A HARBINGER is a sign, omen or foreshadow of something to come.
· Usually bad.
· Warning of judgment.
The pattern of judgment in Israel has happened in the USA since 9-11.
There are NINE HARBINGERS.
ISRAEL:
Isaiah 9:10 KJV The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Israel founded by God and blessed by turned away.
· God sent prophets to warn.
· God took away protection, and an enemy struck.
· Traumatized the nation.
· Temporary.
· But instead of turning back to God Israel became defiant.
· Made a VOW in ISAIAH 9:10.
Isaiah 9:10 KJV The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
They breathed a spirit of DEFIANCE. (Commentaries).
Israel did not turn and were finally destroyed.
USA was founded on the Word of God and faith.
· USA has turned and is still turning away from God.
· The first thing that happened was safety removed and DESTRUCTION came.
· 9-11, 2001
· LIKE AN ALARM to tell them to get off the road they are on.
HEWN STONE -
· GEZEET in Hebrew.
· Go to mountains and cut them out and replace the bricks where they stood with these stones.
In USA, a 20 ton rock brought to GROUND ZERO as future cornerstone and had a ceremony.
· Leaders pronounced vows of defiance.
GOVERNOR GEORGE PATAKI: “Today, we, the heirs of that revolutionary spirit of defiance, lay this cornerstone and unmistakably signal to the world the unwavering strength of this nation, and our resolve to fight for freedom.” (JULY 4, 2004)
Governor of New York.
BUILD HIGHER:
FREEDOM TOWER
If there was 1 Parallel with what happened in Israel and the USA, that would be one thing.
· But NINE occurred.
PROGRESSIVE judgments came to Israel until it was wiped out.
THE TREES.
“SYCOMORES HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN”
· Assyrians destroyed sycamores.
ABOUT EGYPT destruction:
Psalms 78:47 KJV He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
It is a sign of judgment.
They found out on the NEXT DAY after 9-11 that when last tower fell, a beam shot out and hit a sycamore tree on one plot of land in this concrete jungle.
· A sign of national judgment.
· This is western Sycamore, that was actually named after Eastern Sycamore.
· THEY TOOK THAT FALLEN TREE and made it a SYMBOL OF HOPE, with no idea it was a sign of judgment.
“BUT WE WILL PLANT CEDARS IN THEIR PLACE”
· A stronger tree.
· We will come back stronger.
· So a cedar is planted.
· EREZ tree in Hebrew – PINASHEA tree.
· In Nov 2003 a tree is lowered on a crane on the exact place where the sycamore was struck down – a PANASHEA TREE – SPRUCE!
· They make it a sign “the tree of hope.”
· Had a ceremony.
· Celebrated human defiance.
· They did not know what they were doing!
Third tree: BUTTONWOOD TREE
Foundation is what a nation trusts in.
· Military and economic foundations to the USA
· USA had foundation on Island of MANHATTAN.
· WALL STREET.
Where a wall was built in defence, they named the street WALL STREET.
· 24 merchants had secret meeting and signed a document.
The BUTTONWOOD ASSOC.
· This became NY STOCK EXCHANGE.
· The Foundation of USA power is BUTTONWOOD.
· BUTTONWOOD stands for a tree.
· A tree under which they did their business.
· SIGNED PAPERS.
· IT WAS A SYCOMORE, too!
· So to strike it down was to strike down the FINANCIAL FOUNDATION.
· They make a bronze statue of it and place it on WALL STREET.
· A DEAD UPROOTED TREE – FOUNDATIONS EXPOSED!
· Means it LOST ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD.
America began at the corner of GROUND ZERO the place of dedication, and that SAME PLACE became a place of WARNING.
THE VOWS THAT OCCURRED:
Isa 9:10 is the key to a nation’s judgment.
· The vow of defiance is that verse itself.
· LEADERS must say it.
· A leader must say this vow to see this repeated in USA.
· It must be in capitol city.
· No one would want to pronounce judgement, so this is what happened.
ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF 9-11, 2004, IN WASHINGTON, Vice presidential candidate, JOHN EDWARDS, gives a speech.
· “Today on this day of remembrance and mourning we have the Lord’s words 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.”
· GAVE THE VOW OF JUDGMENT not even knowing what he was doing.
· A REPLAY OF ANCIENT ISRAEL!
· Out of 30,000 scriptures he chose this one!
· It is identifying USA as nation turning from God and getting judgment.
· He spoke of USA being THE NATION doing this NOW.
· He did not even realize there actually was a sycamore torn down and replaced.
· Shortly after he fell into disgrace.
SECOND VOW:
On the day after 9-11, that morning, USA gives its response to the world.
· SENATE MAJORITY LEADER, head of Senate, while Senate represents the nation.
· Tom Daschle.
· At end of the speech he closes by saying, “I know that there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But I think there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to all of us at times like this.”
