The Oracle Page 5

  “Yes. And even in that the man with the measuring line would play a pivotal role. His measuring of Jerusalem would usher in the surveying of the entire land, the measuring of the Promised Land in its entirety.

  “In the Jubilee the connection between the land and its original owner is restored. And so the consequences of Warren’s work were to restore and strengthen the long-lost connection of the Jewish people to the land. And with every restored connection, the idea that the Jewish people, after almost two thousand years, might somehow return to their homeland began to move one more step out of the realm of fantasy.”

  “And so if the man with the measuring line in ancient times was a sign that God was going to restore them, what about in modern times? What about Charles Warren?” I asked. “Was he also a sign?”

  “He was,” said the Oracle. “After nearly two thousand years of exile, the man with the measuring line reappeared in Jerusalem as a sign that God was about to bring about a restoration. A measuring line is used when one is about to build something. So then the reappearance of the man with the measuring line in the person of Charles Warren was a sign that God was about to act, to move again, to build something . . . to rebuild that which once was and had fallen . . . the nation of Israel. And when else do you use a measuring line?”

  “When there’s about to be a transference of land.”

  “So when the man with the measuring line appeared in Jerusalem, it was a sign that the land was going to be transferred ... back to the original owner.

  The land was being prepared for the return. So it was in ancient times when the prophet Zechariah revealed the meaning of the measuring line:

  A measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem . . . and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.” 2

  “When did Warren come to measure Jerusalem?” I asked.

  “In the year 1867.”

  “1867? The same year that Mark Twain came to bear witness.”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle. “Both were signs of a coming restoration. So the stranger and the man with the measuring line were joined together. In fact the two would dwell inside the walls of the ancient city at the same time . . . the same month, the same week, the same days. In fact they would dwell together in the same lodging place, the very same building.”

  “Did they realize it?”

  “No, they had no idea . . . no more than they had any idea of the part they were playing in the mystery.”

  “The next vision would open up a realm in which ancient words converge with the events of the modern world.”

  “And how was it revealed to you?”

  “Through an ancient scroll.”

  Chapter 11

  NITZAVIM

  I RETURNED TO the mountaintop and found the Oracle sitting on one of the ledges overlooking the desert landscape. I sat down beside him.”

  “In my vision the journeyer, or stranger, entered a synagogue and read from a scroll. What did it mean?”

  “Your vision,” he said, “concerns another realm.”

  “A realm of what?”

  “A realm in which all events that take place in time and space are woven together apart from time and space, woven by the hand of God.”

  At that he reached into his pocket and pulled out a parchment.

  “Every Sabbath day, from ancient times, the Jewish people gather in their synagogues, open up the scrolls, and read the ancient Scriptures. Thus on every Sabbath day there is a specific portion of Scripture appointed to be read. The portion is called the parasha.”

  “When were they appointed?”

  “In ages past,” he said, “and for every week and every Sabbath day of history into modern times. Could it be possible that some of these appointed words were appointed not only to be spoken on those days but of and to those days . . . to speak of events that would take place in modern times?”

  I didn’t answer. The Oracle spent a few moments looking over the parchment as if studying its words.

  “What you saw in your vision represented the end of the stranger’s journey. The city on the mountain was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the ultimate goal, not only of Twain’s pilgrimage in the land but of his entire journey. The journey had begun in June 1867. In the summer months he would travel the cities of Europe. He would reach the Holy Land in mid-September. He would enter the gates of Jerusalem on September 23. On September 27, after an excursion in the desert, he would return to the Holy City for the culmination of his pilgrimage.

  “September 28 would constitute his last full day and night in Jerusalem. The following day he would leave the city and head back to the shore to board his ship and begin the journey home to America, stopping several times along the way. September 28 fell on a Saturday. Saturday is the Sabbath. And so on the stranger’s last full day in Jerusalem and the last Sabbath of the stranger’s journey in the land there was an appointed Scripture . . . ”

  “What was it?”

  “The appointed Scripture was this:

  . . . 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 has laid on it: ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there . . . ’” 1

  “The prophecy of the stranger!” I said. “The very prophecy! The word appointed for the end of the stranger’s journey in the land . . . was the very prophecy that speaks of the stranger’s journey in the land! The prophecy from ancient times appointed to be spoken at the very moment of its fulfillment!”

  “It was on that day that the stranger had accomplished what the prophecy had foretold . . . on the day the prophecy was read.”

  “Amazing!”

  “Just as amazing,” said the Oracle, “is what happened throughout the earth.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The prophecy was appointed to be read in every synagogue in the world. So all across the earth, in every synagogue from San Francisco to Siberia, they were reciting and chanting the prophecy of the stranger, who would come from far away to the land of Israel to bear witness of the desolation. And so the prophecy of the stranger was being proclaimed throughout the earth at the very moment the stranger was in the land fulfilling its words.”

  “And they had no idea.”

  “Nor did the stranger.”

