A Watchman’s Call to Action

The following are notes on Jonathan Cahn’s message The Harbinger given on July 5, 2005 at the Messiah 2005 Conference.

Eze 33:1 And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
Eze 33:2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and you shall say to them, ‘When I bring the sword upon a land…

The theme of this message is “The Set Time Has Come”

In ancient times, a watchman was placed on the walls of the city and it was the duty and responsibility of the watchman to alert the city of an enemy approaching. In Israel, this was done by the sound of the shofar.

Isa 62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Yerushalayim, all the day and all the night, continually, who are not silent. You who remember יהוה, give yourselves no rest,
Isa 62:7 and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Yerushalayim a praise in the earth.

God placed us (a previous conference) at the gateway of the nations in New York, looking across from ground zero.

A few months later, Paul Wilbur came out with an album, The Watchman.

Eze 33:1 And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
Eze 33:2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and you shall say to them, ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land shall take a man from their borders and shall make him their watchman,
Eze 33:3 and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and shall blow the ramʼs horn and shall warn the people,
Eze 33:4 then whoever shall hear the sound of the ramʼs horn and shall not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood is on his own head.
Eze 33:5 ‘He heard the sound of the ramʼs horn, but he did not take warning, his blood is on himself. But he who takes warning shall deliver his being.
Eze 33:6 ‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and shall not blow the ramʼs horn, and the people shall not be warned, and the sword comes and takes any being from among them, he is taken away in his crookedness, and his blood I require at the watchmanʼs hand.ʼ

Only two countries have been founded and dedicated to God: Israel and the United States. Because of this, we are to be held accountable to that which we were founded upon. Where more is given, more is required, and there is a greater accountability.

The US, like Israel, has departed from God, exporting pornography, homosexuality, abortion, and other abominations to the entire world.

To understand the judgment placed upon Israel, we must go back in Scripture and look at the means by which Yah has punished a nation before. This is found in 2 Kings 17-18

Prophets were given to Israel to turn them back, but Israel ignored them. Assyria then came into the northern part of the land and attacked it, but Yah gave Israel a chance to turn back to Him.

Isa 9:8 יהוה sent a word against Yaʽaqoḇ, and it has fallen on Yisraʼĕl.
Isa 9:9 And the people shall know, all of them, Ephrayim and the inhabitant of Shomeron, who say in pride and greatness of heart:
Isa 9:10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we replace them with cedars.”

The hedge of protection was removed from Israel and Assyria came in although they did not take the land initially. The word of Yah came to Isaiah and it showed the arrogance of the people of Israel.

God gave Israel a lull, giving them a grace period to return, before bringing the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. By refusing to respond to the first judgment a further judgment and chastisement then becomes necessary. Yah warns before he moves, he tries to call his people back. There was nothing left then to bring devastation upon the land, and ultimate judgment came.

har·bin·ger (härbn-jr)

One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.

tr.v. har·bin·gered, har·bin·ger·ing, har·bin·gers

To signal the approach of; presage.

Eight harbingers (omens, warnings, signs of something to come) found in Isaiah 9:10

First harbinger—the bricks have fallen
Second harbinger—but we will (re)build stronger
Third harbinger—we will build bigger and better (arrogance in their hearts)
Fourth harbinger—with hewn stones, cut and quarried out of the mountains
Fifth harbinger—the spirit of defiance
Sixth harbinger—the sycamore tree, cut down by the Assyrians
Seventh harbinger—the strong cedars of Lebanon
Eight harbinger—the vow of the words themselves, “We will… be stronger yet.”

Isa 9:11 And יהוה set up the adversaries of Retsin against him, and stirred up his enemies,
Isa 9:12 the Arameans before and the Philistines behind. And they devour Yisraʼĕl with an open mouth. With all this His displeasure has not turned back, and His hand is still stretched out.

What does all this have to do with this?

September 11—was it a warning, has God given us a sign? The answer is yes.

