Yahweh Smashing!
"I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand." (Deut. 32:39)
"Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see...and hear...and understand...and then turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:9-13)
"There is no remembrance of former things nor any remembrance of later things yet to happen... (Eccles. 1:11)
Yahweh Explaining: The Disease and the Diagnosis
"This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you says Yahweh, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies." (Jeremiah 13:25)
"For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge... Yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain." (Isaiah 17:10)
"My people have been lost sheep; ...led astray...they have forgotten their fold." (Jeremiah 50:6)
"Your pain is incurable... I have done these things to you." (Jeremiah 30:11-15)
"Samaria (Ephraim/House of Israel)...her wound is incurable. (Micah 1:5-9)
Yahweh's Divine Plague: Ephraim has Alzheimer's!
Upon the greater part of the People of Israel has come divine wounding, pain, discipline, punishment, disease, and dispersion... Blows that have obliterated all memory and all remembrance and all function. Ephraim has descended into darkness: a vegetable, not a fruit---good only for slicing, dicing, or juicing... A cabbage-patch doll!!
"Therefore justice is far from us (Ephraim/House of Israel), and righteousness does not overtake us; we look for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope...like those who have no eyes; we stumble..." (Isaiah 59:9-10; Rev. 3:17)
Yahweh's Prognosis:
"Remember these things O Jacob... I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me." (Isaiah 44:21)
"For he remembered his holy promise and Abraham his servant." (Psalm 105:42)
"Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him." (Jeremiah 31:20)
"How can I give you up, O Ephraim! How can I hand you over, O Israel... my compassion grows warm and tender." (Hosea 11:8)
"Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death?" (Hosea 13:14)
Yahweh's Cure:
"For I will restore health to you and your wound I will heal says Yahweh." (Jeremiah 30:17)
"When Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people and heals the wound inflicted by His blow." (Isaiah 30:26)
"Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." (Proverbs 3:7)
"What are these feeble Jews doing...? Will they revive the burned stones... the heap of rubbish...?" (Nehemiah 4:1-2)
Yahweh's Restoration of All Israel:
"For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create... I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people." (Isaiah 65:17-19)
Who are You? What are You?
Is there in you an Awakening---the shaking off of the gloom and darkness? Is there awaking even a tiny seed of memory, buried in the earth and dead in the past, of who and what you are? Is the long sleep of your Ephraimite Alzheimer's being broken?
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Borderlands: Between Two Kingdoms---Yours and Israel
No servant can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. (Luke 16:13)
None except Caleb and Joshua...for they have wholly followed Yahweh. (Number 32:11)
But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. (Judges 2:19)
Of the half-tribe of Manasseh... who were expressly named to come and make David king...to help David with singleness of purpose. (1 Chron. 12:31-33)
It takes no great exercise of the imagination to project what it would be like to live astride a picket fence...! Certainly painful and impossible to move without feeling the prick of the pickets in a most tender place. The obvious solution: move to one side of the fence or the other. But as our legs shrink or shorten---perhaps the fence is growing higher and higher as well?---"the move" becomes more difficult and painful. But of course, there are always those who work hard at maintaining their delusion of being "able to straddle the fence" and live in two kingdoms simultaneously: their "kingdom" Monday to Friday, God's "kingdom" on the sabbath... your "kingdom" in the world most times, and "Israel" in the leftover times: The Borderlands!!
At the border crossings between Israel and Palestinian/Jordanian/Syrian... areas, there is, more or less, "a no man's land or zone", a strip of land in which you are neither in Israel nor Jordan. A person can't live there at all, and likely if they dawdle or delay in crossing that "Borderland" they will be shot at from one side or the other. You have to be in one or the other of the "kingdoms". You not allowed to have one foot in Israel and one foot in Jordan.
The solution: Purify your hearts, ye double-minded men! (James 4:8) Other translations render the verse: "wavering individuals with divided interests".
And make your yes simply "yes", and your no a decisive "no".
None except Caleb and Joshua...for they have wholly followed Yahweh. (Number 32:11)
But whenever the judge died, they turned back and behaved worse than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them; they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. (Judges 2:19)
Of the half-tribe of Manasseh... who were expressly named to come and make David king...to help David with singleness of purpose. (1 Chron. 12:31-33)
It takes no great exercise of the imagination to project what it would be like to live astride a picket fence...! Certainly painful and impossible to move without feeling the prick of the pickets in a most tender place. The obvious solution: move to one side of the fence or the other. But as our legs shrink or shorten---perhaps the fence is growing higher and higher as well?---"the move" becomes more difficult and painful. But of course, there are always those who work hard at maintaining their delusion of being "able to straddle the fence" and live in two kingdoms simultaneously: their "kingdom" Monday to Friday, God's "kingdom" on the sabbath... your "kingdom" in the world most times, and "Israel" in the leftover times: The Borderlands!!
