I grew up celebrating Christmas and singing all the the familiar Christmas carols. It has been many, many years since those days, however, while shopping recently I heard two and the familiar words made me stop and pause. Selah
The Ten Commandments and the Hebrew Alef-Bet
In Hebrew, each letter has a word picture based on its shape. After learning the word pictures through the book Hebrew Word Pictures by Frank T. Seekins, I replaced the ‘roman numerals’ of the 10 Commandments with the numerical word pictures. In this way, I saw the commands in a new and unique way. This is how I taught my children the 10 Commandments after teaching them the Hebrew alphabet. Remembering a concept with a letter was easier than remembering the order and phrases of the commands.
Jerusalem and Modern-Day King Cyrus
King Cyrus of Persia was used by God to deliver the Jewish people from their Babylonian captivity. They returned to Yerushalayim and rebuilt their city and the second Temple. With the help of a modern-day King Cyrus, Yerushalayim is acknowledged to be, by the largest nation in the world, the eternal capital of Isra’el. This modern-day King Cyrus has also called for the rebuilding of the Temple. When that happens, the greatest exodus of Jewish people from the nations will follow (Jeremiah 16:14) along with a great apostasy and a false messiah in sitting in the Temple (2 Thessalonians 2).
Bubbe’s Hanukkah Poem
In the Jerusalem Temple the killing of pigs
Left an ugly mess that was very, very big
The Levite priests went to work that day
To clean the whole place until they could say
The Holy Temple was ready to worship Yahweh.