The Harbinger Read Online Free PDF

seagulls in the background. “Take out the seal,” he said. “What do you see?”
    “Inscriptions, symbols, and one main symbol.”
    “What do you make of it?”
    “I don’t know. It’s something like a V.”
    “It’s an image, Nouriel.”
    “Of what?”
    “The top of a wall,” he said. “It’s a wall of protection.”
    “And what’s the V in the middle?”
    “Not a V,” he replied, “a breach.”
    “A breach?”
    “A gap—a break, an opening in the wall. The wall is broken, the sign that an enemy has entered in.”
    “It’s the removing of the hedge of protection. It’s what happened to ancient Israel?”
    “Yes. With no other way of getting through to them, the hedge of protection is removed. The year is 732 B.C. Israel’s enemies invade the land and wreak havoc. The calamity traumatizes the nation. But it takes place on a limited scale. The enemy strikes and then withdraws. It’s a foreshadowing of something much greater and much more severe—a warning…a harbinger of a future judgment so great that if it ever came to pass, the nation would never recover.”
    “So the warning is the removal of the hedge.”
    “Yes,” said the prophet, “a late-stage warning, allowed to take place only when nothing else would wake them up…limited…restrained…the sound of an alarm for the purpose of averting a much greater calamity. It never could have happened had Israel remained inside the will of God. No enemy could have ever breached its walls. But outside the will of God, any notion of national security or invincibility was an illusion. The breach exposed it. The nation was in danger. It would be shaken to its foundation…and apart from returning to God, there was no wall strong enough to protect them. It was their wake-up call.”
    “So they never woke up?”
    “No,” he replied. “Most would see the tragedy as a matter of defense, national security, or foreign policy. They committed themselves to making sure it would never happen again. They fortified their defenses, strengthened their walls, and formed strategic alliances. Few of them pondered the possibility that there could be any deeper significance behind it. And yet the voices of their prophets, the words of their Scriptures, and an uneasy stirring in their hearts were all warning them that something was wrong. The nation had departed from God. But apart from the prophets, few realized the critical line they had crossed and the new and dangerous era they had entered. No political or military power would be strong enough to ensure their safety; only a return to God. The attack was a warning and a harbinger of judgment.”
    “So what happened after they missed their wake-up call?”
    “As time passed, it appeared as if life was gradually returning to normal. There was a respite, peace. With every passing year, it seemed as if the danger was farther behind them. But it was an illusion. The problem and the danger only increased. It was a period of grace, given to them in mercy, that they might change their course and avert the judgment. But if not, then a greater judgment would come, and that first breaching of their walls would be remembered as the harbinger that was the beginning of their fall. These were their most critical of days.” He paused. “The seal, Nouriel…hand it to me.”
    So I gave it to him. He lifted it up in his right hand.
    “The First Harbinger,” he said, holding the seal level with my eyes. “The Breach. The nation that had long known blessing and security witnesses the failure of its defenses. Its walls of protection are broken through, its national security is breached, and its illusion of invincibility shattered. The days of the Harbingers begin.”
    “And this has something to do with America?” I asked.
    “America was the most blessed nation on earth, its blessings shielded by a powerful hedge of national protection. As its founders had foretold, if the nation followed the ways of God, it would be