THE DAY: A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series) (9 page)

War
Room – Israeli Defense Force

IDF
HaKirya
Compound, Tel Aviv

              
Upon
his return from praying at
Yad
Vashem
,
Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi tried to return the PM’s call. He was
immediately refused access by the PM’s office, but he suspected that
given the invasion, he would most likely be at the IDF
HaKirya
Compound, in the IDF War Room three floors below ground level. The process of
getting his call through took some time, but during his wait he was fully
apprised as to what had been happening in the last hour. He heard a click on
the phone line, after which he was greeted by the surprisingly upbeat voice of
Israel’s elected leader. "Rabbi Herzog. What
an honor
to hear from you."

              
"
Umh
….That is….Mister Prime Minister. The honor
of course is mine."

              
"Before
we discuss why you called, let me unofficially….later it’ll be more
formal….thank you, Rabbi Herzog, for calling Israel to a solemn assembly,
to
fast and to pray for divine intervention. Along
with watching by drone as Russia and her friends stormed into our sacred land,
I also watched you at the Wailing Wall. I will be the first to admit,
Rabbi, that
I
didn’t have much faith
in what you were calling down on the invaders,
but it appears to
certainly be working
."

              
"Sir,
it wasn’t
me
. I just did what
Joel said to do and….well….
Almighty
God is doing the rest
."

              
"No
one can argue with that, Rabbi. As men we can do a lot of things, but we
can’t
cause earthquakes, or send
torrential rains, or hailstones that weigh over twenty kilo. And
fire and sulfur
– it looked like
large sheets of flames falling from the skies, consuming everything it landed
on. I’ve asked our science office to figure out what that was….and
how we could possibly replicate it."

              
Rabbi
Herzog quietly but assuredly said to the leader of his country, "
Bebe
, this is nothing but the hand of
Jehovah
Himself
. Ezekiel
38 tells us that when Gog and Persia and Cush and Put, that is today’s
Russia, Iran, Libya and others, would someday invade Israel that God would rain
on them, send hail on them, shake the earth and send, yes,
‘fire and sulfur’
on them. Ezekiel says that Israel
will be burying dead invaders
for months
.
The Prophet says that the nations that sent these invaders will suffer greatly.
What we have seen today is God honoring His word and glorifying himself. The
nations of the world will see this and know that
He is the Lord
."

              
"As you might say, Rabbi,
Amen
and Amen
."

              
"Sir,
have we lost
many
Israeli lives? We
want to organize to help the families of those who died."

              
"Rabbi,
it’s too early to know. We have lost
several
thousand
. They shed their blood while the U.S. dithered and
swithered
and then betrayed us, as you know. I
wouldn’t want to be
anywhere near
the White House, or DC, or even in America for that matter, after what this
President did to us. Don’t the scriptures say that God re-pays for the
shedding of innocent blood?"

              
"Yes,
Bebe
, He demands
an
accounting
. Joel, by the way, tells us that one of the results of the
miraculous divine intervention we are witnessing will be that Israel will know
that
God is in the midst of
us
, that
He is
the Lord our God and there is none else. Ezekiel says that through this
God will make himself known
in the eyes
of many nations."

              
"Rabbi,
you can help insure
that Israel
never, never, never forgets
what the Almighty has done on this day
.

              
"Well,
sir, I agree with the sentiment, but
God
will ensure that we
don’t forget
.
Joel says that afterward, that is after these acts of God in Israel, that He
will pour out His spirit on all flesh, that our sons and our daughters shall
prophesy, and our old men will dream dreams, and our young men will see
visions. We should be ready to see
great
and mighty wonders
in the days ahead."

              
"Rabbi
Herzog, I truly do appreciate all that you did for Israel in this perilous
time. You heeded the call of the Lord given through Joel, and Israel has
survived
, praise His name. Sorry, but I
need to get back to managing the mop up.
Anything
else?"

              
"Just
one thing, sir, if you have another few seconds Can we pray?"

              
"
Certainly
.
Please."

              
"Almighty
and gracious God, we thank you for loving this land and its people. We praise
you for telling us
in advance
how you
would save us when wicked and evil men would seek to destroy Israel. Help the
families of those here who lost their lives and shed their blood
today….Almighty God we know that many, if not most, of those who sought
to do us great harm have themselves instead lost
their own lives
today. We pray for their families….And,
finally, we pray for the nation which
betrayed
us
. We know from the Torah that those who curse Israel will be cursed.
You have blessed America
in the past
when it
blessed Israel
, now we pray
for your mercy on America….in the midst of your
severe judgment
. Amen and amen."

Beau
and Audrey’s Bed Room

Birmingham,
Alabama

              
"Beau, its Scott.
I’m
really sorry
to call you at this hour of the morning."

              
"
Whoa
….what time is
it….uh….3:40? Sure hope this is import…."

              
"Listen,
Beau, my brother just called. You remember
Carl,
he’s the one who works at that secret Air Force installation under
Cheyenne Mountain."

              
"OK.
So….
I’m
still
wakin
’
up, sorry. So….
what
did Carl
say?"

              
"He
just read a flash message out of Israel. Something’s happening in Tel
Aviv. Something
big
….Carl knows
what we believe about what the Bible says, so he went out in the hall and
called me on his cell."

              
"I’m
awake now, Scott.
What’s happening
?
What did he tell you?"

              
"You’re
not
gonna
’
believe what….oh, yeah of course you will. The Air Force is getting
reports….and video from Israel showing what look like
fireballs and sheets of flame
, lots of
them, falling from the sky and taking out the invaders. One report, he said,
described them as ‘burning sulfur. He said that the guys in the Pentagon
are perplexed. They stay in touch with Israeli defense agencies and
they’ve heard nothing about such a weapon. Carl says….get
this….coming from my brother the unbeliever….I’m sorry to say.
He says that the guys in the Pentagon are referring to this as ‘
the
fire
and brimstone weapon’
."

