put to death unlawfully…

Abel, all the prophets of Israel, and the Crucified King are as close are we can get to the picture of homicide from God’s perspective.

Be careful with what you are saying yes to both consciously and subconsciously.

From Stephen

Acts 7:52
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

From Yeshua

Matthew 23:29-31

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. This may sound like hyperbole but it is not overkill. Hear what he says next!

Homicide A to Z

Matthew 23:34-35

Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Add to this the hateful spray that surrounds us in our institutions and fellowships, and murder is far from being a distant galaxy

Unjustified Anger Fuels Hatred-murder

Matthew 5:22

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, You fool! will be liable to the hell of fire.

Can you imagine Yeshua’s indignation when he saw his contemporaries
(1) despising all Gentiles
(2) condemning them for the food they’ve eaten for millennia
(3) making use of Gentile labour, and
(4) claiming to be the template for the human race?

New goals and old roads

It has become quite popular now in the 21st century for people to act as if they have become the new Jew. They adopt a host of Jewish things and then look down on the rest of humanity just as in the New Testament. The icing on the poison cake is that the questionable practice of adopting the rudimentary elements of the cosmos is now the major goal of many Christians. Ministers of the gospel had better start reading their bibles.

A good minister will acknowledge that right food and drink are not the gospel. If he or she does not it is likely that there is no salvation to begin with.

Emotional watches are critically necessary

Animosity begins, “us and them”, saved and lost, God’s evaluation gets overridden, enter murder.

If any one is in Christ he is a new creation, (κτισις not κτισμα), work-in-progress vs product.

No one ever got saved by worshiping a creator: not the Jews, not the quasi-judaized. God is saviour to make us sons. Are you stuck in creation memorials?

Creation is a reference point for establishing the proprietary relationship God has with his created works. It reminds us of his sovereign will, namely, the great and eternal salvation.

Worship is empty without faith in the Son of God, without an admission of the fearful chasm between him and us.

Between the two testaments there is evidence that creator-God and saviour-God are not progressive revelation. There is little need to keep returning to creation as an effective mind-mover towards wholesome living.

In the Bible, deliverance from Egypt appears as a descriptor of God some 37 times. That is twice as many as God who created the heavens and the Earth (15 times).

Still, a creator-God seems to be pretty much the fall back position and we know that salvation was on his mind before he created the world.

When Moses wrote the Ten Commandments as Israel approached Canaan he referred the Sabbath commandment to God’s Deliverance of Israel from Egypt not God’s creation of the world in 6 days.
Believing in a Creator God does not save anyone. (Excellent interpretation by Moses!)

Salvation obviously comes to created beings, but it remains at the top of the divine agenda, invested as it is in the Son of Man, the Life-giver and it was made a must-happen event before the world began.

The name above all names is …

Salvation

Jesus

Joshua

Yehoshua

יהשה

Christians are familiar with the session of Christ in heaven (Hebrews 1:3, 10:12) and the ancients were also in touch with a God who gives priority to justice where there’d been none.

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: Psalms 82:1

The Throne, the justice, and the positive ID

One has to assume a loss of place to visualize someone taking a place. One also has to assume that justice had been on hold. One also has to assume that justice as rendered by God has a unique face. There are hints of all three.

Hints of a return appear in Psalm 24:7-10.

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

There are signs of enthronement in Psalm 2 :6

As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.

We find the promise of ruling the nations in Psalms 2:8

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

The seat of the Son is assured

But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. Hebrews 1:8

The ministry of justice in action

No matter what we see in the halls of power God has a sure means of giving a clear witness to his integrity. It is his justice. It is his verdict that the dead may live, that the oppressed be relieved. The offer pardon distinguishes divine justice. Mercy is his justice made plain in the cross.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Psalms 89:14

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. Psalms 82:3-5

The journey of photonic references in the Bible begins with the light in the great universal expanse, passes to the two great lights, to the ornate tabernacle furnishings, to the Hebrew understanding of God, and to individuals, especially those of Davidide descent. Thence it passes to the church and every believer, as member, to the human eye, and the believer’s person. In this way, Christ, Root and Offspring of David, makes photonics a personal interest.

Visual Reality Lamps

The stand

Yhwh orders for the tabernacle, in Exodus 25:31, the manufacture of the stand

You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.

The lampstand was for lighting up the space beyond which only blood gave access.

Seven lamps

Exodus 25:37 informs us that there were seven lamps

You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.

Oil for fuel

Staying connected to the sacred lightworks, we acknowledge that light was a function of heat. The fuel in the sacred tent was oil. A statute established the criteria for it.

Leviticus 24:2-4

Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

The priestly responsibility

He shall arrange the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord regularly.

