On Monday May 20, 2013 a large tornado touched the ground in the USA in Oklahoma state “west of Newcastle at 2:45 p.m. staying on the ground for approximately 50 minutes over a 17-mile (27 km) path, crossing through a heavily populated section of Moore.” Wikipedia. It was remarkable for its energy and width of up to 2.1km. It was even more remarkable for US President Obama's mention of the Bible. The US president's speech at Moore, Oklahoma on Sunday May 26, 2013 had an ending that might startle many people. But the implications are even more staggering.
The US president said in front of the school where seven children died,
We know Moore is going to come back stronger from this tragedy... And I want folks affected throughout Oklahoma to know that we’re going to be with you every step of the way.
On Sunday, the first deadly tornadoes touched down about 40 miles from here.
And I mentioned this the day afterwards -- there was a story that really struck me in the press -- in the rubble was found a Bible, open to the words that read: “A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest.”
And it’s a reminder, as Scripture often is, that God has a plan, and it’s important, though, that we also recognize we’re an instrument of his will. And we need to know that as fellow Americans, we’re going to be there as shelter from the storm for the people of Moore who have been impacted.
And when we say that we’ve got your back, I promise you, we keep our word. If you talk to folks in Alabama who have been affected over the last couple of years; you talk to the folks at Joplin, who I know have actually sent volunteers down here to Moore; if you talk to folks in New Jersey and New York, they’ll tell you that when we say we’re going to be there until you completely rebuild, we mean it. And I want everybody to have that confidence. http://www.whitehouse.gov/
USAtoday, BBC (bbc.co.uk) and Reuters all mentioned much of what was in President Obama's speech but didn't mention what he said about the Bible! Reuters noted,
Obviously the damage here is pretty hard to comprehend," Obama said,..
The visit to the disaster-shaken town was one in a series of responses Obama has made in recent months to tragedies including the Boston Marathon bombings last month; a December mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; and the destruction that Superstorm Sandy caused along the Jersey Shore in October. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/26/us-usa-tornadoes-obama-idUSBRE94P08W20130526
The New York Times did mention the end of the President's speech http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/
The NewYork Times also linked to the article President Obama mentioned from News Channel 4.
Heiden (ed: a storm chaser) stopped for a moment to make sure everyone was ok, and found a Bible in the debris.
He shot this picture, and hoped the owner would be re-united with the good book again someday.
Meanwhile, Gage Ross, a friend of the Carter family came by the property to help with the clean-up effort.
Ross stumbled across that same family Bible; it was still open to the very same page, Isiah (sic) chapter 32 which reads, ”A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest.”
“The Lord must be with us, I guess.” Ross remembers.
Alexander and Spurlin rode out the storm a mile away.
Their Bible, it turns out, didn’t go quite that far. The Bible only made it about 100 feet from home.
The Word, is now back with its weary owners, thanks to the kindness of two strangers. http://kfor.com/2013/05/20/lost-bible-discovered-in-tornado-debris-returned/
The article linked to a very clear picture of the page which can be read. http://localtvkfor.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/image.jpeg
There are two dog ears pointing to not one, but two (2) mentions of storm!
Below reconstructs the open page from the photo with the text highlighted that the dog ears point to. This is from the KJV, as the version is the NKJV (which requires permission). The section is titled the 'reign of righteousness' as seen at the top of the photo.
Isaiah 30
(29) Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, .........................................................
as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
(30) And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
(31) For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
(32) And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
(33) For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Isaiah 31
(1) Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
(2) Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
(3) Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is holped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
(4) For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
(5) As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
(6) Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
(7) For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
(8) Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.
(9) And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 32:1-10
(1) Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
(2) And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
(3) And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
(4) The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
(5) The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
(6) For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
(7) The instruments also of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speak right.
(8) But the liberal devise liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
(9) Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
(10) Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women:
(In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women NKJV)
.................................................................
for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
The story that was picked up was the feel-good idea of cover from storm.
However the passage in context indicates this 'cover from tempest' would be given at some future time when a king reigns in righteousness, and the vile (foolish) person is no longer called (generous) liberal. This is the king spoken of in Psalm 45:6-7 "Thy throne given of God is for ever and ever" (cp Hebrews 1:8, Luke 1:32). This is the time of the Messiah.
No one seems to have yet picked up that it would have been equally reasonable to note Isaiah 30:30!
The LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
Category F5 Tornadoes might be called a 'finger of God' (everything2.com). This passage speaks of the arm of God coming down! The reports say that the tornadoes came with lightning and "fist-sized hail" (yahoo). The Moore Tornado left fires burning. Everything in the path of the tempest was scattered. The buildings were so scattered that Obama said the damage was 'pretty hard to comprehend'.
This quote literally applied to the events.
In context the passage Obama quoted is speaking of three nations: Egypt, Isarel and Assyria.
