The Harbinger (27 page)

“And it goes deeper still.”

“How?”

“No human hands could have orchestrated the countless actions, reactions, and transactions required to cause Wall Street and the global economy to collapse and for everything to happen just as it did, at the exact times ordained in the ancient mystery.”

“Then by the hand of…”

“…God,” said the prophet. “It was His Shemitah. It was His
letting fall
.”

“His letting fall of…”

“The American economic world order. With the collapse of the global economy, new challenges to American power and leadership would be unleashed—a foreshadowing of the ultimate end of the American-led global order.”

“And all triggered by 9/11,” I said.

“And all a prophetic message,” he replied, “just as it was in the days of the prophet Jeremiah as he gazed out at a land devastated, devoid of its fruits and harvests, as he fathomed the sign of the Shemitah, the sign given to the nation that has forgotten its foundations, placed its trust in its powers and prosperity, and ruled God out of its life.”

“And now it appears again.”

“As a sign to another nation that has likewise ruled God out of its life, a sign to give warning to that nation that apart from His presence, its blessings must turn into curses and its prosperity must become its judgment.”

We stopped speaking and just stood there…watching the wind sweep over the fields. It had to have been a good two minutes before the silence was broken…by the prophet…with a question. “Are you ready, Nouriel?”

“Ready?”

“For the next mystery?”

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to absorb this one. It’s a lot to take in.”

“You have the seal?”

“Yes.” So I returned it to him, and he, in turn, then handed me another.

“Are you sure you meant to give me this one?” I asked.

“Why?”

“It’s the scroll.”

“It is.”

“You’ve already given it to me…two times before.”

“And now a third.”

“It’s the Prophecy…Isaiah 9:10,” I said. “So what am I supposed to see in it that I haven’t already seen before?”

“Nothing,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not in the seal; it’s in the giving.”

“I don’t understand.”

“How many times have I given it to you now?”

“Three times.”

“So there comes a third.”

“A third what?”

“A third witness.”

Chapter 18

The Third Witness

T
HE THIRD WITNESS…THAT’S
all he told me.”

“So there was no other clue?” she asked.

“No.”

“And that was the end of the encounter?”

“Yes. I headed back through the stalks of wheat to my car. The prophet remained…in the midst of the fields. Halfway there I turned back. He was still standing there in the distance…as when I first saw him.

“‘Do you need a ride?’ I shouted back.

“‘To where?’ he replied.

“‘I don’t know…maybe to the place of our next meeting.’

“‘But then we wouldn’t be able to meet there,’ he replied.

“I reached the car and turned back again. He was still there. I began driving away. I looked back one more time…it had only been a few seconds into the drive…and he was gone.”

“So you really didn’t have much to go on this time.”

“No, the slightest of clues and a seal I had already been given twice before. And I wasn’t thinking about either, at first. I was still caught up in the mystery that had just been shown, trying to digest it all. It was about an hour into the drive before I began pondering the next one and the meaning of the seal.

“But I don’t understand,” she said. “How could you find anything more? It was already revealed to you twice. What else could it mean? And how were you supposed to figure it out?”

“That was the hard part. The seal was of the Ninth Harbinger, the scroll representing the Prophecy…the vow…as proclaimed from Capitol Hill. The second time it was given, it still had to do with the vow, but now the repercussions of that vow, the Isaiah 9:10 Effect.”

“So what would it mean given a third time?” she asked.

“Apart from the seal itself, I only had one clue.”

“The third witness.”

“Yes…but that’s all I needed.”

“How?”

“The first two witnesses had already been revealed.”

“And that was enough for you to know where to go?”

“The seal was linked to a place. Where did each witness recite the vow?”

“In the capital.”

“Exactly…and just when it hit me, I passed a sign.”

“For Washington?”

“Yes.”

“And you took the sign…as a
sign
?”

“How could I not take the sign as a sign?”

“Now you’re sounding like the prophet.”

“My journey changed. I took the exit and headed to Washington, and, specifically, to Capitol Hill. It was a couple of hours drive. When I arrived, it was late afternoon, early evening. I made my way to the Capitol Building, to the same steps on which the prophet revealed the Ninth Harbinger.”

“And what happened?”

“What happened? What happened is he was there! He was already there!”

“But when you drove away, he was still in the field.”

