A Biblical View of 9/11/01
By Ed Soto, Esq. The Covenant News ~ May 13, 2006
On 9/11/01 Arab Muslims hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The fourth plane, headed for the White House was spared. Although some people are reluctant to discuss the possibility that this event was divine judgment, it is something we must consider. Those reluctant to approach the subject do so for the following reasons:
1. Divine judgment is an Old Testament concept and/or relates only to Israel. I broaden the concept to apply to covenant communities. Our nation is one of the few specifically founded with the purpose of glorifying God either directly or indirectly.
2. It is unkind to the victims. Without ignoring the sensitive nature of the subject I feel compelled to address the issue for not doing so will result in many more victims.
3. Ignorance of God's nature; that is, a loving God would never permit such a heinous act. But God is also just and a covenant community that steps out from under that covenant is subject to pain.
4. Categorizing the tragedy as divine judgment tends to justify or otherwise reduce the culpability of the terrorists. It does no such thing, of course. Also, the Lord frequently used unrighteous nations to chastise His people.
Now, let's consider that this event was divine judgment. First, the Lord frequently uses the very idols a nation worships to judge that nation. What do many Americans trust in? Money and military might. The Twin Towers symbolizes money and the Pentagon symbolizes military might. But the specifics are even more eerie.
Isaiah 9:8-10 says, The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Note, the Lord is rebuking the inhabitants who did not learn the correct lesson from calamity. Instead, out of defiance, they seek to rebuild. If one does a Biblical study on bricks and hewn stones one will discover that they represent man's kingdoms that are anathema to God. Stones uncut with human hands, or living stones, on the other hand, represent God's Kingdom.
As I said earlier, things get eerie. The day after 9/11, Tom Daschle misapplied Isaiah 9:9-11 in a statement on the floor of the Senate:
"Last night, we sent a message to the world that even in the face of such cowardly and heinous acts, the doors of democracy will not close.
This joint resolution we lay down today condemns yesterday's attacks, expresses our sympathy for the victims, and our support for the President as Commander-in-Chief. The world should know that the members of both parties, in both houses, stand united in this: the full resources of our government will be brought to bear in aiding the search and rescue, and in hunting down those responsible, and those who may have aided or harbored them.
Nothing can replace the losses that have been suffered. I know that there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible, from Isaiah, that I think speaks to all of us at times like this. "The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars."
That is what we will do. We will rebuild and we will recover.
Note the defiant spirit, precisely the spirit the Lord was chastising. But what about replacing bricks with dressed stone?
New York Governor George E. Pataki said, "Today is indeed, a momentous day. Today we take 20 tons of Adirondack granite - the bedrock of our State - and place it as the foundation, the bedrock of a new symbol of American strength and confidence. Today, we lay the cornerstone for a new symbol of this city and this country and of our resolve in the face of terror. Today we build the Freedom Tower."
And what about sycamores being replaced with cedars? If you go here, you will see how the sycamore tree saved St. Paul's Chapel from destruction, how it has been rooted up and replaced with a Norwegian Spruce. The spruce is related to cedar.
I dare say all this cannot be coincidence. What do you think?
Ed Soto, Esq., is a Bible and History Teacher at a private Christian school in Chesapeake, Virginia.