by Tim LaHaye
“And what language are you speaking?”
“Russian, of course. I know only a little English. And you?”
“English. It’s all I know.”
Rayford kept moving, looking, asking. Here and there groups were praying, singing, some just lifting their hands toward heaven and smiling. Finally he got a call from Mac.
“Seems strange that these contraptions are still workin’, doesn’t it?” Mac said. “You’d think maybe we could just talk to each other without machines now.”
Rayford laughed. “Why?”
“Why not? Anyhoo, you know Christ Church, a tick southeast of David’s Tower?”
“Sure.”
“That’s where we all are.”
“Smitty too?”
“Everybody.”
The names of all the landmarks had been changed when Carpathia came to power, but the believers knew what was what. Outside Christ Church, at the southeast corner of the building, Rayford found his circle of friends from Petra. All but Otto.
Besides Abdullah and Mac, Chaim was there with Chang and Naomi and her father, Eleazar. Hannah and Leah were there. When Rayford saw Razor chatting with the Woos, he knew Sebastian and Priscilla and Beth Ann had to be close by, and that meant Kenny couldn’t be far off. And here he came.
The boy leaped into Rayford’s arms. “Grandpa! I saw Jesus! And He talked to me!”
“Isn’t that the best?”
“Yeah! Gonna see Mommy and Daddy too.”
Rayford looked at Priss. She mouthed, “Soon.”
“Yeah, pretty soon,” Rayford said.
As he held Kenny, Rayford was brought up to speed on what had been decided. “Otto has somehow secured an abandoned hotel for his people,” Chaim said.
“Already?”
“Oh, Rayford, people are eager to accommodate each other. And as you can imagine, a little over a million people will rattle around in this country. Nearly three quarters of a million used to live in greater Jerusalem alone. There are thousands of deserted residences, but most people seem to be returning to their own homes and inviting in those from other places. Eleazar and Naomi have agreed to take the single women and the married couples, and I have plenty of room for the single men.”
“Kenny,” Rayford said, “you want to stay with Grandpa at Uncle Chaim’s? Or with Beth Ann and Aunt Priscilla?”
“Where’s Mommy gonna be?”
“Probably with us,” Priss said, and Kenny wriggled down.
“Okay, Grandpa?”
“Okay, Kenny. I’ll see you a lot.”
“I’ll get the car,” Abdullah said, and he jogged off.
With Rayford crammed all the way in the back, facing the back window with his knees pulled to his chest, they somehow managed to fit Chaim, Chang, Lionel, Mac, and Razor into the Hummer, with Abdullah behind the wheel.
On the way to Chaim’s house, Chang spent the whole time on the phone with Naomi. Razor teased him that he had just been with her for days, but Rayford noticed that they weren’t talking about each other anyway. Like everyone else in the car, they were talking about Jesus.
“I have so many questions, Chaim,” Rayford called out from the back.
“Probably not as many as I do,” Chaim said, “but for those who are interested, we will open the Scriptures and try to make sense of all this.”
“Are you all seeing what I’m seeing?” Rayford said, studying the landscape and the people and the animals as Abdullah steered through the happy crowds. All the animals were docile. Sheep, dogs, wolves, critters of all types roamed everywhere. Shops had already reopened and butchers were working in the open air. Trucks delivered fresh fruits and vegetables from nearby groves. “Who’d have had time to pick these, and where are butchers getting their meat?”
“That butcher is a friend of mine,” Chaim said. “Let me find out.”
Abdullah pulled over and everyone got out, Razor heading for a produce stand. Rayford followed Chaim.
“Ezer!” Chaim shouted, embracing the tall, thin man who wielded a cleaver and wore a blood-spattered apron. “I did not know you were a believer!”
“I wasn’t,” Ezer said. “I resisted and resisted, blind, so blind. But during the fighting to hold Jerusalem I heard a rabbi in the Old City talk of Messiah. And I was spared.”
“Back to butchering already! How does this happen?”
“I was driven underground by the GC because I refused to take the mark. I lost this shop and my home. After what we just witnessed in the Old City, I wanted to see what was left. My home is intact. And my shop stood empty. You will not believe it, Chaim, but fattened animals, ready for slaughter and butchering, milled about the place as if volunteering! Cows, sheep! Imagine! I found my tools and got to work immediately. What do you need?”
“A lot of beef and lamb. I have six houseguests, all hungry grown men.”
“Take all you need. It’s on me.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t!”
“You don’t have money anyway, do you? And I wouldn’t want Nicks.”
“No, but start a bill for me, and when we discover what shape the economy takes, I will settle up.”
“You opposed Carpathia, Chaim. That is all the pay I need.”
“No, I insist. How will you live?”
“I told you! The goods cost me nothing, and look!” He pointed behind the shop and Chaim and Rayford stepped to where they could see. From miles around, the sheep and the cows kept coming. Men were already building pens. “My new employees,” Ezer said. “I pay them in meat. I have more than I need, and apparently God is providing. Please, do me the honor of taking all you need. They are the freshest, fattest, finest cuts I have ever produced.”
Chaim finally relented, and Ezer was resolute in enlisting all the houseguests to take several pounds each. “To hold in your lap on the trip home. Please, please. You are doing me a favor. I have too much and nowhere to store it.”
As they returned to the car, Rayford heard Ezer shouting to the crowds in the streets, “Free meat from the hand of God! Come, please, and take all you need!”
Razor returned from the produce stand, laden with sacks of fruit and vegetables. “The woman would take nothing for these!” he said. “She claims they are falling off the trees, not just in the orchards but right here in the city.”
“Hold on,” Chang said into the phone, then covered it as Abdullah pulled away and headed for Chaim’s. “Naomi says it is a widespread miracle. They too have stopped to stock up on fresh meat and produce. She said they gathered oranges and grapefruit from beneath trees and saw the branches ripen again before their eyes.”
That evening—Rayford could tell it was evening only by his watch; the brightness of the day never changed—the men settled into Chaim’s spacious home, room assignments seeming to take care of themselves. It turned out that Razor and Abdullah considered themselves cooks and proved it by grilling the meat and preparing heaping bowls of sliced fruit and steaming vegetables.
Rayford had always been impressed with how the Trib Force and Co-op believers worked together, but he had never seen anything like this. In fact, he wondered if a thousand years with zero strife or conflict would get boring. Despite the generally good attitudes of the people under his charge over the last seven years, part of the challenge of his job had been refereeing battles of ego and turf. Now he just watched as people got along and worked together. Admittedly, it was the first day in their new home. They had just witnessed miraculous fulfillments of prophecy and had been in the physical presence of Jesus. And they had been provided the most comfortable lodging they’d had in years, not to mention they were about to eat free food—and a feast at that.
Mac found chairs and tables and enlisted Chang and Lionel in the setup process, while Chaim asked Rayford to help him assess the home he had not seen for three and a half years. All the old man could do was shake his head at the memories. There was no evidence of damage to the place by the GC. He found no residue from three separat
e earthquakes, including the most recent global upheaval and the raising of the entire city some three hundred feet at the cleaving of the Mount of Olives.
As Rayford followed him about the place, Chaim said, “I am tired of my own disbelief. I must simply once and for all accept that God is the author of all this. He can do anything, and He has done everything. I had heard that the GC took over this house as a command center almost three years ago. Can you imagine, Captain Steele, what it should look like after dozens of different men have lived and worked in it? I expected the stench of tobacco, garbage, a mess. Yet look.”
Rayford was looking. It was as if a cleaning crew had swept through the entire place. Floors, walls, ceilings were clean. Furniture was in place. Rayford wouldn’t have been more surprised if there had been slipcovers draped on each piece. But there didn’t need to be. He couldn’t find a speck of dust anywhere.
“Well, the refrigerator and freezer and pantry are empty,” Chaim said. “And yet look what the Lord provided on our way here.”
“Guess He thought you could stock the shelves yourself.”
“I do not know. I could get used to all this.”
When it was time to sit and eat, Chaim stood at the head of the table. “Let us pray,” he said.
And Rayford had the strangest experience. As he prayed along with Chaim, thanking God for the privilege of witnessing what they had seen that day, for the food He had provided, and for the move-in-ready home He had preserved, it was as if Jesus answered audibly and immediately and personally.
“You’re welcome, Rayford,” He said. “It is My delight to shower you with love in tangible ways.” And before Rayford could pray for Kenny, the Lord said, “I know of your concern. He will be reunited with his parents, as will you, very soon.”
It was as if Jesus were sitting right next to Rayford, His arm around him, speaking directly to him. It broke Rayford anew and he couldn’t stanch the tears. He folded his hands on the plate before him and rested his face on them, worshiping God.
And Jesus said, “I will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of My kingdom there will be no end. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I laid down My life for the sheep. I am the Lamb who will lead you to living fountains of waters, and God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.”
Rayford rested there, listening and worshiping, knowing that the tears Jesus mentioned were those of sadness, and his were anything but. He couldn’t imagine ever being sad again.
He heard the rest of the men murmuring their praise and knew they had had the same experience he had. While Rayford could smell the delicious food in heaping serving bowls inches from his plate, his hunger could wait. He never wanted this moment of worship to end.
After several minutes, Chaim picked up his prayer again. “And now, O Lord, our Redeemer and Friend, we thank You for this bounty. I confess, Father, that as grateful as I was for the manna, and as satisfying as it was . . .” He didn’t have to finish. Rayford sat up and covered his mouth, but he couldn’t stifle the laugh. And in his soul he believed with all his heart that he heard Jesus chuckle too. Yes, manna was one thing. This was something else entirely.
Chaim sat down and the men opened their eyes, looking at each other. “Jesus spoke to me again in Chinese,” Chang said.
“Spanish,” Razor said.
“Hebrew,” Chaim said.
“English,” Rayford said.
“Sout’ side o’ Chicago,” Lionel said, and they laughed.
“He worked a little west Texan in there too, I believe,” Mac said. “That’s the language of heaven, ya know.”
Rayford cleared his throat. Still no one had reached for the food. “Ah, was it just me, or did any of you hear Jesus laugh at Chaim’s manna crack?”
They all smiled and nodded. Chaim said, “No question the Lord has a sense of humor. Gentlemen, can you believe the food is still steaming as if we hadn’t left it out here for several minutes?”
“The fruit looks crisp and fresh too,” Razor said. “And no flies.”
And so they ate. Rayford assumed that for the others it was as it was for him—the tastiest meal he had ever enjoyed. “The real miracle,” he said later, “will be eating like this all the time without gaining weight.”
During cleanup, Rayford and Chaim spoke with Eleazar by phone. It was great for Rayford to hear that they had enjoyed the same type of time with the Lord and a wonderful meal as the men had. Chaim reminded Eleazar of what they planned to cover that evening from the Scriptures, and they compared notes on difficult passages. “If we are left with confusing questions,” Eleazar boomed, “we shall simply ask Jesus, next time we see Him.”
Later that evening, the men gathered in Chaim’s great room, and he opened his Bible and spread his notes and a couple of commentaries before him. “Books by men seem superfluous now,” he said. “Whenever we pray I feel as if Messiah is here with me, answering questions even before I ask. Let us begin with a time of worship and prayer.”
As one the men slipped from their chairs and knelt on the floor, each praying in his native tongue.
Mac was about to tell the Lord that there were people—particularly from the previous seven years—that he was eager to see. Each had meant something special to him, had made a significant impact on his life. But before he could articulate it, Jesus spoke to him by name. “I know, Cleburn. And you shall see them soon. I long for that reunion as much as you do and will rejoice with you when you see them.”
As Rayford received answers to prayers he had not yet even uttered, he prostrated himself on the floor and could see the others doing likewise. He decided that what Jesus was trying to tell him was the same as he had heard from Bruce Barnes years before, and the same as he had heard from Tsion and Chaim: Prayer was as much, or more, about listening as it was about talking. Rayford had never accomplished that balance. It seemed he was always beseeching, asking, requesting. Yes, he thanked God for things and often worshiped Him in prayer, but he was starting to get the picture now. It was time to simply be quiet and listen. And even if God said nothing, Rayford was to rest in the peace of His presence.
Rayford lay there on his stomach and basked in the warmth of God’s love. And Jesus said, “God is your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore do not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.
“There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
“The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with you; the God of Jacob is your refuge.
“Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He made wars cease to the end of the earth; He broke the bow and cut the spear in two; He burned the chariot in the fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
“The Lord of hosts is with you; the God of Jacob is your refuge.”
Suddenly Chaim rose back to his knees and said, “Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He has subdued the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. . . . God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.”
Rayford lay communing with God, only vaguely aware of the others. Finally, when it felt as if he actually needed a break from the loving hand of Jesus, he moved back to his chair. Strange how everyone seemed to have the same experiences at the same time and for the same duration.
“Before you start, Chaim, I have a question, maybe more of a confession. This newly close presence of God, through Jesus, is so fresh, so special, that at times I can’t seem to get enough
of Him. But at other times, like just now, it was almost as if I was so filled to overflowing that if I stayed there, I could take no more.”
Others nodded, which Rayford found comforting. Chaim said, “That reminds me of a story I once read of a great evangelist from the nineteenth century, Dwight L. Moody. He wrote of having an experience with the Lord where His presence and fullness were so overwhelming that Moody had to ask God to ‘stay His hand.’”
“Exactly,” Rayford said.
“I have felt that too,” Chaim said. “Perhaps in the presence of Jesus we will build the spiritual muscle necessary to endure such blessings.”
Chaim seemed to look at each man individually, as if to ask if there was anything else before he got started. Then he explained that he and the elders had spent the last month vigorously searching the Scriptures for clues to what to expect after the Glorious Appearing.
“Like cramming for a test,” Razor suggested.
“I am not familiar with that term,” Chaim said, “but it seems self-explanatory and I would have to agree. Not that we are going to be tested. In fact, there was much discussion among the elders at first over how necessary this was. Some held that Jesus would be our teacher and would explain everything along the way.
“Well, maybe He expects us to know this material, hmm? Today we witnessed His victory ascent to Mount Olivet, also known as the Mount of Olives. We saw it split in two. He conquered the invading armies, slaying them with the Word of God. We were with Him for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we saw Him capture and judge demons, the False Prophet, Antichrist, and even Satan himself. And yet never once did He stop and say, ‘Beloved, you’ll find this on page so-and-so of your text, and it will be on the final.’
“These things happened as they were prophesied, and no explanation is forthcoming. That is much the same way Jesus taught and preached the first time He was on earth. Only occasionally did He follow a parable with an explanation. And when He did, it was only enough for those ‘who have ears to hear.’
“I suppose there were many in the crowd today who had little idea what was going on. They probably could have figured out who was who and what was what, and in the end they knew that Jesus had won again, conquering more foes. But they are probably wondering where He has gone, what He is doing. Well, gentlemen, the answers are in the Book, and if you are interested, we shall plumb the riches herein and see what we can learn.”
