Like this:

The above photo was taken either Friday or Saturday on Devon Avenue in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, a near-suburb of Trenton, the capital of the state, as yet another major storm blasted through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast drenching the region. (I’m not expert enough to discern what kind of tree it is; hopefully some astute reader will.)

Devon means ‘poet’. Lawrence means ‘crowned with a laurel‘. In a Biblical context, that reminds me of the Psalmist (a poet) and particularly Psalm 37:34-36 –

Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off. I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree. But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found.

The article in which it appears is entitled, “Police chief: I’ve never seen a storm worse than this.” In making that statement, the man they’re quoting was drawing on 35 years of police service. The caption to the photo reads: “It’s as if God yanked a tree straight out of the earth and left it in front of this [home].”

Further east, in Atlantic City,

…the horizontal arm of a boom crane plunged 47 floors at the Revel Casino construction site. Debris went flying and crashed through the driver’s side window of a police cruiser…

I have not been able to find a current news photo of the fallen crane. Presumably it was one of the six pictured in this photo of the Revel Casino construction site taken May 14, 2008, just as the structure began moving above ground-level, foundation work. (Six is the Biblical number associated with man and his efforts.)

May, 2008 was the same month Obama surpassed Hillary to clinch the Democratic nomination, coming “above ground” as it were, finishing the “foundation work” on his elevation to the presidency. The picture (and ‘clinch’) came two months after another crane fell in New York City, on March 17, 2008 (a day of ample drunken revelry, as this Boston-area resident can attest) — an event Joseph Herrin connected with “A Double Portion of Judgment”.

As a verb, the word ‘revel’ means to, “take great pleasure or delight, [e.g.] in luxury, to make merry; indulge in boisterous festivities” or as a noun, a place or “occasion of merrymaking or noisy festivity with dancing, masking, etc.” It’s no surprise then, that a new casino is adopting that name. In light of those elements, and in conjunction with the St. Patrick’s Day NYC crane fall, it’s hard not to think also of Mardi Gras, clowns and other masked or costumed revelries (“Truth Needs No Mask“).

Further note that during last weekend’s storm it was not the crane itself that fell (as was the case in New York) but its stretched-out (horizontal) “arm”. In scripture (e.g., in Exodus or Isaiah) when Yahweh stretches out his arm and/or hand, it is more often in judgment than restoration. It’s difficult to see it as the latter in this context. The “arm coming down” is a serious harbinger, IMO. Finally, note that for it to fall from the 47th floor to the ground (i.e., the first floor) means that it traveled 46 floors.

Interestingly, Obama’s 47th birthday, in Hebrew terms, fell on August 5th, 2008. (He was born after sunset on August 4, 1961.) That day came precisely 2,520 days after 9-11-01. I.e., precisely seven Hebrew years.

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For your further consideration, note the map (below) that appeared on Accuweather last Thursday, as Joe Biden was “condemning” Israel, followed by strangely worded assurances of our loyalty. His birthplace is near the top right of the letter ‘R’ in ‘CONCERN’, the state he served (Delaware) just below it. Washington, DC sits just to the south of the ‘C’.

As we experience a second day of soaking here in Boston from the same storm, I was thinking of (and leaning on) God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth with water again. As we’ve seen, water in various forms can be symbolic of his word pouring forth, “drowning out” as it were, the foolish words of men.

In the midst of those thoughts, a brother in Christ who wishes to be referred-to as “YosoY my father’s son” shared the following, via e-mail:

On the [morning of] 3rd of February… [my late] father’s birthday… I read one of my favorite ponderings… Genesis 7:11 — the opening of the fountains of the deep and the portals of heaven, and its date.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up , and the windows of heaven were opened.

As I continued to dwell upon the openings of the heavens, I walked from my office to the hall and was laying down the paper with the notations of Genesis 7:11 [when] the Lord said to me as clear as this, “I will open the windows of heaven on the 17th of the second month.”

The date he received this word, February 3rd, was the eve of the halfway point between the Haiti and Chile quakes, which occurred 46 days* apart.

Two weeks later, on the 17th of February, he received what he thought was fulfillment, when someone walked into his church whom he recognized as a servant of the Lord. I.e., one filled with the Spirit on the 17th day of the second Gregorian month (metaphorically, an outpouring of living water via that individual.)