· And from Capitol Hill, the floor of the Senate,
· “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stones; fig trees have been felled but we will replace them with cedars.” Isa 9:10 - Sept 12, 2001
· Then he says, “THAT IS WHAT WE AMERICA WILL DO. We will rebuild, we will recover.”
John Edwards does this and later falls in disgrace.
Tom Daschle does this and also fell into disgrace later.
PRESIDENT OBAMA SAID ‘WE WILL REBUILD’ too.
These warnings will continue.
From 9-11 to now there have been stages of judgment.
· Judgment hits and they defy it.
· Read into rest of Isa 9:10 and see continue.
· Israel defied this and they ended up destroying the nation.
· This same pattern is happening in USA.
· America does not repent.
· They have war on terror, they build up national security.
TWO OR THREE WITNESSES.
BARAK OBAMA ALSO says same thing.
Feb 2009, Obama is elected, comes into congress gives first speech.
· Talk about economic crisis.
· “I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. But while our economy may be weakened, our confidence shaken, that we are living in difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this – We will rebuild.”
· Same vow of the others.
· Headlines around the world read WE WILL REBUILD.
“We will rebuild, we will recover. And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
The second judgment would be ECONOMIC.
SHEMITA is the SABBATH YEAR.
· Every seventh year the land had to rest.
· Last day they release all credit and debt and erase accounts of debt.
· When a nation like Israel turns away from God, they do not rest, so they break the Shemita and comes back as a judgment instead of a blessing.
· Israel was taken into captivity and the land rested for 70 years.
· A nation that puts economics first and not God gets judgment.
· Sabbath year rest meant to bless.
· But it becomes a judgment when nation sins.
· For every Sabbath year they neglect it becomes a judgment.
After 9-11, the STOCK MARKET had the biggest crash that week in history due to the twin towers falling.
2008 in ONE WEEK saw economic collapse.
· SAME ANNIVERSARY week of 9-11.
· SAME WEEK 7 years later!
· Worst was in 9-11, and seven years later to the WEEK was a bigger crash than that!
· Bankruptcies and debt wiped out. Bail outs. SAME FORCE OF SHEMITA.
· The greatest stock market crash in history on 29th day of ELUL (Hebrew calendar) when last day of Sabbath year had all debts wiped away.
· Next shemita is 2015 (could it be something disastrous?)
Progressive warnings.
God wants blessings, but from 2001 to 7 years later it is like judgments.
· No.. 7.
· The greatest stock market crash – happened on Shemita last day – market lost 7% of value.
· Crashed because of congress’s bill of 700 billion dollars.
· POINTS 777 points in greatest crash.
9-11crash was 7% in 2001.
For the stock market to crash, its everyone in the world pulling out stocks, and to bring it to the number 7 is GOD.
Sabbath years touch the economy
· SHEMITA also means to “LET FALL.”
· Economy was allowed to fall.
· USA‘s riegn of the world fall if it does not repent.
ACTUAL GROUND WHERE OATHS MADE.
When temple was first finished by Solomon, he prays and intercedes and talks about things like IF Israel ever falls away…
2 Chronicles 6:13 KJV For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven,
2 Chronicles 6:24-31 KJV (24) And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; (25) Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. (26) When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; (27) Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance. (28) If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be: (29) Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: (30) Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) (31) That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
2 Chronicles 6:36-40 KJV (36) If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; (37) Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; (38) If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: (39) Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee. (40) Now, my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
1789- USA first had president and congress, and Washington is Inaugurated.
· Like Solomon, has “a day of prayer.”
· Washington talks of God and even gives warning, “We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself ordained.”
· If America ever turns away from God its blessings be removed.
· 9-11 saw first blessing removed.
· Washington warned of this.
· Not only that, he leads the government on foot to pray and consecrate America to God.
· The first act of the government was to pray.
· They pray at a stone chapel.
· When Solomon dedicated Israel to God it was on the temple mount.
· When judgment hit due to disobedience to God IT WAS AT THAT SAME TEMPLE MOUNT.
· “Judgment returns to the grounds of consecration.”
· NEW YORK CITY was the place where America was consecrated to God by Washington.
· At St Paul’s Chapel at the corner of GROUND ZERO.
· That church owned the land of Ground Zero.
· Just like in Israel JUDGMENT RETURNED TO THE CONSECRATION GROUNDS and 9-11 saw the twin towers OF THAT PROPERTY destroyed.
· THE CHURH WAS THE ONLY BUILDING PROTECTED BY THE SYCAMORE TREE.
· Harbinger was actually SAVING – calling nation to salvation.
It was A MIRACLE – the only thing they called a miracle at that time.
· It was the very place where Washington consecrated America to God, and that was where the HARBINGERS occurred.
· TWO PLACES – Federal Hall.
· ON 9-11 SHOCKWAVE HITS Federal Hall and CRACKED the foundation!
· WHAT A SYMBOLIC ACT!
· Solomon prayed about what if Israel departs. God answers:
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
REPENT of sins secret and all others.
· Now is the time of judgment and time to repent.
