Rockrimmon - A Message from the Colorado Fires

Joseph Herrin (06-28-2012)

As I was recently reading the news on the fires in Colorado I was struck by the extreme nature of what is occurring there. The fires are uncommon in their explosive growth, and their ability to leap across primary and secondary fire breaks. The weather was itself unprecedented as the fires near Colorado Springs coincided with a record heat wave that was paired with exceptionally low humidity, often in the single digits, and intense winds.

(Graphic from www.weather.com)

The image above was taken from The Weather Channel’s website as I was preparing this post. The graphic strikes me as particularly significant as it provides an outline of the Continental United States with a background collage consisting of a city skyline and smoke clouds reflecting a massive fire. People who have witnessed firsthand the fires in Colorado have made mention of the fiery orange glow that the clouds are exhibiting there. The following paragraph taken from an article on The Weather Channel’s website reveals the extreme nature of what America is experiencing.

100-Degree Heat Spreading East

A late-June heat wave continues to rewrite the record books in the Rockies and Plains.  For the second straight day, all-time record highs were tied in Denver (105) and set in Sidney, Neb. (111) on Tuesday. Record highs for the month of June were also tied or set in 15 cities Tuesday, including Houston and Austin.  At least 10 cities in the Rockies and High Plains were hotter Tuesday than Death Valley (108)!
[End Excerpt]

I do not consider it coincidental that the author of the above words chose to compare the temperatures being experienced across the Rocky Mountains as “hotter than Death Valley.” What America is experiencing is an acceleration of judgment.

Back in March I wrote a blog titled Rapid Transition. In it I spoke of things changing quickly for the people of God.

A few days ago I packed up all my winter clothes and got out my summer clothes to hang in my closet in The Dreamer. The change of season has been very abrupt. I very literally went from running a heater at night, to running the air conditioner just a day or two later. This seems symbolic of those things the Spirit is indicating are coming to God’s people. Abrupt changes are at hand. There will be no gradual transition from one experience to another. Things will happen quite suddenly in days ahead.
[End Excerpt]

Since that time the weather has continued to run far ahead of what is normal for a typical year. Last week it was reported that Tropical Storm Debby was the earliest fourth named storm ever on record. The average date for the fourth named Atlantic storm of the hurricane season is August 23rd. Debby made her appearance a full two months earlier. At the same time that Florida (the Sunshine State) was being soaked with more than two feet of rain, large swaths of the country were roasting under record heat, and massive fires were being reported all across the Western United States. Congress was even prompted to allocate emergency funding to pay more fire fighting aircraft. America is on fire, literally, and this will increase as both leaders and citizens are unrepentant while experiencing Yahweh’s judgments.

An article posted today on The Weather Channel appears to proclaim a prophetic message in its headline.

Pattern Change Needed for Fire Relief

Chris Dolce Updated: Jun 28, 2012, 6:24 AM EDT weather.com

Dry, Windy Weather Contributes to Fire Danger


Large wildfires have been grabbing headlines in the West for weeks.  Poor weather conditions have certainly contributed to this story.


First of all, it's been very dry.  Check out the drought monitor graphic for the West to the left and you can see that portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and California are in moderate, severe or extreme drought.  The March through May period was the fourth and fifth driest on record for Colorado and Utah, respectively.


Recently, extreme heat has been contributing to the tinderbox conditions.  Colorado Springs, where a nearby major fire is ongoing, is one of several locations that set an all-time record high temperature on Tuesday!


Then there are the winds.  Dry cold fronts passing by to the north have been kicking up gusty winds over the Rockies the last several weeks.


What we need for relief is a pattern change.
[Source: http://www.weather.com/news/weather-forecast/pattern-need-fire-relief-20120627]

Amen! What America needs is truly a change of pattern. Her abominations have arisen to the heavens, and the judgments of God are justly appropriate and will become far worse in the days ahead. America’s cities will burn with fires both natural and manmade. A great conflagration will engulf the entire country as civil unrest leads to martial law. The accumulation of decades of material goods will be consumed in a moment.

One aspect of the stories coming forth from the outskirts of Colorado Springs, the second largest city in the state, is the suddenness with which the fires have spread and the residents have had to flee. One website had testimonies of numbers of people who had lost homes in the fires. The residents reported having only ten minutes to leave their homes from the time the police gave the evacuation order. Two people in the same article reported having to drive their cars through their closed garage doors as the electricity was suddenly cut-off and they did not know how to open the doors manually without electricity.

http://www.gazette.com/news/emergency-140920-stories-officer.html

I have had correspondence with a number of people on the significance of the Colorado fires. Some are linking it to the pressure America is steadily putting upon Israel to force Jews to surrender homes and lands that Yahweh gave as an inheritance to Abraham and his seed. At the same time that the Colorado fire was forcing Americans to evacuate homes, the Jewish residents of Ulpana in Israel were being relocated by their government in an effort to quell international outrage over Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

I came across the following article today that has nothing to do with the evacuations in Israel, but you would not know it by the title of the piece.

