LETTERS OF THE WORD
When I study scripture, I often take into consideration the meaning of the Hebrew letters. It enriches the meaning of the text. In this post I’ll endeavor to explain why. The shortest reason why I incorporate the Hebrew letters into my study and meditation is that I am seeking emet (truth) and binah (understanding), like […]
1000 – ALEPH TO THE ELEF
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). In Judaism, Hebrew: elef (1000) versus aleph (1) represents a very large, indefinite number rather than a precise count, such as in “a thousand generations”. Elef (1000) […]
A SURE SIGN
As a child growing up, one of my favorite bible stories we would hear in temple was about the walls of Jericho coming down. Jericho is the first significant battle that the Children of Israel face after entering the promised land of Canaan. In this blog post I’m going to revisit the story in the […]
LARGE STONES AND THE BIBLES LONG ARC
Joshua’s Altar is within the most famous of the “Footprint Structures (gilgalim) is found on Mt. Ebal. God is my rock and my redeemer” is a profound biblical declaration of faith, primarily drawn from Psalm 19:14 Large Stones and the Bible’s Long Arc A Word Study of Gilgal There are six huge, foot-shaped stone […]
SHADDAI
אֲנִי־אֵ֣ל שַׁדַּ֔י – I Am the Almighty God Genesis 17:1—And Abram was ninety-nine years old, and God appeared to Abram, and He said to him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be perfect. That verse is the first time in the Torah we see the Hebrew word שַׁדַּ֔י Shaddai. In Genesis 17, […]
THE SHEMA PARALLEL
Shema is the Hebrew word “Hear.” The Shema is a also a prayer which begins with a well know Hebrew verse: יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהֹוָ֥ה | אֶחָֽד Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One The Shema is made up of three passages: Deuteronomy 6:4-9—Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with […]
JONAH AND THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES
“Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,[a] three days’ […]
FULLY REAL AND FULLY SUPERNATURAL
On the Shroud of Turin, the bodily image is created in a different way than the blood stains. The cloth presents two distinct “layers” of data: natural blood evidence and a non-natural image, yet the two are in perfect anatomical registration. The human forensics pair to the supernatural image. The forensics testify to the man’s […]
JONAH PRAYED THE PSALMS
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish Below are verses from Sefer Jonah, chapter 2. I have spent many meditative moments in the Book of Jonah. In a sense, I have put myself in Jonah’s shoes. I have been in the fish. Below are the verses from Jonah when […]
SEDUCTION: The Power and Peril that Frames the Bible’s Story
Lamentations 3:22-23—Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Scriptures open with a seduction in a garden and close with a seduction in a global city. Between those bookends, story after story shows how seduction targets even “good” people—and […]