Jonathan Cahn - The Book of Mysteries

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THE BOOK OF MYSTERIES by Jonathan Cahn

Published by FrontLine

Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Scripture quotations are either the authors own translation or are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotations from the Talmud are from the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma 39b; Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b; Babylonian Talmud, Chapter 4, Folio 37; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin, Folio 24.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: At the bottom of every mystery is a title that identifies the full teaching or message that goes deeper into the mystery or gives more information than can be given on one page. You can find information on ordering these teachings or messages in the back of this book.

Copyright 2016 by Jonathan Cahn

All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans

Visit the authors website at www.jonathancahn.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946282

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-62998-941-9

E-book ISBN: 978-1-62998-942-6

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

To Renata, my beloved and treasure, for her love, her encouragement, her patience, and her faithfulness, without which this book would not have been written.

To Eliel and Dael, the precious jewels and the surprise joy of our lives.

To my mother and father, for the gift of life, and for all their blessings given.

And to Him who is the Mystery of all mysteries, the Giver of all gifts, and the Gift behind them all.

CONTENTS

W HO ARE YOU? I asked.

A teacher, he replied.

A teacher of what?

Mysteries.

And where do you teach?

Here.

In the desert?

What better place to find the truth with no distractions?

In a school?

Some would call it that, he replied.

And who are your students?

Seekers of truth.

How do they know to come... to the desert?

Word of mouth... an encounter, if its meant to be. It just happens in the encounter... as in this one.

As in this encounter?

If its meant to be.

And where do your students live?

There are many accommodations.

Dorms?

That might be stretching it, he replied. Rooms, dwelling places, chambers.

And how much does it cost to...

Attend?

Yes.

It doesnt.

How is that possible?

If one is truly seeking, its provided for.

Really?

Come, he said.

To the school?

Come and youll see.

I cant, I said. Im in the middle of a kind of journey.

Through a Middle Eastern desert? he said.

Yes.

And what exactly were you expecting to find?

Nothing just...

Youre on a journey to find nothing?

I like to travel.

With no destination?

Not in particular.

But what if there was a destination?

What do you mean?

What if there was something you were meant to find?

Like what?

Come and youll see. The new years about to begin. Its a good time to start.

To start?

The new course. The course I teach starts with the new year and ends at the years end.

I cant.

Of course you can, he said.

I mean, I dont know that I would.

You will, he said, if its meant to be.

Thats how it all began, an unplanned encounter in the middle of a desert. I dont know which was more absurd, what he told me about his school or the fact that I actually ended up there as one of his students. And I cant say exactly what it was that led me to take that step. Perhaps it was the thought that if I didnt do it, I would always wonder what it would have been like to have done so and regret having not taken the chance.

Nothing about the school was ordinary. The accommodations were sparse as one would expect considering the location. And yet it didnt seem to matter, not to any of the students. They came from all walks of life and from a wide variety of places.

It wasnt entirely barren. There were carefully maintained gardens of trees, plants, vines, and flowers. And then there were the people who lived in the surrounding region, the nomads, the shepherds, the many desert dwellers who lived in the tent encampments or tent villages that dotted the arid landscape. About an hours walk from the school was a small city. On occasion I would go there, as would others from the school, to purchase goods, to observe, and, when appropriate, to seek to apply the lessons given.

The school had other classes and teachers, but he was clearly preeminent and the one who oversaw everything else. He was so preeminent that he was known simply as the teacher. All the more reason I could never understand why he chose me as one of his students.

He lived a simple, ascetic life, as did everyone at the school. It was in keeping with the goal of eliminating all distractions. We drew our water from a well, and at night the school was lit up with candles and oil lamps. It was as if we were all transported back to ancient times. And yet, at the same time, the teacher seemed very much aware of what was going on in the larger world from which the school seemed so cut off. Nor was he averse to making use of any tool or service of the modern world that would serve the purposes of the teachings.

As for the teachings themselves, they were no less ordinary than the school in which they were given. Most of the classes I was given consisted of just me and the teacher. There was no set time or place. They could take place early in the morning, in the middle of the day, or late at night and in desert plains, on mountaintops, on hills, in oil-lit chambers, while overlooking one of the tent villages, or while journeying through the desert on camels. There were times when the teaching would be triggered or initiated by the surroundings or by something we happened to see, or at least it seemed that way. I could never quite tell if the teaching was based on the surroundings or the surroundings on the teaching.

And there were some teachings that came about in response to one of my questions. Each teaching would impart a mystery or truth. Some mysteries would build upon other mysteries or together form a larger mystery. At the end of each teaching he would give me an assignment, a mission to apply what I learned to my life that day.

I kept a journal in which I wrote down what he taught me and our conversations as best I could remember themthe teachings, the mysteries, the questions and answers, and the references I was able to find later on that matched up with what he shared. So by the end of the course and the year I had recorded three hundred sixty-five mysteries, one for each day of the year, a teaching, a mystery, and a mission.