From the Desk of Jeff King

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.