Jonathan Cahn - The Harbinger Companion with Study Guide

When [your people] sin against you—for there is none who does not sin—and you . . . give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive . . . and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul . . . then . . . hear their prayer and their pleas, and uphold their cause. And forgive your people . . .

—2 CHRONICLES 6:36–39, NIV

Thus, while the Temple’s destruction was an immediate judgment, its ultimate purpose was mercy, as the Lord was calling the nation back to recall that the Temple Mount, the ground of its judgment, was also the ground of its original consecration by Solomon’s generation, the foundation for all blessings.

The story of the Temple’s dedication and destruction reveals a vital principle about a nation that dedicates itself to God and then turns from His ways despite repeated warnings:

The nation’s ground of consecration will become the ground of its judgment.

America: The Day of Dedication

In the case of America, the day it reached its fully constituted form was not July 4, 1776, the day it declared independence from Britain, but April 30, 1789. On that day the nation’s government was completed, as set forth in its Constitution, with the inauguration of its first president, George Washington. Taking his presidential oath, Washington placed his right hand on the same Bible that recorded Solomon’s dedication of Israel to God and prophetic warnings and prayers for future generations in Israel. When Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, he did so in prayer and supplication (2 Chronicles 6). Washington did likewise:

It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes. 1

And just as King Solomon was joined in prayer that day by the leaders and multitudes, “the whole assembly of Israel” (2 Chron. 6:3), so too was Washington as that seminal day in American history was designated as a day of prayer and dedication.

The Prophetic Warning

In the Bible days of dedication often become days prophetic words are spoken. When Jacob prayed over his sons, he also spoke prophetically of their future. Likewise, when the Messiah was dedicated as a child at the Temple, a prophetic word was spoken over Him. On the day of the Temple’s dedication, King Solomon prayed prophetically for the nation’s future, its coming apostasy and judgment. So too on the day the American nation-state and government came into existence, a prophetic word was spoken.

In the first ever presidential address, Washington gave a prophetic warning to the nation:

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself hath ordained. 2

What was Washington saying? It was simply this: If America upholds God’s eternal standards of righteousness she will be blessed with His protection and prosperity. But if America should ever disregard God’s eternal standards of righteousness, if she should ever depart from His ways, His blessings would be withdrawn from the land.

The American Mystery Ground

After Washington finished his speech, the first completed government of the United States embarked on its first official act. It was not to pass a bill or argue legislation; it was to pray. The entire government, including the Senate and House of Representatives, went on foot to the place appointed for prayer.

The site on which America’s future was dedicated to God in prayer could be called the nation’s dedication ground or consecration ground. And where was it? It took place in the nation’s capital. But the capital of America on that first inaugural day was not Washington DC or Philadelphia. America’s first capital was New York City. Where exactly was America dedicated to God? What exactly is America’s consecration ground?

America’s consecration ground is Ground Zero.

They gathered to commit America’s future to God at the corner of Ground Zero. In fact, the very ground on which the twin towers stood was church land. They dedicated America’s future to God in a little stone building, St. Paul’s Chapel, which still stands there to this day.

And it was on there, on America’s consecration ground, that the Sixth Harbinger, the Sycamore, had grown. It was into that soil that the Erez Tree was planted in place of the fallen tree.

Thus, on the day that America’s foundation was laid and the nation’s future committed to God’s “holy protection,” it happened at precisely the place where, on 9/11, His holy protection was, in part, withdrawn.

The Cracked Foundation

It was in Federal Hall, New York City, that the American nation as we know it came into existence. It was on its balcony where Washington was sworn in as the nation’s first president. It was there in its chamber where Washington gave that prophetic warning. Today, in New York City, on Wall Street, facing the New York Stock Exchange, stands a statue of Washington. The inscription on the pedestal reads as follows:

On this site in Federal Hall, April 30, 1789, George Washington took the Oath as the First President of the United States of America. 3

On that founding day, the two sites, Federal Hall and St. Paul’s Chapel (Ground Zero), were joined together. On September 11, 2001, the two sites were joined together again. When the twin towers fell, a shock wave moved from Ground Zero to Federal Hall, putting a crack in its foundation—in America’s foundation—the place where Washington’s prophetic warning was spoken as to what would happen if the nation ever turned away from God.

Washington had warned that the nation would witness its blessings removed. The nation was now witnessing those blessings removed, one by one, from its physical security and later its economic prosperity. From the devastation of Ground Zero at St. Paul’s, the nation’s ground of consecration, to the crash of the New York Stock Exchange at Federal Hall, the site of the foundation where Washington’s words were spoken, the warning was coming true.

“The Miracle of 9/11” and the Purpose of the Harbingers

All around Ground Zero every building was either destroyed or ruined—all except for one. One was protected. It was called “the miracle of 9/11.” What was it? It was St. Paul’s Chapel, the little stone building in which America was dedicated to God. And why was it protected? There was an object that absorbed the force of the calamity and protected the church. What was it? It was the harbinger, the Sycamore of Ground Zero, the Sixth Harbinger, that shielded the church both from the force of the implosion and the flying wreckage of the falling towers.

In this, the purpose of the harbingers and the message of The Harbinger , is revealed. This Sixth Harbinger protected the place where America’s future was dedicated to God. The point is not to condemn a nation to judgment but to save it. If there were no hope, there would be no harbingers. The point of warning is hope.

The message of the “mystery ground,” as with the Temple Mount in ancient Israel, was not only that the nation’s consecration to God had been broken. It was also a message of return—the voice of God calling the nation to return from where it had fallen—to return to Him.

The place where the first American government had once prayed for its future now became the center not only of calamity but also of the relief efforts made in the wake of that calamity. Without knowing quite why, multitudes were drawn there. In the wake of 9/11 the nation’s attention and focus had returned to the ground on which its future had once been consecrated to God.