across the world on a steamship called the Quaker City. It would be among the first ships to undertake such a voyage. It would take months, bringing Twain to Europe, the Middle East, and finally to his ultimate destination, the land of Israel . . . the city of Jerusalem. And as the one appointed to bear witness, he would keep a notebook throughout the journey to record his observations.”
“The pen and pad in my vision.”
“Yes. According to the prophecy in Deuteronomy, he was to bear witness of ‘the plagues of that land’ and all its ‘sicknesses.’ 3 Now listen to the words that Mark Twain would write concerning ‘the plagues of that land’:
Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt. . . . Lepers, cripples, the blind. . . . To see the numbers of maimed, malformed and diseased humanity that throng the holy places . . . 4
“According to Moses’ prophecy, the stranger would describe the land as a desolation. He would say,
The whole land is brimstone, salt . . . 5
“So Twain would bear witness:
. . . all desolate and unpeopled . . . 6
. . . miles of desolate country . . . 7
. . . the far-reaching desolation. . . . the waste of a limitless desolation. . . 8
“According to ancient prophecy, the stranger will say,
All its land is . . . a burning waste. 9
“Or in another translation,
Your land has become a scorching desert. 10
“So Twain would write:
It is a scorching, arid, repulsive solitude. 11
Such roasting heat, such oppressive solitude, and such dismal desolation cannot surely exist elsewhere on earth. 12
Nowhere in all the waste around was there a foot of shade, and we were scorching to death. 13
“The prophecy of Deuteronomy foretells that the stranger will bear witness of the land as devoid of anyone to sow it:
All its land is . . . unsown. 14
“So Twain would bear witness of the land’s absence of people:
One may ride ten miles, hereabouts, and not see ten human beings. 15
. . . these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines . . . 16
There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent—not for thirty miles in either direction. 17
“According to Moses, the stranger will bear witness of the land’s inability to produce life:
. . . nor does it bear . . . 18
“The prophecy’s use of the word tzamach specifically refers to sprouting. So the stranger will bear witness of the land’s incapacity to sprout vegetation. So Twain would specifically bear witness of this phenomenon:
The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation. 19
. . . a desert, paved with loose stones, void of vegetation, glaring in the fierce sun. 20
. . . this blistering, naked, treeless land. 21
“Even more specifically, the stranger, according to the ancient prophecy, will speak specifically of grass, or the absence of it. He will say,
. . . no grass grows in it. 22
“Another translation renders it,
. . . not even a blade of grass. 23
“So Twain would specifically speak of the grass, the ancient virtually word for word:
No sprig of grass is visible.” 24
“The words of Moses are coming out of the mouth of Mark Twain . . . As in my vision, they each wrote down the same word.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “the words of Moses from the mouth of Mark Twain . . . or the words of Mark Twain from the mouth of Moses in the form of prophecy. And yet there are words in that prophecy one might never expect the stranger to utter.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Scripture foretells that in that day it will be said,
The anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book. 25
“So according to the prophecy, it will be said that a curse rests upon the land, the curse of God. One would not expect Mark Twain, a cynic, to speak of the curse of God. And yet this would be among the final words of his witness:
Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse. 26
“His witness of the land would be summed up with one final question:
Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? 27
“The stranger was to bear witness to that generation. So Mark Twain would send his words back to his native land. They would appear