No blip

eejoseph

“About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the Way.” (Acts 19:23, NASB)

Previously in Acts

  • Bogus exorcists (Acts 19:16)
  • Decision to see Rome
  • Two ministers dispatched to Macedonia, Timothy and Erastus
  • The name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified (Acts 19:17)
  • The word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing (Acts 19:20)
  • Stayed in Asia for a while. (Acts 19:22)

Disturbance breaks out

It was obvious that someone wanted to stir up the business world and use the courts to cripple the disciples’ effect on the whole of Asia. In the 21st century we have seen a lot of religious posturing by governments to the point where many are beginning to think that there may be crediblity to various examples of religion-dominated societies. Take three or four Asian examples, a couple more from the Midde East, a dozen from Europe and the Americas and the case closes. There is nothing more than a muffled whimper from religious governement. God will never consent to humans (especially exclusively males) being the arbiters of what people should think. The difference between God and humanity is too stark for thoughtful people to tolerate even the smell of thieves, robbers, blasphemers and religious artifacts and rituals.

Another day in court

For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. (Acts 19:37, NASB)

As it happened

  • BIG BUSINESS … a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen;
  • FORMING A LOBBY. these he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business.
  • MAKING THE LINK BETWEEN GOD AND BUSINESS. “You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made with hands are no gods at all.
  • LOSS OF MARKET RANKINGS. “Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.”
  • ANGRY MOB SLOGANISM. When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  • CITY-WIDE MOB CHAOS. The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.
  • PAUL PROTECTED. And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.
  • OFFICIAL DISTURBANCE AND VACUUM. So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together.
  • ANTI-JEWISH SENTIMENT. Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.
  • LOUD DEMONSTRATION. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  • DEFENDING EPHESIAN TRADITION. After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven?
  • APPEALING FOR CALM. “So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash.” (Acts 19:24-36, NASB)

Lawful process vs kangaroo court

But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly. For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.

Acts 19:39-40, NASB

Civic society has not learned how to appreciate the difference between God’s domain and human government. We can see this in the attempts to solve problems with religous laws and practice. The histories of Judaism and Islsm have taught us nothing. Along with a full embrace of the message from the Bible people remain slow to save themselves from their crooked and adulterous generations. It is no wonder that people find church, even the African thievery, Joel Osteen delusionary, and John Hagee shallow pool type sideshow, wholly unappealing and no blip.

Another unhinged conclusion

eejoseph,

When the lights around us dim we can get direction, certainty,  and life, all in one place. That is what Moses predicted: a dire situation in which Israelites recognize Yahweh. The later prophets saw a day coming when circumstances will help Israel acknowledge the Lord.

God in a box?

When he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please take a present from your servant now.”

2 Kings 5:15

It must be rare that coming face to face with Jerusalem’s unique dignity among places of note does not diminish national pride and raise confidence in God’s personal embrace of people from everywhere (every family, to be precise), and bring relief that God does not live in a box or country.

You probably recall the Elijah showdown with the prophets of Baal and the prophet’s concern that faith in Israel’s God was on the brink of extinction.  How can a prophet be wrong? When they say before they hear.

Well, Elijah’s successor had an awakening to the facts attending Elijah’s concern.  

God in ancient Israel? Exactly where?

Where is Yahweh,  and why do Israelites keep running into the arms of Baal and the ashtaroth?

Of course there is one nation whose God offers access to himself only in designated spaces.  The sacred tent was not home for God.  It was more of a guest room.  God actually expressed his preference for keeping the people alive by not being in their midst.  At no time before New Testament times can it be said that God lived in human bodies.

Having eyes for the neighbours’ gods and having one place where sacrifice for sin could only mean one thing: God was there,  but really wasn’t.  His presence depended on what the people wanted.  There were no lepers cleansed, and both Israel and Judah were evicted from the only place where God promised to be – to put his name. Shouldn’t the songbook reflect what is happening in people’s lives?

You judge. You decide. You delay. You strike. You grow. You wither.

Morning, day, night

eejoseph,

Torn from its roots a tree will not survive. A way of life separated from its source cannot be an example for others. The difference between morning, day and night illustrates the seasons of human activity, the last being a period of inactivity.

In the morning you shall say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see.

Deuteronomy 28:67

This dire warning from Moses to his people in anticipation of their continued rebellion against the covenant is extremely relevant in our times as we notice the decay that eats away at our society. Especially where you have people who are claiming to have the light of divine wisdom and to be in the right we can say that the 2022 environment is demonstrably excessively evil and corrupt. We have to give thanks for the divine wisdom which sees that a severe chastisement can manifest itself in a people not knowing what time it is. How true is that of the trees of today’s forest!

Knowing the facts in light of the ttuth

Christ is a light and a lightning rod, but he did not use speech to insult or misinform. For a guy who called himself the Truth the bar was high. He had to speak true things and perform the things that were undeniable. The use of force by God or Christ’s disciples to prevent the passion was unthinkable and frankly was not allowed.

God’s eternal edict is not kill ’em all

God’s word gets fulfilled in his Word incarnate. All the notions about human compliance are a lot of hot and haughty airs. Not knowing whether we are hot or cold is not responsible behaviour. God’s righteous judgment – I love them I redeemed them – is the last thing even Moses would expect.

Redemption is an accomplished fact. People can talk about all the phases of our experience of God’s great gift but it does not change the fact that 2000 years ago the Redeemer said “It is finished”. He’s done and therefore that tree planted by the rivers of water is going to produce its fruit in its season, its leaves will not wither and whatsoever it does will prosper because God loves his planted tree and keeps it.

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Matthew 26:54

Identity dictates activity

If one believes that a person is like a tree (Psalm 1:3) then it makes no sense not to believe the following about this tree. This person

  • is firmly planted by streams of water
  • yields its fruit in its season
  • has leaves that do not wither
  • prospers in all he does

You may not realize that leaders and many brainwashed believers are engaged in a desperate attempt to coax believers to perform and produce. – the trees of God’s planting – barely need that. Sharp on the heels of that exhortation are devaluation and condemnation for not performing; guaranteed!

Our Destiny

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1 Thessalonians 5:4-9, NASB

An unlikely clique

eejoseph

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

Deuteronomy 7:9, NASB

A thousand generations, huh? What kind of clique-making is this?  The unlikely.  Those who love God and keep his commandments are also the people who know him and must tell him what he wants to hear.  Making rivers of blood and retelling the fable about covenant-keeping are way off from the contrition and confession that brings fulfillment.

This description of God loving his lovers is responsible for a truckload of anguish.  It is no longer shocking to me how this picture of God becomes a personal challenge and a corporate figleaf.  The description is designed to invite a successful relationship with God’s instructions.  Compliance has not been responsible for divine satisfaction in any terminal fashion. This description is a push in the direction of things you’re going to need to do.

Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Deuteronomy 7:11

Sour grapes are not supposed to affect the children, according to a late proverb, but here we have God keeping covenant and loving kindness for a thousand generations.  All those succeeding generations have no credit for themselves, but are the beneficiaries because of something an ancestor did.  Confused? Let me help.

What goes around comes around

Did we not suspect that keeping lovingkindness and keeping commands are the same kind of activity?  No one has developed the idea that God is tied to a list of things he needs to do, if that is what keeping means. Some people  have dared to say that Yeshua came to the world armed with a law designed for bad guys (1 Timothy 1:5-11). God’s freedom cannot be less than absolute and perfect.  We say we are free but that freedom has undeniable limits (handrails?).

The facts and fantasy

If it were true that a person can, through his commandment-keeping, assure a thousand generations of God’s goodness it has not sufficed to end the incompetent reign of prophets, priests,  and kings, and it is obvious that reliable records of commandment-keeping for four thousand years are more likely to be a fossil record or a cave walk drawing.   It is utterly opposite to the kingdom of grace and even to the operation of the Sinai covenant, with its Tabernacle services and atonement, that one man’s obedience to the law brings practically unbroken goodness.

Unlikely and never did happen. 

My mom was a commandment-keeper so God’s lovingkindness is assured me and the next 999 generations.

No-one Ever

How do I know?  The Tabernacle stood for thousands of years until the temple was destroyed (2600 and 1950 years ago). If there is a fast food version of God’s gifts to undeserving people operation why should that be a secret at all?  If there is a temple service in operation today in 2021 that supports a 1000-generation jackpot it is the best kept secret of all time.  Unlikely.

Barking up a withered tree

eejoseph

Imagine that Christ was a Muslim. Where would his hajj take him? Which prophet would be his commander?  Would he stop calling GOD his father?  Would he be comfortable hiding women and tieing their hands, hands God created (in the first place) to make the man complete? It is a long hard road to acceptance when prophets are the seekers, but if you know prophets, they could not care less about getting smiles from everyone. The doctor,  lawyer, rabbi, pastor, elected official and any of the powerbrokers of our times have shown how readily their interests lead them to bark up any withered tree they deem available.

