“Why couldn’t you tell what it was?”
“Because it was so colossal. It was several stories high and far wider than it was high. At each of its ends stood guards, bearded, robed, and crowned with ornate headdresses. One of them shouted a command. The cylinder began to roll, slowly at first but with increasing momentum at every turn. I watched as it rolled over plains, valleys, and deserts. Finally, with what was left of its momentum, it rolled up a mountain. On the top of the mountain was a plateau. As the cylinder rolled over the plateau, the engraved words on its surface were imprinted on the ground. And as the sun set, rays of golden light began shooting up from each letter. And then from each pillar of light came other lights, shooting horizontally across the plateau until all the vertical lights were joined together. A structure began to emerge—a building formed entirely of light. Then a man appeared in a dark-blue suit, a red tie, and blondish hair. I had seen him before. He stood in front of the building with a paper, as if about to issue a proclamation. ‘I have been charged,’ he said, ‘to build a house in Jerusalem of Judah. And so it shall be done.’”
“I continued following the ram through the desert and up to the walled city. It entered the city’s gate and walked through its streets, squares, and alleys until finally departing through another gate. As it emerged, I noticed that the engravings were gone from its body. It was then that I realized what had happened; the entire city was now covered with engravings. The wedge-shaped letters now covered the walls, buildings, towers, streets, and squares. And just as they had been moving on the ram, they were now moving across the city and rolling up and down its buildings and walls. The ram turned back to watch it all from a nearby mountain. Then he resumed his journey and disappeared over the mountain into the wilderness. And the vision ended.”
Chapter 44
THE YEAR OF THE BIRAH
THE VISION HAD taken place at night. I had expected to find the boy waiting outside my tent the next morning. But there was no sign of him. At midday I went to draw water from one of the desert wells. That’s when he appeared. And when I say appeared, I mean his head popped up from the other side of the well, smiling, playful, and as mysterious as ever. At times I wished I could speak his language so we could better communicate, but perhaps that was part of the mystery.
“He motioned for me to follow him. So I did. He led me through several valleys until we came to our destination, a mountain, which we ascended. When we reached the top, I saw what looked like the ruins of an ancient Greek or Roman building or temple with pedestals, pillars, and steps and a few odd structures I couldn’t identify, everything of white marble. The building had no roof and not enough walls to prevent me from seeing the vast desert landscape that formed the background against which it stood.
“There, sitting on the steps in between two of its massive pillars, was the Oracle. He motioned for me to join him. So I did. I told him the vision.”
“The ram,” he said, “of course represents the Jubilee. As each Jubilee sets in motion the events of the next era, so did the Jubilee of 1967. The Six-Day War altered the dynamics of the Middle East. The failure of Arab nationalism in that war opened the door for the ascent of radical Islam. It ushered in an era of terrorism, al Qaeda, Hamas, Osama Bin Laden, and 9/11. It gave birth to a new US-Israeli alliance and caused the United States to become the chief arbiter in the Middle East.
“As for the Soviet Union, the defeat of its Arab allies in the Six-Day War caused alarm among its European allies and satellite nations and the weakening of the communist bloc. The Jubilee of 1967 transformed not just the nation of Israel and the Middle East but ultimately the world. Some observers even commented that ever since 1967 the world had been living in the seventh day of the Six-Day War. 1
“As for Israel, it was now overseeing a land mass several times larger than what it had possessed before the Six-Day War. As for Jerusalem, the city prospered and grew. The Jewish quarter was rebuilt and inhabited. And the words of the prophet Zechariah were fulfilled:
Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. . . .The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.2
“The years after 1967 saw more Jewish people coming back to the land than ever before. At the same time, it was in this period more than any other that Jerusalem became the focal point of global controversy. Israel would declare Jerusalem as its capital. And Jerusalem would become the only national capital the world refused to recognize. The symbol you saw on the ram and the door was the letter beit, the Hebrew b. It stood for the word birah. Birah means capital.”
“What about the ram?” I asked.
“Did it look something like this?” asked the Oracle, pointing to the ruins of the white marble building.
“Yes, like an ancient building. What was this place originally?”
“A house of government and law.”
“Is that a clue to the next Jubilee . . . that it would be connected to government and law?”
“It would be. And what else would this next Jubilee be connected to?”
“How could I know?”
“What are all the Jubilees connected to?” he asked.
“Restoration and return, the return of the ancestral possession to its original owner. But that already happened in 1967.”
“Perhaps there was more to it,” he replied. “So then according to the mystery, in what year would the next Jubilee fall?”
“It would come out to 2017.”
“And if the mystery should manifest again, what would we expect to take place in 2017?”
“An event of restoration . . . an event having to do with the return of a lost possession to those to whom it belonged.”
“And what or whom would this event involve specifically?”
“The Jewish people, Israel, Jerusalem.”
“Each Jubilee continues that which was begun by the Jubilee that came before it. It restores that which was not restored in the preceding Jubilee. In the Jubilee of 1917 the Jewish people were promised a homeland, but Jerusalem was missing. So in the Jubilee of 1967 it was Jerusalem that was returned. So what was it that was not given or restored in the Jubilee of 1967?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then,” said the Oracle, “we will have to find out.”
“So the Oracle told you that the next Jubilee would involve government and law . . . what government?”
“The American government. The Jubilean event would manifest in Washington, DC.”
“And how was it revealed to you?”
“Through the woman of darkened bronze.”
Chapter 45
THE JUBILEE OF CAPITOL HILL
I RETURNED TO the mountain to find the Oracle sitting on the top step of the ancient palace, in between two of its white marble columns. I joined him there.”
“Tell me,” I said, “about the woman of darkened bronze.”
“In the year of Jubilee the return of the heirs to their ancestral inheritance must be given legal authority and recognition.”
“But the legal authority is in the law of Jubilees itself.”
“Yes, for a person living in ancient Israel. But in this case the original owner is not a person but a nation, the nation of Israel itself. Therefore, the legal recognition of its return must come from the nations, from the world, from world rulers and authorities. In the return of the exiles from Babylon that legal authority was given by the greatest world power of that age, the Persian Empire and its emperor, Cyrus. In the Jubilee of 1917 the legal authority came from the greatest world power of that time, the British Empire. And in the return of Israel into the world it came from the greatest of the postwar powers, America.
“But in the return of Israel to Jerusalem in 1967 the world refused to recognize that return or Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. And in the Jubilee, if the original owner returns to his possession and the authorities refuse to recognize that return, then the return will not be complete and there will be c
onflict. And so it was with Israel’s return to its ancient capital. Not only did the world refuse to recognize the return but the nations gathered together, over and over again, to condemn that return and to declare it illegal.” 1
“In the United Nations?”
“Yes. It was there that they issued condemnation after condemnation against Israel, more condemnations than they had issued against any other nation, more than they had ever issued against all the nations of the world combined. And many of those condemnations were focused on what happened in the Jubilee of 1967. The world was condemning the return. The world was condemning the Jubilee and warring against the Jubilean restoration.”
“But if any nation had a right to any city, it was Israel to Jerusalem.”
“The only nation whose title deed to its land and capital was the word of God itself. In all its history Jerusalem had been the capital of only one nation, Israel. And yet the world declared that it had no ancestral right or connection to its ancient capital. But one of the manifestations of the Jubilee is that the heir’s return to the land is given legal authority and recognition.
“2017 was the fiftieth year after the return of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, the Jubilean year. The world’s preeminent power was the United States of America. The highest legal or legislative body of the world’s preeminent power was the United States Senate.
“In the mid-1990s the United States Congress passed a law calling for America’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But the president at that time signed a waiver delaying its implementation. That waiver was renewed every six months by every successive president. It looked unlikely that it would ever become a reality.
“But in 2017 America had a new president, Donald Trump—and it was the year of Jubilee. The waiver expired in late spring. The new president had promised a change in America’s policy concerning Jerusalem, but then, as did the presidents before him, he signed the waiver.
“Still, it was the year of Jubilee. And the waiver just happened to be set to expire in June, the month that marked fifty years from the last Jubilean event. In fact it was set to expire during the fifty year anniversary week of that event.”
“The Jubilee of the Jubilee,” I said.
“Yes. And it was then that something happened. The United States Senate gathered together, and the mystery manifested. The bronze woman you saw in your vision was the Statue of Freedom, the figure that crowns the dome of the Capitol Building. It was in that building that the Jubilean event of 2017 would be set in motion. A resolution was introduced that concerned Jerusalem and the granting of legal recognition to what had taken place fifty years, one Jubilee, earlier, the return to Jerusalem.”
“It was the document I saw in the woman’s hand.”
“Yes,” he replied. “The Senate resolution was a Jubilean document. The Jubilee focuses on the return of the ancestral possession to its owner. And that was the exact focus of the Senate resolution. In the year of Jubilee the original owner’s sovereignty to the land is affirmed, reaffirmed, and given legal recognition—which is exactly what the Senate resolution called for. The Jubilee joins together two things: the fifty-year time period with the return of the ancestral possession. So the Senate resolution joined together the fifty-year period with the return of the ancestral possession of Jerusalem.
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year . . . 2
“In the year of Jubilee the fiftieth year is consecrated. So in the year of Jubilee the United States Senate consecrated the fiftieth year. The resolution said this:
Whereas June 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and the reunification of the city of Jerusalem. . . Whereas, in 1967, Jerusalem was reunited by Israel during the conflict known as the Six Day War. . . Whereas this year marks the 50th year that Jerusalem has been administered as a united city. 3
“After the consecration of the fiftieth year comes the restoration. So after the Senate set apart the fiftieth year, it called for the recognition of the restoration:
Resolved, That the Senate . . . recognizes the 50th Anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. . . reaffirms the Jerusalem Embassy Act . . . as United States law, and calls upon the President and all United States officials to abide by its provisions. 4
“In the year of Jubilee every authority in the land, from king to priest to judge and magistrate, was to recognize the restoration of the land to its original owner. So the Senate resolution called for the president and every American official to recognize the restoration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, to grant the legal recognition to Israel’s sovereignty over its Holy City that had been missing for the past fifty years.
“The Senate resolution commemorated the fifty-year anniversary of Jerusalem’s return and thus was a proclamation of Jubilee. And it followed the pattern of what was decreed in the Jubilean ordinance. The Jubilee must first be proclaimed. After that its requirements must be implemented. So the resolution began by first proclaiming the Jubilee over and over again, and then after that it called for its implementation. The Senate wasn’t trying to fulfill the ancient ordinance. Thus it’s all the more striking that the highest legislative body of the greatest of world powers would produce a resolution that was in effect a proclamation of the Jubilee.”
“And in the Jubilean year.”
“Not only in the Jubilean year,” he said, “the Jubilean month and the Jubilean week. In fact the Senate passed its Jubilean resolution on the day of the Jubilee. . . fifty years from the start of the Six-Day War to the exact day. The Jubilean resolution went forth on the day of Jubilee.”
“And they had no idea?”
“They knew it was fifty years, but they had no idea that they were fulfilling the mystery and that which was ordained in the law of Jubilees.”
“The next mystery would involve three events, each separated from the others by at least half a century and yet joined to the others by a series of ancient threads.”
“And how was it revealed?”
“By three people, one of them Jewish, one of them Gentile, and the other, not at all human.”
Chapter 46
THE DAYS
I RETURNED TO the ruins of the ancient palace. The Oracle was sitting on one of its pillarless pedestals. There was another one nearby on which I would sit.”
“What was the meaning of the three mountains,” I asked, “and the three who ascended them to sound the ram’s horn?”
“One,” he replied, “you’ve already seen, the Statue of Freedom. As for the second of the three, the man with the eye patch in the army fatigues—have you ever seen him before?”
“He looked familiar.”
“That was Moshe Dayan, Israel’s defense minister during the Six-Day War and the war’s most recognizable figure.”
“And the first figure, the man with boots, trousers, and the officer’s cap?”
“You haven’t seen him before, but you know him. That was General Edmund Allenby. So what do you think it meant?”
“The three Jubilees,” I replied. “The Statue of Freedom represented the Jubilee of 2017. The man with the eye patch, Moshe Dayan, stood for the Jubilee of 1967; and General Allenby, the Jubilee of 1917.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “but there’s more to it than that. The Senate resolution of 2017 wasn’t the central event of that Jubilean year but the opening event. It would set the course that would lead to the central Jubilean event. And what about the previous Jubilee? What was the central event of the Jubilee of 1967?”
“The regaining of Jerusalem.”
“Yes. And what was the opening event war that set everything in motion?”
“What was it?”
“The war’s opening, the start of the Six-Day War, Israel’s surprise attack on the airfields of its enemies. That opening strike was the critical act that began the war and determined its outcome. Within a matter of hours Israel had neutralized the air power of those who had sworn to destroy it and for the rest of the war maint
ained control of the skies. It was that opening event that would lead to the return of Jerusalem, the central event of that Jubilee. On what day did that event take place?”
“It was in June,” I replied.
“It was June 5,” said the Oracle. “The opening day of that Jubilee was June 5. And what was the opening event of the Jubilee of 2017?”
“The Senate resolution.”
“And on what day did it take place?”
“I don’t know.”
“On June 5, the same day.”
“So each Jubilee was set in motion on the same day.”
“The two Jubilees began fifty years apart to the exact same day.”
“What about the first mountain I saw, the first of the three Jubilees?”
“The Jubilee of 1917. What was the Jubilean event of that year?”
“The Balfour Declaration . . . and Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem .”
“The Balfour Declaration was approved at the end of October 1917, the same time that the war to liberate Jerusalem began. And Allenby’s army would enter Jerusalem in the early days of December.”
“But with the other Jubilees, the opening event happened in June.”
“In the early part of 1917 the British commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force was Lieutenant General Archibald Murray. Murray was given orders to launch an offensive in Palestine in the hope of driving out the Ottoman Empire. In March of that year he confronted Ottoman forces in the First Battle of Gaza. But he was defeated. In April he confronted them a second time in the Second Battle of Gaza but was again defeated.
“In London the new British prime minister, David Lloyd George, decided that Murray had to be replaced by a new commander, one with more vision and drive. The man chosen was General Edmund Allenby.
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