From the Desk of Jeff King

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)