Shalom Y'all Ministries

05/31/2026

Life in the Land
Rocks, Not Flowers—historically the Jews have erected stone memorials at the site of key events. Jacob erected two stone pillars at Bethel after encountering the Lord (Genesis 28:18; 35:14). Joshua memorialized the crossing of the Jordan River with twelve stones (Joshua 4:8), and Samuel set up a stone between Mizpah and Shen in gratitude for the Lord’s help (1 Samuel 7:12). This ancient practice may then serve as the foundation for the modern Jewish practice of placing stones on gravestones.
Unlike flowers that wither away, stones provide a permanent sign that someone has visited the site in order to express his or her respect for the deceased. Stones provide an enduring symbol that the memory of the deceased has not been forgotten. Some Jews also leave lighted candles at the graveside to mark respect for their loved one and to symbolize hope in the ascension of the soul. In some cases you may even find a copy of Psalms that has been left inside a sliding compartment at the graveside which anyone visiting the site can use to recite prayers.
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe

05/28/2026

On Location
The Montefiore Windmill—I want to tell you about something you may have seen if you’ve been to Jerusalem, but have probably wondered what it is. You may have noticed an old windmill that is the pride of the locals. It lies just southwest of the Old City, perched atop the western slope of the Hinnom Valley.
I am talking about the Montefiore Windmill. It has been around from the sunset of the Ottoman Empire to the birth of modern Israel. Built in 1857 by the British philanthropist Moses Montefiore, it was originally meant to help Jewish residents become self-sufficient by grinding their own flour. But by the late 1940s, this symbol of industry was about to become a casualty of war.
At the outbreak of the 1947–1948 Civil War, the windmill’s location became strategically important. Standing on a slope overlooking the Old City’s walls, it offered a perfect bird’s-eye view of the landscape. The Jewish Haganah fighters realized this immediately and transformed the top of the tower into an observation post to monitor the blockade of Jerusalem. Naturally, the British Mandate authorities weren’t thrilled about a fortified sniper and scouting nest in the middle of a conflict zone. So in 1948 the British high command finally had enough and ordered the windmill to be leveled. In a bit of military wit, they dubbed the mission, “Operation Don Quixote,” a nod to the fictional knight who famously tilted at windmills.
But here is where the story turns into something straight out of a movie. The demolition crew sent to blow up the tower just happened to be from Ramsgate, England, and as they prepped the explosives, they noticed a plaque on the wall that recorded Montefiore’s name as well as his home in Ramsgate. Suddenly, this wasn’t just a military target; it was a piece of their own hometown history.
According to local legend, one of the soldiers, whose family had worked on Montefiore’s English estate, reminded his comrades of the family’s legendary kindness back in Britain. Moved by the connection, the unit decided to “reinterpret” their orders. Instead of leveling the entire 50-foot stone structure, they carefully rigged the explosives to destroy only the observation post at the very top.
Because of those sentimental soldiers, the tower survived the war. Today, standing tall as a museum, it’s been fully restored with its Kentish-style cap and sails by a Dutch organization called “Christians for Israel.” What a reminder that even in the middle of a civil war, sometimes a small connection to home is enough to save a landmark from the brink of destruction!
Shalom y’all!
Adam Keim

05/26/2026

Photography from Israel
Here’s a stunning, 22-minute video of sights all over the land that uses time-lapse photography to perfection. There’s no commentary, only quiet, almost dolorous, background music. But what a beautiful land!
Daniel McCabe

Beautiful scenic Israel 4K UHD video footage demo with Israeli travel sites of Jerusalem City, Holy Land & Masjid Aqsa with relaxing music. See the highlight...

