This question posed to the American president at a White House briefing received an abominable response that made me remember thinking “potus45 has no heart at all”.
That’s a nasty question and you are a bad reporter.
We may have thought that an existential crisis can wake the dead but not even the mounting infection rates of covid-19 and the need for discipline are revealing the humanity in the executive branch of the US government. I told you so.
The gloating bigot in the White House sees pomp and profit only, and hears only those small soundbytes that stir up people who do repeat without thinking.
Potusbigotusgloatus45 cares little about people dying of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.
Joshua 1:8
Depart from my mouth? It would be a genuine comfort if I could recall who put all that there, because I am not a Jew (even though I am a follower of the King of the Jews, the Saviout of the world). Not many of us can honestly recall getting a mouthful of law, yet some would love to keep pretending that they were born with the law of God in their hearts, and they lost it. This should disturb every believer.
Knowing that the law is not for the just[ified] we can restate what has been said to us consistently. (1) The law is spiritual (2) so one needs to be born again (3) to recognize (discern) it and (4) there is no guarantee that one observes its hundreds of instructions, and then (they tell us) that (5) the believer needs to hide God’s word in our hearts (6) so that we do not sin against him.
That is what we say. What we mean walks away from the writer’s intention and end up making up what we want people to hear. How many lies did you detect in that scenario? The law is, pure and simple, a lot of talk. Do not complicate your life by labeling God’s work with Israel as God’s will for the human race. How many of us are ready to go where the Hebrew people have lived?
Was Moses terrified or reverent in his encounter with Yahweh on Mount Sinai?
18) For you are not come to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19) And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20) (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
Hebrews 12:18-21
We can try to restate the Joshua proposition as we can best receive it.
I, Gentile, need to learn everything that is written because I need death and condemnation
I, Gentile, need to say (recite, meditate on) everything that is written because I am a leader in Israel
I, Gentile, need to observe everything that is written
Because that is how I, Gentile, ensure prosperity and success for myself
If we found the mercy, justice and faith in those books we would have neither the community nor the authorized processes to make them work. If we are fearful of not pleasing God then we can consider that God’s love is a stranger to our hearts.
Reverently receiving the word
Much of the message planted in Joshua will find no good ground where it can germinate. Consider the following. Some things in Scripture are not going to be repeated and others are fulfilled and pass away.
None of us is anywhere near Joshua’s person, or near his actual or typical mission.
No believer sits as the leader of God’s people.
No believer is responsible, like Cap’n Joshua, for taking the Lord’s people into their inheritance.
I can read a story and find neither instruction nor correction. Most people tend to invent a morale. The truly dangerous set Scripture aside and get the meaning from a dream or vision or create a story with magical twist. What is missing is a heart open to love people like God does. That is fear’s antidote.
Mix the spices together to make a sweet-smelling incense. Do this the same as a perfume maker would do it. Also mix salt with this incense. This will make it pure and special.
Exodus 30:35
The old and the new, symbol and reality
Sweet aromas and salt were a part of the sacred tent. The fact that God included a particular odour in this arrangement for communication and residence with his people tells us that God’s idea of holiness is atmosphere. The senses come into play in a big way. Even though a privileged few saw, smelled and heard the features of the tabernacle inner operations the aroma of the incense went where the wind blew it. The aroma gets you as you approach the tent.
Seasoned Christian
TWO SMELLS are in the works of the Christian life according to 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. We give off knowledge of the divine, everywhere.
(14) But thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory through Christ. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume.(15) Our offering to God is to be the perfume of Christ that goes out to those who are being saved and to those who are being lost.
(16) To those who are being lost, this perfume smells like death, and it brings them death.
But to those who are being saved, it has the sweet smell of life, and it brings them life.
Who is competent to do this work? With whom does the buck stop when life and death are at stake? Who has the keys of death and life, the grave and grace? Who supplies the salt?
When you get a chance to tell who you are – given certain limits – what do you choose to highlight? Is it the great pedigree of your clan, the distinctive features on your character, the trending human description (good, different, free). or is it what the majority (the rest of the world) sees? One of the sickening realities about identity is that while science continues the search at great cost for human origins the globe is trapped in an identity crisis: we do not know who our neighbours are and we do not care.
Me-first is a deadend
Let no law or decree wedge you off the bridge. Islam follows the Way by four centuries and while it rewrites the Hebrew scriptures, which are thousands of years older and pretends to interpret the New Testament which claims to be the fulfillment of the old testament, it is obvious it doesn’t care that the Jews have done one thing we cannot deny. The Jews have the accurate record of what God did and wants.
Let people tell you who they are. Just stand back and watch their actions. Are they killing or redeeming life, liberating men women and children or are they enslaving people?
Strong men and boys make a curious team. The poster for this concept is George Washington and the cowardly, juvenile, and bigoted persons who have followed him in the office. If there is a judgment day for nations we are witnessing God’s lawsuit against them all.
Fateful bird feeding
There is a banquet for the saints at the end of the age. It celebrates the Lamb’s wedding reception. Another banquet is the bird feeding buffet for the demons, the birds.
That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Revelation of John 19:18
Patriotism smells like 1933 to 1945 and joining God to any county or nation is idolatry prime. The rulers (of earth), the magnates, the proceeds of military ventures, all kinds of human beings will be demon food. Magnates, even ones with questionable acumen like the infamous 45, will lead the opposition to true compliance with God’s will. Our dependence on a law that includes lawbreaking – sting and covert operations – as a means to keep the peace does not deserve the attention of those who are strong to love mercy and justice.
