entire journey. The journey had begun in June 1867. In the summer months he would travel the cities of Europe. He would reach the Holy Land in mid-September. He would enter the gates of Jerusalem on September 23. On September 27, after an excursion in the desert, he would return to the Holy City for the culmination of his pilgrimage.
“September 28 would constitute his last full day and night in Jerusalem. The following day he would leave the city and head back to the shore to board his ship and begin the journey home to America, stopping several times along the way. September 28 fell on a Saturday. Saturday is the Sabbath. And so on the stranger’s last full day in Jerusalem and the last Sabbath of the stranger’s journey in the land there was an appointed Scripture . . . ”
“What was it?”
“The appointed Scripture was this:
. . . the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it: ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there . . . ’” 1
“The prophecy of the stranger!” I said. “The very prophecy! The word appointed for the end of the stranger’s journey in the land . . . was the very prophecy that speaks of the stranger’s journey in the land! The prophecy from ancient times appointed to be spoken at the very moment of its fulfillment!”
“It was on that day that the stranger had accomplished what the prophecy had foretold . . . on the day the prophecy was read.”
“Amazing!”
“Just as amazing,” said the Oracle, “is what happened throughout the earth.”
“What do you mean?”
“The prophecy was appointed to be read in every synagogue in the world. So all across the earth, in every synagogue from San Francisco to Siberia, they were reciting and chanting the prophecy of the stranger, who would come from far away to the land of Israel to bear witness of the desolation. And so the prophecy of the stranger was being proclaimed throughout the earth at the very moment the stranger was in the land fulfilling its words.”
“And they had no idea.”
“Nor did the stranger.”
“In the vision the stranger told the men in the synagogue that they were standing before the Lord. Why?”
“In Hebrew the word standing would be nitzavim. Nitzavim is the name of the appointed word in the scrolls that prophesies of the stranger coming to the land. It begins with those same words as Moses tells the children of Israel they are standing before the Lord.”
“So all this was taking place, and nobody knew it.”
“Ponder this,” said the Oracle. “On that Sabbath day, Mark Twain walked through the ancient city. And within the city was a remnant of Jewish people. They would have been observing the Sabbath, reciting the appointed Scripture of the stranger’s visit, proclaiming it, chanting it . . . as the stranger walked in their midst.”
“So it’s possible that Twain actually heard the words of the prophecy that day.”
“It is completely possible. He would have known that they were reading from the ancient Scriptures, but he would have had no idea that it was about him. The mystery manifests regardless of anyone realizing it.”
“But everything is like that,” I said, “and part of it. Twain just happened to have heard of that particular voyage. Had he not, it never would have happened as it did. Or if he hadn’t become a journalist in the first place . . . And he didn’t plan the timing of the voyage. Someone else did. So if they didn’t happen to plan it to begin on that date and the rest of the voyage on the other dates, it never would have coincided with the appointed day of the reading of the prophecy of the stranger.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “it was all woven together, every part, every detail, everything falling into its exact place for the mystery to be fulfilled . . . the convergence of time and space with the eternal. And this is just the beginning, the time of sowing.
“And as the mystery continues to manifest, the dynamic will increase so that it will determine not only the course of such people as the stranger but the course of world wars and the rise and fall of empires and superpowers.”
“So Mark Twain, the skeptic, would never know how