Author: eejoseph

Who might I be?

eejoseph

When God raises the curtain our senses get challenged.  Current fantasy trends allow people to whitewash the tombs of their evil desires with extreme possibility thinking.  One quasi-pastor has people saying that they are whatever scripture says they are, mostly the healed, the tycoon, the king, the prophet, the priest, the judge, the warrior.  It is rare for a person to jump into a story as anyone beside the hero.  Like the idiot 45th president of the United States most people see no value in any discomfort or adversity.  45 could look at the late John McCain and say that he prefers heroes who were not captured.  The only way for scripture to make sense to us or be useful is for us to enter the story,  The encounter of Moses at the burning bush contains several entities: the angel, the Lord, the bush, the fire  and Moses. Who might I be?

“The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.”

Exodus 3:2, NASB

This I gotta see

“So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”

Exodus 3:3, NASB

Moses felt compelled to investigate the sight.  It filled him with wonder, and there is no indication that he drew a lesson from the sight.  The conversation that ensued contains references to the Hebrew people suffering in Egypt, Moses’ mission to Egypt, and encounters with Pharaoh. But there is no explanation of the meaning of the burning bush.  The reader of Moses’account has to provide the elements of meaning. While Moses ends up leading the people out of Egypt he does not get to enter the promised land.  Still noone chooses to be Pharoah, the Egyptians or the oppressed people, and few people actually dare to want to be the Lord’s servant Moses.

Who I gotta be

We put a lot of distance between ourselves and the avowed hero of all the biblical narratives.  God, who is despised, rejected, betrayed and associated with useless idols, goes to great lengths to maintain relations with the people who are the agents of his varied interventions. People do not want to be like God.  Even Christians increasingly can be found denouncing the lifestyle of  Christ. Holiness like God’s, merciful and without sin, homeless like Yeshua, providing rain and sunshine to the just and unjust, raising the dead and touching lepers, are clearly not popular priorities.

The next generation of vipers

eejoseph

February 8, 2023 was a good day.  The wingless birds of prey in Canada and the United States are bouncing on the pogosticks of misinformation hoping that people will mistake their motions for flight.  Goodness gracious, what did you expect from a professional adult woman, who grew up in the Christian church, and spent the first years of the 45th president fabricating for him daily before the Press?  I did not waste my time listening to that chunk of coal fantasizing about being a diamond.  Whatever the Arkansas governor had to say as a response to President Biden’s State of the Union speech had to be hatched in the same web of lies that has 33% of the American population ensared.  Racist, nationalist, quasi-Christian morality gets no spotlight except in the lairs of Herodian foxes and  the white-washed tombs of homicidal rulers.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

Matthew 23:27

“Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Luke 13:35

The Pharisee and Sadducee will not go away

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7, NASB)

We see, as clearly as John the Baptist, the poverty of mind that defined the zealots of his times   There was no cold war in the Judea of New Testament times.   Scribes,  Sadducees, elders and ruling priests conducted a hot war for the full three and a half years of Yeshua’s public life.  John sees the Pharisees as doing the same thing; pretending to be responding to God’s voice and sharing- relishing – their descent from Abraham (Matthew 3:7-9) but violating the law to maintain their influence over the people.  The zealots are still around, replicated all over the globe.

Time is not on the side of the viper generation

The people who are not nauseated by the GOP venom are today’s vipers.  The Arkansas governor is a representative of the generation that sees the mass murder of children in their classrooms as unresolvable, immigrants as criminals, women as property of men,  and law and order as the means to advance the monstrous Judeo-Christian priorities of the colonial empires the American Revolution was supposed to have rejected. If you love the truth, facts, shun all cults, and uphold the dignity of all human beings you can expect viper venom to be aimed at you. We will hear the Arkansas governor and her allies for the foreseeable future because the devil is exceedingly angry because his time is running out.

Government goons

eejoseph

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.”

1 Peter 2:13-15

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;”

Romans 13:1-3

These two statements by two of Yeshua’s witnesses, Peter and Paul, represent a drop in the ocean of legislation, instructions and prophecy populating the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament.  It is perhaps less well known that the Lord Jesus Christ insisted that his domain as Lord of all be distinct in the minds of everyone from the domain of civic power, whom he labeled as “Caesar”.  He did this when he was confronted with the question of paying taxes or not.  The right to avoid paying taxes is now an issue in the United States because tax law is being used to slap the wealthy on the back and burden the average taxpayer. The Lord Christ said that people – Jewish people – should tithe, but not “…neglect[ed] the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; …” (Matthew 23:23, NASB)

What Christ taught about government

He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed.

