17 Oct RECOGNIZE MY HAND
I finished The Oracle by Jonathan Cahn just as war broke out in Israel. Having just been shown how God works discreetly through the affairs of men to advance the fulfillment of His purpose for Israel, I’m convinced that no matter what nefarious plans are being hatched out of sight, God is using it to advance His agenda, He will turn evil back on itself.
Israel stands as a testament to God’s purpose in this world, but who is going to believe it? If we quote the Bible, most of the world doesn’t believe the Bible and remains unimpressed. For most, one man’s opinion is no better than another’s. We live in a time of gross deception, when misinformation and disinformation make it difficult to tell what is true. BUT in The Oracle, Jonathan Cahn– a Messianic Rabbi– has an eye to see what only a Jew would notice. He documents God’s orchestration of events, that only GOD could cause to coincide with the Torah readings assigned to speak of and to those events. My heart exploded in recognition of God’s hand. In a day when misinformation and disinformation are drowning us, God’s orchestration of circumstances cuts through. It blows away all chance of coincidence. He gives us evidence that demands a verdict.
For example:
Mark Twain arrived in Palestine in 1867, as a newspaper reporter describing his travel in articles that would be read all over Europe and America. He was the last man who would think of himself as fulfilling Bible prophecy, but he did. Three thousand years before, Moses spoke of him. In his’ last words before he died, Moses warned his people of the day when they would be invaded by an enemy and taken captive into the nations. He told them they would be scattered “from one end of the earth to the other.” They would be persecuted from one nation to the next. This would take place in the year AD 70, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and drove the people into exile–not just to one empire–but to the ends of the earth. They would be persecuted from nation to nation as no other people ever have been. But God is as merciful as He is severe; He promised His people through Moses that one day, “The LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.” (Deut 30:3) Just before the time their exile would end, Moses told them that a stranger would come from a far land: to witness to the curse upon the land.
“… and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; . . . The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, . All the nations will say, ‘Why has the LORD done all this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’’ Then men shall say, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt.” :(Deuteronomy 29:22-25)
Twain didn’t know he was fulfilling prophecy about the sicknesses of the land as he wrote of the “Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt. . . . Lepers, cripples, the blind. . . . the numbers of maimed, malformed and diseased humanity that throng the holy places.”
Moses prophesied that the stranger would witness to the desolation of the land. Twain described the land as “all desolate and unpeopled”, . . . “miles of desolate country”, . . . . “the waste of a limitless desolation..” He would describe the inability of the land to bear fruit, describing it as a “desert, paved with loose stones, void of vegetation, glaring in the fierce sun . . . this blistering, naked, treeless land. ” He would note that, “One may ride ten miles, hereabouts, and not see ten human beings.” “It is a scorching, arid, repulsive solitude.” “Such roasting heat, such oppressive solitude, and such dismal desolation cannot surely exist elsewhere on earth. Nowhere in all the waste around was there a foot of shade, and we were scorching to death.”
Twain was a skeptic when it came to matters of faith, but he recorded his sense of the land being cursed by God. “Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land?” “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse.”
Just as it was written of him in Scripture, Mark Twain witnessed to the severity of God’s curse upon the land, But this is the clincher. Every Sabbath, from ancient days, the Jewish people open the scrolls to read the ancient Scriptures. Every Sabbath there is a specific portion of Scripture appointed to be read. This portion is called the Parasha, it’s words are appointed “to not only be spoken on those days but of and to those days . . ” (directly quoting Jonathan Cahn) .Twain’s journey had begun in June 1867.. He spent the summer traveling through Europe. He arrived in the Holy Land in mid-September, entering the gates of Jerusalem on September 23. On September 27, after an excursion in the desert, he returned to the Holy City for the culmination of his pilgrimage. September 28 would be his last full day and night in Jerusalem. The following day he would leave Jerusalem to board his ship. September 28 fell on a Saturday. Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. And so on the stranger’s last full day in Jerusalem, and the last Sabbath of his journey in the land, there was an appointed Scripture: “the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say . . . “
The Parasha appointed for the end of Mark Twain’s journey is the very prophecy that speaks of the stranger’ coming from a far land to witness to the curse upon the land. Moses’ prophecy was appointed to be spoken on the day of its fulfillment!. This prophecy was read in every synagogue in the world that day.. So all across the earth, the Jewish people were chanting the prophecy of the stranger, who would come from far away to bear witness of the land’’s desolation. God’s word was being proclaimed throughout the earth on the very day Mark Twain was fulfilling it. On that Sabbath,, as Mark Twain walked through the ancient city,. a remnant of Jewish people.were reciting the appointed Scripture of the stranger’s visit, as the stranger walked in their midst. Do you recognize His hand? What God is doing in history is clearly His appeal to us to believe..
The intricate workings of a thousand details caused Mark Twain to just happen to make that particular voyage that just happened to bring him to the land when it did. .And He just happened to be a journalist whose witness would be read world-wide. The articles he wrote were later compiled into his first book, The Innocents Abroad, which catapulted him to fame.
It was 1867, the year that we are going to see the God of the Bible beginning to orchestrate circumstances on a global scale to reveal Himself as The One working slowly to bring about the fulfillment of His promise to Israel. “The LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.” There is a deep mystery at work here—offering a hope and promise to every man —which I will address next week.,
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(In order to report on what Jonathan Cahn has written, I have borrowed heavily from his work, quoting him directly and rewording some material for clarification. I would suggest that if you are interested in going deeper, you get his book, The Oracle.)