined.”
Finally we reached the top of the stairs where the prophet continued his account.
“The smoke still hovered over Ground Zero as the American government prepared to deliver its response to 9/11 before a nation and a world waiting to see what that response would be. The Senate majority leader made his way to the podium on the Senate floor to present it. ‘Mr. President,’ he said, ‘I sent a resolution to the desk.’ The assistant legislative clerk then read the document:
