Linda Torres, August 16, 2002

What language does God speak? I don’t think it would be presumptuous to consider that the God who created the universe speaks all languages, even the one that angels speak. But in what language does He prefer to speak? I think the account of Paul’s first meeting with Yahshua on the road to Damascus gives us a clue. Remember when Yahshua spoke to Paul? The scripture explicitly mentions that it was in Hebrew. Paul was a member of the cosmopolitan world at the time and proudly attested to his right to Roman citizenship. As is the nature of Jews even today to blend in with their residential society, it would be expected that in every day affairs Paul probably spoke the prevailing tongue.

Today, Hebrew is the official language of the state of Israel. Resurrected from a liturgical tongue to a live conversational status not punctuated with a preponderance of foreign contributions, Hebrew was born just a few historical hours before the Jewish state itself. And in spite of the prevailing popularity and the globalizing power of English, Hebrew is vigorously embraced by the Israeli Jews. Every immigrant is encouraged to attend an "ulpan" or language course to facilitate their linguistic transfer to Hebrew.

We have just returned from a ten day business trip to Israel. It is the twelfth trip in the last three years for us. Before our first trip, we had just read of the dramatic arrival of the Ethiopian Jews. They were distinctly visible even though we had no opportunity to hear them speak. We quickly noticed that the hotel housekeeping staff was mostly comprised of fair or red headed Russians shy to speak English or Russian but ready to query and answer in Hebrew.

During subsequent trips we noticed the dark features and heard the stories of the immigrants from surrounding Middle Eastern countries. Some of our hotel employees spoke Spanish as they had arrived from South America or had ancestors from Spain, and now Spanish is even more prevalent in the light recent financial events in South America. My husband’s business associates have a collection of Eastern European backgrounds and can speak Polish, German, Rumanian, and so on.

On the pool deck and in the hotel business lounge, it is curious to hear British Jews speaking the King’s English, oops I mean the Queen’s English. And of course, the Americans are always greeted in English. At breakfast one can hear a cacophony of all the languages of the world--even the Far East. During this trip the prevalent foreign language and rude behavior was in French. And probably not much to anyone’s surprise because of the recent events in Europe!

They come to do business with Israel. They seek refuge in Israel. They come home to Israel.

There is a picture being painted in these events. As innocent and uncontrived as it seems, there is an undercurrent in these happenings. There is the staccato of a warning being played out. As God scrambled the efforts of men to usurp power over His garden in ancient days by confusing the language of men, He is even now allowing the usurpation to come to its denouement. But the results will defy the usurper in his intended agenda. Nimrod to his own destruction will be allowed to finish the tower he started while God will continue to champion those He has chosen to fulfill His eternal program for the salvation of man.

As God is calling His sons out of the four corners of the earth He is collecting them and their global experiences into one place, the place of His choice. To realize their eventual position as the leading nation on earth, servants to the all-powerful Meshiach and administrators of and examples to the world they co-govern, they will need to speak the languages of those they serve. Ever the remnant, the sons of Yaacov continue to be the vessel of God’s grace for mankind. And as God has a purpose for causing them to bring their Diaspora cultures with them, He is uniting the fragments of different societies with the predominating thread of the language of Hebrew.

Finally, even in the light of His ultimate plan, there is also the miniature counter current to the aggrandizing efforts of the global society bunch: God will not only have spoken the first word but He will also have the last say, no, the last word. And it will

You can e-mail Linda Torres at linda@truthnews.net