Fires rage across the state; Colorado Springs Jews evacuate
Thursday, 28 June 2012 09:30 Chris Leppek

Fires rage outside Ft. Collins.


As a very worried Rabbi Moshe Liberow approached his hometown of Colorado Springs on Interstate 25 on Tuesday afternoon, a tornado-like pillar of smoke and an apocalyptic sky that he describes as “miles and miles of orange and darkness,” told him that the situation was dire.


Returning from a Chabad event he had attended last weekend in New York, Rabbi Liberow — the spiritual leader of Chabad-Lubavitch of Southern Colorado — was driving south from DIA. He was fully aware that the Waldo Canyon fire, fanned by strong winds and encouraged by torrid record temperatures, was raging ever nearer to Colorado Springs, where his home, synagogue and mikveh are located.


He had been on the phone with his wife Zelda throughout the weekend as she nervously told her husband that the fire was growing steadily larger and nearer to their northwestern Colorado Springs neighborhood.


Four of the couple’s six children were with her at home — the other two were safely away at summer camp.


He knew by Tuesday afternoon, heading toward the Springs on I-25, that she had received a pre-evacuation order but not whether she had managed to get out. That final bit of crucial information was denied him, due to cellphones that could no longer connect.


“As I was driving home,” Rabbi Liberow told the Intermountain Jewish News on Wednesday morning, “I knew that the situation was very bad.”


That conviction only grew more sure as he approached Colorado Springs. He tried to get off at an exit that would lead to his home — Rockrimmon Drive — but the road was a chaotic mess, clogged with official and private vehicles trying to get in or get out, and everything was cloaked in smoke so thick that Rabbi Liberow — a native Briton — compared it to an English fog.


“It was dramatic,” he said. “It was scary.”


He tried to get information on the fire and evacuations. He called 911 but the over-burdened system put him on hold. He was able to reach a member of his congregation but that person was unable to offer any conclusive information about the situation.


He could still not reach his wife.


Realizing the futility of trying to get back to the area where his home and synagogue are located, the rabbi opted to get back on the interstate and head for Denver, hoping against hope that his family were able to get out of the fire-threatened area.


Not very long after, on the highway heading north, Rabbi Liberow saw something that he describes as miraculous.


Two vehicles ahead of him, also heading north, he spotted the family car, driven by his wife, with their four children inside.


“I was so happy,” Rabbi Liberow literally exhaled while speaking to the IJN this week. “I couldn’t believe it.”


The family drove to Denver in a mini-convoy. Finally, with the help of Denver-area Chabad rabbis, they were able to secure a hard-to-find hotel room in downtown Denver...
[Source: http://www.ijn.com/ijn-news/local/3253-fires-rage-across-the-state-colorado-springs-jews-evacuate-]

America’s sins are many, and I do not question that she is heaping up judgment for herself due to her ungodly pressure upon Israel. At the same time, I want to focus in on one detail of the Colorado fires that I have come across multiple times. Even in the article above you find mention of the name Rockrimmon. A search on the Internet reveals numerous stories on the fire that make mention of the boulevard, and community in Northwest Colorado Springs named Rockrimmon.

Traffic Evacuating Rockrimmon

When I saw the name Rockrimmon I recognized that it is derived from a story found in the Bible. The story involves Yahweh’s judgment upon Israel due to unrestrained sin and abominations committed in the land. The story is found in the book of Judges, evoking a correlation to the judgment of God.

YouTube Video of Rockrimmon Fire
http://youtu.be/YXMarbsLf18



The Biblical story is a large one, giving indication of its importance. It takes up three entire chapters of the book of Judges, beginning in chapter 19. The story relates how a Levite man dwelling in the territory of Ephraim went to bring back his concubine who had departed from him, engaging in harlotry. As the man returned he was passing through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin when wicked men surrounded the house he was in, demanding that he come out so the men could sodomize him. The man’s concubine was given to the men instead, and they raped and ravished her until the first daylight. Then they let her go. The concubine fell at the steps of the home in which her husband was staying and there she died.

When the man found his concubine dead at the hands of the wicked men of Benjamin, he took her home and cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them throughout the twelve tribes of Israel, reporting to the people what the men of Benjamin had done.