Isa 10:5 “Woe to Ashshur, the rod of My displeasure and the staff in whose hand is My displeasure.
Isa 10:6 “Against a defiled nation I send him, and against the people of My wrath I command him to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mud of the streets.
Isa 10:7 “But he does not intend so, nor does his heart think so, for it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few nations.
Isa 10:8 “For he says, ‘Are not my princes sovereigns?
Isa 10:9 ‘Is not Kalno like Karkemish? Is not Ḥamath like Arpaḏ? Is not Shomeron like Damascus?
Isa 10:10 ‘As my hand has found the reigns of the idols, whose carved images excelled those of Yerushalayim and Shomeron,
Isa 10:11 as I have done to Shomeron and her idols, do I not do also to Yerushalayim and her idols?ʼ
Isa 10:12 “And it shall be, when יהוה has performed all His work on Mount Tsiyon and on Yerushalayim, that I shall punish the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the sovereign of Ashshur, and the boasting of his haughty looks.
Isa 10:13 “For he has said, ‘By the power of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have been clever. And I remove the boundaries of the people, and have robbed their treasuries. And I put down the inhabitants like a strong one.
Isa 10:14 ‘And my hand finds the riches of the people like a nest. And I have gathered all the earth like forsaken eggs are gathered. And there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.ʼ ”
Isa 10:15 Would the axe boast itself over him who chops with it, or the saw exalt itself over him who saws with it? As a rod waving those who lift it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!

As with Israel, it was an initial invasion, as a wakeup call.
God was using the initial invasion as a warning to his nation.
Is this the beginning of judgment or God calling us to something higher?

1^st Harbinger
Ground zero was filled with twisted steel and glass and something else: bricks.
http://multimedia.belointeractive.com/attack/news/0104zero.html

2^nd and 3^rd Harbinger
Soon after the fall, there was a call to rebuild. “A new icon will rise—the freedom tower.”
The leaders of America vowed to build the freedom tower bigger and better.
Donald Trump came to the site saying we should have the WTC bigger and better.
http://www.renewnyc.com/displaynews.aspx?newsid=bd4d88dd-5d0b-446f-b945-00b785aba5cb

(LXX-English) Isa 9:10 The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower.

4^th and 5^th Harbinger
On July 4, 2004, an object was lowered by crane, with the leaders of city watching, was a cut, quarried stone. They were laying a 20-ton stone hewn from the Adirondack Mountains. The mayor said, by laying this stone, we are sending a message around the world.
The commentaries go on and on about the spirit of defiance. On the day they laid the cornerstone, Governor Pataki, we the heir of the revolutionary spirit of defiance lay this cornerstone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/nyregion/a-20-ton-cornerstone-for-freedom-tower.html
6^th Harbinger
The bible only records the sycamore tree as a sign of judgment. On 9/11, a steel beam from the tower struck down a sycamore tree, and was found at ground zero. People made a display of this tree, as if to draw attention to it. A sculptor was instructed to make a cast, and he did so in bronze, and to display it on Wall Street. Now there will be a symbol of a sycamore tree on Wall Street.
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Trinity_Root_Memorial.html

7^th Harbinger
Now the cedar tree was grown in Lebanon. The Hebrew word means a strong, firm tree. The cedar of Lebanon is classified as a conifer tree, has needle-like tree, it’s a pine tree. Well, two years after 9/11, a strange site was seen on ground zero. A crane lowered to the placed where the sycamore tree was struck down. The object lowered was an evergreen tree, a pine tree, a sister tree to the cedar of Lebanon, where the sycamore had grown.
That would be enough, but there is actually more.
Both trees were laid by cranes—the tree of freedom and the tree of hope.
A clergyman came and said, “We are gathered here on hallowed ground…. a witness of the divine within each of us.” The press carried the story, not realizing they were echoing the words of Isaiah.
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/images/news/galleries/1aa61e50cbf6f9ecc2497b28cac44958.jpg
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/photos#gallery/the-tree-that-saved-st.-pauls

