January 01, 2009
The good Shepherd
There is no Savior besides Me (Hosea 13:4)
The minor prophet Zephaniah describes the Hebrew language as "pure." The Hebrew rendering for pure, barar, means to clarify, brighten and purify. The ancient Hebrew pictograph language, the one used by Moses to pen the Torah, does exactly that. It draws a picture of what God is trying to communicate to mankind, expressions sometimes missed in English Bible translations. Consider the word "savior" in the Hosea verse above. In our Greco-Roman, western mindset, the word is an abstract thought: redeem, defend, preserve. Pictograms represent an action, giving words a deeper and richer understanding. Here's how the the Hebrew word for "savior," yasha, looks in pictographic script (Hebrew is read from right to left):
Combined, the letters SHIN (teeth) and AYIN (eye) can be interpreted "the destroyer watches." According to Jeff Benner's Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, a shepherd watches over the flock and the surrounding area, always on the lookout for danger. When a predator attacks, the shepherd destroys the enemy. The first letter, YAD, means arm or hand. Collectively, the pictograms describe the role of our good Shepherd, Yeshua the Messiah: "With a strong arm the Destroyer watches." Yeshua guards His flock, whom He loves, day and night. The LORD declares in John 10:28, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."
December 25, 2008
Light of the world
This minor holiday in Judaism celebrates a military victory and the rededication of the Jerusalem temple; a one-day supply of ritual oil miraculously burned for eight days according to Talmudic legend. Jewish historians believe the first Hanukkah was a belated Sukkot celebration. The Maccabean revolt against the Syrian-Greeks had prevented the Jews from observing this divinely-ordained festival in the fall month of Tishri.
Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles, points to a future day when redeemed man will dwell with the God of Israel forever. That marriage was made possible by the blood atonement of Messiah Yeshua, who likely was conceived during Hanukkah and born during the fall Biblical feasts. Hanukkah also is called the Festival of Lights. As the servant branch, Yeshua declares in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
Like Sukkot, Hanukkah is celebrated eight days. Today is day five. May the light of Yeshua warm your hearts and home.
December 20, 2008
Dark age
Maybe someone should hurl a shoe at Washington and Wall Street. I heard a report that failed banks are allocating bailout money – earmarked by the Treasury to buy troubled assets – for CEO bonuses. Congress last week gave itself a pay raise, raiding $2.5 million from taxpayers, many of whom have lost jobs and homes. The same lawmakers are demanding that CEOs of struggling companies work for free.
Initially, I felt outrage, then deep sadness. Greed and malfeasance rule the day. I opened the Old Testament and found three verses that reflect how I feel today:
• The Torah is powerless, and justice never goes forth (Habakkuk 1:4).• The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among men (Micah 7:2).
• When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me (Micah 7:8).
December 19, 2008
Checkmate
Arctic blasts are dumping snow and ice on cities across America, days after the Bush administration tried again to divide and destroy Israel. Major calamities – freak storms and natural disasters – typically follow every move by the United States to bully the Jewish state. The UN Security Council passed a resolution Tuesday declaring peace negotiations between the Jewish state and Palestinians "irreversible." America co-sponsored the resolution.
Friends, we are witnessing the trampling of Jerusalem by Gentile nations as prophesied in Luke 22:24. The return of Messiah cannot be far away. I believe the LORD is sovereignly arranging the final chess pieces of world history to fulfill Joel 3:2, the mother of all checkmates:
I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehosphaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided My land.
Bush and Condi are repeating the folly of Pharaoh, ignoring God's warnings while persecuting the Hebrews. And we all know how that turned out. We haven't been hit by locusts or lice, but the economic crisis, hazardous weather and natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans the same day the last Jewish homes and synagogues in Gush Katif were bulldozed in 2005) are weakening America. If Obama continues this Mideast madness once he takes office, America might collapse under the weight of God's plagues.
November 26, 2008
Showtime
The light show lasted only a few minutes. I pointed my Nikon D80 toward the Olympic Mountains and snapped several shots as the setting sun painted the sky burnt red, orange and yellow. Several ducklings swam past me and into the shadows of Puget Sound, leaving a trail of soft ripples. For a fleeting few minutes on a chilly Thanksgiving eve, God's creation was at rest and in union with Him.
