Would it not be a chockfull delight to wake up and find the unclean clean, the estranged accepted, and the accused exonerated?  It would if you have the relevant attitude towards marginalized people.  The sprinkling and the outcomes in this scenario are a snapshot essentially a dispersal process and the sprinkler is the Lord’s highly exalted Servant (caps are mine) who at the time bears the marks of disfigurement, and more so than any human.  The sprinkled nations and silenced kings are a pictire of second rate experience, premature and immature knowledge.

Silent kings “see” and “consider”

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Isaiah 52:15

Miracle or catastrophic sarcasm of shallowness ?

• the kings shall shut their mouths at him:
• they see that which had not been told them
• they consider that which they had not heard

It is perfectly okay for kings to shut their mouths when the Highly Exalted Servant is mentioned, but we cannot with any soundness of mind believe that people, kings or not, (a) can consider things that they have never heard or (b) they can scratch their beards or nod their heads and say “I see” when nothing was declared.

This saying is preparation for the generation that will refuse to believe and pretend that they have been paying attention, that they understand and have the right opinion of matters,  which it turns out they have not actually heard or seen. That reminds me of Bible study that does everything except read the text. The sprinkled kings are the generation with itching ears who have experienced only a few drops of divine sprinkling and who, after seeing the true wonders of God, do not believe.  Isaiah asks next “Who believes our report?” We know the answer.  A chosen half-baked few for now.

Those of us who feel that we are beyond needing the serpent in the wilderness are going  to be surprised, and we hope quickly recover, because people with not much more than their eyes and ears are being told to think for themselves about science and data and to believe that items found on the internet are reliable.  We have devoted considerable resources and attention to organizing ourselves. We organize our families for effect.  I do not mean just for show.  There is a drive to excel.  Churches and other like places know what they want to sell and they educate members about how to have a hand in shaping the view the world gets of us, or a view of the ideal. If we all are not careful we may find ourselves complicit in trafficking in falsehoods and partisan passions.  Unlike corporations and professional associations I find refuge in doing maintenance on my thoughts about the difference between my condition and what I might be a strong shield against being part of any organized deceit.

Plagued by serpents

Faith’s journey has been maligned and misrepresented by people looking for a way to position themselves at the top and in the right hand seat.  If Abraham has anything to do with faith we know his experience and example must shape ours and distinguish themselves from an arrival mentality, and prepare a people who are grateful for life, hungry for spiritual nourishment as patient travellers.

You and I tangle with narratives that are essentially not ours, and we are slow to admit that believing what we are told to believe is mostly childish fear and greed.  What we are told to believe as children vanishes when the eternal issue of life confronts us. Faith does two things that nothing else can do. What a dreadful waste it is when we organize our narrative apart from believing the wonderful works of God.

Who would have thought that blood on doorpost would be the way to position ourselves to be rescued from the common bondage?

Dead commander and living help

The critical questions about life are (a) who guarantees that people receive it and (b) who guides us through it.  The best guarantee and guidance do not come from the most distinguished of our ancestors like David nor the reliability of servants like any angel or prophet.

Acts 2:34-35

34. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35. Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

Acts 2:34-35

Hebrews 1:13

But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies A footstool for Your feet”?

Hebrews 1:13

If your faith requires that you  commit yourself to a messenger or an illustrious ancestor then your narrative is organized to deceive.

Isaiah 66 contains what seems like a solid picture of the future until the mention of Levites (vs. 21).  Along with a few other right-sounding predictions this one  leaps off the page and can hardly be ignored because government and priesthood in Israel-Judah moves to a new neighbourhood making it necessary that Levites are not dismissed or idolized.  This term is reshaped, like everything else in the Law and the Prophets, by the Messianic mission. As the essential civil or public servants of Israel’s priestly kingdom their functions disappear, and their connection to the sacred, in Mosaic terms, is off the rails, there being no fixnctioning holy place.  Let it be understood that no dual kingdom citizenship exists allowing anyone to partake of the Messianic kingdom’s priesthood and at the same time be a worshiper at the levitical system.   A professional unelected and unbiased class of public servants is a threat to political systems that say they respect diversity, that uses a set of mantras about being committed to justice, and continues to support the design of patriotism, discrimination, and xenophobia.

I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the Lord

Isaiah 66:21

Chaos every election cycle

If every government that gets elected wants to install officials that will replace law with political loyalty, or re- interpret or void the law then it is not the law that is permanent and paramount. The idea that western democracies, buiit on a Judeo-Christian set of principles, need less government is inconsistent with both Moses and Cbrist. 

