The Road John 3:8: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
The AlephTav (the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Word of God: JESUS) is embedded in the Hebrew word Bereshith (“in the beginning”), the first word in the Bible. The AlephTav is also embedded in the first verse of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Isaiah 44:6: “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Revelation 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 22:13: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
In 1948 the Lord re-established the nation of Israel. The fact that President Truman was the first head of state to recognize the state of Israel was the main reason, I believe, President Truman was re-elected in 1948. Arguably, Israel is the most important nation on the planet because Israel gave us the Law, the Prophets, the New Testament and the Messiah: the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the first decade of the 21st Century, the Lord raised up President George W. Bush to take out Saddam Hussein (a Satanic stronghold) in Iraq. The Lord has done—and will continue to do—a powerful work in Iraq. Iraq is the cornerstone of the Middle East.
The Iraq War was NOT about oil, but about freedom: freedom from Islamo-Fascist Slavery. In God’s economy, oil is secondary, freedom comes first. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” But in the world’s economy, oil IS important. As long as we continue to drill for oil and gas and mine coal, we are showing the Lord that we are subduing the earth (Hebrew kabbash [subdue]–Genesis 1: 28). We could call this The Oil-Gas-Coal Kabbash. But this is a different issue and I don’t want to get on some other tangent here.
Now we come to Egypt. The Lord began the Arab Spring to get rid of Hosni Mubarak and prepare the way for democratic elections and government in Egypt. Egypt—like Iraq—at one time was one of the cradles of civilization after the Lord destroyed/judged the earth in Noah’s generation. Egypt is a great cornerstone in North Africa and maybe to the rest of Africa. As Egypt goes, so goes Africa(?).
We are now in the second decade of the 21st Century. If the first decade of the 21st Century was the decade of Iraqi beginnings, then the second decade of the 21st Century will be the decade of Egyptian beginnings.
Someone may ask, Isn’t Israel the cornerstone of the Middle East? No. Israel is the cornerstone for the Lord’s plan for the whole world. Israel is not a regional player, but a world player. Israel is an integral partner in the Israeli-British-American Military-Industrial Complex that the Lord is using to vanquish Islamo-Fascist Slavery in the world. Spiritual Judaeo-Christianity is growing stronger; Islamo-Fascist Slavery will ultimately wither on the vine.
In faith, I believe that, in the future, Israel, Iraq and Egypt will be a powerful trinity or alliance against radical Islam in the Middle East and North Africa. The Alpha and the Omega [AlephTav] is embedded in Israel-Iraq-Egypt Bereshith (the Hebrew word bereshith means “in the beginning” or “beginnings”).
“With the jawbone of an ass I have slain a thousand men.”
Yesterday, I got a ride with a young couple from Israel. He was from Hebron and she was from Bethlehem. They gave me a ride for ten miles and then dropped me off in Last Chance, Idaho, the next town north of Ashton. They said that they were Orthodox Jews and that they needed to stop travelling for the day and prepare supper before Shabbat (the Sabbath). It was late Friday afternoon and the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening and lasts till Saturday evening.
He said something very interesting. He told me that a rabbi (probably in Israel) warned that Japan was going to suffer a nuclear catastrophe. The rabbi said this before the earthquake in Japan in March of this year. The day before the earthquake, the government of Japan signed some sort of deal with the Palestinians. When you oppose Israel, bad things happen to you. He who blesses Israel shall be blessed, he who curses Israel shall be cursed.
I know very little Hebrew, but I believe that that Israeli couple were speaking Hebrew with each other. When he dropped me off at the gas station in Last Chance, he asked me if I knew the Hebrew word bereshith. I was a bit surprised because I DID know what bereshith means. Bereshith means “in the beginning” or “beginnings”. What are the odds of an Orthodox Jew asking me what a Hebrew word means when it is one of the few Hebrew words that I know? A Providential ride.
He also said that he noticed while travelling in the United States that Americans for the most part are polite, but lack in hospitality. Whereas in Israel, the people are not very polite, but are very hospitable. He said that there are a higher percentage of hitchhikers in Israel than in the United States.
Genesis 32: 28: “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”
I Timothy 2: 5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
When the Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel, I always thought of it as a foreshadowing of the born-again experience. But as I look at the two preceding scriptures, we can see that Jacob/Israel foreshadows or symbolizes Jesus. All scripture points towards Jesus. Israel is Jesus. Jacob wrestled with God and became a mediator between God and men. His immediate son, Joseph, helped save the world from famine when Pharaoh raised Joseph up into a position of power. Jacob’s distant son, Jesus, saved the world from sin (if we believe in Him).
I have always revered Abraham because he is the father of faith, but there is more written on Jacob than anybody else in the Book of Genesis. The Twelve Patriarchs came from Jacob (12 means “to rule”), so in Jacob you have a more enduring foundation for Moses, the Prophets and the New Testament. It is true that the Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham, but when Jacob became Israel, I believe there was a deeper transformation–from death to life–or maybe a deeper meaning (you can’t pass from death to life without the Blood of Jesus). Jacob came from Padan-aram (a strange land, death) to Canaan (the Promised Land, life). Jacob had to change to Israel because now he had to live by faith in God and not faith in himself. Jacob means “deceiver”; Israel means “prince”. The Lord now wants a prince to rule Israel, not a deceiver.
Jacob’s words hold much power even to this day: look at Jacob’s Prophecy regarding his twelve sons in Genesis Chapter 49. Verses 1 and 2: “And Jacob called his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father.” If we abide in Christ, we hearken unto Israel. Jacob’s Prophecy over Judah was definitely Messianic, but Jacob also gave Joseph a powerful blessing that also points towards some future ruler: “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:).”(Genesis 49: 24).
Before Jacob could pass into Canaan (the Promised Land), he had to confront Esau. Before Jesus could proceed to accomplish his work on the Cross, die and rise from the dead, he had to confront Herod. Herod was half Edomite (Herod was a descendant of Esau). There was enmity between Jacob and Esau and there was enmity between Jesus and Herod. Jacob was a true son of Isaac and Abraham; Esau was a real heathen–he married two daughters of Heth. Jesus was truly Jewish–he fulfilled the Law and the Prophets; Herod was not truly Jewish because he was half Edomite. Jesus was a son of Jacob; Herod was a son of Esau. You can’t mix heaven with hell or heaven with the world: the love of the world is enmity with the Father. Jacob/Israel ultimately overcame and defeated Esau (the world) when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Esau is a term of derision; Israel is a term of endearment. During King David’s reign (1000 B.C.) there was a nation called Israel; in the year 2005 A.D. there is a nation called Israel.
Jacob came, Jacob saw, Jacob wrestled, Jacob conquered. Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever. Jacob still endures and Genesis Chapter 49 is just as alive today as it was when it was first uttered from Jacob’s mouth: “Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father.”
The Road 