From the Desk of Jeff King

The fall of America

On Election Day I felt like a man without a country, a pilgrim passing through a foreign, unfamiliar land. I parked my car for work in downtown Seattle and saw packs of young people walking the streets with zombie-like grins, waving Obama signs and 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 was obvious: the United States is dying politically, economically and spiritually.

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." Jan Willem van der Hoeven, director of the International Christian Zionist Center, shares this sense of loss. Here is 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; warning: contains offensive language). 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.

Camp Dora

Germany's World War II cruise missile, the V1 "buzz bomb," rained terror on western Europe. Today it is a disarmed artifact parked in the Great Gallery at Seattle's Museum of Flight. But unlike the other historic aircraft housed here, the V1 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 V1 and V2 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 V1 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. 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 built parts of the missile I was staring at. The museum did right by including this murderous weapon in its aviation hall of fame, if only to honor the Dora prisoners who were brutally exploited and destroyed. 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."

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):

The symbol of the man with raised arms means to behold, as when looking at a great sight, according to Jeff Benner's Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible. It also can mean "breath" or "sigh" as one does when looking at a great sight, or revealing a great sight by pointing it out. The Tanach (Old Testament) points repeatedly to Yeshua ben Yosef, the suffering servant, as the door to salvation. Our reaction should be the same as Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist), who regarded Yeshua's appearance a great sight: "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Sky is falling

The Wall Street crisis has exposed the nakedness of our ruling elite: the emperor has no clothes. And now he's trying to steal the shirt off our back, our children's and grandchildren's, in a fear-driven $700 billion bailout. Watching cable coverage today of the economic meltdown, I could hear panic in the voices of politicians and newsmen.

But lawmakers are looking for relief in all the wrong places. Blinded by greed and pride, they have not humbled themselves before the God of Israel and considered King David's petition in Psalm 108:12: "Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless." Psalm 118:8, the middle verse in the Bible, comes to the same conclusion: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."

10/8 UPDATE: Less than a week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, the company sent executives on a $400,000 retreat to a posh California resort. The tab included $23,000 worth of spa treatments, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the disgraced CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, was unapologetic when news leaked that he had received $480 million in bonuses over eight years. The greed exposed in this economic crisis seems unprecedented, but is it? The Old Testament addresses similar calamities in Judah centuries ago. The lamentations could apply to present-day America as well:

"O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock." (Jeremiah 5:3)

"For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend." (Jeremiah 5:26-28)

God's handiwork

Standing on the lip of Zigzag Canyon on Mt. Hood's southwest slope, I thought of Psalm 95 as I surveyed God's handiwork:

For the LORD is the great God

And the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;

The heights of the hills are His also.

The sea is His, for He made it;

And His hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Alisa and I reached the canyon via the Pacific Crest Trail, a trail system that links Canada and Mexico. We made the short hike from Oregon's Timberline Lodge and paused to snap photographs of the steep canyon below Zigzag Glacier. Overwhelmed by the beauty and raw power of God's creation, I looked up, raised my arms and recited the first words of a traditional Jewish brakhah (Hebrew for blessing): "Baruch attah Adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam." Translation: "Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe." I am not Jewish but I like to follow the lead of my Jewish Messiah. Yeshua invoked Hebrew blessings during His earthly ministry.

The next afternoon the LORD blessed us twice. First, a stranger stopped us as we headed toward White River Canyon, our second day hike of the weekend. The man, who looked to be in his late 50s, told us a severe rain storm two years ago had triggered a massive mud and rock flow from White River Glacier, collapsing canyon walls and destroying a section of Highway 35. He said the soft, sandy soil along the ridge was unstable and warned us not to get too close to the edge. We thanked the stranger and moved on. I told Alisa I thought he was either an angel or a man sent by God to caution us. He was the only person we passed on this two-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail. I took his advice when we stopped to take pictures at an exposed overlook. I made sure my camera tripod was positioned a few feet from the ledge. The view toward Mt. Hood was breathtaking.

God remembered us again on our return to Timberline Lodge. Struggling to hike in 90-degree heat, we took refuge under a shaded tree. Suddenly we felt a cool breeze brush against us. It seemed to come out of nowhere. Feeling refreshed after a brief pause, we rejoined the trail and made our way safely back to the lodge, where we would spend the night. We had peace knowing that Messiah Yeshua was our provider and protector. Click here for more photos and details of our Mt. Hood trip.

Casualties of war

This entry was buried in my June 2004 archives and I wanted to share it again. May America never forget:

Thousands of visitors and veterans swarmed Omaha Beach on D-Day's 60th anniversary. World leaders stood on the bluff where 9,387 American soldiers are buried and gave moving speeches about honor and sacrifice.

But no mention was made of another June 6 anniversary – a failed landing that cost more than 200 innocent lives. On that date in 1939, five years before the Allied invasion, the German luxury liner SS St. Louis steamed slowly off the southeastern coastline of Florida. It carried 937 European Jews who were fleeing Nazi Germany.

