The Gentile Witness Book II, Elijah (42 page)

“I have no Idea John, but then, I am not Elijah either.” 

It took about another forty minutes for Elijah to complete the task. Once he was finished, he walked the entire perimeter then walked over towards us. 

I said to Ben “I think he is coming over to us” and John said, “I think you are right.”

Elijah walked up to John then said, “First off I would like to thank you for your courage of coming up here even though it is ingrained in you that being here is against the law. I had to almost carry Yona up here.” Now as he turned toward the stakes and pointed to them he said, “This is where the holy of holies was located. Exactly, twenty cubits, square. This also means twenty cubits up. Alternatively, four-hundred square cubits. The rest you can figure out.” 

He then said, “Follow me with your camera.” 

We followed him as he requested and the camera was still filming. Elijah stopped in the northwestern corner of the Mount. Bending down to the ground, he took a stake and drove it into the ground. He then turned to the camera and said, “David where is the equipment and men I need. We start digging right here. You have no more excuses. I have marked off the holy of holies everyone was concerned about. Send me workers to dig here now. In addition, we will seal off the area of the Holy of Holies with men of the tribe of Levi. I need several holy men from the tribe of Levi. I will then anoint one among them as high priest once it is sealed. Until then Yona and I will guard the holy of holies.” 

He then motioned for Yona to follow him and he stood in what we assumed would be the entrance of the holy of holies and sat down. 

Ben said to John “I assume when he said David he meant the Prime Minister?” 

“Yes Ben I think you are right.” 

Chapter 88

9:00 AM Monday Prime Minister David Ben Bernstein’s office Jerusalem Israel

I had the TV on in my office when the Breaking News logo came on. I stopped what I was doing knowing that it was Monday and the quiet of Sunday was too good to be true. 

I watched as Elijah entered the Temple grounds dragging Yona with him. I was hoping that the coverage would continue but then I was not sure the camera and announcers would follow. I thought to myself that I was hoping they broke the law. I was excited when they did. In spite of my misgivings, I watched as Elijah used his elbow and fingers as a measuring tool. Well they measured that way thousands of years ago.

Once he was finished speaking I knew which David he meant and so did every other person in Israel and the world would later. 

I opened my door and called Carla in. She was watching the broadcast in her office. I asked her “Do we have a number for whoever oversees our National Construction projects?”

“I am sure we do” she replied “but I will have to look it up.”

“Please do and also Carla I need the number for the… oh my” I hesitated “it’s called the Temple uh the ones that have a committee committed to building it it’s called uh…”

“It’s called the Temple Institute and it’s headed by Rabbi Cohan at the moment.” Carla said.

“Thanks Carla. Would you see if you can reach the construction person and this rabbi and get them to my office immediately?”

“Yes I can do that David I will start now.” 

“Thanks Carla also, invite Michael and anyone he wants to bring once we have a time set. I would prefer sooner than later.” 

Chapter 89

9:15 AM Monday
Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital
,
Jerusalem, Israel Branlin Patient Room 206 A and B

I had been here since Friday with my wife and oldest son. They were both on respirators and failing before my eyes. Several of my associates had come to see me but my anger was more than they could handle.   

I think I had slept some in the chair but I was still tired. I was also still angry. It did not help when I saw Elijah on the TV above the bed this morning. The anger was boiling inside me. What was it Elijah said about stopping this insanity? It was up to me. 

I was an Israeli hero. I was not a perfect person but I loved my country. Many did not agree with my tactics but the ones I employed worked. 

The God thing and I never clicked. I found the Muslims I dealt with and the spineless Rabbis weak and overbearing. Now this Elijah and Enoch show up and stirs up not only my country but also all the others in the world. Who were these men and where did they get their power.

I heard my wife move. I jumped up and went to her bedside. Nothing had changed she had just moved. For the first time since I could remember as I looked at my wife and life partner, I felt a tear run down my cheek. Even though there was no one with me, I was embarrassed of the tears. I turned away from the bed and looked at my son in the next bed. He was not moving either. 

I wanted to scream at their God and say, if not for me…there would not be an Israel. It was not you, it was I, and men like me that fought for our existence.  

I sat down again and watched the monitors as they beeped in time with his wife’s heart. All I heard was the steady pump of air keeping both his son and wife alive. Oh, how much I loved them.

What was it Elijah had said? All he had to do was ask for God’s help and he would grant it. Could he actually go against his every fiber and acquiesce to the fact there was a God. Could he agree he was in charge of the world especially Israel as he was taught as a child. Could he do that and still be Myer Branlin the most feared man in Israel and the Middle East. 

I then thought about Samson my childhood hero and the stories I learned as a child. At one time, like Sampson I did not want to cut my hair. He was young them and impressionable. I felt that if I did not cut my hair like his childhood hero I would be invincible. However, that was not the case. In a childhood scuffle, another in the schoolyard beat him badly. In defiance after this occurrence, I cut my hair that very day. Since then I kept it short, and the heroes of the Pentateuch no longer meant anything to me. 

Could I do it? After of these years of denying God, could he call on Adonai and ask for his help? 

As I thought of this, I felt myself slide from the chair as I got on my knees. As I sagged to the floor, I then raised myself up and turned to the chair where I leaned my elbows on it. Then I stuttered out the word Adonai then stopped. What was it Elijah said, that he had to acknowledge Adonai? What is that prayer, it has been so long? 

