In 2009, Barack Obama's State of the Union address recalled an Old Testament vow of defiance by the Israelites after they had been attacked.
Obama said: "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild. And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."
In June, Obama visited the new tower under construction at the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York and wrote on a steel girder designated to be the highest beam in the structure.
He inscribed: "We remember. We rebuild. We come back stronger!"
Then, in his speech last week accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president, he was at it again.
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"A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al-Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead," he said.
The multiple references hearken back to the Isaiah 9:10 scripture that describes how, after Israel was attacked, instead of returning to God, the nation's leaders took a defiant posture and promised to rebuild by themselves.
The eerie and striking parallels between the vows of the leaders of ancient Israel before its judgment and fall and those of American leaders since Sept. 11, 2001 are made in the New York Times bestseller "The Harbinger" and the video documentary, "The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment."
"What was foreshadowed in 'The Harbinger' and 'The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment' film is now being fulfilled by the president of the United States," said Jonathan Cahn, the messianic rabbi-pastor and author.
The book and film connect Obama's words from his first State of the Union message in January 2009 with the vow that brought judgment to ancient Israel.
"The ancient vow begins with these words: 'The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with hewn stone,'" explains Cahn. "The vow declares Israel's defiance of God, in the face of a devastating strike on the land. The hewn stone, which begins the rebuilding, symbolizes the nation’s intention to come back stronger than before. The book then reveals the parallel a proclamation given by Obama."
Obama said: "Tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild. And the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."
Obama was referencing the state of the nation's economy. However, the message continued a pattern of American leaders fulfilling an ancient biblical prophecy and a curse of judgment on the U.S., according to the bestselling Christian book of 2012 and the No. 1 faith movie.
Cahn today told WND that the latest statement about a tower rising in New York absolutely reflects Isaiah 9:10.
"It is the same attitude that the leaders of ancient Israel had before that nation's destruction. It's the same spirit manifested by the ancient vow of Isaiah 9:10 and described in Bible commentaries as the 'spirit of defiance,'" he said.
"It's amazing that Obama actually speaks of the rising tower. In 'The Harbinger' and 'The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment' that tower is identified as the Fourth Harbinger. In fact, in the most ancient translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, Israel's vow of defiance is translated as 'Come let us build for ourselves a TOWER.' The building of the Tower is a sign of a nation's defiance of God, an ominous sign. For Obama to specifically cite the Tower in his speech is also ominous."
Cahn continued: "The very object that Obama referred to in his speech is not only one of the Nine Harbingers of Judgment, but is the same object on which he inscribed eight words. His words comprised an unknowing paraphrase of Israel's fateful vow of defiance from Isaiah – the vow that contains the harbingers. The words will mark the highest object in America."
After Obama signed the steel girder, Cahn had observed: "So now the now the tower will be crowned and finished with words paralleling Isaiah 9:10, the ancient vow of national judgment. The tower was begun with the laying down of a hewn stone, the very same object mentioned in Isaiah 9:10 which begins the rebuilding.
"Now the words and the tower have been joined together in reality – and the one who did it was the president of the United States," he told WND at the time. "One subtle difference in the words, is that the vow is spoken in the future tense. But now the words inscribed on the towers are in the present tense. In other words, they not only speak of the defiant vow, but of the fact that the vow is being fulfilled.
"This," said Cahn, "constitutes another ominous sign."
Cahn explained he has found nine harbingers that tie the problems America has experienced since Sept. 11, 2001, with parallels that led to the destruction of ancient Israel.
"Before God judges a nation, He sends warning," explained Cahn. "He sent warning to ancient Israel. He even allowed its enemies to breach its borders in a devastating strike that would traumatize the nation. It was a wake-up call, the call to return to God. But the nation responded with defiance. God then gave nine harbingers of judgment, nine prophetic signs, alarms and foreshadows of what was to come. Now America is the nation in rapid departure from God's will. And God likewise allowed an enemy to breach its borders in a devastating strike – the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It was, likewise, a wake-up call. But America, like Israel, has not responded with repentance, but with defiance. And now the nine harbingers of judgment have reappeared and have done so on American soil."
It's not the only time the vow of defiance has been declared.
"In the aftermath of the attack, the nation was stunned," said Cahn. "Everyone was trying to make sense of what had happened – this unprecedented attack on America. The very next day, Sept. 12, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle presented America's response to the world. And what did he say?"
Daschle said: "America will emerge from this tragedy as we have emerged from all adversity – united and strong. Nothing … nothing can replace the losses of those who have suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that speaks to all of us at times like this."
He then went on to read Isaiah 9:10.
"Daschle has no idea what he is doing here," explained Cahn. "He thinks he's offering comforting words to a grief-stricken people, but he is actually embracing the spiritually defiant and arrogant words of the children of Israel, proclaiming the ancient and ominous vow of the leaders of that nation. He doesn't realize it, but he is actually inviting more judgment on the nation."
It might be of some significance that Daschle, one of the most powerful men in the nation when he spoke those words, later fell into disgrace – to the point where he couldn't even serve in Obama's cabinet.
That might have been the end of the story – if no other top leader in the nation uttered those strange and obscure words after 9/11. But that's not the case.
On the third anniversary of the attack, Sept. 11, 2004, another powerful U.S. senator running for vice president that year who would famously run for the presidency four years later, gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus.
This time, John Edwards' entire speech was built on a foundation of Isaiah 9:10.
"Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord's Word to get us through," he said.
He then read Isaiah 9:10.
He went on to talk about how America was doing just that – rebuilding with hewn stone and planting cedars.