“Yes, and there was no vehicle in sight, apart from my car, yet he was there before me…waiting.”

“Did you ever ask him how he did it?” she asked.

“No. It was enough for me to try to figure out the mysteries. To try to figure out the prophet on top of that would have been too much. So he was standing there on the terrace in the middle of the steps overlooking the mall. The sun had either just set or was just about to. The wind was as strong as it had been earlier that day. I made my way up the steps and joined him on the terrace.”

“You did well to get here so fast,” he said, as I approached.

“But you were still here before me.”

“Do you remember when we first came here?”

“Of course,” I replied. “It was when you told me of the Ninth Harbinger.”

“The Ninth Harbinger—Isaiah 9:10 in the form of prophecy. Here the prophecy was proclaimed on the day after 9/11. Here the nation vowed the vow to emerge stronger than before. Seven years later the vow would be undone.”

“With the collapse of the economy.”

“Yes,” he said. “And what event, more than any other, would bring about that collapse?”

“The fall of Lehman Brothers.”

“And what decision was most critical in bringing about that fall?”

“The decision of the American government to let Lehman Brothers fall.”

“And when was that decision announced?”

“I don’t know.”

“It happened on the first day of emergency meetings in New York City as the Treasury Secretary informed the leaders of Wall Street that the government had decided not to save the ailing firm. It would let Lehman Brothers fall. It was the most fateful of all decisions in triggering the collapse of the American and global economy. The decision was announced and sealed on the Friday before the collapse…September 12.”

“September 12,” I said. “That was the same day that…”

“The same day the prophecy was proclaimed on this hill. It was seven years from the proclamation of the vow to the announcement of the decision that would cause the collapse of its economy—to the day.”

“So the economic collapse was triggered on the seventh anniversary of the proclaiming of the ancient vow.”

“Just as in ancient times the same vow would ultimately lead to the collapse of ancient Israel.”

“A very dangerous vow.”

“Nouriel, do you remember the biblical requirement of witnesses?” he asked.

“For a truth to be established,” I replied, “or a judgment pronounced, there must be two witnesses.”

“Yes, but another number is also mentioned in Scripture:

“So too in the matter of a nation’s judgment. The first witness appears on the day after the calamity to proclaim the ancient prophecy from this hill. The second witness appears three years later to deliver a speech centered entirely around the same ancient prophecy. Each would connect 9/11 to Isaiah 9:10, America to ancient Israel. And each would vow: ‘
We will rebuild
.’

“Each unwittingly pronounces judgment on America. So two witnesses had spoken.”

“But the Scriptures speak of a third….”

“So could there be a third witness…a third witness to confirm the connecting of the ancient prophecy to 9/11…but now also to the economic collapse…a third witness as a sign that the underlying course of judgment had not stopped but had progressed to a further stage? Could there be a third witness to speak from an even higher level and on an even greater scale?”

“Higher than the Senate majority leader?” I asked.

“Do you know where we are?”

“Capitol Hill.”

“No, right here…on this terrace.”

“No,” I answered.

“This is the place where presidents are sworn into office.

“This is the place of the inauguration?”

“The inauguration—an event filled with hope and expectancy. But in the case of a nation in departure from God and heading to judgment, hope can only come in repentance. Without a change of course, the end must remain the same, and all other hopes must fail.”

“The third witness is…”

“The third witness is the president of the United States.”

“How?” I asked.

“It’s evening,” he said. “February 24, 2009, the new president comes to this hill one month after his inauguration. He enters the chamber of the House of Representatives, makes his way down the aisle to the podium, and is greeted with thunderous applause. The nation’s economy is still in a state of free fall, and a tangible sense of foreboding hangs over the future. Even before he utters his first word, the speech is being hailed as the most important address of his early presidency. It will be the first time he stands as president to address a joint session of Congress and the nation…and his moment to give America an answer to its greatest crisis since 9/11. The chamber quiets…he begins:

“After setting the stage and framing the magnitude of the crisis, the speech turns:

“It’s the vow,” I said. “It’s Isaiah 9:10!”

“And note the strangeness of it, Nouriel, the peculiarity of its appearance in such a context.
We will rebuild
was what was declared in the wake of 9/11. But in the midst of an economic crisis, it’s hardly the most natural or the most fitting thing to say—except that it all fits into the deeper mystery…in which the two calamities are being joined together.”