              
"
Whoa!
What do these things do when they
hit?"

              
"Beau,
this is where it gets
weird
. Carl
said the first reports show that these fireballs and sheets of flame are
only
landing on the invading troops and
their equipment. They don’t appear to be hitting areas of Tel Aviv, or
outside Tel Aviv in the areas still under the control of the Israeli Defense
Forces. When they hit, they splatter and splash burning substances on the
soldiers and their trucks and tanks. What’s even weirder, if that’s
possible, is that they have video showing the
Russkies
spraying fire foam on the fires started by these celestial fires and it
doesn’t do any good. But,
get this,
besides these fireballs and sheets of
flame,
they are
getting heavy rain and hailstones, all at
the
same time
. You’d think the rain would put out the fires when they
hit, but instead he said it’s like the rain and hailstones are
spreading the fires
. Nobody’s ever
seen
anything
like this. When you were
with the Army do you recall hearing anything about these burning sulfur
fireballs and sheets of flame?"

              
"Nope.
Never.
Without jumping
to a conclusion, this sure sounds like God at work.
Fireballs
from heaven?
That sounds like
fire
and brimstone
.
Rain and hailstone?
Scott, we
looked at the prophecies, I think it was in Ezekiel, in either chapter 38 or
39, that
God Himself
would intervene when Israel would be attacked in the future. But, you know,
Scott what this
undoubtedly
means?
You know….what’s going to ….to….happen
next
?"

              
"I
know
,
that’s all I’ve been thinking about
since I hung up from Carl’s call. Now that God has stepped into the
battle to save Israel from total destruction, how long can it be before the
U.S. is toast? Ezekiel, as I recall, said that when God comes to Israel’s
rescue it will be….what was his phrase? Oh, yeah,
hot anger
. Ezekiel said God’s hot anger would be aroused.
Since He has had to come to Israel’s defense, given that the President as
late as yesterday continued to say no to Israel’s cries for help, then we
can only come to
one
conclusion.
Right?"

              
"It’s
over….
it’s over
. America
is about to be
nuked
. My heart rate
is about
double
what it was when you
called, Scott…..You know we need to
get
ready
. We need to…."

              
"Check.
It’s almost four AM, so given what we suspect about God’s patience
with America about to run out, we’d better gather everyone
early
tomorrow morning. We’ve
discussed this before. The attacks on the country will come on a work day for
maximum deaths. Tomorrow’s a work day. The prophecies we studied imply
that when God acts to punish the Daughter of Babylon/Babylon the Great He
won’t wait around
. When the
destruction that He allows happens it will take place in
one day, one hour and one moment
. We need to gather at Hannah and
Gary’s
very first thing
in the
morning. We can watch the news and then, if we’re right about the timing,
we can leave immediately for the Irwin grade school before the roads fill up
with panicked people."

              
"Agreed.
Let’s not wake up our wives and kids or
Gary’s family now. Right before six I’ll roust our family up, feed
them and head over to Hannah and Gary’s house."

              
"OK,
Beau, I’ll call Gary at six. See you at their house in three hours give
or take. Say your prayers, brother. Our lives are about to not only
change
, but in a few weeks we
won’t even recognize them, for how different things will become.
May God help
us
.
"

Air
Force One

 
Above West Virginia

              
The
President was livid. The White House Communications Center had just attempted,
again, to get him to take a call from the Prime Minister of Israel. He
wasn’t about to talk to him. He was tired of the constant pleas, multiple
times a day, for the U.S. to intervene in the invasion of Israel by Russia,
Iran and other Muslim allies. What part of
no
does he not understand the President wondered? Have I not been clear?

              
The
Air Force Colonel assigned to convey messages to the President while he was on
Air Force One opened the cabin door to the air borne Presidential office. He
was met by a visibly unhappy President. "Colonel, didn’t I
just say
I
won’t
take the PM’s call? Is he calling me
again
?"

              
"Mister
President, sir, yes, but he says…."

              
"No
buts. Just tell him
no
….
got it
?"

              
"But….Mister
President….he said he
understands
you won’t take his call, but he wants you to know something
before
it’s all over the
media."

              
"
Hunh
….what?
Exactly
what did he say?"

              
"I’m
reading, sir, just as he said it. ‘Tell the President that something
major
has just happened in
Israel.’"

              
"
What
?
....
What’s he talking about?
I swear
, Colonel, if this is
another
attempt to get us involved in
his messy little problem…."

              
"The
rest of his message, sir, is, ‘Israel is experiencing what he called
fireballs and sheets of flame
, falling
selectively on the areas where the invading troops are concentrated’.

              
"Say
it one more time. I don’t
understa
…."

              
"Fire falling from the sky and enormous amounts of rain.
Oh, and he said they’ve had a major earthquake.
Maybe
an 8.9.
Maybe higher he said."

              
"Is
that
it?
Didn’t he ask,
again
, for military help from the
US?"

              
"No, sir."

              
"Humph.
That’s a first
. Wonder why he
didn’t ask for…."

              
"Right
before he terminated the call, Mister President, the Prime Minister said….I
didn’t write this down, sorry, sir. He said something like, ‘It
looks like we won’t need America,
our
defense is
coming from a
higher
source,
mightier
than the US.’ Or
something like that, sir, I got the idea."

              
"
Humh
….Send Jeff back here.
I need him to pull up some
intell
on the monitors and
find out
what the heck
the PM’s
talking about. Like
now
."