The United States, Canada, Cuba and countries in Central and South America rejected the passengers' appeal for asylum. At 11:30 p.m. on June 6, German captain Gustav Schroeder received a cable from the homeland – RETURN TO HAMBURG IMMEDIATELY. According to the book Voyage of the Damned by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, Schroeder walked from his cabin to the bridge and ordered the helmsman to bring the ship onto the heading of east north-east, a course that would return the St. Louis to Germany. Schroeder, who felt deep compassion for the refugees, informed the Jewish passenger committee in private the next day. The Jews knew that returning to Germany meant a death sentence. Some had already spent time in concentration camps and witnessed the murder and torture of prisoners.

The book describes the passenger committee's reaction to Schroeder's news: "Some could not bear even to mention it to their wives and children. It was inhuman, degrading, and endured in private, but it cut deeply into one of the most basic of all human needs: the need to be wanted. Instead, they had been rejected. Even the New World did not want them; now they must rely again on the Old. The committee suffered in silence, knowing it was not just an anonymous group of people who had been turned down, but that they, individually, each one, had had the open door shut in their faces; through them, their entire race had been judged, and found wanting."

A breakthrough in negotiations days later granted the refugees temporary asylum in Great Britain, France, Belgium and Holland. The relief, however, was temporary. About a third of the St. Louis Jews died in the Holocaust after Germany invaded and occupied all but Great Britain. Books and movies have depicted the horrors of D-Day, but the suffering of the St. Louis refugees – as well as hundreds of European Jews who were denied entry on other ships – has largely been forgotten or ignored. Their cries have been silenced.

Yesterday the free world turned its attention to the beaches of Normandy, and rightfully so. D-Day was the defining moment of World War II and the sacrifice of our young men should be honored. But America should not let this day pass without some expression of remorse and repentance. Had we not hardened our hearts, the St. Louis would have reached our beaches without a single casualty.

Jeremiah 29:11

I usually start my day with this prayer: LORD, if there is anyone I can minister to or encourage this day, show me. Too often that petition is met with silence. Either God is not speaking or I'm not listening very well.

I asked again last Saturday during my personal Bible study. Still nothing. When I finished reading I sat quietly for a few minutes, meditating on the goodness and mercy of the LORD. Suddenly a name and face came to mind. It was a female real-estate agent we had met last fall while trying to sell our home. We had not seen her in months. Then the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) gave me these directions: Drive out to the housing development where she works and deliver a word of encouragement. The LORD quickened Jeremiah 29:11 and I scribbled the verse on notebook paper:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

That afternoon my wife and I drove to the development, which reminded me of a ghost town. It was obvious the sluggish economy and subprime mortgage crisis had paralyzed the real-estate industry. Rows of new homes remained unsold and vacant. We parked and approached the office with the neon "Open" sign beaming from the window.

Our realtor friend, who is a Christian, looked up from her laptop in shock. "I can't believe it's you," she said softly. "And you picked this day to visit. I haven't been in this office for weeks." She got up from her desk and froze when I told her I came to deliver a word from the LORD. Tears streamed down her face as she read the note. She hugged us tightly and said repeatedly, "I can't believe it. This is a miracle." The night before, she told us, she had cried out to God in desperation, asking Him for a sign of hope. Her business was struggling. Her husband was injured recently in a car accident, preventing him from working. Her smoking habit had returned.

But Jeremiah 29:11 provided a soothing balm. She said the words had lifted a heavy weight. We prayed together and arranged to meet for lunch in three days. As we left for the car, tears streamed down my face. We had just seen Psalm 50:15 come to life: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

Lost in translation

When verbal communication of a thought, idea or command is not received or understood, the exasperated speaker might use the expression, "Do I have to draw you a picture?" God drew the ancient Israelites pictures so they would not miss what He was communicating to them through the Torah. He introduced a 22-letter alphabet in pictographic script, using letter symbols or word pictures that a Semitic, tent-dwelling society would understand.

Over time the Hebrew alphabet evolved and the pictographs became a lost language. But a few Bible scholars, including Jeff Benner of the Ancient Hebrew Research Center, are revisiting this ancient script to help translate the Hebrew Scriptures more accurately. Without an understanding of the near-eastern mindset of the people who penned God's Word, the Tanach (Old Testament) gets lost in translation.

Using Benner's Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible, I looked at the Hebrew words for "creator" and "redeem." I constructed the pictograms, applied Benner's Biblical interpretation and uncovered these nuggets. Hebrew is read right to left.

The ox head (AL) as well as the combination of the ox head (AL) and shepherd's staff (LAM) represent "El" or "God." The ox symbol can identify a chief, leader or father. When ox are yoked together to pull a wagon or plow the animal with more experience leads. Within the tribe the chief is seen as the elder yoked with others to lead or teach. The modern name for the letter AL is Aleph. The shepherd staff represents authority. Combined, AL and LAM mean "strong authority."

As seen above, the identity of the Creator is embedded in the Hebrew word bara.' The combined letters BEYT and RESH form the word "ben" when used in the possessive, meaning "son."

The Hebrew rendering of "redeem" starts with the letter GAM, which is a picture of a foot. In the mind of an ancient Israelite, words represented actions rather than abstract thoughts. Walking with another person was a sign of relationship or friendship. Scripture identifies Yeshua of Nazareth as God's agent of mercy and redemption. Our salvation is sealed by having an intimate, personal relationship with Messiah. Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden, but after the fall only those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb were eligible to walk with Him.