Moabite sanctuary according to David

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 eejosephLeave a comment

And the LORD said to me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give you of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.
Deuteronomy 2:9

A great deal of Israelite distress had to do with their interactions with the Moabites. Indeed it was an interaction with the Moabites on the very borders of Canaan that led to an extermination of a large number of Israelites due to the prostitution explosion (Numbers 25). David was obviously aware of this Deuteronomy instruction and his family’s debt to Moab (the story of Ruth and Naomi) when he did the following.

… smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.
2 Samuel 8:2

This is not the only time David spared the life of a known enemy

Next time you think you have a victory or think you are doing a great and wonderful thing consider how many people might be paying for it.

Ain’t GOD the truth?

April 23, 2020 eejosephLeave a comment

What have we become, having substituted God’s SON for the comforts of national pride, dead prophets and Mammon?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Psalms 2:2, 12

Of course you can

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 eejosephLeave a comment

It is completely mind-boggling for Christians to believe that they have a problem with forgiving someone. Our Lord had an encounter with his contemporaries people because he dared to say to someone “Your sins are forgiven”, yet this is what everyone expected when he came to the Tabernacle to deal with his sin.

It shall be forgiven him

The big problem is that we are authorized to forgive as a gateway to our own forgiveness from on high.

The unwritten code

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 eejosephLeave a comment

Everyone has a story to tell but there are things to acknowledged and expressly to be kept off the written page. Typically we resort to “It is written” and this is of little value when the thunder-spoken words are not written in our identity and experience.

And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Revelation of John 10:4

It is not possible to find these utterances in the Bible

This episode in Revelation 10 illustrates the important difference between following the Bible carefully as learners and connecting with the Speaker.

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2 Corinthians 3:6

Caring temperatures slump to 32°F

April 23, 2020April 22, 2020 eejosephLeave a comment

When we buy the popular mantras of religion or politics we can end up with our feet in our mouths. Our parents’ word was supreme when we were children and even the word of any elder in the community was functionally acceptable. Not any more. Who cares what the neighbour in By teenage we discard much of what they tell us, if not officially and conscientiously, at least experimentally, just to see what the other side of the tracks look like. If we are in adulthood the spitting image of our teenage and preteen personas we deserve the fate of pillars of salt. Love songs and family traditions are killing us while caring for each other slides to a cold 0°.

We cannot ignore those cultures that dig in their heels to keep intact and unchangeable everything received in their traditions from the cradle to the grave. It is common knowledge that no change, no growth is deadly. So says Malachi, Moses, and John the Baptist.

Did God ever say to His son, behave youself?
Was the law given to the world or to the only nation the Bible calls an evil nation, seed of evil-doers?
Since sins and its lure come from within a person, what was Jesus’ struggle?

Can you imagine an Elijah who would tell you “Keep going! Everything’s gonna be alright!”? The world is on the rocks of its traditions of racial purity, exclusive religions and clubs, imperial aspirations, and false ideas about God.

Why does anyone suppose that religions are vigorously trying to shape their profile as insiders and stakeholders with the very powers that have denied what most people know about good and evil, the goodness of all creatures and the common debt to each other and God? If our attitudes to our neighbours ever include “I do not care” or “It does not matter” we are in the fridge. God does not accept a standard of love that treats people as not worth the whole universe. Law and order is a phony agent of love.