The Second Harbinger: The Terrorist

It was the dark shadow of Assyrian terror that loomed over the kingdom of Israel; the danger against which the prophets had warned.  And when, years later, Israel’s final judgment came, the Assyrians would again be the means through which it would happen.  So, too, the attack on America is carried out by terrorists.  The Assyrians were a Semitic people, children of the Middle East.  So were the terrorists of 9/11.
First Harbinger
Second Harbinger
Third Harbinger
Fourth Harbinger
Fifth Harbinger
Sixth Harbinger
Seventh Harbinger
Eight Harbinger
Ninth Harbinger

Israel

  1. God declared through His prophet that He would use the Assyrian to carry out judgment against the hard-hearted and rebellious people of Israel.  “O, Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, and the staff in their hand is Mine indignation." (Isaiah 10:5)
  2. The Assyrians were the fathers of terrorism, the epitome of evil.  They burned cities to the ground, mutilated their prisoners, flayed alive those who rebelled against them and nailed their skins to the wall for public display.  “…it is in his heart to destroy…”  (Isaiah 10:7)  The Assyrians were a Semitic people of the Middle East.  They spoke Akkadian, a language close to today’s Arabic.   
  3. God gave His people repeated warnings;  “I will send him (the Assyrian) against an hypocritical nation (Israel), and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.”  (Isaiah 10:6)  
  4. Although the Assyrians breached their defenses, as the prophet foretold, the Israelites did not awaken from their spiritual stupor.    
  5. They continued in their evil and defiantly declared that they themselves, with no reverence to God, would rebuild better and stronger.  “The bricks are fallen down, but WE will build with hewn stones:  the sycamores are cut down, but WE will change them into cedars.”  (Isaiah 9:10) 

America

  1.   On 9/11/2001, a small group of Islamic terrorists from the Middle East seized control of several U.S. commercial airplanes and crashed two of them Into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.  The crashes resulted in one of the greatest disasters in American history, killing thousands of innocent civilians.  
  2. The successful enemy incursion into the American homeland by an Arabic speaking, Semitic people suggested to many Christian believers that a divine hand of judgment is moving into a nation that has forsaken its biblical roots and is journeying ever deeper into the pathway of darkness.  
  3. Just as God warned Israel, His Word does not change when applied to America.  "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword:  for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”  (Isaiah 1:19, 20) 
  4. The 9/11 terrorist attack would draw America into military conflict—a global battle against terrorism, involving a war in Afghanistan and another in Iraq.  Ironically, Iraq is the site of ancient Assyria.
  5. As America’s war on terrorism continues with no end in sight, the nation’s connection to an all-powerful, all-knowing God diminishes.  It goes “from evil to evil, but Me they know not, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:2).  “He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart rather than return to the Lord, the God of Israel”  (2 Chronicles 36:13).