mourning and lamentations.”
“And that’s what the psalm was about . . . the Jewish people could no longer sing their songs of Jerusalem but hung up their harps and wept. The sound of rejoicing was replaced by lamentation.”
“Yes, and ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ continued where the ancient psalm left off. But in the Jubilee everything is turned around—even that.”
“So if the songs of joy turn into lamentation, then in the Jubilee the songs of lamentation will be turned into a song of joy.”
“Yes. And the prophets foretold that as well—that the Lord would bring the Jewish people back to the land and would turn their mourning into joy.”
“So in the year of Jubilee ‘Jerusalem of Gold’ turned into a song of joy.”
“Yes, the nation’s song of lamentation and mourning was turned into a song of rejoicing. And two thousand years of mourning were thus turned into joy. God is like that,” said the Oracle.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s His will . . . His heart.”
“What is?”
“To turn mourning into joy.”
The Oracle was silent for a moment.
“Do you remember,” he said, “when I asked you to tell me what would take place that year, before you knew what actually did take place that year, when you had nothing to go on beyond the Jubilean mystery?”
“Yes.”
“You said that 1967 would be the year of a prophetic event that would involve a return. And so it was. You said that this event would involve a restoration, the return of something lost, the regaining of an inheritance by the one to whom it belonged. And so it did. You said it would involve the coming home of those who had been separated to their ancestral possession. And it did. And according to the mystery, 1967 would be the year of Jerusalem. And so it was. Those who had left the gates of Jerusalem at the beginning of the age now returned to reenter its gates in the year of Jubilee . . . and the separation was over.”
“I guess I did.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “it would seem you’re becoming something of a prophet.”
“The next revelation would involve the secret things that take place in the shadow of world events and of which the world has no idea.”
“And what did it involve?”
“The kohanim.”
“The kohanim?”
“The people of the cloud.”
Chapter 37
THE DAY OF THE PRIESTS
I RETURNED TO the garden and joined the Oracle by the tree under which he was sitting.”
“It’s an almond tree,” he said, “a symbol of resurrection, the first of trees to put forth blossoms.”
“The men in white robes in the desert procession . . . with the cloud . . . who were they?”
“They were the kohanim,” he replied, “the priests of Israel, the ministers of God, the keepers of His sanctuary. And the tent you saw, that was called the tabernacle. It was in that tent that priests ministered in the days of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land. Later on it would become the temple. And the cloud above the tent was the glory of God that led the Israelites through the wilderness.”
“They were journeying from the wilderness to the gate. Why?”
“The gate led to the mountain. The mountain was Jerusalem and the place on which God’s sanctuary was to rest.”
“What’s the connection to the mystery?”
“No people were so connected to Jerusalem as were the priests. Unlike the Israelites from other tribes, the priests had no inheritance in the land. Their inheritance was the ministry. And Jerusalem was the city of the ministry. It was there that they officiated over the nation’s holy days and festivals and there in His Temple that they performed the sacred rites. Jerusalem was the city of the priests.”
“So it was something as the ancestral possession of the priests.”
“And if the priests are especially connected to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is especially connected to the Jubilean mysteries, then the priests would likewise be especially connected to the Jubilean mysteries. Beyond that the priests were the keepers of the Jubilee. They oversaw the Jubilean transactions, the relinquishing of the land, and its restoration. In fact several of the Jubilean ordinances specifically required the priests’ ministering. And it was the priests who marked, heralded, and proclaimed the Jubilean year to the rest of the nation.
“The priests were the Jubilean ministers. So if the priests were especially linked to both the Jubilee and Jerusalem, and if the Jubilee of 1967 centered on the return of Jerusalem, then could the return of Jerusalem also involve the return of the priests?
“It was June 7,