Have you ever experienced a moment of shocking revelation that left you trembling and breathless? I am still reeling with the possible implications of a discovery I made yesterday while continuing my study in Zechariah. A little background information will help set the stage...
It was September 11, 2001. The morning dawned bright and clear. Robin's egg skies provided the perfect backdrop for a small grove of moss covered oak trees at the northwest corner of the garden. Squirrels scampered about, harvesting the last of the wild hazelnuts. With the kids at school and Henry at the office, the house was quiet. I grabbed my Bible and settled into the overstuffed chair in the living room, enjoying the dappled sunlight. I happened to be reading through Zechariah chapter 5:
"Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said to me, 'What do you see?' I answered, 'I see a flying scroll...' Then he said to me, 'This is the 'curse' that goes out over the face of the whole land...'
The word 'curse' caught my attention. Being a language person, I decided to research the word in the original Hebrew. There are at least eight different Hebrew words which are translated as 'curse' in English. Nevertheless, I was astounded to find the Hebrew word 'alah' (pronounced allah) translated in that passage as 'curse'.
Within an hour of reading this passage I would learn of the attacks in New York City.
Within an hour of reading this passage I would learn of the attacks in New York City.
Fast forward to yesterday, January 19, 2016. Once again I was reading through Zechariah chapter five, this time sitting at my desk enjoying quite a different view...
I came to the same verse..."I see a flying scroll...This is the curse (alah) that goes out over the whole land..." The use of that particular Hebrew word could NOT have been a coincidence! I began to speculate. Could this 'curse' be the prophesied spread of radical Islam in the last days? Day after day we witness heinous and barbaric crimes committed in the name of Allah! I read several older commentaries looking for confirmation of my theory, but found none. They were written in a different generation, in an earlier, less tumultuous era. The horrific events of today were not yet in the authors' frames of reference.
I decided to do a quick search online, just in case I wasn't the only one struck by this irony. What I found nearly knocked me off my chair. I was confronted with the phrase 'In the name of Allah' in Arabic script:
This image sent shock waves through me...BECAUSE it immediately brought to mind another image which I had studied very carefully several years ago. Below is a photo of two images compared...the first "In the name of Allah" in Arabic...the second is the number 666 in the Greek!
"This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666."
(Revelation 13:18)
(Revelation 13:18)
Coincidence?
Post Script: For those who may not know, the Greeks (like the Romans) did not have numerals, but used the letters of their alphabet to represent numbers. Hence, 'the number of his name' means nothing more than initials.
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