“The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” (Isaiah 9:10 NKJV)

It’s fair to say I was a skeptic when I picked up a copy of The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn.  I decided to read the book only because I had received several questions about it. But I soon discovered that the author makes a stunning case for a connection between the judgment of the northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 BC and the judgment of America, underway since 9-11.

The way leaders of both countries responded to a limited judgment with defiance and resolve but no repentance was way beyond coincidence.  And by responding with the very same words that Isaiah attributed to Israel (Isaiah 9:10), America’s leaders left no doubt in my mind that the judgments we’ve suffered are warnings from God and they didn’t grasp the meaning of Isaiah’s words even though they repeated them over and over again.

I was tracking beautifully with the author’s interpretation of our recent history and literally couldn’t put the book down as long as he was comparing Israel’s history with ours.

Then What Happened?
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).

But when he used the above passage to justify his claim that America could experience a different outcome from the Northern Kingdom’s, he lost me.  In my mind the book was instantly downgraded to another work of fiction, although with convincing historical and spiritual analysis.  I had a hard time getting through the last few chapters, because they were just a human opinion based on an incorrect interpretation of 2 chronicles 7:14.  At its end the book had become just as vague and fanciful as it had been precise and direct at the beginning.

If the author is correct in his assertion that as far as God is concerned political leaders officially speak for their country, then America is not the country of “my people who are called by my name” to whom 2 Chronicles 7:14 is addressed.   At a press conference in Turkey in April of 2009 President Obama said that America is not a Christian nation.  He was repeating something he’d been saying since 2007. When asked to clarify this he once said,  “What I mean is America is not just a Christian nation.  We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

That statement doesn’t make sense.  A nation may count among its residents people of many faiths, but it can’t be a nation of  all of them. Such a nation could only be a nation of no official faith. And that’s what America is, we’re a nation of no official faith. (I sometimes wonder how it makes Christians from other countries feel when American Christians act as if they think America and the Church are one and the same.)

It’s true there are a lot of Christians in America.  But we all belong to the Church and the Church has no national homeland, not in America and not anywhere else.  The Church comes from every nation on Earth but our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20) and that’s where our home is. American believers are not called to repent and save America any more than believers who live in other countries are called to repent and save theirs.  No matter what country we live in we’re supposed to be like Abraham, strangers in a foreign land looking forward to the city whose architect and builder is God (Hebr. 11:9-10).

Israel was a nation officially in a covenant relationship with God whose eternal destiny is to live with Him in the land He gave them here on Earth (Ezekiel 43:7).  After King Solomon’s death the  nation was divided, both physically and spiritually.  The Northern Kingdom didn’t just split from the South, they also split from God.  The Levitical Priests were expelled, and the faithful from all of the northern tribes fled to the south with them (2 Chron. 11:16).  Only the unbelievers remained in the North.  A new priesthood was formed and altars were erected to pagan gods.   Failing to win the Northern Kingdom back, the Lord sent the Assyrians to warn them.  They refused to heed the warnings and were ultimately conquered.

Even though our relationship with Him was different from theirs, America officially renounced God just as the Northern Kingdom had. Now God is judging America,  and the only way for Americans to escape the coming judgment is to flee with the Church, like the believing Israelites fled with the priests.  (To his credit the author did provide a moving set of instructions on how to become part of the Church.)

Once the Lord takes us home, what’s left of America will be destroyed for failing to heed God’s warnings just as the Northern Kingdom was destroyed. The dual purpose of the Great Tribulation is clearly explained in Jeremiah 30:11. The first is to completely destroy all the nations among which the Jews have been scattered, and the second is to discipline Israel in preparation for the coming Kingdom Age. If you’re looking for a Bible verse that refers to America in the end times, look at the first part of Jeremiah 30:11.

What About Them?
Things were different in the Southern Kingdom, even though they were in the process of abandoning God as well.  On the Eve of their conquest by the Babylonians 120 years after the Northern Kingdom ceased to exist, God had Jeremiah tell the exiles from the Southern Kingdom:

“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

By no stretch of the imagination can this promise apply to any one but the Jews in exile in Babylon in the 6th century BC.  Such a promise was never given to the Northern Kingdom, nor has one been given to America.

