The dunghill awaits the adventure buffs

eejoseph,

Are you seeking security or adventure?

Give me collective security any day

Mercenaries and the pampered class would like to be known as adventurers but one would think that after two deadly wars and dozens of deadly conflicts that humanity would have found a formula for security.  Not the case.  Most people are plotting their next investment in capital projects.

The mercenary and merchant complex

Every single bloc of nations prefers to pour billions of dollars into lucrative ventures than to secure a foundation for societies to cooperate and thrive.  Is it because people think that there must always be us and them in every aspect of life?  If collective security was a priority among the well armed nations Russia would not be levelling Ukrainian towns and villages today, sixteen months after Russia declared its special military operation.

National choices

I seek to become free having to hear from MxGA mercenaries.  Any nation that once was great deserves a place at the bottom of the barrel and a throne at the landfill.  Great again? What a total load of manure!  Did Greece or Rome or Babylon or Persia ever rise again?  Who is going to Jerusalem to be awed by the wisdom of any of Israel’s sages or political stars?  Not a soul.  Most adventures end up with somebody being cheated, oppressed, discriminated against, and exploited.  It is not walls that give people security, but arms outstretched with assistance and cooperation.  

Physician, heal yourself

eejoseph,

In New Testament times the jab at incompetent professionals hits a brick wall.  The physician healed himself and the whole world, if they darken his door.  The jab comes hundreds of years after the Jewish people were given 70 years to correct their rebellious ways.  The leopard did not change its spots.  The Republicans despise the republic of equal rights and justice for all.  The Christian preacher spends more time in the Pentateuch and the book of Proverbs than in the message of Jesus Christ crucified, dead, buried, Risen and exalted.  I am sure you recognize a prophet and expert who does not read proficiently.   Miracle-workers who never turn the hose on themselves are all over the broadcast world and proliferate in the churches.  The physicians are not healing themselves.

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”

Luke 4:23

Prove who you are, here and now

I find it ludicrous that gospel workers want to appear as fixers of problems but only those of others.  They do not seem to be aware of,  or much less fix,  their own medical, financial, and professional pathologies.  The obsession with the sign or wonder is a symptom of adultery.  So said the Lord Yeshua in Matthew 12:39b, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet”.  After hearing a mumbo jumbo message, most typically, one that says nothing about the cross or the Spirit-led life, the last thing a person needs is an uncorroborated miracle.

When the law and the prophets fade

Yeshua goes on to lay down his life, with people daring him to rescue himself from an ignominious death, from ridicule and taunts. It was obvious that neither the law nor the prophets had healed the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The law was quite clearly instruction people sought ways to ignore, and the prophets were constantly making stuff up. The proverb “Physician, heal yourself” was a better fit for the case of the slaughter of animals in the temple and the lucrative market that was making some people wealthy.  Yeshua puts a cap on the healing arts and the “proof of the pudding” in such a way as to make the proverb, “Physician, heal yourself” unforgettable and forever relevant.

Tent of meeting is fleeting

eejoseph

The centre of Israelite worship and government was a tent.  That fact along with Yahweh’s promise to put his name in a certain place in Canaan makes certain that no one should be trying to make the tent economy permanent.

Tent economy

The tent had both secret and known components.  It was the hub of a literal economy.  The spiritual exercises – everything requiring thought – can be summed up covenant privileges and obligations.  All the workings spilled out into plain and public view the day Christ died.  If a temple is built in Israel it would revive the Mosaic economy with the same exclusive regulations and tribal supremacy.  The tent economy was a role play of global salvation.  The second temple was a mere shadow of Solomon’s temple, and yet it was filled with unprecedented glory when the children filled the compound with cries of Hosannah.  If that Temple was indeed a permanent installation in Salvation history Christ would have died there, as was the case for all the animals slaughtered to pay for sin and transgression.  Christ died outside the gates of the city.

The temporary arrangements

  • Things to remember, primarily events
  • Things to avoid
  • Things to repeat annually
  • Things to come, primarily promises, detailed and unspecified

The darkness without Christ, the Logos

When the writer of Hebrews wrote that Christ is now God’s spokesman (Hebrews 1:1-2) he was telling his readers where to look and to whom they needed to listen.  Since Christ was the sacrifice, the priest, and the guarantee of God’s promises the sacred tent was now obsolete, and so were its regulations.  It is not a secret that all the prophets, priests and kings of Israel and Judah give way to the Seed, Son of David, God’s Anointed.

11) Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? 12) For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

Hebrews 7:11-12, NASB

Most believers sleep in through breakfast

One of the good things that came

No mercy seat, made of gold, silver, or platinum, compares to Christ. The sacred tent was not a picture of another tent. The furniture was not a picture of other furniture. Since the outcome of Christ’s sacrificial service is complete and effective what use is there for a location, anywhere, where atonement takes place? People who never accepted Christ as God will try to keep the juvenile handrails in service and eventually turn to theories about everything, while God’s manifest accomplishments lie like fallow ground.

Real people power

eejoseph,

What are you most excited about for the future?

The meek inherit the earth again, eat, drink and enjoy

A lot of future scenarios are purely pie in the sky, and the show we have endured of empires and mega commerce will come to an abrupt end. No light, no business, literally. When the power systems of our times – the solar, the fossil fuel, the nuclear, become ineffective, the meek will truly inherit the earth. No one will be waiting for courts to rule on access to nourishment and recreation. Big business will flicker and dangle on the cliffs of silence. Angels, who neither marry nor procreate are said to personify human destiny, so it is not a stretch to have expectations about humans being like birds and the lillies of the field, astonishingly adorned with individual splendour. Governments, both large and small, will have no levers to pull, no bottom line, no profit margin, and no corrupt law enforcement. Do not ask me when. Maybe after the next great earthquake? Maybe after the waves cover the machinery of the generals and the mighty? Maybe after the sun scorched the delicate instruments of oppression? Maybe the meek will, without shame, inherit the earth “… in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will have abundance.” (Psalms 37:19, NASB)

But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Psalms 37:11

Coins to collect

eejoseph


Paul’s first coin to the Romans comes immediately after the salutation ends. Thus, verse eight is to be understood as his selling of himself, the main verb being eucharistô, I am giving thanks. Paul signals the coin by placing men (μεν) before “I give thanks”, and we find the de (δε) in verse 12.

Flip sides in literature

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” (Romans 1:8, NASB)

“that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (Romans 1:12, NASB)

By his coins the writer may confront the reader with flip sides of his views or experience, etc. The head and the tail of Paul ‘s coin are his thanksgiving and his joint comfort regarding the Roman believers.

Head and tail

  • THANKS that their faith in Christ is a witness to the whole world (verse 8)
  • Joint COMFORT that the faith is common (verse 12)

This type of sentence relationship is often the source of profound insight. We can forget the idea that faith has national and cultural character. The reluctance of Peter, for example, to have fellowship with Gentiles (Acts 10 and 11:1-2) is the furthest thing from Paul’s mind. He says he had been always prayng to visit the Roman believers (verse 10), and there is no mistaking his earnest desire (epipotheô) to see them (verse 11).
We can see that men and de are not always purely opposite in contrast. To be jointly comforted – sumparaklēthēnai – and giving thanks are both positive experiences. The second is received, the first is given. Taking this coin to the bank I discover that my thanksgiving over other believers’ value can play out in a fellowship of Holy Spirit’s help. Let’s put our thanksgiving out there!

The king and the Galilean fisherman

eejoseph

The Judean king, Herod Agrippa I, had James, the brother of Jesus, killed, then thought he would impress the people by attacking Peter. Boy! What a catastrophe! If you can imagine a king in a Roman jurisdiction dying a miserable and public death and the world’s most powerful leader not being apprised, go ahead. Many kings have pursued people in God’s spotlight but God has not always put his response in the spotlight. After all, what have kings to do with fishermen?

The king and the fisherman in contrast

Arrest, Chains, and Worms

Chains may not always fall off by direct supernatural intervention nor do wicked rulers always meet an ignominious and painful death, but believers are not poorly served when their lives include persecution and death. The greatest man who ever was born (Luke 7:28) had his head taken off at the request of a girl dancing to please a drunken party (Matthew 14:6-12). The things a king can do to enlightened people pale in comparison to what has happened to them as a result of God’s grace to all people.