It’s an ancient Jewish tradition. Since ancient times, Jewish people have gathered in their synagogues every Sabbath, opened up the scrolls and read a specific portion of Scripture. In fact, that specific portion of Scripture is assigned to a certain Sabbath day. It’s called a parasha.
In his book The Oracle, Jonathan Cahn reveals how, throughout history and into the modern world, at key times when the appointed words are read, the events spoken in these words actually come true. He explores three examples in history:
- The Prophecy of the Foreigner
At the end of the book of Deuteronomy Moses prophesied:
“The foreigner who will come from a far land, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it, will say, ‘The whole land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows there” (Deut. 29-22-23).
The prophecy came true. A man came from across the world to the land of Israel, a barren wasteland, and bore witness of its desolation. The man was Mark Twain. Twain would put his witness of the land’s desolation in his first full book Innocents Abroad.
Sept. 28, 1867, was Twain’s last full day and night in Jerusalem, the peak of his journey. On that day, as he walked the streets of Jerusalem, the ancient scrolls were opened, and the appointed word for that day was the prophecy that the foreigner would come from far away and bear witness of the land.
- The Balfour Declaration
On Nov. 2, 1917, the British government issued a public statement announcing support for “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. In other words, the land of Israel was to return back to the children of Israel. The statement was called the Balfour Declaration, and as Cahn writes, “it was the first such declaration of any major power since ancient times, the first since the Roman Empire drove the Jewish people out of their land two thousand years earlier.”
The recognition excited Zionists. What many don’t know is that the parasha that was read on the Sabbath day of that week was God giving a promise to the Jewish people through their father Abraham: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).
Genesis 12 is the scripture that establishes the ancestral right, or the Jewish people’s claim, on Israel. So, on the week in which the Balfour Declaration would give the land back to the Jewish people, the ancestral right was proclaimed over and over again throughout the world, at the moment it was being fulfilled.
- The Letter of Harry Truman
After World War II, President Harry Truman learned of the many displaced Jewish refugees held in camps with barbed wire and armed guards. On Aug. 31, 1945, he sent a letter to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee with a directive that the British release 100 refugees and allow them to return home. When Attlee responded with resistance, Truman then released to the public a report about the conditions of the camps as well as the letter.
The resulting pressure pushed the British Empire to release the Holocaust survivors. Many of them returned to Israel.
“In all of history,” writes Cahn, “only two world leaders have issued such a word to bring about the mass return of Jewish exiles to the land: King Cyrus and President Truman.”
The letter had another consequence: “The pressure of the return of the Jewish exiles to the land would ultimately lead the British Empire to end its occupation of the land, which would in turn lead to the nation’s rebirth. Cyrus had brought about the end of a seventy-year exile; Truman would ultimately bring about the end of a two-thousand-year-old exile.”
But the day that Truman sent the letter was a Sabbath, when the ancient scrolls are opened and the appointed word read. What was the appointed word for the day that the American president sent concerning the release of the Jewish people from their exile to return to their land? It was this:
“Then the Lord your God will overturn your captivity and have compassion on you and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and from there He will get you. The Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers” (Deut. 30:3-5).
The book of Hebrews says that “the word of God is alive and active” (4:12, NIV). This means we believe in not just the ancient Word, but also the living Word. We believe in a God who speaks to us, not just through signs and miracles, but also through words that transcend time and speak to our lives now. {eoa}
This article is adapted from The Oracle by Jonathan Cahn. Cahn caused a worldwide stir with the release of his explosive first book, The Harbinger, which became an instant New York Times’ bestseller and brought him to national and international prominence. His next four books were also New York Times’ bestsellers: The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, The Paradigm and his highest-debuting book, The Oracle. Long before writing these books, he was known for opening the deep mysteries of Scripture and bringing forth messages of prophetic import. He leads Hope of the World, an international outreach of the Word, teachings and compassion projects for the needy around the world. He also leads the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, made up of people of all backgrounds, just outside New York City, in Wayne, New Jersey. Called the prophetic voice of this generation, Cahn is a much-sought-after speaker and has been highlighted in the New York Times as well as in many national and international media. He has spoken at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill and to millions of people around the world.