November 19, 2008
The fall of America
On Election Day I felt alienated and alone. I didn't recognize my country anymore. As I got out of my car for work in Seattle, packs of young people walked past me waving Obama signs. They wore Zombie-like grins, celebrating the impending coronation of their self-made messiah. I was the invisible man in this wave of euphoria. No one could hear the groaning and sighing in my spirit. No one could see what's obvious: the United States is dying.
I believe God gave America a choice, and it chose the king it deserves. We are a rebellious and wicked nation and will reap what we've sown. During the election frenzy I was reading Ezekiel 23:35 and the LORD impressed upon me that this word was for America as well: "Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry." The Hebrew word for lewdness, zimmah, can mean a heinous crime or evil scheme.
Our republic is rotting from the inside. Virtues of morality, decency and honesty no longer are esteemed. Our president elect won't, or can't, produce a valid birth certificate to dispel allegations he was born in Kenya, which would disqualify him from serving as president. Inauguration Day is two months away and Obama and his minions already are scheming to divide Jerusalem and cripple the Jewish state. Obama's campaign mantra was change, but in the Mideast he's recycling Bush's flawed Road Map.
Like me, Jan Willem van der Hoeven, director of the International Christian Zionist Center, mourns for the United States. Here's an excerpt from his commentary Fall of America. Fall of the West:
Already you can feel it in the air: the hatred, anger and intolerance of many who have reveled in the election of their messiah-like Obama, the man who promises them – the young and old – change that is not based on personal change by repenting from sin and evil, but a deceitful promise of change, while everyone can live it up according to his and her own desires without necessitating a change in their own, personal behavior. Under Obama, nearly everything will go. The killing of the unborn, the perversion of sexuality, the very abominations that brought down the worlds of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Rome and the Greek civilization, will bring down America and, with it, the West.
Speaking of Gomorrah, I watched a YouTube video of a sodomite mob attacking Christians in the gay district of San Francisco (see link below). What provoked the confrontation? Worshippers were walking the streets at night, praying and singing Amazing Grace. They were swarmed by hundreds of homosexuals, who lunged at them and threatened to kill them. Some were doused with hot coffee; one woman was knocked down and kicked. Police in riot gear arrived, encircled the Christians and escorted them out of harm's way.
In these last days I am at a loss for words. My heart is so heavy I can hardly look up. LORD, in wrath remember mercy.
November 13, 2008
Camp Dora
Germany's World War II cruise missile, the V-1 Buzz Bomb, rained terror on western Europe. Today it is a disarmed shell parked in the Great Gallery at Seattle's Museum of Flight. But unlike the other historic aircraft housed here, the V-1 isn't a warm, welcoming presence. The weapon on display was restored with parts salvaged from the notorious Mittelwerk factory in Nordhausen, Germany. Slave laborers from the adjoining Dora concentration camp assembled the V-1 and V-2 ballistic missiles in harsh, degrading conditions.
Readers might recognize the names Dora and Nordhausen. Six months ago I posted an entry about Private John Galione, an American soldier who discovered the missile factory and prisoner camp by accident. Galione's actions led to the liberation of concentration camps across Europe and the seizing of Germany's rocket technology, beating the advancing Russian army by mere hours. I visited the Great Gallery last weekend to photograph airplanes. I had read about the V-1 exhibit on the museum's website, but was unaware of the Camp Dora connection until I was standing a few feet away. The sign informed visitors that 20,000 to 30,000 Dora prisoners died in the inhuman conditions at Mittelwerk. Workers who were caught sabotaging missiles were hanged. The V-weapons are the only weapons in history to have killed more people assembling them than on the battlefield.
As a friend of Israel, my heart ached. Many of the laborers were Jewish. It's likely some had worked on the missile I was staring at. The museum should be commended for including this murderous weapon in its aviation hall of fame, if only to honor the Dora prisoners who were brutally exploited and killed. I won't forget them, and neither will the God of Israel. The Jews remain the apple of His eye.
Addendum – Mary Nahas, the daughter of John Galione, emailed me this interesting footnote: stealth technology also was captured by the Americans at Mittelwerk, although "it sat in a pile for 20 years before they realized what they had."
September 27, 2008
Behold the Lamb
The word "ransom" in Hebrew, padah, points to Yeshua's atoning sacrifice as our kinsman redeemer. He paid our ransom price by hanging and dying on a tree. When we look at padah in the ancient Hebrew pictographic script, it seems God is sending an additional text message: Don't treat His gift of redemption casually. God offers salvation freely but at great cost to Him. Here are the word pictures (Hebrew is read right to left):