It so happens that the big issue internationally that the USA is grappling with is Syria. The open Bible declared that "Assyrian will be beaten down, when He strikes with the rod" or NKJV "Assyria will fall by the sword not of a man". In addition a second major international issue is the so called 'peace process' related to Israel, where President Obama has been putting pressure onto Israel to not build and to give away part of the mountains of Israel and Jerusalem. The open page speaks of Israel. They had been punished until they were as a 'beacon on a hill' (Isaiah 30:17). Then the tone changes: “Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you... for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 30:18-19). At the moment the US government is embroiled with events in Syria and Israel. The events in Syria are related to the “woe” President Obama has obtained after he “went down to Egypt for help” (Isaiah 31:1) when he gave his 2009 Cairo speech "a New Beginning" ( thenation), as no good has come of his interference in Egypt for peace, stability or the USA.
There is also woe as “none look to the Holy One of Israel” nor seek Yahweh!
Because none do consider Yahweh, “Yet he is wise and will bring disaster” (Isaiah 31:2NKJV).
The Reuters report states,
“The visit to the disaster-shaken town was one in a series of responses Obama has made in recent months to tragedies...”
To speak of prayer, yet not consider and seek the One who says he controls the tempest, might be shortsighted. Will this open page make the USA re-consider interfering with Jerusalem? The open page declared to the world the following (as it may be read in the photo at the top of the page),
As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it. (Isaiah 31:5)
Before speaking President Obama should have read the context of the passage he spoke of. Obama said,
we’re going to be there as shelter from the storm for the people of Moore who have been impacted.
But the page left open that he was referring to said,
When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. (Isaiah 31:3)
There is no man who is a 'cover from storm', and there will be no man who is 'a hiding place from the wind' until a king will rule in righteousness! This is speaking of Messiah.
President Obama sought only the positive from the report of the Bible finding, and gave it political 'spin', yet there is also the severity of God, which was spoken clearly of on that page including 'the staff of punishment'. In that context let us reconsider what President Obama said,
“And it’s a reminder, as Scripture often is, that God has a plan, and it’s important, though, that we also recognize we’re an instrument of his will.”
It is not fashionable to speak of the righteousness of God in judgement, and it is even less fashionable to speak of the power of God in sending storms. But let us consider that it is almost impossible that stormy wind randomly opening the Bible would open to one page in the Bible that, not once, but twice mentioned the precise kind of tempest. In addition, what prompted the president to pick it up, when that same page that the wind opened to spoke of a political context that refers to modern events! 'Chance' seems to be somewhat loaded.
Then too it is a fact that tornadoes are still a mystery,
Everything had to come together just perfectly to create the killer tornado in Moore, Okla.: wind speed, moisture in the air, temperature and timing. And when they did, the awesome energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.
So tornadoes are still more of a mystery than their hurricane cousins, even though tropical storms form over ocean areas where no one is, while this tornado formed only miles from the very National Weather Service office that specializes in tornadoes.
"This phenomenon can be so deadly you would think that something that catastrophic, that severe would lend itself to understanding," said Adam Houston, meteorology professor at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. "But we're fighting the inherent unpredictability of these small-scale phenomena."
Scientists know the key ingredients that go into a devastating tornado. But they are struggling to figure out why they develop in some big storms and not others.
"Tornadoes are perhaps the most difficult things to connect to climate change of any extreme," said NASA climate scientist Tony Del Genio. "Because we still don't understand all the factors required to get a tornado." yahoo
Where does the energy come from to be released in such a tornado? It just arises 'just perfectly'?
Then too there is a question
With the third strong storm hitting Moore in 14 years — and following roughly the same path as an EF5 that killed 40 people in 1999 and an EF4 that injured 45 others in 2003 — some people are wondering why Moore?
Moore is from a surname. It “is the 9th most common surname in the United States” Wikipedia. It's meaning is related to the word 'moor' as "open land" or "bog" or “heathy mountain” (an mountain with no trees) or from 'mare' meaning 'the sea', or to 'moor' a ship. The Moore tornado speaks to a huge number of people; the people of the open spaces and the sea, and the 9th most popular name. Read the bottom corner of the page of the Bible found and consider that the USA is personified by a woman and by the seeking of growth and plenty .. Might not seeking an increase in goods be also called seeking 'more'?
'be troubled you complacent women'.
Addendum: It is to be noted that Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 1 Feb 2013 when she resigned and was suceeded by John Kerry. Since going to press the US president has appointed two outspoken, confident women to significant positions: Susan Rice to National Security Advisor and Samantha Power to UN Ambassador. After reading this passage as I do every aniversary of the day in 1967 that Jews by air superiority ?as birds flying? regained Jerusalem, that very week John Kerry began a push for a 'peace deal' between Israel and the Palestinan Authority. It is rumoured that there is a new de-facto Jewish building freeze in Jerusalem and the Mountains of Israel to support the US move. Meanwhile Russia offers to replace the Austrian 'peacekeepers' who are evacuating the Golan. They were refused by the UN, but still it was a move. To complete the picture Rice and Power are both rumoured to support US interference in Syria, with Power having written about US intervention 'to prevent genocide.'
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