I want to thank you for taking the time to open this letter and read along. Michelle and I understand how important your time is and we’re very thankful for your using some of yours to bless us and share in our lives. Don't forget to look at the article I am including at the end of this email!
There have been a lot of activity and change in our lives over the last six months. After nearly three years of looking for work, I finally found a job that I love. I get to help people with physical and mental disabilities find work and/or start their own micro-businesses. Several of the people I work with have been living normally for most of the lives, but because of life, accident, or illness have ended up relying on the state, or the federal government for their existence. For many, there are levels of shame, victimization, and other negatives and stereotypes to overcome in their own minds and the minds of others. Considering what Michelle and I have been through over the last twelve years, I can perfectly understand where these people are in their spiritual walks and physical realities. God has prepared me to be in their lives.
In other news, God still has an open door for me to host a local radio program here in Minneapolis. The program manager is still considering our proposal. Minneapolis is the 16th largest media market in the country, which is significant. We've have been dedicating a lot of prayer to this opportunity and would be grateful if you would join us for God to open doors as only He can.
Finally, on 12/19 Wednesday, my wife, Michelle, will have surgery. We’d appreciate your continued prayer for her recovery.
Blessings in Yeshua (Jesus)!
-TOV
Excerpt from The New Messianic Version of the Bible
ET
The First and the Last[1]
By TOV Rose
Although this edition will not incorporate notations for the ET in the Bible, I do feel is critical to comment on it.
The Hebrew language is read from right to left. The most common word in the Hebrew Bible is the t' (et). The first letter אis called an Aleph, which also begins the Hebrew Alpha-Bet. The second letter in the word t' (et) is ת (Tav),which is the last letter of the Hebrew Alpha-Bet. These two letters are the “first and the last,” the “beginning and the end” and the “Alephand the Tav” which is translated into Greek as the Alpha and the Omega — the first and last letters of the Greek AlphaBet. Jesus uses this as a term for himself several times in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 1:8 ~ ”I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
t' is used over 7,000 times in the Hebrew scriptures and beginning with the very first verse of the Bible. This brings us back to why the ancient Rabbis translated the Aramaic Targumim in such a manner as they did.
`#r,a'(h' taeîw> ~yIm:ßV'h; taeî ~yhi_l{a/ ar'äB' tyviÞareB. Genesis 1:1
B’rasheet bara Elōhim et HaShamayim v’et HaEretz
“In the beginning God created taeî the heaven and taeî the earth.”
An ancient reading of this text, blended with the knowledge that Jesus revealed himself as the two letters of this very word, which previously had no definition; would render the translation as:
“Everything that exists was created in the beginnings by though and for (Elōhim) [The Living Word], the tae[First & the Last] created the Heaven and the tae [First & the Last] created the Earth.”
Does this sound familiar? John 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness compre-hended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:1-14)
Our Messiah Jesus is the tae Aleph and Tav in Hebrew[2], the Alpha and Omega in Greek and A to Z in English. Although much more could be said on this subject, I will point only to one more observation concerning the t' (et). It appears quite often that t' (et) seems to act as a sort of bookend around important words or phrases in Scripture, acting as more than just a notation pointing to the direct object of a sentence. It is as if the word has an implied meaning such as, “Author and Finisher accomplished what was described.”
Exodus 14:30 Thus the LORD saved ta,-Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw theta,-Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.
dY:åmi laeÞr'f.yI-ta, aWh±h; ~AYðB; hw”÷hy> [v;AY”w:
`~Y”)h; tp;îf.-l[; tmeÞ ~yIr;êc.mi-ta, ‘laer'f.yI ar.Y:Üw: ~yIr”+c.mi
In other words, the Book of Revelation is aptly named for both New Testament believers and his Old Testament covenant Jewish people. The Bible from start to finish is the Revelation to the world of the One whose name means, Behold My Hands Are Pierced, The God of Israel[3].
The Rabbis have a very interesting saying that seems to apply here: Shiv’im Panim la’Torah: “The Torah has 70 faces[4].”
Want to read more? Follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/Tov-Rose/e/B004WLJN1K
[1] Isaiah 44:6; 48:12
[2] Talmud: Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 17, 4: Adam transgressed the entirety of God from aleph to tav; i.e., from the beginning to the end. Abraham observed the entirety of God, from aleph to tav; i.e., he kept it entirely, from beginning to end. When the holy blessed God pronounced a blessing on the Israelites, he did it from aleph to tav; i.e., he did it perfectly.
[3] See 1 Peter 1:19-20 and Rev. 13:8
[4] Talmud: Bamidbar Rabbah 13:15
