Did SCOTUS just spam the American people by approving a racist and xenophobic travel ban? The highest courts of any country operate with a soul or a set of rocks. The law of the land may be despicable today and treasured tomorrow. Laws can be changed. Officials, including church leaders, are required to stick to the set of rocks, those unchanging statements of responsibility and privilege, but to have a soul is to acknowledge that there are situations where law and constitution are oppressive and securely tethered to malevolence.

SCOTUS definitely did.  Two examples from the Sacred Texts will show how insensitivity in stewards can lead to oppressive and damnable conclusions. In the first, Yeshua’s contemporaries brought a woman, caught in the very act of adultery, to him and requested a ruling, expecting a guilty verdict and the inevitable stoning.  A child, would ask “Where is the man?” where a lawyer or supposedly informed adult would plunge on blindly. That group of Jewish men had suspended logical and simple thinking. Two entities are essential to establish a violation of any law: God and man, man and man. Our Lord spared the woman’s life by ruling that only sinless persons are eligible to condemn and stone an individual.

The second brings attention to the life-saving priority which law-set-in-stone does not address. Three perspectives will help us understand how real goodness can be avoided. Sabbath and uncleanness regulations would prevent people from engaging with people who were in need or deemed unclean. Knowing that one’s donkey is suffering should move one to relieve that suffering even when the expectations of written standards are contrary to exerting oneself. The leaders who sought the death of Christ approached the Roman governor but refused to enter his quarters.

Dead consciences are in high demand: owned by people who will act like stuck weather-vanes, either under demonic influence, their own acting (=hypocritical) skills, or pure partisan alliance.

Goodness does not delight in law. Goodness is life-saving or life-preserving or that goodness is utter trash. The right to self-expression and the right to bear arms are not life-preserving: they enable homicide. Law is irrelevant if it does nothing to save or preserve life. As long as people place republic or state above the common wholeness of humanity we know that the claim to trust in a printed document (or video), Law and order slogans is hollow, and a great deal of high court rulings will continue to be pure examples of suspended principles advancing malevolence.

Yeshua would want us to remember his own migrant experience as we position our thinking regarding migrant experience in our times. It is a horrific and despicable act that is playing out in the countries that have benefited from and exploited nations far and near in pursuit of the capitalist dream. The glory of empires eventually fade when Satanics are front and centre. It is not merely politics.

O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour: Dan 5:18, And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. Dan 5:19, But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: Dan 5:20,

Migration a mega-hub of the spiritual world.

Of course spiritual things are Spirit-sourced and Spirit-driven, but the migration sparked a seismic shift in the Levant. Abraham’s trek into Canaan sets the ball rolling in a practical way towards neighbourliness (he would have allies in Canaan, friends in Egypt, his descendants would seek famine relief in Egypt, the whole family would call Egypt home for 400 years, David would give a front row seat to Jebusites, Tyrians, Gittites in his projects) and towards the priestly kingdom covenant.
Even as we contemplate bringing people together for the sheer joy of it and for finding solutions to our common problems with courageous thinking and for inter-community relations.

Imagine what the world would look like:

• If Abraham had not dared to emigrate…
• If the Canaanites had international walls…
• If Abraham had built cities with walls (as the Canaanites did)…
• If Egypt was accepting hungry people from the north…
• If Egypt was not accepting refugees from the north…

Without migration we have little to talk about in the 21st century.  Migration is happening and children and needy people are facing walls as if walls can be erected which will not be thrown down.  Civilized people engage with hospitality, and the bigots can drum up any passage of Scripture to provide a rationale for their cruelty, demonic rages, consistent lies, and lack of humanity. The despised ancient Canaanites, whose injustices had filled up the cup of divine forbearance and were being judged, make the beasts of our time, in every continent and island, look like the most despicable entities in God’s estimation, boastful and incorriigible prostitutes. They welcomed and befriended Abraham. The migrants knocking on our doors deserve better.