Being the geek that I am, and curious to see where the 17th of the second Hebrew month (Iyar) would take us, I plugged the date into the incredibly handy ‘Hebcal’ and found the answer: April 30th (after sunset) through May 1st (sunset).

What YosoY could not have known (because until now I have only shared this with one other person) is that on that same day (February 3rd) I witnessed an odd cryptic cluster of signs that I knew were significant but didn’t quite know what to do with.

I hope to relate them in another post. I’ll leave that other person anonymous for the moment — I know they’re reading and can verify my story later if needed. The gist of what I saw related to a period of 46 days, communications breakdown, fire and war, the U.S. Air Force, and (less directly) the president.

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Isaiah 9:8-19 — Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

8 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will fall on Israel; 9 and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart: 10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.” 11 But the LORD raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies. 12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 13 The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts. 14 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day– 15 the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; 16 for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up. 17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. 18 For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke. 19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.

In her watershed piece published a year ago Wednesday (March 17, 2009, exactly a year after the crane fall in Manhattan) Sue Bradley* described the gross mis-use of Isaiah 9:10 (above) out of context by various U.S. public officials. She related it to the spiritual consecration of the United States at what later became 9-11 Ground Zero, floating the additional thought that George Washington was at least one telescopic fulfillment or ‘type’ of the “elder, honored man” (the head) with Barack Hussein Obama in the role of the, “prophet who teaches lies” (the tail).

*Please pray earnestly for Sue who is experiencing some very serious health issues at the moment.

See “The Watchmen, 9-11 and the Harbingers” (pdf) plus her update, published May 30, 2009 (pdf version here) for background on these must-know harbingers. The following ten-minute video also provides a good synopsis.

The ten-part video linked off Sue’s site adds more depth, color and background.

In the first part of Sue’s article, she quotes Rabbi Jonathan Cahn:

America was born, not on July 4th [1776] but was conceived [then]… America was born as a fully formed nation on April 30th, 1789. On that day, for the first time, America had a Constitution, a House of Representatives and a President together. It was the birth of the United States as a fully formed, constituted nation.

On that day, the government, the House, the Senate and the President all gathered in the Capital [New York City] together, it was the Inauguration of George Washington. It was the nation’s Dedication Day…

I began this post based on the simple “coincidence” of YosoY’s word (interpreted in a Hebrew context) with the 221st anniversary of this event 46 days from now… just a day after the image below appeared in the paper of record for the country, the New York Times, under the headline, “As Health Vote Waits, Future of a Presidency Waits Too” — a phrase positively bursting with possibilities for unwitting, prophetic meaning.

To my astonishment, it echoes another shameful Obama-as-Messiah item, entitled “The Truth” that gained national attention, also in New York City, also on… April 30th (last year) and in which I found several layers of symbolic meaning, including links to Sue’s observation about Israel being attacked on the 5th of Iyar (May 15,1948). The 5th of Iyar fell on April 30th, 2009. It falls on April 19, 2010 this year — a date fraught with significance as I noted at the end of this post two weeks ago.)

In addition to being a major pagan holiday (Walpurgisnacht) it was the 100th day of Obama’s presidency. That’s true of most presidents, however what made Obama’s 100th day remarkable is that he made light of in blasphemous fashion nine days later at the White House Correspondents Dinner (nine being the number of judgment). April 30th is also the date Hitler killed himself and fiancee Eva Braun in the bunker in Berlin.

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According to Rabbi Cahn, after President George Washington gave his inaugural address, a text filled with humility and references to God’s providential hand in the formation of this country, he…

…and all the other officials, the Senators, the House of Representatives, the Vice President, all left the place of Inauguration, traveled on foot to a small church, a chapel [St. Paul's Chapel, at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan!] They went inside…and we don’t know exactly what they said there, we know they were there for one purpose. For two hours they prayed, they committed, they consecrated this nation into God’s hands. The entire government was kneeling before God.

One reason President Washington’s remarks and actions evince so much reverence and gratitude for the birth of this nation is that he bore witness to many of the wildly “improbable” (providential) events that made it possible. As leader of the Continental Army and later, as a political figure, it could be argued that he was witness to more of them than anyone else.