  “In the vision the stranger told the men in the synagogue that they were standing before the Lord. Why?”

  “In Hebrew the word standing would be nitzavim. Nitzavim is the name of the appointed word in the scrolls that prophesies of the stranger coming to the land. It begins with those same words as Moses tells the children of Israel they are standing before the Lord.”

  “So all this was taking place, and nobody knew it.”

  “Ponder this,” said the Oracle. “On that Sabbath day, Mark Twain walked through the ancient city. And within the city was a remnant of Jewish people. They would have been observing the Sabbath, reciting the appointed Scripture of the stranger’s visit, proclaiming it, chanting it . . . as the stranger walked in their midst.”

  “So it’s possible that Twain actually heard the words of the prophecy that day.”

  “It is completely possible. He would have known that they were reading from the ancient Scriptures, but he would have had no idea that it was about him. The mystery manifests regardless of anyone realizing it.”

  “But everything is like that,” I said, “and part of it. Twain just happened to have heard of that particular voyage. Had he not, it never would have happened as it did. Or if he hadn’t become a journalist in the first place . . . And he didn’t plan the timing of the voyage. Someone else did. So if they didn’t happen to plan it to begin on that date and the rest of the voyage on the other dates, it never would have coincided with the appointed day of the reading of the prophecy of the stranger.”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle, “it was all woven together, every part, every detail, everything falli
ng into its exact place for the mystery to be fulfilled . . . the convergence of time and space with the eternal. And this is just the beginning, the time of sowing.

  “And as the mystery continues to manifest, the dynamic will increase so that it will determine not only the course of such people as the stranger but the course of world wars and the rise and fall of empires and superpowers.”

  “So Mark Twain, the skeptic, would never know how he was drawn into the mystery and fulfilled the words of the prophecy.”

  “No, but he was always part of the mystery.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Since ancient times the scattered children of Israel would pray to God to have mercy on Jerusalem, to restore the city and bring them home:

  Have mercy, Lord, our God . . . on Jerusalem, Your city; and on Zion, the resting place of Your glory . . . Rebuild Jerusalem, the city of holiness, speedily in our days. Bring us up into it and gladden us in its rebuilding and let us eat from its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness and bless You upon it in holiness and purity. 2

  “They prayed that prayer, seeking God’s mercy, virtually every day of their exile for two thousand years. And for two thousand years it seemed to them as if God wasn’t hearing their prayers. But the stranger would be the sign that their exile was about to end. God had heard their prayers.”

  “But how was he always part of the mystery?”

  “The stranger’s real name was not Mark Twain. At his birth he was given the name Samuel. Samuel is a Hebrew name. So he was given a name that came from the land of Israel, the land he would one day visit. And in Hebrew his name contained a message.”

  “What?”

  “God has heard.”

  “Samuel means God has heard?”

  “Yes. For God had heard the prayers of His people. He would fulfill His purposes for Jerusalem and the Promised Land. And what were the prayers that His ancient people prayed, that He heard and would soon answer? They were that He would restore the land and that He would bring them back, that He would have mercy, that He would be merciful to them. The stranger’s real last name was not Twain; it was Clemens. Clemens also holds a mystery and a message. Do you know what Clemens means?”

  “No, what does Clemens mean?”

  “Merciful . . . the quality of showing mercy. The stranger was a sign. Samuel—God had heard their prayers; Clemens—and was about to show them mercy.”

  “So Mark Twain never realized the part he played in the mystery.”

  “He never did.”

  “And the man with the measuring line?”

  “Warren came to the land of Israel believing the Bible. But he had no idea what was waiting to be revealed—and waiting from ancient times.”

  Chapter 12

  THE LOST CITY

  I RETURNED TO the Oracle to inquire into the meaning of the next vision.”

  “I saw a city become stone and sink into the ground. Then it rose up from the earth and became alive again. What was I seeing?”

  “In the Jubilee,” he said, “the connection between the land and its owner is restored. Up until then the original owner has no right concerning the land. He can’t even walk on it without the permission of the one now occupying it. But when the Jubilee comes, the owner can again walk on his land, farm it, build on it, and dwell on it. The barriers are removed. The owner’s connection to the land and the land’s connection to its owner are reaffirmed and restored.

  “When the Jewish people lost their homeland and their Holy City in the first century, the Romans tried to erase every connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. They remade Jerusalem into a pagan city and called it Aelia Capitolina. And to further eradicate the connection of the Jewish people to their homeland, they renamed the land of Israel Palaestina, meaning the land of the Philistines.”

  “Who were the Philistines?”

  “Israel’s ancient enemies,” he said. “The erasing was so successful that for most of two thousand years the land of Israel would simply be known as Palestine. The Jews were even banned from setting foot in their Holy City. So the owner was cut off from his land. And the other powers who would follow the Romans in occupying the land and the city would do similarly, obscuring the connection of the land to its people.

