God’s Gift of Seir to Esau
God’s Gift of Seir to Esau – And the Prophecies Against Edom When Joshua gathered Israel at Shechem near the end of his life, he did more than rehearse Israel’s story; he also recalled how God dealt with Israel’s relatives and their lands. In Joshua 24, God reminds Israel that Esau, too, received a […]
JOSHUA CHOSE A RETIREMENT COMMUNITY
Joshua 19:50—By command of the Lord they gave him the city that he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rebuilt the city and settled in it. As people get to our so called “golden years,” many think about where to go to spend them. Imagine you have lived a long and […]
DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?
The Road to Emmaus, Rabbi Akiva, and How Yeshua Speaks into Two Destructions Most Christians know the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24: two discouraged disciples, walking away from Jerusalem after the crucifixion, are met by the risen Yeshua, who opens the Scriptures to them and turns their despair into burning hope. What many don’t […]
FROM DOR TO DOOR
From Generation to Generation and the Door of Light There are moments when a familiar Hebrew phrase suddenly comes to a new light. The same inner structure I traced out in the letters of individual words in my recent blog post, “Letters of the Word,” I have applied to an age old biblical phrase. A question from […]
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 […]