When Judeo-Christian standards have no heart for children and creates misery for them I smell a curse.
Walls and prisons are signs of social decay

• in Babylon
• in China
• in Israel
• or in the United States

The great America cannot build protection children in school but wants a wall to isolate itself. Where would America be without France, Haiti, and African labour?

Fact. Broken constitutions lead to broken nations. Unenlightened hearts have lost even natural affection and the cowardly legislators can approve inappropriate and unsustainable affections in the guise of the liberty of love.

The world needs parental hearts sensitive to children equally as it needs the hearts of children sensitive to parents.  Fatherhood is defined as interest in orphans and widows. Civilized society chooses to help, and passing on the other side, terrorizing the poor is
as poor as judgment can get.

If Israel is the pattern for walls and security we can kiss shalom goodbye because God is not enforcing decency. One gets it from birth or gets it in the grace package that Yeshua alone can give.

It sounds like a long stretch to say that one’s killer is one’s rescuer. Does not serpent-on-a-pole feel just like that very thing. Opinions abound about God’s will;  fantastic slogans, maxims, words, some unhinged from the life and death axis.  The Law of God is one of those innocent victims of our tendency to quickly say “I got it”.  If one hangs one’s hat on the law as a but after the gospel then it is fair to say that one has not really met the Christ of repenting faith.  One has not changed one’s mind.  There is no confusion about who Christ is or what his message is and no shortage of clarity on the stark difference between him and Moses (and the prophets).  We cannot hear the Son and Moses at the same time.  On the Titanic they heard “The ship’s going down”.  John the Baptist put it, “Time’s up. Tree-chopping time”. Do we believe our report?
Some people did not believe John, and Moses was not all that popular either.  Moses himself admits “Don’t ask me.  Ask Messiah”.  Since we are all born dead, is not the value of our training in righteousness as children as a mere stop-gap bandaid?  We all have to turn to Christ for life.

Already under condemnation.

People in the law and people without the law are condemned until Christ justifies them, apart from works.  Since righteousness is apart from (without reference to) the law (Rom. 3:19-21) it is not “spin” to say that righteousness is exactly what the Lord’s covenant says it is not (Heb. 8:8-9).  The Old Covenant is not included in the New Covenant.
Consider the complication of accusations of lifestyle with the Law as a kick-em-when-they-are-down judgment.  There is no condemnation in Christ, and did Moses not condemn every violation? One cannot bring the Sinai Covenant on-stream without dragging oneself through the whole futility of human-interest ordinances, obedience without faith, and faith without love.
Furthermore the hatred of sin that some people claim to have is not credible. We have no legitimate claim to be sin-free (1 John 1:8-10); our distinction claim is that we have Someone who is Sin-bearer, designated so from before the foundation of the world.  That is what is settled.   Exactly what one has hid in one’s heart (Psalm 119:11) is a mystery.  God internalizes His laws (Heb. 8:8-10), and we pledge, uninvited (Heb 12:18, 22), to keep the law and need forgiveness every day (Mat. 6:12).

Lord of our thinking

Exactly how Yeshua is the lord of our thinking is neither rocket science requiring endless tiring books and propped up theories, nor child’s play (1 Cor. 13:11).   Putting him in that place guarantees our golden communications and a quality of life that was previously inaccessible. Our lives before Christ had nothing we can bring to the Father’s judgment seat. It is obvious that Messianic priority is not compliance with tradition, whether prophetic, patriarchal or Mosaic. Both Messiah and his herald called for a change of mind. “Repent”, was the shout.  One has to address the Old and the New.
The old repent is a frequent and urgent call to return to Yahweh that is no longer relevant, not even for a Jew.  The monumental covenant is caput. Did we not see the veil of the temple yield its secret? The Christ Event in dramatic fashion – the evangelists connect Christ’s last breath with the rending of the temple’s veil – bring to light the witness against the Sons of Israel and a broken law/covenant (what else could be its report?).  The new is a call for all humans to repent of unbelief and receive authority as God’s children.  There is nothing but Christ’s gifts in the Holy Spirit’s work, before we are saved, and nothing but Yeshua in the Holy Spirit’s guidance of believers into the fullness of Truth. Photoshopping the message of the Law and the prophets to say “keep up the charade of our rich customs” is a diabolic strategy.  Coming to Christ means decreasing whatever holdings we thought we had, whether we are Jew or Gentile.  If a Jew, like Paul, could say it was all rubbish when he met Christ, do we get the oscar for marketplace games (Luke 7:32)?

