A Walk in the Land
Deepens Your Walk with the Lord
Our Mission
To teach and encourage those who love the Bible, the land of the Bible and the people of the land and to lead educational tours to Israel that forever change the way you read your Bible and worship the Lord
Our Prayer
“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26
Scripture Study
Yahweh, part 1
Many of you know by now that I would love to have been Jewish. I love the Jewish people, their language, the land of Israel and even the Old Testament.
My own name is Jewish—Daniel. I call Zach, my oldest son, Zecharyah, which is the Hebrew name for Zachary. I call my middle son, Jake, Ya’akov, which is the Hebrew name for Jacob. The origin of the name Luke, my youngest, is Greek, not Hebrew, so I don’t have a Hebrew nickname for him, and since there isn’t any Hebrew equivalent for Stacy, my wife, and since Stacy is a diminutive form of Anastasia, which means “resurrection,” I might have to start calling her Chava, which means “life” in Hebrew. That would be fun!
On occasion you may have heard the Jews exclaim, Lechayim, which means, “To life.” You might even recognize this ditty from the 1971 film, Fiddler on the Roof, one of my favorites:
“To life, to life, lechayim,
Lechayim, lechayim, to life.”
It’s a great movie, but in any event, Chava means, to put it simply, “life.” Stacy is my Chava. Stacy is my life. But there is another who bears a form of this name that is far more important to me than even my own wife.
His name is Yahweh! Yahweh is a cousin of the Hebrew word “Chava,” and thus it is related to the English word “life.”
The name Yahweh appears almost seven thousand times in the Old Testament. Anywhere in the Old Testament where you see the word LORD or GOD printed in all caps, that’s the word Yahweh in Hebrew. It is by this name that God first revealed himself to the people of Israel, but we can call him by that name too.
Sometimes the name Yahweh is called either “the unutterable name” or “the unspoken name.” Conservative Jews will not pronounce the name “Yahweh.” Their reason is quite simple.
In Exodus 20:7 the third of the ten commandments reads, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” The name LORD here is written in all caps, so we know that it’s the name Yahweh.
The ancient scribes who copied the Old Testament were so concerned that this commandment might be broken that they came up with a unique idea to keep people from even saying the name. After all, if you don’t ever attempt to say it, then you can never take it in vain, right? What was their solution—they “misspelled” the name in their copies of the Bible. Well, to be more precise. They took the vowels of another name for God (Elohim) and placed them with the consonants of the name Yahweh, so that when you’re reading your Bible, you’d say Elohim and not Yahweh.
But then something happened that no one could have predicted. Generations of Jews were so careful not to pronounce the name Yahweh whenever they saw it written in the Bible that no one knows for sure anymore whether we are actually pronouncing it correctly or not. Yahweh is probably the right pronunciation, but we aren’t absolutely certain.
I don’t personally have any problem saying the name Yahweh. I have no fear of breaking the third commandment as Jews do. I rather think that Yahweh likes me to speak his name, and so I do.
But what does Yahweh mean?
As I said earlier Yahweh is related to the word chava or life, and so Yahweh literally means “the Existing One” or “the Self-Existing One.”
Daniel McCabe
Life in the Land
The Jerusalem March
Everybody loves a parade! Each year Jews worldwide celebrate Sukkot, meaning “Booths” or “Tabernacles,” a holiday that remembers the forty years that the Israelites lived in tents in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land under Joshua. They take their meals in the booths and many even sleep there, but in Jerusalem they also take time to celebrate Sukkot with a parade.
This year the seven-year holiday runs from September 25 – October 2, but the parade took place on September 28th. The marchers include Israeli groups and organizations, of course, but also hundreds of evangelical Christians from approximately seventy countries who flock to Israel for the annual “International Christian Embassy Jerusalem” gathering in order to show their friendship and support for Israel.
Like any parade there are costumes, candy, marching bands, dancers and floats, but what makes this parade so unique on the streets of Jerusalem is that you will hear many of the parade participants singing worship songs to Jesus as they march. Very few locals who show up to enjoy the parade share their faith in Jesus, but most are nonetheless touched by such an international display of love for them.
Here are some parade pictures, and if you’re ever in Israel during this time of year, don’t miss the Sukkot parade. Until next year, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Daniel McCabe
On Location
My Favorite Places to Visit in the Old City of Jerusalem
I was recently asked to share my five must-see places to visit in the Old City—Moriah’s Books and Judaica, the Holy Café, the Christ Church Coffeeshop, the Tower of David Museum and the Ramparts Walk. Now, three quick bonus sites to mention.
First, one of my favorite shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City is Ali Baba’s Souvenir Shop at 14 Christian Quarter Road (near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher) where the proprietor, Shaban Amer, sometimes serves you free baklava and lemonade while you shop.
Second, after exiting the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, cross the plaza that extends west high above Highway 60 to visit the open-air Mamilla Mall where among its modern shops you will find an Aroma coffee shop. In addition to the coffee shop at Christ’s Church, I like Aroma, a chain of shops best described as Israel’s version of Starbucks. Aroma is charming to me and I like to drink my coffee while strolling through the modern mall.
Third, I also love the town of Joppa south of Tel Aviv on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea if you’ll allow me to leave the Old City. I love Joppa partly because of the town’s artsy vibe, but it’s also the location of the ancient biblical port from which Jonah sailed for Tarshish. Today, however, it’s dotted by numerous modern cafes and restaurants.
Adam Keim