Open Secrets: Discovering God Together

By James P. Long

I knew the book was special long before I knew why. It had been a Christmas gift from my parents 

“God could have conducted unending individual spiritual conferences. But He does not want us connected only to Him; He wants us connected also to one another.”back when I’d have chosen cars and trucks and guns and games. Yet there was, I sensed, something different about this boxed Book with its black leatherette cover. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated Out of the Original Tongues and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. The Authorized King James Version, 1611, Red Letter Edition.

I was 9.

Over the years, I occasionally opened the box, but rarely read The Book—until much later. For some reason I can scarcely explain, I tossed the Bible in the car as I packed for a camping trip. That impulse led to my first startling experience of this Book “speaking to me.”

The Snake that Roared

Ever found yourself frustrated by endless conversation while you knew that time for critical action was passing? You need the roadmap to transformation.

Genesis chapter 46 enumerates Jacob’s children and grandchildren by name, arriving at a total of seventy souls who came to Egypt. All is as expected until we arrive at Jacob’s fifth son, Dan.

Dan’s sons: Chushim.

(Genesis 46:23)

That’s right, Dan’s “sons” suggests a plural, yet there is only one—Chushim. Strangely, his name ends in the manner that masculine plural nouns end in Hebrew—IM. SoyeladIM means boys; sefarIM means books, and susIM means horses. Though Dan only has one son, ChushIM, there is a hint in the ending of his name that he is actually plural—two people.

We see one additional hint at a duality in the tribe of Dan: