We have all been trying to interpret what the various messages mean for us, but it sometimes seem as if the goals are either to apply the idea before its relevance and its unique connection to reality are discovered or to find some metaphorical application of everything we read. The instructions about holiness and removing uncleanness, for example, have no place in an informed environment when the procedure ends in someone being stoned to death. The proclamations about what God is and the actions he engages in are also major turning points. The filters we use for separating the enduring pieces of revelaton from the expected, desired, and probable. We will see that rightly-dividing however will affect a verse, a sentence, a paragraph, and it does take courage to separate faith and life from fear and works.

As judge God will not be found accusing and seeking the condemnation of anyone. Despite the loud claims for capital lunishment as the ultimate verdict againts wrongdoing it has no place in civic – much less Christian – society.

The shepherd and his shepherding

“The Lord is my shepherd” states what is. He does not stop being my shepherd, no matter what the sheep’s condition or situation. The actions the shepherds performs are many, all in recognition of the sheep’s needs.

• (I) lack
• makes me lie down
• leads (me)
• makes my soul return
• (I) walk
• (I) fear
• (he) comforts
• you prepare
• anoint
• pursues (me)
• (I) dwell

The thirsty sheep may not be in the field to eat the grass but Yahweh is still shepherd. The sheep may not see or even recognize the overflowing cup, but Yahweh is still shepherd.

A similar relationship between fact and action, between what is and what happens appears in the Lord’s sayings about the identity iof His disciples. When he says “You are the light of the world” he states what is, not what we can try to become. We are well aware of what light’s functions are. If we do not believe that we are light or salt of living stones we will never consent to the mysteries flowing through us. Lamps do not light themselves, and their light streams as naturally as a fig tree bears figs.

Separating the trust from the fear

The difference between what one does and who one is cannot be corrected by trying to adjust what one is. That requires a creative/redemptive act. When I lack, I know I am his sheep. What God says is, is. Accepting that fact seems to be the hub of fearful and unfruitful lives. We cannot get a glimpse of the actions God initiates on our behalf if we do not fully embrace what he says is the framework – He’s our shepherd. When our life is being drained, when we are in death’s valley, we have our shepherd and he is with us. In this frame, Immanuel comes alive for the believer and there is no condition that separates the beloved from the Lover.

It is my birthday. My dad had 88 of them, and mother had 92. If you imagine that I have a few octagenarian relatives and exceptional caregivers among them, you are right.  The days I spent in their frontline care amount to the full number of their share of their days. As I celebrate this marker I am full of gratitude for them and for all the people who have stood courageously beside me, those who have quietly made sure there was wind under my wings to keep me aloft. 

This birthday is more than happy. The many things I dreamed of as a juvenile and as a young adult that are today’s reality are momentous. To understand my destiny as wrapped up in my village, in the capital city of my native land, and the specific ideals passed on to me, is to understand the popularity of injustice and insensitivity and the youthful courage to resist.

Above all, I have learned that resistance is futile when destiny calls and now the stars are in procession for triumph. I have learned to honour my siblings – love really begins at home – ECL, EVU, and WW.

How dare anyone who died with Christ keep running to dogma – law or statute of any kind – as if life in the world was actually maintained by human observation and performances. Talk about arrogance and foolish pride!

Colossians 2:20

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

Dying with Christ has nothing to do with our accountability but with his. We did not care that much. So dying with Christ has nothing to do with our personal preferences but with his. He chose us. Dying with Christ has nothing to do with our performance but with his. His one act of laying down his life still blows away anything we can possibly do or anything we have wanted to do.

I died with Christ

The text is a powerful affirmation of the fact that we died. There is nothing iffy about me needing to die in order to live. I died to elementary things. I died to law and prophets. I died to don’t touch, I died to dont taste, I died to don’t handle, but that is where we are, rejecting the death-to-life trail, and looking on high to see the things of Christ is of little interest to us.

Forgetting why we died is a sign of denial of Christ’s lordship.

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

Proverbs 25:2

God’s concealing and our searching constitute a monumental and beneficial hide and seek. God is not in the hiding business but neither does he leave his business out in the open. Recall how Yeshua spoke in parables, and how he called the most important revelations mysteries.

Royal Assignment

• God is not opposed to kings; his glory is not opposed to man’s honour
• Neither kings nor commoner can find God by searching
• God’s concealing his business does not put it beyond reach.

Far from being opposites, God and the king are in the business of honouring each other.

There is no need to wax poetic over kabod being aplied to God and man. There is no need to change the translation of dabar when it applies to either God or man.

Conceal = encrypt
Glory and honour; kavode כבוד
Thing and matter; word, dabar דבר

God’s fingerprint is on display in the encryption of his business. If you do no research you are not a king/queen. In nature and the written revelation God is revealing matters, and nothing trivial. Though these are matters are apparently ignored by many, the messages await in their encrypted states the deciphering by our ears, eyes, taste, touch, and intellect. There are two criteria for dealing with God’s encrypted business.

Overwhelmed by choices

Unklike the crooked systems of human governance our choices of getting the glory are simple and transparent. The choices of where a matter lands is binary. The design of the universe has binary distinctions: life and death, good for us and bad for us. Beyond binary is mere diversity: The beginning of our realities had heaven and earth. The consummation of God’s business is a series of heaven-on-earth kind of activities.

Correct Criteria

One must measure everything by heaven and earth. Recall how Yehsua taught using the motif the kingdom of heaven is like. He also made it clear that when heaven initiates change in the earth the subjects are like the wind – one does not know its origin or destination. This means that the revolving explanations of what is or ought to be in the hearts of queens and kings are likely to be a lot of hot air.

The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.

Proverbs 25:3

When we are done seeking out the wise sayings of Solomon, Hezekiah’s men, Agur, and Lemuel we will find that there is not much that informs our great salvation. Solomon has a descendant whose glory and kingdom eclipses anything Solomon came up with or possessed, and the ancient kingdoms under David’s dynasty or not are measured purely by earth, not heaven.