• And when he [the Holy Spirit] is come, he will reprove the world of sin,
  and of righteousness,
• and of judgment: John 16:8,
• Of sin, because they believe not on me; John 16:9,
• Of righteousness [=resurrecton], because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; John 16:10,
• Of judgment [examination], because the prince of this world is judged. John 16:11,

Is there room for another spokesman?

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to come. John 16:13,
He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. John 16:14,
All things that the Father hath are mine:
therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. John 16:15

If instruction is not Way, Reliability and Life, then go ahead, clarify the obscure.  Yeshua has the three covers we need.

Did Solomon, a man given to exhaustive research, ask about the veracity of ascension tales?

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? Prov. 30:4

His grandson, thousands of years later, said no-one ever did. John 3:13

How many fables bite the dust with this piece of intelligence?

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

When one considers that Peter, in addressing the veracity of statements that clamour for acceptance as reliable, contrasts God’s voice with fables, then one can conclude that there were many fables. The chief fable is still the first lie: you shall not certainly die.

Yeshua clears the clutter.

The “one thing” interest of the New Testament times seeker was not entirely illogical; it was also reasonable.  Neither is Paul’s one thing one of the hyperbolic sayings: all thing, one thing, etc.  There really is a one thing, but there never was one thing that a man could do to get life.  In the light of the burdens imposed by the Mosaic tradition one naturally, I think, yearns to be be free.  Of course, and there is the jubilee.  Adam, by contrast, had one prohibition.The “one thing” interest of the New Testament times seeker was not entirely illogical; it was also reasonable.  Neither is Paul’s one thing one of the hyperbolic sayings: all thing, one thing, etc.  There really is a one thing, but there never was one thing that a man could do to get life.  In the light of the burdens imposed by the Mosaic tradition one naturally, I think, yearns to be be free.  Of course, and there is the jubilee.  Adam, by contrast, had one prohibition.  At the core of our chaos is the proposition that Christ is Lord.  Just him.

The people who sat in darkness are expected to rise up when the light enters their space.  They are expected to renounce – like garbage or dung – the previous darkness and every appearance of its badness.  To do so, the contemporaries of John the Baptist and Yeshua were squeezed between the scant knowledge they had of God’s Law and the prophetic teaching (and the scribes were not the best facilitators of knowledge dissemination) and the relief that the Saviour offered in word and deed.  They faced accusations of abandoning Moses and the patriarchal traditions.  A tiny remnant was graced to see the light and rise up.  The rest were blinded.  We know little of the pressures the first disciples faced and we dare to cling to what they had to discard.  None of the wise men, kings or prophets, are equipped to speak as Yeshua is.  Ask Moses!  Ask John!

All eyes on Yeshua

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. Deut 18:18,

And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. John 1:21,

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. John 6:14,

 

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. Acts 3:22, And it shall come to pass, [that] every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:23,

 

So in what way can we say we have accepted our separation from the prison of the Law when we claim that it is our moral guide?  Here is another case of God approving something for which we have created a mantra “God hates divorce”.

 

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? Rom 7:1, For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband. Rom 7:2, So then if, while [her] husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Rom 7:3, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Rom 7:4,

We come to Christ with no claim to circumcision or uncircumcision (Jewish or not).  We are all dead people who need life.  Did we start with Chrust from dead?   Yes or no.

 

Yes or no.