At the border crossings between Israel and Palestinian/Jordanian/Syrian... areas, there is, more or less, "a no man's land or zone", a strip of land in which you are neither in Israel nor Jordan. A person can't live there at all, and likely if they dawdle or delay in crossing that "Borderland" they will be shot at from one side or the other. You have to be in one or the other of the "kingdoms". You not allowed to have one foot in Israel and one foot in Jordan.
The solution: Purify your hearts, ye double-minded men! (James 4:8) Other translations render the verse: "wavering individuals with divided interests".
And make your yes simply "yes", and your no a decisive "no".
Monday, October 4, 2010
God Wouldn't Do That!!!
Many are the "religious" assertions concerning what God would or would not do... Perhaps it would be helpful and profitable for you to consider the following:
When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, "Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry... (Hosea 1:2)
God wouldn't do That!!!
"Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (Genesis 22:1-2)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Then two harlots came to the king (Solomon). One said..."the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours." And the king said, "Bring me a sword. Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other." (1 Kings 3:16, 22, 29)
God wouldn't do That!!!
And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh... For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life...everythin that is on the earth shall die. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground... (Genesis 6:13, 17, 7:23)
God wouldn't do That!!!
There let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children... (Ezra 10:3)
God wouldn't do That!!!
She (Judah) saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear... (Jeremiath 3:8)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Thus says Yahweh: "Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was put away." (Isaiah 50:1)
God wouldn't do That!!!
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery... and they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Torah Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Woman...has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go , and do not sin again." (John 8:3-11)
God wouldn't do That!!!
And they carried the Ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; And Uzzah and Ahio were driving the new cart with the Ark of God and when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzzah; And God smote him there because he put forth his hand to the Ark; And he died there beside the Ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job...?" And Satan answered Yahweh and said, "Skin for skin, and all that a man has he would give for his life! But stretch out your hand please and strike his bone and flesh---if he would not curse you to your face!" And Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold he is in your power, only spare his life." And Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh and smote Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we accept only good from God, and not accept evil...?" (Job 2:3-10)
God wouldn't do That!!!
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other disliked, and they have borne him children...he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the disliked, by giving him a double portion of all that he has... Now the sone of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah... The sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born; but because he polluted his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright...yet the birthright belonged to Joseph) (Deut. 21:15-17, Genesis 35:22, 1 Chron. 5:1-2) Replacement Theology??? Isaac replaces Ishmael, Jacob replaces Esau...
God wouldn't do That!!!
When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, "Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry... (Hosea 1:2)
God wouldn't do That!!!
"Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (Genesis 22:1-2)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Then two harlots came to the king (Solomon). One said..."the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours." And the king said, "Bring me a sword. Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other." (1 Kings 3:16, 22, 29)
God wouldn't do That!!!
And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh... For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life...everythin that is on the earth shall die. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground... (Genesis 6:13, 17, 7:23)
God wouldn't do That!!!
There let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children... (Ezra 10:3)
God wouldn't do That!!!
She (Judah) saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear... (Jeremiath 3:8)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Thus says Yahweh: "Where is your mother's bill of divorce, with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was put away." (Isaiah 50:1)
God wouldn't do That!!!
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery... and they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Torah Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. Woman...has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go , and do not sin again." (John 8:3-11)
God wouldn't do That!!!
And they carried the Ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; And Uzzah and Ahio were driving the new cart with the Ark of God and when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzzah; And God smote him there because he put forth his hand to the Ark; And he died there beside the Ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7)
God wouldn't do That!!!
Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job...?" And Satan answered Yahweh and said, "Skin for skin, and all that a man has he would give for his life! But stretch out your hand please and strike his bone and flesh---if he would not curse you to your face!" And Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold he is in your power, only spare his life." And Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh and smote Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!" But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Indeed, should we accept only good from God, and not accept evil...?" (Job 2:3-10)
God wouldn't do That!!!
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other disliked, and they have borne him children...he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the disliked, by giving him a double portion of all that he has... Now the sone of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's first-born), Simeon, Levi, Judah... The sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel (for he was the first-born; but because he polluted his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he is not enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright...yet the birthright belonged to Joseph) (Deut. 21:15-17, Genesis 35:22, 1 Chron. 5:1-2) Replacement Theology??? Isaac replaces Ishmael, Jacob replaces Esau...
God wouldn't do That!!!
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