Stung (9 page)

A murmur rose from the crowd. Yitzhak held up a hand. “I do not know whether Dr. Ben-Judah will allow it, or if he refuses what will happen. But I do know that God is in control of this meeting!”

Another cheer arose.

“And now, I urge you to pray with me. What we will learn over the next few days will be vital. But our hearts must be right.”

For the next fifteen minutes, Judd heard the sound of voices praying in different languages. Yitzhak gently interrupted them by saying, “My friends, there will be some in the stadium and many watching and listening via satellite who do not know our Messiah. Let us pray earnestly for God to open their eyes.”

Again, voices swirled in prayer. Judd moved toward Lionel. “Can you believe this?”

Lionel shook his head.

As the prayers of the people wound down, Yitzhak said, “In the spirit of these prayers, O God, we commit ourselves to you. We ask that you give us clear minds to understand your teaching. In Jesus' name, amen.”

Yitzhak led the group out the back door. There was no shoving, no pushing, no trying to get the best spot in line. Everyone slowly followed the little man across the parking lot toward the stadium.

“Where's Mr. Stein?” Lionel said.

Judd shrugged. “I guess we'll find him later.”

Judd had never seen such traffic. Every road to the stadium was jammed with cars and pedestrians. Every person he saw seemed happy. People carried satchels and notebooks and water bottles. Most of those on foot made it to the stadium faster than those in cars and buses.

“This looks like a lot more people than that stadium could ever hold,” Lionel said.

Judd saw two jeeps with flashing yellow lights. Each vehicle carried four armed Global Community guards. Between the jeeps was a Mercedes van. Someone shouted, “The rabbi!”

With that, people broke from the line and rushed to the van. They waved and shouted and joyfully pounded on the doors and windows. Judd and Lionel tried to get close, but they were pushed back by the trailing GC jeep.

Suddenly, the van cut to the left and flew toward the median. The GC vehicles followed, blowing their sirens and bouncing crazily behind the van.

When they made it to the stadium, Judd noticed monitors outside the stadium for those who couldn't get in. Judd and Lionel squeezed their way through the crowd. Judd remembered his first trip to Wrigley Field with his dad and the sight of the green grass and white lines and the ivy on the outfield wall. It had filled him with awe. That was nothing compared to this. Men and women from around the world filled the stands and the infield. They shouted praises to God in many languages. Some huddled in groups to pray. Others sang and swayed as they wrapped their arms around each other.

A line of people appeared through an opening at the back of the stage. “Interpreters,” Lionel whispered. The crowd grew quiet.

At exactly seven, a man strode to a simple wood lectern and said, “Welcome, my brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord God Almighty. …”

8

JUDD
felt a chill down his spine. Before the translators could speak, the stadium erupted in cheering. When the applause faded, the man at the podium nodded to the interpreters, but the crowd shouted,
“Nein!” “Nyet!”

“What's going on?” Lionel said.

The man continued. “. . . maker of heaven and earth … and his Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah!”

The crowd went wild again. Someone hurried onto the stage. Judd leaned close to Lionel. “I think the same thing that happened at the Wailing Wall is happening here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everybody understands in their own language,” Judd said. “They don't need the interpreters. That's why everybody's shouting no!”

The translators walked away from their positions. The crowd thundered. The man held up his hands and asked them to pray.

Many knelt in front of their seats. “Father, we are grateful for having been spared by your grace and love,” the man prayed. “You are indeed the God of new beginnings and second chances. We are about to hear from our beloved rabbi, and our prayer is that you would supernaturally prepare our hearts and minds to absorb everything you have given him to say. We pray this in the matchless name of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.”

A huge “Amen!” echoed through the stadium. The massive congregation began to sing, “Amazing grace! how sweet the sound— that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

Judd remembered his mother singing that song. He had hated it because he didn't think he was such a bad person. But now, knowing the truth about himself and what God had done, Judd choked through the words. The sound of twenty-five thousand believers singing from their hearts, plus the thousands outside joining in, overwhelmed him.

“When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.”

The man at the podium asked the crowd to sit. “The vast majority of us know our speaker tonight only as a name on our computer screens,” he began. “It is my honor—”

Before he could finish, people rose to their feet as one, cheering, clapping, shouting, whistling. Tsion Ben-Judah was nudged from the edge of the stage. He hesitated, looking embarrassed. The noise was deafening. Finally, the crowd settled.

“My beloved brothers and sisters, I accept your warm greeting in the name that is above all names. All glory and honor are due the triune God.” As the crowd began to respond again, Tsion quickly asked that they withhold their praise until the end of the teaching.

Vicki and the others gathered in a meeting room to watch the opening session at 11:00
A.M.
their time. After Mark had left, Vicki found Z's box in the kitchen. Inside was a note:
Every school needs supplies. I hope these help
.

Underneath were stacks of spiral notebooks, pens, colored pencils, and other materials. Vicki handed out the notebooks before Tsion began his message. “Z thought of everything,” Vicki said.

Tsion's voice filled the room. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, leaning over his notes, “never in my life have I been more eager to share a message from the Word of God. I stand before you with the unique privilege, I believe, of speaking to many of the 144,000 witnesses prophesied in the Scriptures.”

The camera panned the crowd. Vicki was overcome by the size of the gathering and the anxious faces of people who hung on Tsion's every word.

“Let me review the basics of God's plan of salvation so we may soon leave this place and get back to the work to which he has called us. You have each been assigned a location for all-day training tomorrow and the next day. On both nights we will meet back here for encouragement and fellowship and teaching.”

Tsion outlined the evidence from the Old Testament proving Jesus was the Messiah. He recited the many names of God and finished with the powerful passage from Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The crowd could not contain itself, leaping to its feet. Tsion smiled and encouraged them. “Jesus himself said that if we do not glorify God, the very stones would have to cry out.”

Cheers went up around the room. Vicki jotted something down in her notebook. Someone moved near the doorway. It was Melinda. “What's going on?” she said.

“We're watching the opening session,” Vicki said, as the kids fell silent. “Watch with us.”

Melinda stepped back. “I don't want to interrupt.”

“Please,” Vicki said. “It might be good for you to hear it from a different perspective.”

Conrad stood and offered Melinda his chair. She shook her head and stood in the back.

Tsion walked through God's plan from the beginning of time, showing that Jesus was sent as the spotless lamb, a sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.

“We are sinful from the day we are born and because God is holy, there is nothing we can do to restore our relationship to him. God had to restore it himself. That is why Christ died. Anyone who accepts the fact that they are a sinner and Christ died for them can be born again spiritually into eternal life.

“In John 14:6, Jesus himself said he was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the Father except through him. This is our message to the nations. This is our message to the desperate, the sick, the terrified.”

Vicki glanced at Melinda. The girl was deep in thought.

Tsion continued. “There should be no doubt in anyone's mind—even those who have chosen to live in opposition to God—that he is real and that a person is either for him or against him. We should have the boldness of Christ to aggressively tell the world that its only hope is in him.

“The bottom line is that we have been called as his divine witnesses—144,000 strong—through whom he has begun a great soul harvest. This will result in what John the Revelator calls ‘a great multitude which no one could number.' Before you fall asleep tonight, read Revelation 7 and thrill with me to the description of the harvest you and I have been called to reap.”

Vicki turned to Revelation 7 and read along as Tsion spoke. “John says it is made up of souls from all nations, kindreds, peoples, tribes, and tongues. One day they will stand before his throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and carrying palms in their hands!”

Judd rose with the crowd at Teddy Kollek Stadium as Tsion's voice thundered. “They will cry with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'

“The angels around the throne will fall on their faces and worship God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.'” Tsion stepped back.

The crowd roared. Judd was overwhelmed. He leaned forward, trying to picture that scene. He saw that Tsion had moved back to the microphone. The standing thousands quieted again, as if desperate to catch every word.

“John was asked by one of the elders at the throne, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?' And John said, ‘Sir, you know.' And the elder said, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'”

Tsion waited for another cheer to subside, then continued: “‘They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.' The Lamb himself shall feed them and lead them to fountains of living water. And, best of all, my dear family, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Tsion raised a hand before they could cheer again. “We shall be here in Israel two more full days and nights, preparing for battle. Put aside fear! Put on boldness! Were you surprised that all of us, each and every one, were spared the last few judgments I wrote about? When the rain and hail and fire came from the sky and the meteors scorched a third of the plant life and poisoned a third of the waters of the world, how was it that we escaped? Luck? Chance?”

The crowd shouted, “No!”

“No!” Tsion echoed. “The Scriptures say that an angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea. And what did he tell them? He said, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.' And John writes, ‘I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.'”