After the 70 years were over, God brought the Jews who were willing to return back to the Promised Land, just like He said He would.   But this was not the fulfillment of 2 Chronicles 7:14 either. The 70 year period of the captivity had been predetermined by God and at its end He brought them back like He said.  2 Chronicles 7:14  will be fulfilled when the Jewish leadership invokes the promise of Hosea 6:1-2 and petitions the Lord’s return to save them.

When Will That Be?
When Israel’s rejection of Jesus as their Messiah was complete, He finally left them alone.  It had been  40 days since He provided the unmistakable sign they had asked for (the sign of Jonah, Matt. 12:39) to prove He was who He claimed to be.  40 being the number of testing, their time of testing had expired and they had failed. In Hosea 5:15 the prophet had Him saying,

“Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”

When the judgments of the Great Tribulation are at their worst, Israel will officially petition the Lord’s return.

“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence” (Hosea 6:1-2).

When they do, the Lord will pour out His Spirit of Grace and Supplication.  Their eyes will be opened and they will look upon Him who they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child.  (Zechariah 12:10). Some scholars have suggested that Isaiah 53 will be their official  prayer of confession.

On the day the Lord returns He will be King of the whole Earth.  On that day there will be one Lord and His name the only name (Zech. 14:9). Then Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations. Their blood guilt which I have not pardoned, I will pardon.  The Lord dwells in Zion (Joel 3:20-21). 2 Chronicles 7:14will finally be fulfilled.

On three separate occasions just before the Southern Kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians, God told Jeremiah to stop praying for the Jews because He wasn’t listening any more (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14. 14:11).  I believe America may also have reached that point with Him. It’s clear that America’s unbelievers don’t want the Church to save them, and the only believers still fighting for America’s future are the ones who don’t understand what’s ahead for the Church.

In summary, it’s not the Church’s job to save America.  Our job is to store up treasure in Heaven by helping those who can no longer help themselves on Earth.  In this way we show forth the light and love of the Lord in this dark and dying place.

After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward.”

But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.”(Genesis 15:1-4)

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.(Genesis 16:1-4, 15)

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. (Genesis 21:1-3)

But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”(Genesis 21:9-13)

Abraham was 75 years old when God called him, about 80 when God promised him a son, 86 when Ishmael was born (Gen. 16:16) and 100 at the time of Isaac’s birth. (Gen. 21:5) This made Ishmael 14 years older than Isaac, and about 16 or 17 when Isaac was weaned. When he made fun of Isaac, Sarah demanded that Abraham get rid of him.

That snapshot seems to set the tone for our understanding of Ishmael. God had told Hagar that her son would be a “wild ass” of a man with his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him. (Gen. 16:12) He was bigger, stronger, and older than his helpless baby brother, and yet he thought it sport to mock him.

We can imagine that the jealousy between Sarah and Hagar had its effect on Ishmael and served to frame his view of Isaac from the beginning. And it doesn’t take too much of a stretch to believe that Ishmael was told repeatedly that Isaac was God’s choice to become Abraham’s heir although Ishmael was the first born and, at least in his opinion, the rightful heir. When Ishmael and Hagar were sent away to fend for themselves the sense of abandonment likely made it difficult for Ishmael to trust anyone for a long time. I can almost hear him thinking that his life was a mistake, and wishing he had never been born. No wonder he didn’t get along with anyone.

This feeling of being an unworthy outcast matured into a resentment so strong that it permeated Ishmael’s very soul and from that day to this the descendants of Ishmael have stood against the descendants of Isaac. His anger had given the devil a foothold that grew into a stronghold so powerful that it has lasted through all the generations since. All this happened because Abraham and Sarah grew impatient with God and tried to fulfill His promise on their own.