  “But when the Jubilee comes, the connection between the owner and the land is restored, and that which was lost is regained. I told you of Charles Warren, the man with the measuring line. But remember, he didn’t only measure Jerusalem. In order to map out ancient Jerusalem, he had to dig it up. So he came with more than surveying equipment; he came with shovels and pickaxes.”

  “The pickax in my vision.”

  “He uncovered the walls of the ancient city, ancient gates, and chambers. He uncovered what was hidden under the Temple Mount. But it was something else . . . something he didn’t plan on, something he would stumble upon . . . that would end up being his most dramatic discovery.

  “It happened while he was crawling through one of Jerusalem’s rock chambers with his assistant. He stumbled upon a shaft.”

  “The shaft in my vision.”

  “The shaft would lead to the discovery of an ancient city, a city hidden in the dust for two thousand years.”

  “The city in the vision that rose up from the earth. What city was it?”

  “Jerusalem,” said the Oracle.

  “But I thought Jerusalem was already there.”

  “It was, and it wasn’t. For ages everyone thought that the biblical city of Jerusalem was inside the walls we see today.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Some of it was. But the original city of Jerusalem, the biblical core, was not even inside the gates we know today but outside them.”

  “Where?”

  “Where Warren found it. He literally uncovered the core and biblical city of Jerusalem that had lain hidden for nearly two thousand years, the city of David and Solomon, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.”

  “And nobody knew about it for two thousand years?”

  “In the mystery of the Jubilee what has to take place?”

  “That which is lost,” I said, “must be found. So the Jerusalem that was lost was found again.”

  “Yes, and what else must happen in the Jubilee?”

  “The land must be restored to its original owner.”

  “So this was the beginning of the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jewish people. And according to the mystery of the Jubilee, the original connection between the owner and the land, biblical Jerusalem and the Jewish people, was renewed. The shaft that Warren discovered linked up with Jerusalem’s ancient water system.”

  “Why is that significant?”

  “It was through Jerusalem’s ancient water system that King David’s soldiers first entered Jerusalem and thus by which the nation first came into possession of the city. Warren’s discovery thus renewed that ancient connection.”

  “When did it happen?” I asked. “When was ancient Jerusalem discovered?”

  “The shaft was uncovered in 1867.”

  “1867,” I replied, “the same year as the visit of the stranger, the same year as the measuring out of Jerusalem . . . So Jerusalem is hidden in the earth for two thousand years, and of all the years to begin emerging . . . it happens in 1867 . . . the same year everything else happens!”

  “Remember the prophecy,” said the Oracle. “The stranger comes to the land, and then what happens?”

  “The return,” I replied, “the regathering.”

  “Yes, so this was all part of the return. The land was being readied. And the discovery was in the autumn of 1867.”

  “Why is that significant?”

  “Because it was in the autumn of 1867 that the stranger came to the land . . . and to the city . . . and dwelt in the same dwelling place as Warren. In fact after two thousand years of lying in the dust, ancient Jerusalem was discovered less than thirty days after the coming of the stranger . . . It would ultimately be a sign . . . and a fore
shadowing.”

  “Of what?”

  “That Jerusalem would be restored . . . that Jerusalem would again become a living city filled with the children of Israel.”

  “But if the land was under the rule of others, how would that happen?”

  “The ancient prophecy foretold it,” said the Oracle. “So it had to come about one way or another.”

  “Through what?”

  “Through the next mystery, a mystery that would ultimately change the course of world history.”

  “And what would you be shown?”

  “The meaning of the woman in the vineyard.”

  “So the next mystery began in a cage.”

  “No. The next mystery began with a star.”

  Chapter 13

  THE SULTAN’S CODE

  WHEN I RETURNED to the mountaintop, I couldn’t find the Oracle. He was sitting on another side of the summit, overlooking the desert. Finally I found him and joined him there.”

  “Who was the woman I saw in the vineyard?” I asked.

  “According to the law of Jubilees,” he said, “the people must return to the land, and the land also return to the people:

  In the Year of the Jubilee the field shall return. . . to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. 1

  “The land has to be returned to the one to whom it belongs. So the one who occupies it must relinquish his control so that the return can take place. Therefore, the Jubilee is the time of the relinquishing and releasing of the land.”

  “But how would that happen?” I asked. “The only ones who would relinquish land would be those following the ordinances of the Jubilee. But that doesn’t work for world history. Nations don’t give up their land because of ancient ordinances.”

  “Exactly,” he replied. “So how could it happen? The land of Israel had been taken over by enemies of the Jewish people, one kingdom after the next, until it lay in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic power that was not about to relinquish anything to the Jewish people. And they certainly weren’t observing the law of Jubilees. But the mystery applies to the entire world, to believer and unbeliever alike. The mystery causes all things, all events, even the rise and fall of kingdoms, to move in the course that will fulfill the appointed purposes. According to the ancient ordinance, the land must be released to its original owner. So the mystery must manifest one way or another.”