1. And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
Micah 3:1-3
Growing up and achievement
How many privates actually become staff sergeants? How many believers become elders (bishops, pastors? If there is a George Washington in every American heart then there are revolutions all around us. At least the young nonwhite people and the vast majority know that American greed has paused its revolution. As the thirst for money fed the lust for blood magnates and gun manufacturers have hijacked America’s legislative agenda and her repentance.
The current occupant of the White House is a genuine confetti magnate. He has brought America to her mercenary best, protecting Saudi oil and government, making friends with brutal despots, and more recently, recommending medical professionals use bandanas and scarves as personal protective equipment while Cuba has medicines ready to treat covid19 symptoms. Every Christian paying homage to any country or criminal enterprise like the administration of potus45 should check his born again certificate.
Then said the LORD to me, What see you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Happy. All good. Ok. No problem. These are all terms of satisfaction or pleasure. When we hear these expressions and dig deeper we will often find that what people say about their contentment includes a little coverup or denial.
Not that I speak in respect of lack: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Philippians 4:11
When we say we are content we may be referring to
Hilarity
Not being picky – sardines or salmon
Laughing
Being undisturbed or unmoved
Fully satisfied
Somewhat satisfied
Paul’s contentment with “whatever” is over against himself not the things missing. I did learn at some point to look at myself and say a grateful yeah and amen.
Among those who are incapable of standing on this ground are folks who take no gift from God. They have to earn everything they enjoy. They prefer to pretend that they have (1) found God by searching (2) are pleasing God by doing all he wants (3) eternal life is a thing we attempt. Only a person in receipt of the divine gift can say what Paul says, “With whatever I am content”.
28) He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29) Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 10:28-29 28.
Blood was one of those ordinary things that became extraordinarily important for rituals. People caught it in bowls, transported it to designated places, finger- sprinkled it on designated altars, smeared it, and poured it. What we do with covenant blood is a lot like these levitical routines but Christ is not a levitical priest, and we have found nither bowl nor altars nor mercy seat that is not literally the man Messiah Yeshua.
The blood of Christ was never a common or ordinary thing such as the roasted flesh, cakes, drink offerings, the gold, the silver, or grain were. No one gets to catch it in bowls, transport anywhere, finger- sprinkle, smear it, or pour it. The Lamb’s preparation and the sprinkling of his blood has no precedent in Scripture. He is the priest. He is the sacrifice. He is the altar (thusiaterion) where atonement (propitiation or satisfaction) takes place and he is the peace that results from God’s intervention.
So what does one do with Christ’s blood? Accept its application. Material transfer of blood such as pouring and sprinkling makes no sense at all. Believers get a cleansing bath in it: to use an analogy from the scriptures which is unrelated to the Tabernacle we read about the fountain of blood opened for David’s house; a fountain where one wades out, dips or stands in the stream.
Who sprinkled me?
Here are four views of blood sprinkling which can help us free our minds of the blood miracle fan syndrome. (1) sprinkling was the cleansing routine (Heb 9:13) , (2) the passover was a practical sprinkling that saved lives (Heb. 11:28), (3) Yeshua’s covenant blood involves sprinkling (Heb. 12:24) and (4) Peter (1:1:2) assures us that our election and sanctification are intended to bring us to obedience and blood sprinkling.
Hebrews 9:13, flesh vs concience
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, santifies to the purifying of the flesh:
Hebrews 11:28, doorpost smearing
Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
Hebrews 12:24, vindicate vs condemn
And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
1 Peter 1:2, start vs success
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
No red stuff – blood represents life
Christ’s laid his life down = death = blood shed
Christ’s gives us life = Holy Spirit
We can be sure that Christ was never in a two-apartment structure sprinkling or pouring his blood onto holy surfaces. He is not a priest like that. Christ is not handling blood. Blood represents life lost and life shared. The death of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit are the only personal lifelines we know. If we cannot accept that blood and all those things in the tabernacle are symbols and that Christ himself replaces all of them we are drifting away from the lifeboat. We have floated so far away from reality that these Jewish images are deemed to exceed the Lord’s glory. His significance exceeds anything that is in heaven. His blood is strictly treatment for sin. Any other idea is of demonic origin.
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
Hebrews 13:10
O LORD our Lord, how excellent [is] thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
America’s biggest mistake is connected to its rape of North America and Africa. The religious movements that have risen over the two centuries show that the US is obsessed with Israel, not because of love for an oppressed people – today’s America couldn’t care less if an Islamic government was elected in Israel – but because of the convenience of adopting the Israeli standard. Australia, Canada, and the United States have not recognized that they cannot move in and take over a country because God needs a genocide to prepare the world for salvation or some other destiny.
Why would Abraham not see right round the world when told he is owner of all he could see and he being convinced that he was going to have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky?
14. And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now yours eyes, and look from the place where you are northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: 15. For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed for ever. 16. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered.
Genesis 13:14-16
Most nations will not admit to the rotten bones in their history, and doing so is now suicidal. When nations (or corporations) admit to their malfeasance they open the floodgates of lawsuits that can empty their coffers in a flash.
American defense of the state of Israel is not a moral choice or human rights exercise. American dependence on oil and its alliance with Arab powers are far more important. Guess who will stand with Israel when international army moves to attack the Jewish state? Nobody.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses ransacked, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Zechariah 14:2
America is stuck in foreign scandals and undercover adventures and the Republican party has the patent for governing by warchest. It is what they know best: murder and mayhem. Locked into Arab oil and misbehavior and guaranteeing the survival of the state of Israel is destiny that ends with America joining everyone to attack Israel.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 