All across the board

Vegan diets, foreigners, and priesthood

Imagine that Christ was Jewish and vegan,  he’d  be blocking his participation in the essential processes of his people: for example, eating the passover once per year. If he was on the other hand a foreigner he could not be a priest (sounds familiar) and all the talk about Abraham’s innumerable children is simple hot air. It most certainly is not the best thing since man met woman.

What God mercy looks like under human direction

Holiness is one of God’s essential attributes and salvation is his exclusive prerogative.  These two issues must always find their orientation, application and outcomes in God.  Since man is incapable of saving himself, God intervenes personally.  He designed his intervention in a manner that does not allow any human credit.  He did not send a prophet, a priest, a scientist or a soldier.  He sent his Son. If God could call Israel his servant and his son what can we say of him with whom God created the world?  Let us remember how the Genesis narrative has God speaking to God “Let us make man in our image”, and let us  understand that there is an Agent to whom God assigns his important acts in the universe.  “Son” is not a metaphor for “boss” and it most definitely means the one in whom the father invests his all.  “Son” definitely means activity and progress. When the Son of God is in charge women and aliens have access and what the faith groups say about women is a reliable measure of morality.

Breaking limbs, withering leaves and infertility

Why have all the models of government not worked.  They have priests.  They have prophets.  They have pastors.  They have missionaries. None of them have produced a 4 year rule of righteousness and justice.  They have been barking up trees with no limbs and with no fruit at the top. A nation cannot have enough Muslims to make it Islamic. Most faiths that I am familiar with are splintered into groups that are hostile to one another, and some are in open conflict, to the point of bloodshed. You name it and they are at war: Catholics and Protestants, Shia and Sunni, Sikhism and Hinduism, Episcopalians and Baptists. The limbs are all broken. Still, many hope that a majority of any faith in any nation can transform government into a servant of God apart from punishing wrongdoing. I am sorry to say that God has better things to do than punish evildoers, and his plan centers on more noble and redemptive purposes. I think that’s what mercy and grace and compassion means. Otherwise we are barking up a withered tree.

Always remember never to give the impression that you do something you don’t

eejoseph

I’m joking, right?  We should have figured out that someone giving us the rules for today and tomorrow is not a good feel.  We might resolve to have our shields up the next time this person speaks to us when it turns out that the speech operates on the as-I-say not as-I-do level. Not a joking matter!  Tongue in cheek is the nature of all the so-called fundamentals of obedience to all God has said, and the nature of the words of those who say they are the spitting image of God, with a grab bag that resolutely leaves God out of the picture.

How bad or good can life get to keep a person smiling or grimacing?

A greeting sets off alarms with terms like “no matter”, never  always, and every  because it is likely to be posing as general counsel.  Why I should not have an emotional experience during a storm? Is there a soul who does not get lowered by “life”.  Put another way;  the person who does not humble himself will have God do it.

  • No matter how adverse conditions are
  • Never be down
  • Always smile
  • Every day is a blessing

We are going to forget, forbid, forcibly try to impress, and forgive.  There is no guarantee of any of these, even if some sorcerer decrees and declares it. GOD himself assures us that each day has its trouble and that nothing will by any means permanently injure us.

No-one is ridding the world of serpents and scorpions

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. (Luke 10:19, NASB)

Nothing ever does you wrong

What we say is chaff when disconnected from the words of Christ

People can’t use prayer to erase or reduce God’s program,  such as essential sadness, sorrow, each day’s evil, and the very circumstances that contrast with inseparable divine love.  Are we authorized to forbid people to weep and mourn?  Do we presume to know how many and how intense the challenges are that we need to face? How dare some people talk about faith in God, when their distinct interests are the visible, the tangible, and the things people taste and eat?

So you wanna be…

eejoseph

A Moses, a David, a Paul, an Ezra, a Barnabas, we can never legitimately aspire to be because that route would deny God the pleasure of his wise and wonderful will for each individual.  So if we insist on jumping through hoops to win prizes that are not available to us that delusion has a date with the One with the keys. Why does it surprise us that we cannot be Father, Son, Holy Spirit? No hoops are necessary.  I cannot imagine who we might dare to want to be with all our might, and be anything but unapologetic and expectant for the discovery of who we are in God’s grand scheme.

Holy you and holy me are incomparable in name, function, and destiny.

Identity we cannot afford to neglect

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it. 

Revelation of John 2:17, NASB

Whatever people call us does not alter what is contained in the unique and exclusive name Christ gives. Just as the name SON distinguishes the Word of God from all other entities, so we can expect the name given in connection with the white stone to pierce the bubbles in which we might seek refuge.