As far as looking forward is concerned we have no narrative or clear teaching that allows us to say that the ancients actively looked forward to the person we know as Messiah Yeshua. In fact we have evidence that people in antiquity who wrote, spoke, and lived the truth did not even know what they were writing about, and some were even unaware of divine mercy to all people. They had several covenants to pay attention to, they had the exhortation of prophets, the leadership of kings and priests, all comprising a very full plate without the conflicting hope of the One who would cut down the crowding weed, and plant trees that sing out at the presence of Yahweh (1 Chro. 16:33) The Lord gets his glory by planting his own trees, trees of righteousness, individuals, not any group (Isaiah 61:3). We can say that a future event fires our thoughts and actions but it is only our cross-connected now that assures us of lamp, light, and fuel.
Looking back calls for some reality checks: the start, the process, the destination. These position the reader, for example:

1. to relate to Genesis as the database for where the roots of humanity’ are socially, spiritually, internationally, and election (enter Abram).
2. to relate to Exodus as a record of salvation and covenant (enter Bne Yisrael)
3. to relate to Numbers as the picture of the journey of the chosen people
4. to relate to Leviticus as the instructions about how to approach God (enter priesthood and invitation), ark means come boldly
5. to relate to Deuteronomy as the picture of the page-turning instructions about journey and rest

The kings and historical books have their unique place as examples of global governance in defiance of past and present graces.  The prophets are the witness to the grace and insistence of God in pursuing people to pay attention to agrewed upon business
So in looking back there is good reason to connect with relevant matters. People have chosen various ancient practices as foundations for our times. The ratiional that first must be first is hollow, because we know that change follows discovery, and discovery stirs growth.
There are pictures of Christ all over the Old Testament, and my interest goes beyond his teaching, because much of that has to do with Jews and Jewish religion.  My interest looks past the commandments to the promises, because they give life.  I look past all the messengers to hear the Risen Lord himself speak.  I thank God to have rescued me from several devilish snares.  These snares include:

DIET: vegetarian (Genesis 1 ignoring Genesis 9), the proposition that the priests are probably supposed to reckoned as handicapped because they consumed a great deal of animal flesh, roasted and boiled is not sustainable.
FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES: (Genesis 24, 25, 28, and 34, ignoring Ruth and Rahab Jacob’s and Isaac’s marriages), marriages within one’s clan (Isaac and Jacob), Moses is the child of an aunt Exo. 6:20, [later prohibited Lev. 18:14, with dire consequence Lev. 20:20], Since marriages between saved and unsaved are unavoidable prohibitions against marriage are inappropriate. The sanctified spouse is a loving bridge for the unsaved partner.
QUASI-HEALTHFUL LIVING in Exodus. 15:26 and Leviticus 11, (ignoring Lev. 11:24, Lev. 11:25, Lev. 11:27, Lev. 11:28, Lev. 11:31, Lev. 11:32, Lev. 11:39, Lev. 11:40 which show that this kind of uncleanness is not guilt requiring remission. Attaching a perfect medical exam to perfect compliance with the law is more bondage than anyone can reasonably undertake,, and unreasonable, since Christ heals without strings and often with a word, in addition to the intrinsic mechanism of repar and restoration in the human body.
TEMPLE and TABERNACLE THEOLOGY: Christ is the reality of atonement: he is priest, sacrifice, mercy-seat, lamp, incense-prayer facilitator. It all points to the cruciform Christ, not to the tabernacle items and process.

Skipping lightly over the Book of Hebrews’ proposition and elevating the temple and ritual are irresponsible choices. Christ eclipses all the messengers. The writer of Hebrews is quite kind and dispassionate. He simply contrasts the ancient messengers and the ancient means with the contemporary Son of God. Our Lord himself is more transparent. He says that all who ever came before him were thieves and robbers. John’s vision is about heavenly realities (not types) and the city that is to come. There is no temple that is not Christ himself.  Even the temple’s veil meets its end in Christ’s flesh and exposed as defunct at his death.

