Hebrew: The Live Love Language

Over the weekend I had some quality alone time with Yahweh (God) during which He showed me some very exciting things about Hebrew, His favorite language. I worked on a book about the Hebrew letters with my pastor last year, so I already knew a good deal about Hebrew, but this time He gave me a bigger-picture view -- at least of the first 10 letters. It was so wonderful to me that I was weeping as He was showing it to me, and afterward I felt all warm and tingly and completely at peace. It was awesome.

So hopefully I'll do the revelation justice here. Everyone's heard of romance languages, right? Spanish, French, Italian... well as great as these languages are, they don't hold a candle to Hebrew, which is the only official love language, and the only living language. Don't get all caught up in thinking that I'm saying one culture or group of people is superior to others -- believe me, I'm not. God loves everyone in every culture and can speak to them in their own languages no problem. But His native language is actually Hebrew. He used it to create the entire universe, and it's His very DNA. How can I say such a thing, you ask? Stay with me...

Like I said, Hebrew is the only language that's alive, and the Hebrew alphabet is a love story from beginning to end -- alef to tov. The best part about this love story is that whoever you are, in whatever time period you live, in whatever culture you live, it is always a love story between you and your creator, Yahweh. It is timeless and therefore always current, and it is always personal. It's you and Yahweh, eyeball to eyeball.

The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is alef. It looks like this: א
Hebrew letters also have numerical values, and the value of alef is 1. It also has a value of 26, however, because it's made up of three other letters -- the diagonal line is a vav, and the shorter curved lines above and below it are two yuds. It's a bit complicated to get into on a blog, but this letter is actually a picture of Yahweh and man eternally intertwined. This letter represents Yahweh Himself, but right in the center of Him is the vav, which represents man (or woman). We were always in Him, from the very beginning, and we can not be separated from Him. He surrounds us at all times, in visible and invisible ways, and He asks that we trust Him. The man is off balance in this picture, but supported by Yahweh -- which shows that He'll sweep you off your feet and love you like you've never been loved before if you're willing.

The second letter is the bet: ב
It has a value of two. Because of who Yahweh is -- love -- two eventually had to come from Him, the One. He always had in Him the desire to love man, and so man was always destined to exist as long as Yahweh existed and exists. The two here represents agreement and partnership, but also duality, dichotomy, disagreement. Love is not really love unless free will is involved. You can't love a robot or a clone. Although the potential for pain now exists, so does the potential for great creativity. The heavens and earth were founded on this letter and this principle.

Next is the gimel: ג, which is equal to the number 3.
The gimel is the fruit of the previous two coming together. Their creativity has birthed a new being, which is the upright or rich man. This man is mature and always giving. He/she performs acts of kindness continually, ensuring that all hindrances to others' growth and development are removed.

Soon the gimel makes the choice to humble himself even to his own detriment, and becomes the dalet, or poor man: ד
He is a willing servant now -- although he is still that upright man, he has chosen to serve rather than be served.

As this man is bent over, bowing to carry another's burden, Yahweh breathes His Spirit, His nature into his nostrils, represented by the fifth letter, the heh: ה
He fills him up so much (with His love, His capacity, His nature), that he once again becomes upright as the vav: ו
which has a value of 6 and represents man, because man (males and females) was created on the sixth day.

Now we have the answer to the question, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" This glorious creature, that always existed at the core of Yahweh's being, that was made in His image and likeness and given so much care and attention before he even drew his first breath! This is you! This is why Yahweh loves you so much. He knows your true identity, although you are completely ignorant of it... until now, that is. Too late, you've already heard it, and now you are accountable for it. :-)

So now man is perfected, complete, and he receives his crown, as we see in the zayin: ז
Zayin has a value of 7, which is a number of wholeness and completion. This is our goal and our daily decision -- to walk as this crowned man who is led by the Spirit and not as the fallen man we were born into. Now that we are crowned we are ready to enter into the eternal covenant of marriage with our maker, which brings us to the chet: ח

Chet has a value of 8 and represents a chupa, or wedding canopy. You are the bride (guys too) and Yahshua (the visible Yahweh) is the groom. 8 is the number of new beginnings; you enter into a new life together and again are ready to bear fruit.

The tet ט, which has a value of 9, represents a pregnant woman and, more specifically, the 9 months of pregnancy. This tells us that even though we've entered into the marriage covenant, we still need patience -- we may think we're ready for everything, but He may have other plans; Yahweh's timing is perfect and we must trust Him to always have us in the right place at the right time.

Then comes another stage of completion. The yud represents the number 10: י
It is said to be the hand or finger of Yahweh and thus is called the point of creation. It's the moment at which pen meets paper and a new chapter begins. You are now a co-creator with Yahweh, and from here on out everything you touch will be magnified (the values of the letters begin to count by tens from the yud, and then after the next 10 they count by 100s). Your power and influence is multiplied, so now you need to stick closer to Him than ever.

And He gave me all of this on just a short drive to Trader Joe's on Saturday. Isn't He amazing?! I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the love story... the last 12 letters. Hopefully I won't have to wait 'til we run out of groceries. :-)