Book Report, The Harbinger Pt 5

Today we (Christians) for the most part hold the Sabbath holy. Or at least we "Do Church", if at all possible. We do our best to keep the Ten Commandments. We no longer sacrifice to obtain forgiveness, as Jesus's blood is enough. What about other systems, or plans that God had set up for us? What about the other Sabbaths, and other Jewish Holy days? If the Shemitah is mentioned so many times in the Bible, maybe it's important enough to take another look.

Let's back track to 732 B.C. After repeated warnings from the prophet Isaiah, for people to return and to repent as individuals and as a Nation to God-God lifted his hand of protection and the Assyrians brutally attacked Israel. Rather than realizing that this could have been prevented-had they returned to God, they dug their heels and in anger and pride this was their response,

Isaiah 9:10, “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the sycamore trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

After the 9/11 attacks, and sometime after the tears began to dry up, I looked up on the Hebrew calendar to see if 9/11 was a Jewish Holy day. It was not. I prayed a lot and got on the business of living like everyone else. But we were all changed by that one day. We put up new Flags, followed by yellow ribbons as our soldiers went off to fight the enemy. Many that hadn't been to a church in years started showing up, looking for answers, and for comfort. But then slowly the sudden hunger for God faded away.

Would it surprise you to know that the day after the 9/11 attacks, that then House Majority Tom Daschle quoted Isaiah 9:10? You can hear him in his own words here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8MDSHqwbc.

I believe he meant to quote the scripture as an act comfort, and did not realize that he was repeating the very words that Israel had used in defiance against God's judgement.

How about that on September 11, 2004, John Edwards repeated the same Scripture at a prayer breakfast, "Good morning. Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord's word to get us through. 'The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.' " You can find his entire speech at...

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=84922.

So there are 2 high ranking government officials using a quote from Isaiah, a statement that was said in pride and defiance, and eventually became Israels undoing.

Both these men, were Senators and one of them a 2004 presidential candidate, took this verse out of context. Had they studied Gods word, or at the very least read the passages before Isaiah 9:8-9 they would have realized that this scripture talked of God's people responding to His judgement with defiance.

"...The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it—Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—who say with pride and arrogance of heart..."

Keep in mind that the World Trade Center was a symbol of financial power.

As I said earlier, 9/11 was of no significance on the Hebrew calendar, but September 17, 2001 was. It is called the 29th day of Elul. This was only significant because it was the 7th year, and the last day of Shemitah-The Sabbath year.

Shemitah or Shmita means 'release'. When the debts are canceled.

What happened on 9/17/2001? The Federal Reserve cut the interest rate. They had previously cut it by 3.5 percent, but on 9/17 they cut it by fifty basis points. They continued to cut it over the next 3 months until finally it fell below the rate of inflation which is what we mean, when we say that the U.S. is creating free money and making the dollar lose value. On 9/17/01, the stock market dropped 684.81 points. This happened on the last day of Shemitah. All this caused the ripple effects for what would be the infamous 2008 economy that we talk about like it was a bad family vacation.

2008 was not a great time in our country's economy. In early September, 2 major mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which held over 50% of the mortgages in this country, were both in serious trouble. On September 7th the Federal Government took control of both of the companies, (bailed them out). Shortly thereafter a the major financial firm called Lehman Brothers began to fail. A deal to rescue the company (bail out) fell through and on 9/9/08 they had lost 45% of its value. 9/10/08, They announced that they had lost $4 million dollars. On 9/11/08, AIG was another huge firm that announced that they were on the verge of collapse. All of these businesses got a clearing (remission) of their debts one way or another, totaling over 5 trillion dollars. Why does this matter? While all this was going on the Dow Jones, fell almost 2,700 points in a couple of weeks. With the final drop of 777.68 points on September 29th. This happened on the 29th day of Elul, the last day of Shemitah. Exactly 7 years later. Of the 3 deepest plunges in the stock market to date, 2 happened on 29th day of Elul, the last day of Shemitah. Which happens every 7 years.

Weird huh?