Luke 1:52-53

The nature of accountability of governments to people is not discussed by the four evangelists.  The pastors and missionaries do not discuss it.  The most cogent statement about government is left entirely to his mother. It is Mary alone among the witnesses in the New Testament who spoke about the commitment to remove powerful people from power and conversely to put into power humble and meek persons.  That White religious men in the United States are still clinging to power and the privilege of wealth is evidence against which no-one can argue.  Crooked sheriffs, bribe-prone justices, angry, privileged and unprincipled young people are all part of the goon structure that takes, for example, a lie factory like Sarah Huckabee-Sanders and makes her governor. So let the political and priestly dynasties exit without too much protest

Goon production 

High-sounding intentions, especially of bipartisanship, are not a rallying point in a country that proudly calls itself “United”.   Independence of thought is a given in a country where representing diversity is necessary.  Small pockets of people, most the wealthy and the police, are holding their nation hostage with violence, nationalist and insurrectionist demands.  It is happening with ethnic majorities calling the shots, with tiny political parties in Israel, and even nineteen members-elect of the House of Representatives in the United States.   People who have been observing human trends for an extended period of time are aware that the most heinous deeds by people in seats of authority were designed, modeled, given a badge of acceptability, and cheered on by people who we suppose were trained by good citizens, not to mention noble people with spiritual pedigree.  Not even a post-secondary education seems capable of preventing monstrosities like the Florida governor, DeSantis.  What on earth gives an optometrist like Senator Rand Paul the right to attack the scientific processes of viral control?  What makes a pastor think he can ignore what the Biblical texts say and make up doctrines about faith, wealth, and national security.  What light are people collecting when they study the Bible?

Fool’s peace

The goons have no solution to the situation where parents know that a mass murderer is likely to show up at their child’s school, and we have to suspect that what the goons really want is for fewer and fewer people to go to school.  All the world apparently needs is goons bent on savagely repressing the people whose land has been stolen.  Blacks in the United States and Palestinians in Israel have every reason to fear when government flexes its muscle.  Israeli theft of Palestinian land will never pass the smell test, and the administration of Mr. Netanyahu does not deserve the label government, not when the security chief is a known brutal fascist.  An explanation an apology is overdue for a tainted politician to be acclaimed as king of Israel.  The claim  of  an undivided Jerusalem is itself an atrocity, not to mention the futile fantasy of rebuilding a temple on temple mount.  The temple was not twice demolished by hateful foreigners, but by God’s express decree.  Let me reproduce the destiny of Jerusalem and Zion from the pen of the sons of Korah.

His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah. I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me; Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there.’ But of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; And the Most High Himself will establish her. The Lord will count when He registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah. Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say, “All my springs of joy are in you.”

Psalm 87

Right wing government wrong from inception

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Democracy has taken hold in a few states, despite people having access to a private vote.  It is not democracy when a portion of the population are subject to oppressive and exclusionary treatment apart from any officially legal sanction.  When a government has to bring police and military resources to prevent the just participation of some of their citizens in society then it would seem that Nazi atrocities have become mainstream.  If you do not believe that nationalism, religious zeal and extreme tribalism is what drives the most pervasive elements of evil on the planet then right and wrong for human beings may need a new canon.  The hardest thing for anyone to admit is that they are wrong from the start, whether thousands of years or dozens of decades have passed.  For perspective, Canada has had over a century or so to correct Sir John A’s madness, the USA over two centuries to embrace the preamble of its constitution, and Israel has had more than three thousand years to make justice real for Israelites, migrants and foreigners.

