Jonathan Cahn - The Harbinger Companion with Study Guide

The first act of America’s rebuilding was to cut out of a mountain in upstate New York a massive rectangular block of stone, a biblical Gazit Stone . The second act was to bring this stone to the ground where America’s bricks had fallen: Ground Zero. As America’s Gazit Stone was laid on the pavement where calamity had struck, American leaders gathered around it in a ceremony of dedication. In this ceremony the leaders spoke multiple vows of defiance over the quarried stone, making it into a symbol of American resurgence. One of those leaders unwittingly used the same exact phrase used in commentaries on Isaiah 9:10 to describe the fatal mistake of Israel’s leaders:

Today, we, the heirs of that revolutionary spirit of defiance , lay this cornerstone . . . 7

WEEK 4 EXPLORE and APPLY

Read chapters 4–9 of The Harbinger.

Watch or listen to the accompanying resource, “ The Harbinger I” DVD or CD (from The Harbinger: The Full Revelation eight-disc album).

Read Isaiah 9:8–10; Leviticus 26:1–39; Deuteronomy 28:15–68.

Explore

The Breach

In 732 BC the Assyrians invaded Israel and then withdrew. About ten years later they returned, and Israel was destroyed. In 605 BC the Babylonians first invaded Judah. Years later they returned, and Judah was destroyed. What pattern can you see in this? What purpose could this pattern serve?

God gave Israel a promise that if the nation followed Him, it would be kept safe. For a long period of time the northern kingdom of Israel was kept safe. Do you think the people realized that it was God’s grace that was keeping them safe? Why or why not?

When the Assyrians first invaded the land, what message was God sending to Israel?

America has long been kept safe from enemy attacks. Do you think most Americans clearly see this as God’s grace, or do they take it for granted? Have Americans in the past had a sense of invincibility?

What made 9/11 unique in American history?

America has been the strongest superpower on the earth and protected by the most sophisticated defense system in the world. And yet all of its sophisticated systems failed on 9/11. What truth can you find in that?

The Terrorist

The Assyrians were among the most evil and ruthless people in world history yet God used them for His purposes. What truths can we find in that?

Was God siding with the Assyrians?

How do we know He was not?

Can God use evil people and evil kingdoms? How so? Where in the Bible can you find examples of this principle?

After 9/11 believers across the nation sensed it was a wake-up call to America from God. Yet many were afraid to say this? Why?

What is God’s promise concerning how all things—including bad circumstances—work for believers?

The Bricks

What kind of bricks did the Israelites use to build their buildings? Why were these building materials relatively weak?

What larger message of national warning might there be in the images of fallen buildings, destruction, towers collapsing to their foundations, and heaps of ruin?

Modern buildings aren’t made of clay bricks, so how might ancient Israel’s destruction and national warning of judgment be translated and manifest in the modern world?

The towers of the World Trade Center were symbols of American power, preeminence, and prosperity. What could the collapse of such symbols foreshadow?

Isaiah 9:10

In the wake of the Assyrian attack in 732 BC, the people of Israel responded with the vow of Isaiah 9:10, of bricks and stones, sycamores and cedars. But what was the spiritual meaning and message of those words?

If you had to paraphrase in modern English what they were saying to God and man, what were they saying?

Rebuilding would be expected, but what is it about the vow that made it defiant of God?

What was missing from what they said?

Where in this section of Scripture does it reveal to the hearer that these words were spoken in an ungodly spirit?

In view of the fact that the Assyrian invasion was a warning, why was Israel’s vow all the more ominous?

What were they choosing not to consider or realize about what had happened?

What did they trust instead of God?

In the wake of 9/11, America sought to undo the calamity by vowing to become stronger militarily, politically, and economically, to rebuild herself stronger than before. How does this parallel the fateful mistake of ancient Israel?

The Tower

The people of the northern kingdom didn’t vow to rebuild with clay bricks but with hewn stone. Why is this different from restoration?

Why would quarried stones allow them to build higher buildings than before?

The oldest translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, which is quoted in the New Testament, translates Isaiah 9:10 as, “The bricks have fallen down, but come . . . let us build for ourselves a tower.” 8This refers to the Tower of Babel. Why do you think they did that?

What similarities can you see between the building of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and the building of the Israelites in Isaiah 9:10?

What was the role of towers in the ancient city and nation? What did towers represent?

Putting this all together, what significance can be found in the fact that America began building a tower at Ground Zero to symbolize its defiance in the wake of 9/11?

After 9/11 do you remember any national leader calling for repentance or a return to God?

What significance can be found in the fact that after 9/11, American leaders called continually for the nation to rebuild—and to rebuild bigger and stronger than before?

The Gazit Stone

The stone in Isaiah 9:10 is different from clay bricks in that the Hebrew word behind it, gazit, refers to a carved, chiseled, quarried, massive rectangular block of stone. Could these and other physical characteristics of a rock symbolize bad qualities? In what way?

After 9/11, a Gazit Stone was laid on the pavement of Ground Zero, with American leaders gathered around it in a ceremony, proclaiming vows of national defiance over it. In how many ways did what took place at Ground Zero replay and reenact what happened in Israel’s last days?

What was missing from the proclamations made by American leaders that day?

Many commentaries on Isaiah 9:10 identify or allude to the nation’s “spirit of defiance.” In the ceremony around the stone, one of the American leaders spoke of America’s “spirit of defiance.” He was alluding to America’s birth. But when is a “spirit of defiance” a very bad thing? In what ways can we truthfully speak of America having a “spirit of defiance” as Israel did?

Spiritual Truths

What was God trying to tell Israel in all this? Why did the people not hear it?

What do you believe God is trying to tell America? Why has our nation not heard it?

What do you believe God is trying to say to you now? Are you hearing it?

Mission to Apply This Week

In the space provided, write down what you believe God is trying to say to you right now in your life and what actions or changes you can make this week to begin responding to it. Make this your mission for the week.

Take time now to commit this to God and pray for His help and anointing.

Seal this commitment in prayer (individually, in small groups, as a class, or congregationally).

Prepare for next week (groups only): This week read, go over, and explore the next chapter, “The Harbingers; The Sycamore to the Prophecy.”