Once More, With Feeling

A generation later, Esau felt similarly disenfranchised by Jacob’s manipulation of Isaac. This was the case even though Jacob only received that which he had earlier purchased from Esau, who in a moment of extreme hunger traded his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew as though it was a mere trinket. Esau was so angry with his father, who refused to reverse the transaction, that he did the one thing that he knew would hurt Isaac the most. He married Malhalath, a daughter of Ishmael. (Gen. 28:8-9) How he and Ishmael must have railed against Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who in two consecutive generations had humiliated them in the matter of their presumed inheritance. Each recounting of the events added bricks and mortar to the stronghold the devil was building in their minds.

It had been God’s plan all along for His promise to Abraham to be fulfilled through Isaac in Jacob. When Sarah took matters into her own hand after waiting impatiently for six years to give her husband an heir, God promised to make Ishmael’s descendants into a great nation with 12 rulers just as he had in mind for Jacob. “But,” He said, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac.” (Gen. 17:20-21)

And Esau’s descendants were given land east of the Jordan River that the Israelites were not allowed to take as their own. (Deut. 2:4-6) But Ishmael didn’t inherit the covenant position and Esau didn’t get the Promised Land, and to them what they received, though generous, probably seemed like 2nd best. Far from encouraging them to forgive and forget, their anger was further inflamed.

The land given to Esau became known as Edom because of its spectacular red rock mountains and, until their rebellion against God, Esau’s descendants thrived there. The final straw came when the Edomites took advantage of God’s punishment of Israel during the Babylonian wars. Thinking to finally get the coveted Promised Land, they sided with Nebuchadnezzar and cut off the Jews’ escape from the Babylonian armies, ambushing the fleeing Israelites and looting their homes. (Obadiah 1:10-14) As a result, Edom was destroyed to the last person, and the Nabateans, another of Ishmael’s descendants, took their land.

We’ll Return After This Break

During Israel’s 1900 year absence from the world scene, the sons of Ishmael grew into the family of nations that God had promised, but the hostility remained even though the Promised Land was seemingly theirs for the taking. When Mohammed, a descendant of Ishmael’s, failed to convert the Jews in the region to his new religion, he declared war against them and the ancient hostility was born anew. All the old feelings of resentment were re-kindled, and even though the armies of Islam embarked upon an era of conquest that eventually took them all the way to eastern France, they maintained a special hostility toward the Jews.

And then the unimaginable happened. For the third time they were required to step aside in favor of the sons of Israel. God was bringing His people back to the land He had promised to Abraham so long ago. Never mind that the land had been pretty much abandoned for much of the preceding 1900 years, it had been Moslem land and now it was being given back to their sworn enemies, the Jews. It violated their sense of ownership, tainted though it was, and it violated the promise of their religion. Mohammed himself had told them that any land conquered in the name of Allah would never be lost again to the infidels.

Of course by now the majority of  Mohammed’s followers weren’t sons of Ishmael, but Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, to use their Biblical names. But their historical hatred of the Jews had been kept alive through the religion they all shared in common. And most of the returning Jews weren’t of the original 12 tribes but the descendants of Europeans who had converted to Judaism over the centuries. Only a remnant of today’s Jews can trace their ancestry to Jacob’s 12 sons. But it’s that remnant that validates Israel’s claim under the Abrahamic covenant in God’s eyes.

Therefore, the wars of today aren’t between Ishmaelites and Israelites, but between Moslems and Jews. The family feud has become a battle of religions. Will the God of the Jews prevail, or will it be the god of Islam, for they are not one and the same. The God who inhabits eternity created the land and gave it to Abraham in an everlasting covenant. The god of this world had taken it as his own and refuses to give it up. It’s the most hotly contested piece of real estate in the entire universe, and the contest has both its origin and its resolution in the spiritual realm, not in the assembly halls of human governments.

So now we’ve come full circle. Ishmael, represented by the Moslems, is older, bigger, and stronger, but Isaac, represented by the Jews, is still the child of the promise. And as we’ll soon see, what God has promised, He performs. Against all odds, Ishmael will once again be driven away, and God will use the occasion to re-instate His ancient covenant with the children of Israel, biological or not. It’s another giant signpost that the End of the Age is upon us.