05/24/2026

Scripture Study
Giants in the Bible, part 5, “What Happened to Them?”—My brother was the giant in our family at 5’10” tall. Me? I’m 5’7” on a good day, so I’m certainly no expert on height. But I do know a little about the Bible, and I once spent four years under Dr. Hartman, Dr. Graff and Dr. Johnson learning physics, electromagnetics and chemistry, respectively, enough to turn my tassel at least, so let me wade into the shallow end of the “What happened to the giants?” debate for a moment. It’s a sister topic to the “What happened to the dinosaurs?” question, for as you’ve probably noticed, there aren’t many giants or dinosaurs roaming the roads near where you live.
Even so, I do believe that giants did once walk this earth. In previous posts I’ve shared specific passages from the Bible that describe them, but since the Bible doesn’t take any time to explain what happened to them, we’ll need to speculate a bit.
Here’s where I’m thankful for my engineering training though one degree received decades ago doesn’t make me an expert on the science that swirls around this question. Even so, here’s what I know.
Right now, unless you’re reading this from inside an absolute vacuum, you are being pummeled by diatomic nitrogen and diatomic oxygen (you can throw in a dash of argon and a pinch of carbon dioxide too). You can’t feel these molecules striking you, nonetheless you’re surrounded by a bazillion air molecules composed of roughly 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. It would be fair to say that these percentages have remained largely unchanged for millennia, but past or future factors could certainly alter these percentages, and even evolutionary scientists acknowledge that ancient oxygen-rich ecosystems were once a thing. It’s just that they don’t think they were ever a major thing. But what if they are wrong? After all, they don’t exactly have a perfect track record within science, and their evolutionary assumptions do often prevent them from even entertaining theories like the one I’m about to throw at you.
So what if oxygen levels were once much higher than they are at present? What if some global catastrophe caused a tremendous disruption of the earth’s biosphere, a major change in oceanic chemistry, or a massive decay of organic matter, which together contributed to a major drop in the partial pressure of oxygen. Of course, the Bible describes just such an event in Genesis 7-9 that could explain these or similar global changes. If oxygen levels once measured significantly higher than they do now, then that could certainly account for larger beings and longer lives than what we experience today. In fact, scientists have discovered ancient fossils that are several times larger than their modern counterparts. What if background radiation was also much lower in a pre-flood atmosphere, thus reducing the number of somatic and hereditary mutations, which would allow for more robust organic growth?
I don’t personally think it unreasonable to suggest that a global flood caused a dramatic transformation of our climate and that giants and dinosaurs could have been affected by reduced oxygen levels that impacted their subsequent size, their longevity and their quality of life.
Do I know this to be true from the science? Of course not. No one can know with absolute certainty. But is it reasonable? I say, “Yes.”
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe

05/21/2026

Scripture Study
Christology: the Return of Jesus, part 8—there’s one final subtopic to mention before we wrap up the topic of Christology. Every believer should be excited, joy-filled and thrilled as we look forward to Jesus’ Second Coming. According to Acts 1:11, Jesus will return to earth one day.
Do you remember the disciples looking up at His ascension, wondering when the Kingdom would start and hearing the angels’ promise that He was going to come back the same way that He went up? In the meantime the disciples had much work to do. They were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
Jesus will return to earth from heaven in order to save those who believe in Him, yet also to pour out the wrath of God on all the nations of the world. I’m referring here to the seven-year period of Tribulation before which Jesus returns to earth in the air to rescue His church, described in 1 Thessalonians 4. The twofold purpose of the Tribulation is to refine Israel and to pour out wrath on the unbelieving world. At the close of the seven years He will inaugurate His physical Kingdom on earth and reign as its king. The timing of Jesus’ return is unknowable. Even Jesus said that the Son of Man doesn't know. Only the Father knows. If anybody tells you that they know the date or time of Jesus’ return, well, they don't know! Predicting Jesus’ return has been attempted many times by people who have made a lot of money or have gained a lot of clout by claiming to know when Jesus will return. But it is unknowable.
On a funny note, some people think that Jesus can't possibly come at a time that someone has previously predicted. But that's not Jesus’ point. Someone could certainly get lucky and guess correctly when Jesus will come to rapture His church. The point isn't that Jesus is not able to come at a time when somebody is thinking. The point is that nobody knows for sure, for it has been predetermined by God alone.
The Father knows in His plan when it will happen, and it will be sudden, in the twinkling of an eye. The rapture is both immediate and imminent. It's immediate in that nothing needs to happen between now and the rapture on God’s eschatological timeline. The rapture of the church is the very next event to happen. Of course, we don’t know if it will happen tomorrow or one thousand years from now, but it's immediate in that nothing needs to happen in between now and that point, and it's imminent in that it could happen at any time.
Shalom y’all!
Adam Keim

05/19/2026

On Location
A Stunning Mural—located today inside the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, this French creation, one of a set of eight murals on display throughout Jerusalem, depicts the main Roman road of the city in the second century A.D. It has some very unique features. Notice, for example, the man in the blue and white tunic in the foreground on the left, partially blocked by the pillar. The face is that of Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem from 1965-1993. Also notice the anachronistic insertion of the boy wearing a red baseball cap and carrying a green backpack who is accepting a pomegranate from a young Roman girl. Did you spot the water bottle protruding from his backpack? Now look up in the sky. It’s filled with hoopoes, the unofficial national bird of Israel. What other little surprises can you notice? What a lovely portrayal of ancient life in Jerusalem!
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe

05/17/2026

Scripture Study
Giants in the Bible, part 4, “Archaeological Evidence for Giants”—King Og of Bashan, described by the Bible as the last surviving descendent of a race of giants known as the Rephaim, slept on a bed measuring thirteen feet in length. For secular scholars who don’t accept the historicity of giants, I might just as well have written that King Og is actually the real name of Paul Bunyan who owned a blue ox named Babe. Until verified skeletal remains of giant-sized men are unearthed, the secular scholars simply will not believe, and to some degree I can respect their professional caution. However, the number of surviving skeletal remains from the time of King Og or earlier is so incredibly small (not to mention that the skeletal remains of giants would amount to an even smaller fraction) that their insistence on finding the skeletal remains of a giant seems unnecessarily resolute given that the Bible is not the only surviving document or tradition that argues for the existence of giants and given that the existence of giants would not ipso facto undercut any of their sacrosanct scientific theories.
In any event is there any evidence at all outside of the Bible that might sway them or you to consider the historicity of giants? Let’s take a look. First, very large metal spearheads have been uncovered at Megiddo and Kfar Monash in Israel, the longest measuring more than two feet in length and weighing approximately five pounds, too heavy and wieldy for an average-sized man. In the Bible the iron spearhead of Goliath the Philistine weighed six hundred shekels, closer to fifteen pounds by comparison, but secular scientists simply downplay these gigantic spearheads, suggesting, for example, that the spearheads at Monash were merely decorative despite acknowledging that the spearheads show signs of usage.
Second, thousands of large stone burial chambers made with massive stones have been discovered in Bashan. These chambers would be fitting for giant-size men, and their location in Bashan is also rather intriguing given that King Og ruled from there.
Third, likewise located in the biblical region of Bashan, called today the Golan Heights, archaeologists have located several concentric stone circles, 40,000 tons of stone altogether, which once enclosed a central burial mound. The site has retained the unique name, Rujm el-Hiri, sometimes called Gilgal Rephaim or the “Wheel of the Giants.” Given that the Bible likewise refers to one group of giants as the Rephaim, is it possible that this site preserves the memory of that ancient people? What do you think?
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe

05/14/2026

Scripture Study
Christology: the Offices of Jesus—Jesus fulfilled some very important, well-known offices or roles throughout biblical time. For example, Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, the Anointed One, who did the special work of securing our salvation. He's the great Son of God and Prophet of God, the source of all prophecy in some way. We see this in John 1:1 and Hebrews 1:1-2. He knows and reveals God to mankind and was anointed with the Holy Spirit to prophesy. He fulfilled the role of Messiah, having revealed God the Father to all of us. He also fulfills the role of priest, the great High Priest, offering sacrifice to God and representing all those who believe in Him. He even prays and intercedes for believers continually. We see this in Romans 8:34 and 1 Timothy 2:5. What a wonderful comfort that Jesus intercedes for us and blesses us! So, He's Messiah. He's a prophet, and He's a priest.
Some priests in the Old Testament were prophets. Nobody was a prophet, priest, and king. Some kings were prophets. No kings were priests. Jesus alone was prophet, priest and king. It's amazing! He's the King of the Jews, according to Matthew 2, Acts 17 and a billion other Bible verses to which we can refer. He offered His Kingdom to Israel when He came in His humiliated state as the Messiah. It was a genuine offer of the Kingdom. Of course, now we understand that in God's plan it was not going to be accepted, but it wasn't a pretend or fake offer either. It was a genuine offer, but it was rejected. Being the King of Israel, He's also King over the entire world. We know that Israel will one day receive their promised glorious Kingdom, but as God, He is also King over the entire world. He sits on the throne of God right now, reigning over the entire universe, but one day He will return to sit on the throne of David, inaugurating His earthly Kingdom in Jerusalem.
There's something fascinating to me about this! Let me briefly walk you through it. In Jeremiah 22:28-30, there's a prophecy against King Jeconiah, given not long before Babylon comes to take the Kingdom of Judah from him. Jeconiah was not a good king, nevertheless, he is in the line of good King David—in fact, Jeconiah is the last in the line of David before the Babylonian captivity—and one would naturally expect any future kings to descend directly from that line through Jeconiah. But Jeremiah 22 tells us that God cursed Jeconiah, stating unequivocally that none of his descendants would ever sit on the throne. This is rather interesting, for who is prophesied to come from that line? Jesus, of course, who will come one day to inaugurate His Kingdom on earth, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem, yet Jeconiah and his descendants were cursed, so how can this be?
Well, have you ever wondered why there are two different genealogies of Jesus, one in Matthew 1 and one in Luke 3? The first traces Jesus through Solomon, the son of David, and the second traces Jesus through Nathan, another son of David. That's interesting! The genealogy in Matthew 1 traces Jesus through Joseph, Mary's husband, and Luke 3 traces Jesus' lineage through Mary, His physical mother. Both Joseph and Mary descended from David. Both were from the tribe of Judah, but even this was necessary in God's plan. I’ve written before that it was necessary for Jesus to be both God and man, but His dual lineage was also necessary for His kingship. Let me explain.
Jesus received His legal kingship through Joseph from Solomon, David's son, who was the continuation of the Davidic Covenant, which promised that David would always have a son on the throne, even ultimately into the Kingdom forever and ever. David's son, Jesus, will sit on that throne. So Jesus received His legal right of kingship through the Solomonic line that ran through His dad, Joseph, His legal earthly father. Jesus also received His physical, genetic descendancy from David through Mary, which avoids the curse of Jeconiah altogether and gives Jesus the ability to rule and reign sufficiently, for Jesus did not descend physically from Jeconiah. He descended physically from David through Mary. But He did descend through Jeconiah in the legal line of kingship through Joseph.
It stands to reason then that Jesus would have found an occasion during His earthly ministry to present this fact, particularly during His interactions with those who questioned Him. The Gospels can only record so much of what Jesus said, but it certainly seems reasonable to think that when His opponents would sling mud at Him that Jesus found just the right moment to say, “I am the rightful King. I have the legal right to rule and reign as King through Jeconiah, and since I didn’t descend physically from him, I have avoided the curse. Yet I'm still physically descended from David through my mother Mary.”
God sees to every detail when making all of His plans, which emphasizes how thorough and just He is. He works everything together so wonderfully!
Shalom y’all!
Adam Keim