8^th Harbinger
Finally, the vow of arrogance. John Edwards were speaking in Washington on 9/11 at a prayer breakfast: “Good morning. Today on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s will…. And then he quoted Isaiah 9:10! He quoted it as if it were a word of encouragement to rebuild, not realizing that it was a scripture of judgment, and based his whole speech on it!
http://www.topdog08.com/2004/09/remarks_of_sena.html
The leaders make a vow. In the wake of destruction, on September 12, the nation looked at the damage and its first response was given by the head of the U.S. Congress, Tom Daschle, in a joint resolution of condemnation. It quoted Isaiah 9:10! Again, he quotes it as if it were a call to rebuild, not knowing that on that very day the sycamore tree would be found in the ruins.
Daschle also alluded to the beginning of the nation.
America was born in 1789, when its constitution was instituted, congress and the first President.
• On that day, Washington’s inaugural speech included a warning that God’s blessing would be removed if the government did not remain faithful to God.
• The next day, Washington and the cabinet went to a chapel to pray for two hours, to commit America to God’s hand.
• In ancient Israel, judgment came to the place of dedication, the Temple.
• Where is America’s ground of consecration? The first inauguration took place in NYC. It was there the warning of judgment took place in NYC, in lower Manhattan.
• After he gave his warning, Washington brought his cabinet to a little chapel, at the corner of the plot of ground known as Ground Zero. It is the mystery place of America’s history. The terrorists had no idea they were touching the place where God’s protection was prayed for. The spiritual birthplace of the nation is Ground Zero.
• America’s seal, the eagle with the arrows, was keep from the beginning of American history, was taken to this place, at ground zero.
• It remains in this chapel, which is still there.
• The sycamore, where did it stand? It grew in the backyard of the chapel.
• Washington’s prayer was fulfilled—they called it a miracle—the chapel was untouched.
• You know what you believed protected it? It was the sycamore tree. The steel beam going through the sky would have hit the chapel, but the sycamore tree protected it—so that the warning would be preserved.
Here is when commentaries say about the pattern of judgment:
• The nation departs from God. Then comes initial judgment. Then comes defiance. Then comes a warning of a second, greater judgment.
• The ultimate purpose of judgment is to call the nation back. The purpose is not to destroy, but to save. Revival often comes when the coming of judgment.
• God cannot bless America unless America blesses God.
• 9/11 is a shadow of a greater judgment. The shorter awakening is a shadow of a greater awakening.
• The revival of NY does not come in easy times, but when God brings shaking.
Jonathan reminds us of the intercessory prayer that took place two years before the northeast regional at the Statue of Liberty, when the video camera caught the image of a plane coming across the city, as it intersects with the northern tower of the WTC. That intercessory prayer meeting took place on 9/11, two years before the attack. There was also a second sign: a vision of a shofar, which is a sign of revival at the place of judgment.
• Now must come the ingathering back, from the gates, Israel must come home, the church must come home. Now the gospel must come home as the children of Israel must come home to Zion.
• We are standing at the gates of something new. We must receive it as harbingers, not as the tail but as the head. We are the closing act of what it is to come.
We have a call to be watchmen on the walls. And the word of the Lord was, I will hold you accountable if you do not proclaim salvation to the people, with the sound of the shofar.
We are called now in the end times to be vigilant as watchmen. We don’t forever to repent, we don’t have forever to respond to the holy calling to preach the gospel. We do not have forever, it is time to be vigilant, it is time to lift up our voices, and not be held back by fear or compromise. It is time to wake up and proclaim the message, to take up the ancient mantle. The time is short, it is time to draw near to the Lord as never before, to proclaim the message to the Jew first and also the gentile, to be all our sold out for Him. I have set you as watchmen on the walls. Go through, go through the gates. Remove the stones. Make his path straight. For our light has come, and the glory of the Lord will shine upon us.