Hubby and I just spent a week in New York City. We had planned to visit the 9/11 Memorial but Spring Breakers were everywhere, and due to security and the need for an advance appointment, we decided it would be a good reason to return and view it when the construction is gone, if that ever happens. We were just across the street at St. Paul’s Chapel, however, and it was awe-inspiring to see this tiny Colonial chuch where General and U.S. President George Washington chose to worship before and after his inauguration. If you have read Rabbi Jonathan Cahn’s The Harbinger, you will know of St. Paul’s. The day after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle recited Isaiah 9:10 from the U.S. Senate floor. President Barack Obama recited Isaiah 9:10 in his first State of the Union address in 2009 and presidential hopeful John Edwards recited it at the 2003 anniversary of the attacks. I believe I found Senator Bill Frist also used the same chapter and verse but can’t find confirmation today. So, why does it matter?

The Cedar that Replaced the Sycamore at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Across from the 9/11/01 Attacks

Isaiah 9:10 tells of ancient Israeli’s vow to rebuild after an enormous loss to to their enemy, Assyria, and to do so, seemingly under their own might, not under the power of The Almighty God. Research staffed missed the important verses that came before and after, so we have this vow of arrogance and self-proclaimed might coming out of Washington, D.C. with no acknowledgement that it actually represented Godly affliction on the Nation of Israel. The pesky question: why would it not represent the same for us today?

Isaiah 9:8-9:

⁸ The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;
it will fall on Israel.

⁹ All the people will know it—
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—
who say with pride
and arrogance of heart,

Rather than reading and understanding what led to Isaiah 9:10, just two short verses, three American politicians ignored the background and vowed to commit the same folly of self-aggrandizement. Don’t we know from past legislation that politicians are totally incapable of reading?

¹⁰ “The bricks have fallen down,
but we will rebuild with dressed stone;
the fig trees have been felled,
but we will replace them with cedars.”

The rest of the story:

¹¹ But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them
and has spurred their enemies on.

¹² Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west
have devoured Israel with open mouth.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.

¹³ But the people have not returned to him who struck them,
nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.

¹⁴ So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail,
both palm branch and reed in a single day;

¹⁵ the elders and dignitaries are the head,
the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

¹⁶ Those who guide this people mislead them,
and those who are guided are led astray.

¹⁷ Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,
nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,
for everyone is ungodly and wicked,
every mouth speaks folly.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.

¹⁸ Surely wickedness burns like a fire;
it consumes briers and thorns,
it sets the forest thickets ablaze,
so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹ By the wrath of the Lord Almighty
the land will be scorched
and the people will be fuel for the fire;
they will not spare one another.

²⁰ On the right they will devour,
but still be hungry;
on the left they will eat,
but not be satisfied.
Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring:

²¹     Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;
together they will turn against Judah.