One of the most remarkable of those events took place December 25, 1776 as Washington led his men across the Delaware River to attack British forces at… Trenton, New Jersey.

Interestingly as ‘The Hill’ reported, both lame-duck president Bush and president-elect Obama felt moved to feature the 232-year-old event in remarks each one made, separately, on Christmas Eve, 2008. One source (with video of O’s remarks) called it a “strange presidential mind-meld”.

Below is a map showing Washington’s rough route, super-imposed on a modern map of the same area at closer-in scale. The red ‘A’ caret marks the short road on which the tree fell on Friday; note the Delaware river for reference. We may never know for certain, but it is far from impossible that Washington (or at least his forces) passed by the now-fallen tree on their way to attack Trenton.

One blogger*, writing in late 2008, connected the strangely echoing presidential remarks with pictures he’d taken of “Washington’s Tree”, a sycamore, still standing that was alive when General Washington marched past it.

The tree sits Military Park in Newark, New Jersey, just over seven miles west, as the crow flies, from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. It is entirely lacking in limbs; from afar it appears completely dead. All efforts to grow new trees from its cuttings have failed, however close-ups reveal that, as of 2008 (presumably Spring, as the NYC crane was falling, Obama was clinching the nomination, and the Revel Casino was rising above its foundations) the tree was sprouting:

Matthew 24:32-35 (echoed in Mark 13:28-31) –

The Lesson of the Fig* Tree
32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

(Confused about figs vs. sycamores?… hold on a moment…)

The same blogger* who took the pictures adds:

Some historians have called New Jersey “The Cockpit of the Revolution”, and NJ was indeed the site of a brilliant triumph by George Washington and the Continental Army the day after Christmas, 1776… that heartened the colonists, who before then had reason to fear that the greatest power of the day would crush their efforts for independence… John Fea of the Department of History of Messiah College in south-central Pennsylvania [observe]:

[O]ne cannot understand the American Revolution without understanding the people and landscape of the Garden State.

(In this context, of sycamore trees, some of which are fig-bearing, spring fig shoots and fig-leaves and the birthplace of a nation, it’s hard not to think of another garden “state” — of being — at the birth of the world. In the garden of Eden, fig leaves were used by Adam and Eve in a lame attempt to cover sin. Yahweh instead clothed them in animal skins, setting the precedent that sin can only be atoned-for by the shedding of blood.)

One history site adds:

The news of the American victory [at Trenton, on 12/26] spread rapidly through the colonies reinvigorating the failing spirit of the Revolution. The battle’s outcome also gave Washington and his officers the confidence to mount another campaign. On December 30 they again crossed the Delaware, attacked and won another victory at Trenton on January 2 [1777], and then pushed on to Princeton defeating the British there on January 3.

Thus wee see that New Jersey, the state that got hit hard over the weekend (parts of the NJ Turnpike were shut down) was pivotal to the birth to this nation. It has also been at the forefront of a national battle over the legal status of same-sex couples and, more particularly, the push for homosexual marriage. (On January 7th of this year, a bill that would have legalized gay marriage in the state failed to pass the NJ Senate.)

*In one of those circumstances I could not sell as fiction even if I wanted to, the blogger I noted above, whom I’d never heard of before today, and who came to my attention only via Google searches around Washington’s Delaware crossing, after I’d already gotten well into forming a post themed on national pride and Divine judgment, is the same individual (L. Craig Schoonmaker) who calls himself (and seems to be widely acknowledged as) “Mr. Gay Pride”.

In the Spring of 1970, Mr. Schoonmaker “offered [coined] the term, ‘Gay Pride’ as it is used today”, just over a year after founding a still-active group, “Homosexuals Intransigent!” on April 1, 1969 as a student in New York City, “almost three full months before the Stonewall Riots that gave rise to the Gay Liberation Movement.”

Make of that what you will, but please do yourself a favor by reading in a prayerful and humble spirit, Romans 3:10-15, noting its superlatives (ALL have sinned) Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 (from a God who does not change) AND especially John 8:1-11… all of it. (Yes, I know it was added later.)

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Sycamores are sometimes spelled ‘sycomore’ (with an ‘o’) in the Bible. In many, perhaps most cases, the term refers to fig-bearing sycamores. This Wikipedia entry falls short of authoritative, but if you’re curious, and a complete dilettante on plant biology like me, it’s a start.