Governments and all kinds of institutions go to great lengths to prevent confusion between people having the same names, which often happens. With a close(r) look at the two, three, four, or five individuals bearing the same name authorities will discover something that will decisively distinguish one from all others. With that information much misunderstanding and anguish can be averted. We would be surprised at how many people do not like you/us, period.

Hunger free, sinless and tireless

Superheroes own aircraft, never have to cook, mop a floor, raid a beehive, or go shopping.

When a sparrow’s death has God’s attention he does not seem to be much of a deity, so people reason, because death is the ultimate enemy, and they conclude that they have defeated death, a thing we know is entirely in GOD’s hands. People want to claim a win and a gain no matter what experience GOD assigns. After all, did not his SON die to bring life to humanity? .

Not even David, with God’s own heart

David’s a guy with a ton of baggage that we do not want wholesale. We’re sure we want his victory songs, and nothing to do with his anointing, his respect for Saul, his alliance with Jonathan, and we know what experiences of his we would never get ourselves into. We want the Father’s love without his discipline and correction. Our saddest desire is for the Word of God, incarnate and written, without change-creating and makeover power.

That I may reside, that He may reside

eejoseph

A truly marvellous pun rises from the canopy of David’s loves.  David gets the idea that YHWH deserves something better than a tent, especially since the people are no longer on a physical journey, with the sacred tent moving from place to place. David confided in the prophet Nathan that something was out of whack with his house of cedar and YHWH’s curtains (animal hair tent). The discussion of residence continues with Nathan giving the king the thumbs up, and with YHWH delivering his perspective to the king through Nathan.  From what proceeds in the conversation, David’s sleepless quest arises.  He sings about staying away from his residence until he finds an appropriately regal place for YHWH to reside. He vowed, “I will not enjoy residence or sleep until YHWH has a palace”.

THE ONE THING that seems to be genuinely single.

We read “one thing” in many places, but it is obvious that the singleness of focus or intention can be contextual. For example:

John 9:25, 2 Samuel 3:13, Philippians 3:13, Luke 10:42, Matthew 21:24

In the Psalms, “one thing” is exclusively David’s.  We can confirm that this sole desire is the one for which he made himself sleepless (Psa 132:3-5)

Just so we understand the idea of residence as not static, let us recall that the kingdom of God is constantly in motion: from Egypt to Canaan, then towards  peace with their neighbours, and towards a spiritual rest in which individual minds could be fixed upon YHWH and the gifts with which he is able to clothe the inner person (even before the age of the unleashed Holy Spirit!).

God’s residence plan moves from “with” to “in”

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 14:16-17

Now if God’s dwelling among (in the middle of) his people (Exodus 25:8) is to be something more than a temporary and celebratory palace in the nation’s capital there must be a human component.  Behind that necessity we see God removing the notion of unclean people and clean people, so that anyone who responds diligently to divine prompting to change (minds) may become a part of God’s new tabernacle.  HE cleanses Gentiles and Jews and gives them the Holy Spirit.

having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,  in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,  in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:20-22, NASB

For a future look at what divine residence might look like we may ponder Ezekiel’s city and temple vision (chaper 40:2, 5), and practically all levitical matters seem to fade in the light of Messianic glory, because nothing created by human hands can be recognized as having access to the glory of the eternal kingdom.  There are still, in Ezekiel’s vision, grain and animal sacrifices, and those for sin are particularly (40:39) inconsistent with the memo to the prophets about the unsuitability of offerings. 

Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.

Isaiah 1:13, NASB

Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.

Psalms 40:6, NASB

For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba And the sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.

Jeremiah 6:20, NASB

Temple theology tanks

The glory of God comes and goes from the Jerusalem temple, but there is never even a hint that the Jew-Gentiles split is to be dissolved in fulfilment of Abraham’s blessing.  The inclusion of Gentiles into Israel for the establishmen of David’s house seems not to have occured to Ezekiel.

The unmistakeable inclusion of Canaanites and Gentiles, Ornan of Jebus and Hiram of Tyre in the acquisition of the land for the temple and its building points to a definite end of levitical priesthood,  so Ezekiel’s vision is to be interpreted as symbolic if the priesthood and offerings are essential.

“Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 10:4, NASB)

“And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.” (Ezekiel 43:5, NASB)

“Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 44:4, NASB)

Ezekiel’s vision of sacrifices for sin continuing (43:19-21) is a great example of ancient Spirit-led persons saying what they were told without knowing its significance. We know there is a decisive end of atonement in Christ’s death – it is finished -on the cross. Temple an types are finished. John, in Revelation “… heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,” (Revelation of John 21:3, NASB) and to drive this point further to the centre John also reports that in the New Jerusalem he “saw no temple …  for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation of John 21:22, NASB)