Samuel calls it God’s lamp ner elohim, נר אלהים

1 Samuel 3:3

The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

Lamplight for a Bethlehemite

Coming now to David’s dynasty it is not possible to get past the God of Israel who is celebrated as a lamp in a song written by David on the occasion of his rescue from Saul’s murderous plot.

2 Samuel 22:29

For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.

Thereafter light becomes the metaphor for God and the lamp represents the individual and his person.

Psa. 27, YHWH is my light
Psa. 89:15, YHWH’s face

Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,

Psalms 18:28

For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.

The Christian is a luminary.

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8

David’s dynasty, successors to the throne

Endurance Promises.

• 2 Kings 8:19. Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.
• 1 Kings 11:36. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name.

The horn of David

There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. Psalms 132:17-18

In Messiah
– the world’s light. I am the light of the world
– the seven churches in his hand,

Eye-Lamp in the believer

Luke 12:35-36
Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.

Light-filter
Matthew 6:22
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

Trimming the lamp becomes the now thing as we await the forever presence
Luke 12:35-36

Finally as we return to think about lamp and light in their original settings, the designation of the Son of God as Anointed transforms the oil for the lampstand into trimming our operations of the Holy Spirit in us; teaching and guiding. Lamp and stand, as personal photonic interest, come down to learning processes tied to the Messianic mission.

Yeshua’s Church, lifesaving word, and face

If this exploration did not end with Christ it would have been a fruitless venture. The reward is beautiful because it brings us face to face with the Lord of light.

For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6

In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. Revelation of John 1:16

That we need to pray without ceasing (Luke 18:1 1The 5:17) is critically highlighted by the episode in Luke 11:1-13 . We learn here that there is symmetry in prayer, in its fellowship and layers.   The Lord paused from praying, yet we have to imagine that he was not as he paused, still on the phone. He is Who He is though. That he always listens and concurs is essential to his mediation. We tune out.

Teach us to pray

That grown men bar mitzvahed and enrolled as disciples of Moses found a reason to seek guidance on prayer is eye-opening. If we had a book containing 150 prayers we would be reasonably assured that there is a prayer for every situation. At least we would be certain that our lives either reflected one of the existential conditons of human life, lostness or salvation, faith or unbelief. We would be confident that the Psalms offer scores of examples of prayers that address both conditions.

Try something other

Something was afoot that made John teach his disciples to pray. The previous models were obviously inadequate. Behind the prayers of the ancients was the knowledge of being God’s people: the people in the covenants, in the promises, and participants in various glories (Romans 9:3-4, Luke 2:29-32). In reality those prayers become leaky in the presence of unbelief and hostility.

Father of all-who-come

The lesson features God as Father. That is a new way to conceptualize God. We understand that this establishes our adoption (Romans 8:9-15, Galatians 4:6) and has a new way of living. The prayer has handles for our temporal life: daily bread (including the work assignments John 4:34). It gives us handles on our fellowship with the Father by means of our capacity to do what Christ does: forgive sins.
Our Lord goes on to show examples of what a prayer life should indicate (Luke 11:4-13), namely sensitivity and generosity (#1) due diligence (#2, 3, 4, 5).

1. responding to a friends request at midnight: And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; Luke 11:5, rise and give him as many as he needeth. Luke 11:8
2. receiving follows request: And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; Luke 11:9a
3. “eureka” is the reward of inquiry: seek, and ye shall find; Luke 11:9b
4. knocking facilitates entry: knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Luke 11:9c
5. gifts match the request: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Luke 11:11, Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? Luke 11:12

He reminds us that humans are not the best practitioners of giving.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13

Channel JOY

Tuning in to listen seems to the priority.  When our Lord paused from praying he engaged with the disciples, and those communications with them meant he was not, for one, actively giving thanks.  To listen well and speak in sync with the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26) at the same time is beyond our multitasking abilities.  Prayer needs a place and time. The two need to come together for the joy of fellowship to energize us.

His speech is dynamic, relaying, live, what the Father has to say to us, so he is still in prayer as he interacts with his companions.  In prayer, he locks in with God in a undistracted session. That is prayer to the 7th power! Regular prayer, sees us flip in and out and distracted by tasks and interactions. Prayer, as it is in heaven, is first of all adoration, graphically, an endless ascription of glory, honour, and power to God (Rev 4:8-11).

It is really beautiful how one apostle talks about his prayers for his friends. As often as he remembers (thinks of?) his friends he takes joy from presenting petition(s) regarding them to God.

always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, Phil 1:4

It actually challenges us to distinguish between our earthly condition and the secret place where joy does pervade. So life for the children of God, though burdensome, even troubling and distressing, comes with prayer as a reliable joy portal to the ultimate space of self expression and rapt attention on both sides.