Judges 19:30
All who saw it said, "Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak up!"

All eleven tribes of Israel gathered together and demanded of Benjamin that they punish the evildoers in their midst. Benjamin refused, and arrayed themselves for battle. During the first two days Israel was horribly defeated by the Benjamites. Benjamin slew 22,000 Israelites the first day, and 18,000 the second. This caused the other eleven tribes to humble themselves before Yahweh and to confess their own sins, which were many. Yahweh would not permit them to achieve victory when they were acting in a self-righteous manner.

The next day Yahweh gave Israel victory and over 25,000 men of Benjamin were slain. All that was left of Benjamin was 600 men who fled into the wilderness to the Rock of Rimmon.

Judges 20:46-47
So all of Benjamin who fell that day were 25,000 men who draw the sword; all these were valiant warriors. But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they remained at the rock of Rimmon four months.

On this most terrible day for Benjamin, the men of the other eleven tribes set an ambush for them. They acted like they were being defeated by the Benjamites once more, and began to retreat in order to draw the men away from the city. When the men of Benjamin were drawn out, Israelites hiding in ambush struck the city with the sword and set it on fire.

Judges 20:38
Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise from the city.

Do not these words form a parallel to what is being observed in Colorado Springs at this time? A great cloud of smoke is rising from the city.

Colorado Springs Fire

One aspect of this story is that the fire has burned right up to the edge of property belonging to the Air Force Academy, which is located in Colorado Springs. Cadet dormitories have had to be evacuated and the cadets placed in homes of people who live in the area.

Air Force Academy Surrounded By Fire

There are a number of recent news items related to the Air Force Academy that share a resemblance with the story from the book of Judges. It has been much in the news of late that President Obama has ordered all branches of the military to openly accept, and even celebrate, the presence of homosexuals in the military. A news article recently reported on the first graduation of cadets where homosexuality was expressed openly.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/us-air-force-academy-gay-cadets_n_1543278.html

This story of Benjamin’s sin also focuses on the rape of a woman, and an unfettered sexual aggression. This too has been not only a part of America’s culture as a nation, but part of the military’s sordid history. The following link tells of a resurgence of sexual assaults against women at the Air Force Academy. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, estimates that there were as many as 19,000 sexual assaults in the military last year.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/data-132164-denver-explanation.html

The estimate of Mr. Panetta may well be low as it is reported by some institutions that as many as 95% of rapes go unreported.

http://rwu.edu/campus-life/health-counseling/counseling-center/sexual-assault/rape-myths-and-fac

There were 3,200 reported rapes in the military last year. If this is 5% of the rapes, then the actual number was closer to 60,000. America’s behavior is not significantly different than that of the Benjamites whose sins are recorded in the book of Judges. As I mentioned, there is a correlation to the Benjamites and the name Rockrimmon.

Judges 20:47
But 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they remained at the rock of Rimmon four months.

The name Rimmon is the name of a Canaanite god. Right next to Rockrimmon in Colorado Springs is an area called “Garden of the Gods.” This is certainly not a reference to the God (singular) of Israel. It is a reference to pagan gods, and one is led to consider the closeness of the Garden of the Gods to this area named after Rimmon.

When Elijah healed Naaman the leper, who was from Syria, Naaman asked Elijah’s God to please pardon him when he went with his master into the house of Rimmon.

II Kings 5:18
"In this matter may Yahweh pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, Yahweh pardon your servant in this matter."

America is a land of many idols and false gods. It seems symbolic that the sinful sons of Benjamin did not run to a stronghold of Yahweh when judgment befell them. Instead they ran to a stronghold named after the false god Rimmon. In this hour when judgment is even now at the door of America, the majority will not turn back to the one true God, but will run to false gods for protection and safety. They will look to the arm of man to deliver them.

An article from 2010 reveals that the Air Force Academy has set aside a place for Pagans, Druids and Witches to worship.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/01/air-force-academy-gives-p_n_444800.html

Is it not right for Yahweh to judge a people who have rejected Him, and have turned aside to vain gods while giving themselves over to an unfettered pursuit of sexual desire and pleasure? America is burning, and there is far worse to come.

A person can adopt the view that the extreme weather, the floods, fires, tornadoes, economic collapse, real estate debacle, record unemployment, unprecedented debt that is increasing by trillions of dollars annually, and other signs of systemic destruction and rot have nothing to do with God, and are unrelated to the transgressions of the nation. Some, however, see that America is on fire and perceive the hand of a righteous and holy God bringing judgment for her defiance and many abominations.

Colorado Springs Evacuees Look at Smoke Over Their City


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Joseph Herrin
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