Location problems

Making a decision to identify oneself with popular political movements on the right or left is one of the red herrings of our times.  The so called left and right wings of politics have been responsible for a lot of upheavals, including wars, extrajudicial killings, coups d’etat, flooding the courts with rogue judges, and fostering ongoing animosity between communities.  People are allowed to have and express their views without having to face ridicule or personal attacks.  The wings of politics are red herrings because there is no agreed upon centre.  Homo sapiens, after reviewing the failures of both left and right wing governments, would have to be renamed, because of how long we have been limping between the extremes of political theory, homo insipiens.  Nowhere is this homo insipiens more active and popular than in those nations desperately trying to copy Israel’s duplicitous dance with law and order and in Israel itself.  It is no accident that a Muslim house of worship crowns Temple mount at this time. 

Wings that have nothing to do with flight

People who are willing to continue saying and doing what their ancestors have “always” said and done are not a few.  They include our neighbours, people we work with, people we are willing to say are good citizens.  Most disturbing is the alliance of diverse groups with a sometimes clearly stated goal of making life miserable.  God may be said to have given Canaan to the sons of Israel under Joshua’s leadership, but who is so wingless as to fantasize about God’s regard for people other than the sons of Israel?  Christians have so neglected the serious study of the sacred record of the Jewish people’s history that all they can come up with is the same Sinai and levitical arrangement.  A bird that refuses to leave the nest behind is as impoverished as the mind that clings to the elementary things of human life on the planet, namely, blessings of the hill, mountains, valleys and the deeps.  Mental and spiritual flight should mean the discovery of new realms.     Do not let ancestry traced to Abraham fool you. Let us simply be certain that the lad who accompanied Abraham to Moriah cannot be both Isaac, ancestor of the Jewish people and heir of the land of Canaan and Ishmael, the father of Arabian tribes.

Jail homicidal settlers

“Kicking out” is what the Jewish people would like to say is the method by which Abraham’s descendants got possession of Canaan.  Abraham and his great grandchildren lived in Canaan as pilgrims.   Settler privilege and violence has never been curbed, despite the fact that the treasure of the Israelite kingdom is a shrine built on land bought by David from a Jebusite.  Until a genuine community emerges in the mountains of Judah the state of the nation will be racist and xenophobic war.  If the Palestinians are mere tools of Islamic interest then the people taking over Palestinian land, especially in East Jerusalem, are Chinese tanks mowing down citizens in Tiananmen Square or homicidal and  brutal police officers.  God sees right through the zionist rhetoric, anger, and scholarship.

Not a flare-up

If Benjamin Netanyahu cares more about friendship and commercial ties with Arab and Muslim nations than about Palestinians whose land Israel keeps stealing in plain sight, it is because he has rejected the discernment the God of his fathers gave to David of Bethlehem and his son Solomon. If Mr. Netanyahu does not recognize that David was King long before Samuel poured the oil and put the crown on his head, it is because he thinks a political party barely able to garner a majority can make a man an honorable man.

Does Bibi read Arabic?  Read Quran, Bibi: Muslim nations will never be your friend and neighbour, and you owe the Palestinian people an apology, the return of their property and a seat at the table. Residence matters, my brother. לשבת לספר

Who is in charge when communities anywhere on the planet find themselves on a carousel of homicides, illegal destruction of property, and facing mounting walls of judicial cover-ups and criminal government officials? Nobody besides the blind will believe that a God is backing Netanyahu’s sixth kick at the can, or ponder more than briefly that a right wing government can represent the divine interest.

Divine compulsions and human manipulation

eejoseph

And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.

Luke 14:23, New American Standard Bible (throughout)

Here we find a mission for the disciples which calls for them to compel people to come to the Lord’s dinner. Surely the plan is not to hold people hostage or to threaten or bribe them to comply with our invitation. This episode is not the only instance of the Lord compelling his disciples to perform certain actions. There is also that episode where the Lord compels the disciples to cross the lake. Compulsion is not a black hole of mission necessities.

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away.

Matthew 14:22, NASB

Compulsion aptly defined

This is perhaps the best description of what it means to be a fisher of men.  What must be involved in this compassion has to be taking of certain liberties and opportunities to maneuver the person to the point that they find the invitation irresistible. Understanding the elements a fisherman brings together to catch fish is helpful; namely the nets, the baits, the hooks, the location, the time of day, and the patient waiting.  In extreme cases a catch may need the help of other  fishers.

When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.

