Whatever we say defines human failure we cannot deny that people who want to be something unprecedented are locked in on failure.  The nature of all created things includes uniqueness.  None of us need to press any buttons or develop any process to become holy or uniquely qualified or gifted.  The media bombards us with the “first this” and “first that”, the most rain or snow, the fastest car and train, and we humans are still the last to acknowledge the facts of life and the essentials of life.  Meanwhile the domesticated animals continue to reveal just how phony human priorities are, and the bank accounts of the right and left wing manipulators of destiny, as impressive as they are, are signs of certain death.  Twisting the facts over and over results in death whether the renegade is pauper or prince.

Sixth century BC media

We can hear the full range of the rumours, we can see  the waves of nationalistic pride washing over the powerful and the weak nations, and feel the anguish of mothers losing their children to another violent upheaval.  Contrary to the mindboggling first century AD buzz about Israel/Judah never being in bondage to any foreign power the Romans had their fingers around the throats of the ruling priests, we find that (a) the local king was a Roman appointee, and (b) the Roman governor had the final say about whether a convict of the Jewish court system died or lived.  A people ought to know their history as well as they know the popular buzz, because Hezekiah, a king recognized as a good man, had the following response when the Assyrians came calling (2 Kings 18:13)

“Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.”

2 Kings 18:14, NASB

15) Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16)  At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 18:15-16, NASB

Do not believe the story punted by modern evangelical scholars about Israel-Judah being a superpower because she had the ark, or the still treasured narrative about the sons of Israel defeating the natives of Canaan-Peleshet and have exclusive right to residence in the promised land.  The man of God Elisha seems to have taken a page from David’s book when he advised an Israelite woman to go into Philistine land to find relief from famine.

1) Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go with your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will even come on the land for seven years.” 2) So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God, and she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.”

2 Kings 8:1-2

I have been at this for 34 years, pushing through the muddy waters of organized religion, and keeping my gaze on the facts, sometimes even wondering how could such lies have taken root, even as a whole new set of lies prevail in the modern era.  The belief that the temple, in the 6th century BC, by its mere presence alone, would shield Judah from incursions by foreign powers was manifest nonsens.  They knew and were told repeatedly that the more reliable raincoat was homegrown justice.  Justice for Jewish people and resident foreigners in the Holy Land was not a big deal at all. Never was and never will be.

People, especially wannabe prophets used to die for lying

These days, removed from the good old days of judges, kings, and priests, bring us face to face with a resistance to truth and nobility of character far more ingrained than anything the sons of Israel concocted.  People in the most powerful nations conveniently do not know how to separate a fact from a fantasy. Like the ancient world ruling powers the principalities of the media world will have no warning, no evidence they deem credible to bring them to a new attitude, and  like Israel and Judah, the revolutionary, no matter how convincingly the patriot and nationalist explains his cause,  the renegade dies.