In Luke 19:4, depending on your translation, it’s clear that the short-man Zacchaeus climbs a “sycamore-fig” tree. The Greek term (sukomoraia, G4809) is only used once — signifying the importance of the events it describes. In that case an otherwise hated and hopeless sinner (tax-collector) earnestly sought to catch a glimpse of and follow Jesus… and Jesus responded.

It’s related to G4080, (suke) for “fig tree” (used fifteen times — the number associated with acts wrought by Divine grace).

The question of figs and sycamores gets far more complex in the Hebrew scripture where the two seem more closely intertwined. H8256, shaqam (meaning a fig-bearing sycamore — the only time Isaiah uses it) is the term used in the Isaiah 9:10 reference above. It shows up for a total of seven uses in Hebrew, the Biblical number of completeness. (A related term (H1103, balac) is used only once, in Amos 7:14, referring to the action of cultivating sycamore figs.)

The more common word (H8384, teh·ān’) shows up 35 times (7 x5; completeness x grace) referring to fig trees without mention of ‘sycamore’. Isaiah uses that word three times in a VERY different, almost mundane way.

Then there’s H2602, chanamal, used only once. It describes a flood or frost that destroys sycamores in Psalm 78:47 (quoted in context):

42 They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, 43 when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan. 44 He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams. 45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. 48 He gave over their cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. 49 He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. 50 He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. 51 He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham. 52 Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

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What to make of all this? It is a pregnant time — for the world and this nation. Some of the actors and their roles, are becoming crystal clear. And, as on 9-11, we once again see events of great significance at the founding of this Republic echoing in strange and urgent ways, both obvious and symbolic, both blessed and blasphemous.

What are we meant to DO with all this? First: recognize the season. It may be Spring in the world but it’s late on God’s clock.

Should we hunker down, buy guns and canned food and wait for a Christian vacation? I’ll be as delighted as any of you when it comes, but I just don’t see the hunkering down part in scripture. Instead, we’re told that the harvest is ripe and the workers few. If you don’t like that metaphor, try the ones Paul used frequently of a running race. When the finish line comes in sight it’s time to sprint and give it all you’ve got.

Have the rules changed? Absolutely not. We’re all still sinners, saved by grace and our free will to accept that amazing gift.

If we are truly saved and have little time left though, now is when we should be taking the biggest risks with our un-saved neighbors — not out of obligation but out of joy and love… just as Jesus did.

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UPDATE: Several additional thoughts…

1) The NYT image of Obama in front of the sun and a square cross is more reminiscent of the ‘Tau’ symbol associated with pagan sun-worship, Tammuz, Nimrod and Babylon than it is with the cross on which Jesus Christ hung. The latter has a distinct asymmetry to it, e.g., see here. (The two symbols have unfortunately been confused and conflated over the years, e.g., see here.)

2) Forty-six days from February 3rd — the day brother YosoY received received the word I noted, and I saw the signs I alluded to above, takes us to March 21st. Forty-seven days (the height of the crane fall, Obama’s pre-election 9-11-associated birthday) takes us to March 22nd. It’s a date Charmaine Eggers has investigated with great thoroughness. I recommend her most recent post at Running From Babylon II.

3) Regarding the “fountains of the deep” in the word YosoY related regarding Genesis 7:11 (see above) my regular one-year-bible reading progression just happened to take me, this morning, to Isaiah 24. I suspect it relates to recent events (e.g., Haiti and the humble praise that ensued there) as well as possible future ones. Here’s a small excerpt. The whole chapter is incredibly rich, worthwhile reading (as is the whole book!)

1 Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants… 16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” 17 Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! 18 He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19 The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.

4) Trees are emblematic, in scripture, of nations (among other things; also people, especially leaders) while houses are, very simply, representative of home and other places of refuge and safety. For a tree to fall directly into the front of a house therefore can be an allegory for a nation or its leader being uprooted but it could also allude to a nation and/or its leader directly confronting (“head on”) a place of refuge and safety. The latter interpretation seems very much in line with how this administration is treating Israel at the moment (notice the house is not damaged!) however the former interpretation (uprooting) may soon come about also.

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