Then with my eyes closed and the tears streaming down my cheeks I prayed, “"Hear, O Israel: the
LORD
our God, the LORD is one.” I just stayed there not moving; I kept repeating the prayer repeatedly. 

Then I heard my wife move again. I was afraid to move from the prayer stance until I heard her mumble, “Myer.” 

Chapter 90

11:30 AM Monday
Prime Minister David Ben Bernstein’s office Jerusalem Israel

Carla came through. I had an early lunch brought in and we had the Director for National Construction Projects, George Finkel, and the Rabbi Cohan of the Temple Institute. Michael and several other committee members attended. 

They all brought several people with them Finkel brought four people who were as he said architects. Rabbi Cohan brought three others with him. He said they were the designers and interpreters of the Bible regarding the Temple and another was a financier. 

Rabbi Benjamin Hagen was here and I had invited Shlomo. Michael had members of various committees with him. By final count, around twenty people including the head the Israel
Department of Antiquities, Mark
Lebowitz were crowded into the conference room.

After I felt everyone had their fill of food, I sat down at the head of the conference table and said, “If we can let’s get down to business.” Then ten people started taking at once. I held up the palms of my hands and said over the noise “One at a time please one at a time.” I then pointed to Rabbi Cohen and said, “We will start with you.”

“Thank you Prime Minister. As you know David, we have for a very long time petitioned to rebuild the Temple. We have all the plans, have selected, and located the materials needed. We also have something you may not know about. We have worldwide donors whom may well pay for the entire project.” He beamed as he said this. 

There was a smattering of applause especially from Michael’s group.

Mark Lebowitz then asked, “According to our earlier conversation David, Elijah knows of a chamber where certain things have been hidden since the Diasporas?”

“Yes that is what he said. As of now, your department has the Governments blessing to go and work with Elijah. Find out what he needs in equipment and manpower and get it for him.”  

“Who will be in charge of the project of digging for the artifacts’?”

“Probably Elijah, Mark.” 

“Oh.”

“Well he knows where it is. We do not, so I would assume he would direct you to the chamber he claims is there. He asked for your department so the items were not harmed and removed carefully.” 

“He claims the Ark of the Covenant is there David?”

“Yes he did.”

“Wow, what a find for the world this will be!” 

“Yes it will.” 

Carla stuck her head in through the door interrupting us saying in a panic, “David you need to turn the TV on the Aljazeera cable channel. It appears that there is a crisis in Iran.” 

There were several satellite channels for Aljazeera depending on language. There was even one for Hebrew. I turned the unit on and punched in the correct channel.

The announcer was saying, “The Northern border of Iran near Azerbaijan and Turkey near Tabriz is being overrun by locust. They seemed to of started near the northern border and as you can see from the images from Tabriz, they are a huge cloud of insects that as best we can guesstimate is almost fifty to sixty miles wide. According to local area residents this started at daylight this morning.” 

Everyone’s mouths were open I noticed. Most remembered Elijah’s prophecy from the American Broadcast.

After a few minutes of absorbing the news cast, I turned down the sound, left the image up, turned to Rabbi Benjamin Hagen, and asked, “Do we have a Prophet?”

Ben hesitated wrung his hands for I knew he never expected Elijah to come through. He then reluctantly said, “Yes David he has passed the test.” He then turned back to the TV where he could not take his eyes off the images on the TV he repeated again “passed the test.”

This was going to be a long day I thought. After a few moments, I explained to those who had not been here for the other meetings what Benjamin’s comment meant. I explained about the test Rabbi Benjamin Hagen had devised. I then said now that Elijah has both of the Chief Rabbinates agreeing he is Elijah we will now how have to figure out how to govern Israel and have a prophet. 

I then brought the conversation back to our original reasons for being here and slowly the participant’s started paying attention. It took about two hours and we sort of, had a plan put together. 

The Archeologists were going to go meet with Elijah with the Construction people. The Archeologists were also going to work with the Temple Designers along with the Rabbis of Israel. 

Rabbi Benjamin Hagan was going to find if he could, twenty people from the Levi tribe as Elijah asked for. He would select them and take them to Elijah.

We also agreed we would set up a military field kitchen and light the Mount like a stadium. We would also be setting up shelter for Elijah in the event he wanted to stay. Shlomo said he would arrange all that from the military.

The Wailing Wall would be, closed for the time being. We all agreed the first thing was to clear the Mount of the debris. This would allow Elijah to work with the archeologist to excavate the area without a mess around them. 

About that time, I heard a commotion in the outer office and I heard Carla scream, “You can’t go in there.” The door burst open and Meyer Branlin was shouting, “David, David you won’t believe it and he kept repeating himself.” 

He finally looked around and said, “Oh I didn’t know you have guests, nevertheless,” he piped up again and said, “my wife and son David…they are well, and the doctors said it was a miracle. There are ok like nothing was ever wrong!”

“How did this happen, Meyer?” I asked

“I did what Elijah said to do, pray.”

“What prayer Meyer, did you pray?”

He shouted out the prayer. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. He healed them. Where is Elijah I need to tell him?” He looked around the room and said, “He’s not here.”

“No he is at the Temple Mount, Meyer.” 

“Great!” Meyer said then started for the door then stopped. He turned back towards me and said, “David we need to talk there are things you need to know.”