Luke 5:6-7, NASB

We know that Jews, Christians and Muslims come to faith as children often without a conscientious choice. They are literally compelled by their parents to follow the rules of the community. Even if the parents are patient and look for opportunities, etc.  children are not mature enough to make decisions about lifestyle and attitude.  Children in our societies are not allowed to drive,  drank alcohol, or marry until they reach a certain age, so it is highly suspect that juveniles – four, five, six and seven year olds – can call themselves by religious labels such as Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc.

Faith that is imposed is defiled by  shortsighted humanity.

Triple I Hannukah, Kwanza, Christmas

eejoseph

After the year-end festivals wind down all the celebrants will return to their tiny coops and carry on the tradition in blissful isolation, ignorance, and insensitivity.  Festivals are like the grandparents who move in, do not die, do not recognize the passage of time except to mark their fleeting arrival and departure.    There is no festival or fast that has transformed any of the nations, weak or powerful, into the lighthouse or harbour of which everyone dreams.  Festivals are all juvenile exercises, elementary as  agricultural fixtures, essential as seed time and harvest.  I am not picking on year end festivals, because all the festivals have this character; fleeting, juvenile and poverty-stricken.

Tiny coops of culture

What is Kwanza in July? Is Christmas meaningful in the northern hemisphere spring time or Passover in October?  Sun and Moon mark the festivals, there are no spiritual necessities,and absolutely anyone can observe and celebrate the festivals.  Many people are desperately trying to convince themselves and the world that their culture is a spiritual refuge and Treasury. Desperate indeed! If we think our culture is anything more than a tiny coop, then should not the states and regions mired in violent “dialogue” be a loud bang in every ear? What culture prides itself on killing its wayward citizens instead of reclaiming them?  Look around and you will see the families and tribes that are ready and willing to abandon family members who do not conform and then choose one of them to be your home, but please do not tell us your culture is grounded in love, justice, and mercy.

Coops vs wide open plains

When the disciples of the Most High God become analogies of domesticated animals, kept in zoos and digital cages of human design we have a problem.  We should not think that the display on television of Christian worship, discussion and celebration are examples of what Christ intended.  Even our Islamic friends must admit that there has to be some other rhetoric floating around other than what we see on television, and then again, there are the actual documents that we have to reckon with, Quran and Bible.  We, Christians and Muslims, find ourselves often having to explain to people what is happening in the world versus what is the common perception.  The Western configuration of states is a real problem for religions, and the founders of the American state recognized it. Despite the shenanigans in both eastern, western, northern and southern nations it is clear that religion should never become a functional weapon in any state’s armory.

Whence the festival?

I can tell you that if a festival or celebration has no hooks to the next best thing it is a shallow exercise.  People celebrate independence year after year, and still the impression that independence saturates no nation lingers. People have done little with their independence beyond empowering the rich and the mighty at the expense of the poor and those with little influence.  Nations obsessed with independence are terrified of migrants and people with opinions true Independence it’s not recognition.   

Whither the festival?

Our most experienced and expert expositor of the Gospel and Biblical matters assured us that his -Jewish – pedigree was not worth a cracker crumb.  Paul of Tarsus was no raving lunatic patriot, and while he may be faulted for condescending to certain rituals of his former religion, he was adamant about the value towards a spiritual reckoning of festivals, food, drink and laws of cleanness and uncleanness.

“However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

Galatians 4:8-11

Isolation is a virtue

Judging by the nationalists now permeating all of the capitals on the planet one has to think that most people are either moronic racists or incapable of recognizing a quacking duck as a duck. Does any leader of any nation need to say he puts his nation first?  Do people really need high walls and fences to recognize and confirm their country’s integrity or are they simply paranoid anti-immigrant fascists and racial supremacists?

Ignorance is the treasure of lazy people

People in every nation are perishing because of the lack of knowledge or vision. The nations that deny their famine are many;  in fact the ones that do not deny are hard to find.  The people with the most rules and regulations are mired in corruption and deliberate misanthropy more than most.

Insensitivity dies with every sunrise

Many of us keep making sure we put our heads down at night having forgiven our fellow man when he’s wronged us.  It is worth it to consider what we can do so we can work the next day with a clean slate. I need to do justice, I need to be ready to love, ready to do mercy, ready to walk humbly without God and fellow man. You do not carry you around grudges and revenge from day to day and call it justice.