Bullying the disciples did not work in the first century. Another Pharisee revolt from Christ in the 21st century is in full swing. It is coming with a new ugliness, that does not shy away from putting Christ off to the side to pursue demonic doctrines. They desperately try to prove that everything in the Bible is all good, convert you to their outdated practices and discredited heroes, then they pronounce you saved.  Once you have committed yourself to the Bib el they can terrorize you with whatever kindergarten and human convention – eat, drink, clothing – they have chosen.  So we  ask “Good for what?”

We should not even be talking about physical exercise, much less diet.  One can hardly pick up the diet torch without drilling down into other xenophobic follies.   If the righteousness is a Pharisee version – Moses, don’t touch, taste or handle – then Christ ahs brought something that exceeds that, and  one should run for one’s life.   There is an invention, a  substititute, for every ancient commandment of human scope.  One should not be surprised to hear them have an antitype to circumcision.  Ultimately we are intensely interested in the Bible.  Do we need to depend on it? Yes or no.  Is it all good for salvation? Yes or no.
What would be the point of Chrisians devoting themselves to study without a goal, namely to find the footprints and promises of our Lord Yeshua?   It is not through commandments that we work out our kingdom connections, but through promises.

by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2Pet 1:4,

 

Next – The One Thing in the New Testament

 

 

Yes or no.  Prosperity preachers can say “Money answers to everything” until the islands flee away; money will not register in the real world of Truth and Life. In fact, we have seen how the church idolizes the rich instead of warning them about the difficulty of finding the way to the kingdom. This money message is an example of how a standard of the secular world, which is the domain attached to Solomon’s wisdom, gets a seat at the Messianic table. The poor still gets despised when what really works is the embrace of Father-love. We harass the lost with our particular doctrines instead of engaging in a sincere show and tell of the Saviour’s excellence (1 Peter 2:9). Mammon or man do not deserve that honour.
Confused about life and death?

Entities are either dead or alive. Only God is eternal. Immortality must be a gift if man possesses it. God’s ability to create and annihilate is not in question. We recognize that both the unseen and the seen facets of a person can be destroyed in fire. The wind, the desires of the human heart, the pain of loss and bereavement are all unseen, but are not eternal. There is is no eternal human. We all die. We are all dead. Adam needed exactly what we need: someone to care for him. Immortality then, coming to light through the Gospel, is that most precious gift that represents what we “look like” when grace is done with us.   God does not take back his gifts.

Fire will consume both men and angels.  In particular we have not seen where immortality is not God’s gift with which he complements his creation’s new mind with a body like Christ’s. The renewed person has the mind of Christ, which is practically access to a fruity lifestyle (Gal. 5:22) and humble service (1 Cor. 12:18-13:13). No-one would dare to debate the fact of a new person: new thinking and standing, new desires and work. The new person is a work in progress, growing in grace, and awaiting the crown of life, immortality.   Hence a converted person is a new process, not a product, a new creation, not a new creature.

As Christ’s sheep we have become familiar with truth. We hear his voice and will not follow another (John 10:5). This is an important part of our safety. Hearing that voice must certainly mean seeing him in the story. Sadly, in our stories, we are discovering versions of the Gospel.  Both the learned person and the unlearned are increasingly in a position to muddy the waters and trample the grass the sheep need.  There is only one gospel.
It is becoming more and more of a torture routine to find out what straight lines believers have that connect them with saving realities.  Many people find themselves unable to say the obvious without embellishing.  The simple truth, Christ died, Christ rose, is sufficient.  There is no duty to polish up the perfect. But the witness who thinks that he or she needs to update the gospel with a biblical hook other than cross-glory is merely putting up a fig-leag to cover his orientation and knowledge.  This is like putting up our money after the sales clerk says “Your bill is paid in full”.
After having four witness in the gospels, (not two or three!), tell us that Christ preached, taught, and kept his head down until his time came to die, we recognize that a gospel that puts money at the centre, or Law and prophets on the lampstand, is not even good storytelling.

So our looking back connects us with happening things, things tethered to God’s eternal mind.  Christian looking back to the Cross is looking at now in its most dynamic face.