05/12/2026

Life in the Land
Home Front Command App—my good friend Dani lives with his family in Tzur Hadassa just west of Bethlehem, and thankfully no Iranian or Hezbollah rockets have landed near his home, but that didn’t stop the alarms from coming. I know that for a fact because at the start of the war I downloaded an app to my phone, created by Israel’s Home Front Command, which notifies Israeli citizens of any incoming threats, and I set my “Area of Interest” to Dani’s hometown. The alerts started immediately and came by the dozens. I have the luxury of turning off the jarring audio alarms so that I won’t be awakened from sleep, but Dani doesn’t safely have that option.
My first alarm message read, “In the next few minutes, alerts are expected in your area. You need to find a better location that will provide the best protection in your area, Tzur Hadassa. If an alert is received, enter the protected space and stay there until further notice.” The Home Front Command can’t possibly know initially if the incoming rocket will be intercepted or exactly where it will land, so they routinely err on the side of caution, sending out the alert to wide areas. However, here’s one that I received which made my heart jump a bit more, “Rocket and missile fire, Tzur Hadassa. Time of arrival to the protected room – one and a half minutes. Enter the Protected Space.”
Every home constructed in Israel since 1992 is required to have a “Protected Space,” called a mamad, which offers some protection from the danger, of course, but which can’t safely survive a direct hit as we sadly learned on the first day of March when an Iranian ballistic missile struck a public shelter in Beth Shemesh, approximately six miles from Dani’s home, killing at least two people inside. Seven others, who didn’t make it to their shelter were killed from the blast.
Even after an incoming threat has been neutralized by Israel’s Iron Dome, residents are required to stay inside their protected spaces for at least another ten minutes over concerns of falling debris. Finally, when the immediate danger has passed, they will receive a message like this one, “The event has ended, Tzur Hadassa. You can leave the protected space. It is required to adhere to the Home Front Command guidelines.”
Can you imagine living under such a threat. What if you had small children? What if you were taking care of a sick or elderly family member with limited mobility and you had just 90 seconds to get from your older home (with no mamad) to the public shelter a block away? For the Israelis it has become a normal part of life, but never an easy one!
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe

05/10/2026

Scripture Study
Giants in the Bible, part 3, “More Biblical Evidence for Giants”—most everyone knows the name Goliath who faced off against David and lost his head. According to 1 Samuel 17:4 the arrogant Philistine from Gath stood “six cubits and a span” before receiving his mortal blow from David’s slingstone. Translated from cubits into feet and using the conventional measurement of eighteen inches for a cubit, Goliath towered 9 feet, 9 inches tall.
Then there’s King Og of Bashan in Deuteronomy 3:11 who is presented as the last surviving descendant of the Rephaim, a race of giants as suggested by the purposeful mention of the length of Og’s iron bed frame, thirteen feet long. Other giants mentioned in the Bible include a slain Egyptian over seven feet tall (1 Chronicles 11:23) and a second man from Gath “of great stature … born to the giant,” described as having twelve fingers and twelve toes (2 Sam. 21:20; 1 Chron. 20:6).
Given that the average height of men living in the second millennium B.C. has been estimated at around 5 feet, 4 inches, then the aforementioned men were enormous by comparison. The existence of very tall men today demonstrates that it is not biologically impossible for there to have been ancient races of unusually tall men who can be reasonably labeled as giants, and adding in the possibility of changing climatic conditions over the last several millennia, it hardly seems fair or even scientific to dismiss outright the Bible’s description of giant men.
Shalom y’all!
Daniel McCabe