Certified grace with every sunrise

With the certainty of evil every day (Matthew 6:34) and the brazen incidents of sinful and criminal behaviour breaking out in broad daylight there is no doubt that our survival through each night, when malicious agents prefer to operate, is due to intense, invincible and incomparable care and generosity. While we are sleeping evil lurks but there is one who does not sleep as the mourning, weeping, groaning Zionite reminds us.

“They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”

“The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.”

Lamentations 3:22-23

I would rather celebrate any old weekday than the festivals of our cultural heritage and religious traditions.

Flat on his face

eejoseph

There is quite a dramatic story told in the apocryphal book Bel and the Dragon, in which the idol routines of idol worshiping Babylonians are exposed. We, by accurately addressing the claims of the apostolic fathers of the Church of Christ, expose the belly-slithering operations of the Idol worshippers of our times. It does not take long to follow the courage banner and draw the line between snake-oil salesmen and genuine followers of truth, justice, and humility. Despite the flashes of hope that have lit our path from time to time in the Americas and wherever true religion rises, some people seem unable to stop themselves from majoring in minors or mouthing the same silly fables of the idolatry of a Christian nation ankle-deep in bigotry. Another idol demise comes to mind from the days of Samuel and the exposure of Dagon, one of the gods of the Philistines. Instead of making the world better place the great images raised as beacons for a great many generations are no heroes, because they are flat on their faces.

“Now the Babylons had an idol, called Bel, and there were spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine.” (Bel and the Dragon 1:3, KJVA)

Just the mention of love, beauty, and justice suffices to silence Dagon

“Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.”

1 Samuel 5:1-4, NASB

While the priests who officiated at Bel’s shrine were able to convince the Babylonian king, and we assume, the people, that Bel the idol consumed the food they lavished upon Him daily, Daniel knew the truth about Bel’s appetite.

… for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered in continually, and consumed those things.” (Bel and the Dragon 1:13, KJVA)

Flat on its face with no legs

Let us not forget that Israelite worship turned out to be worse than Canaanite abominations, and that is why we do not hesitate in the 21st century to proclaim that Anglo-Saxon civilization is worshiping a god that is flat on his face. The threat of police brutality and foolish national pride does not move the vast majority of Christians. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is one of a precious few who have exposed the modern Bel, Getting on TV and radio with the thieving watchmen who can do no better than sell books, promise people prosperity and freedom is no achievement to write home about. The attempt to imitate ancient or modern Israel is already flat on its face. The election of corrupt people like the 45th president and MAGA mob only goes to show the modern Dagon flat on its face, it is the icon of a society going nowhere, because it has no legs. Let us by all means remember Dr. King, Senator Warnock and the late John Lewis by distinguishing ourselves from the merchandising evangelical idols of our times.

When a prophet misleads

eejoseph

Let no one depend on the words of a prophet. They are capable of lying and fabricating. Moses is commended for his faithfulness in all of his affairs, and yet we see that he was not allowed to enter the promised land because of personal misbehavior, namely, unfaithfulness. What can we say about the many prophets who are unfamiliar with God’s word? What can we say about those who do not know the languages in which the sacred texts were written? What good is a prophet who is incapable of properly interpreting the written word? The sin of the prophet gets multiplied infinitely to the extent that everybody becomes engaged in foolishness.

Dire circumstances result from lying prophets

“Therefore the Lord does not take pleasure in their young men, Nor does He have pity on their orphans or their widows; For every one of them is godless and an evildoer, And every mouth is speaking foolishness. In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still stretched out. For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke. By the fury of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up, And the people are like fuel for the fire; No man spares his brother.”

(Isaiah 9:17-19, NASB)

Not only does foolishness proliferate, but compassion is removed from the heart of people who believe lies and glorify things that do not matter. It is easy for a prophet to ignore the fact that scriptures are the safeguard of truth, that an impression, from any source, does not suffice for good feeding of the mind. Prophet can not just jump up or fall down and say they had a vision or something landed in their spirit. We have seen that people have relied on the phenomenon of a person falling to the ground as proof that the spirit of God is at work. We have also seen that the vision assumed to be behind prophetic expressions is assumed to be reliable because the person with the vision has an extraordinary experience of something that looks like death or supernatural strength.

Let no one depend on his fellow man. We are living in an age when people have access to the word of God, and it is laziness and neglect to be personally unfamiliar with God’s written word.