There is no apostolic model for civic government, perfect and royal priesthood of Christ with a new set of rules and procedures, will mediate release where the old order.    Anyone can adopt the standards of the levitical system but only the Jewish people could hope to

Government and priesthood

The Sinai Covenant had as its goal the creation of a kingdom of priests – or a priestly government.  The ancient world had local heads of clans or tribes and kings at both the city and regional level.  Kingdoms were the most widespread form of government in Canaan and all around the Mediterranean.  The levitical arrangement was new because it had no visible human head. The authorities that supported the king included the following.

• The prince or captain שר sar
• The elder זקן  zaqen
• The counsellor יעץ yaats
• Presidents achashdarpan (in the Babylonian government)
• Princes sarek (in the Babylonian government)

A vital uniting servant-class

Levites provide services for a price paid by all without exception.  There are no tax breaks.  They are the ones who truly make sacrifice or offering to God.  The genuine recyclers.  Turning animal or grain into smoke (qatar קטר) marked the complete circle of   fellowship.

Goodwill between Christians and Jews does not change the contrast

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

Hebrews 13:10

Baby delights in Isaiah 66:11.
That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”

No nation has implemented the levitical system because eating from that table is exclusively Jewish.

More juvenile situations in Isaiah 66:12

For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.

Just lift your hands – no gimmicks needed

Lifting one’s hand in prayer is not a gesture that can be a thoughtless action by a superstitious person.  The opportunity to bypass the temple with sanction from the national prayerbook.  It is incredible that no development occurred along this line and the temple built to perpetuate  levitical priorities after the exile. It seems that the prayer life of Israel missed a turning point.  Why should  hand lifting not replace the sacrifice  and offering of animal blood and body? Lifting up the hand going to be prayer the mind needs to be activated.   The sign of the cross is popular among some believers

Psalms 141:2

May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering

Psalms 141:2

When I was an orthodox Christian signing oneself was accompanied by “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,  One God  Amen”.  It never replaced praying.  If saying one is a Christian and embracing Judaism, Buddhism, any of the versions of political pantomime is consistent with what Christ stood for one must ask “What changed?”

Did monotheism brightest show really have a home in Galilee?  Would we accept it if came from Beijing?  James, the brother of Yeshua, was a skeptic while his brother was with us, and we find him throwing Moses at his brother’s Church.

Christians are more confused than ever, and among faith groups they are not alone.  However, if we Christians thought that having Pharisees, jealous Sadducees, angry biblical experts, and hostile siblings was hell on earth for first century believers just add the 21st century’s possiblity thinkers, law-abiding followers of Moses,  scholars refusing to learn, benighted political operatives posing as lighthouses,  never-sick and ageless vegetarians, public  officials who change their orientation with the political wind. Few things render Christ’s followers more shepherdless than the yeast of influence peddling and selfserving theories about Christ’s kingdom.  Yet none of these hazard justifies violent uprisings and creating deals with governments.

To insist that a revolution 2.0 is needed to continue the journey of our ancestors is pure madness. Have we learned so little and do we have nothing to contribute to the national discourse and national progress? Does Israel return to Sinai? Of course not. Sinai’s shot. Does Canada return to Sir John A’s template? No. Should the United States go through another revolutionary we know that it is because the original template was fatally flawed and the patriotic proponents of a civic society in North America have been manipulating laws to avoid the noble goals of the founding fathers.

January 07, 2021

You do not want your children hanging out with the intellectually radicalized.  Reverence for the conspiracy about a stolen election is about as low as the proverbial ant’s backside, and despairing about the rule of law should not even be admissible on the lower rungs of the policy ladder, but learned and respected persons doing so provide us with evidence that they are residents of the warmongering swamp from the edges of which I can make this observation.

Who do we suppose is supporting the the debunked allegations of election fraud? Would you be surprised to find your pastor and the respected educators trafficking in the rejected legal cases brought by deluded lame duck president and his sycoohants?

History professor should debunk not defend inevitable terrorism

It’s an awful shame it has to come down to this because a handful of very powerful people on both sides decided to violate the voting rights of people by making major changes to both State Constitutions and Federal Constitution laws.

Host (chat group)

This is where excellence lands when the truth is hard to find.  If for all the secondhand slogans that we endure from politicians and religious leaders a few courageous souls asks the right questions in the right places would they not be labelled as traitors and seditious?

No culture war. 

The fight of faith has no partisan component.  We have no war with  Mike Pence did his job in the face of tremendous threats and against his instinct to support the president. rescues his future.  He read the will of the American people.  Then the walls and the holograms of courage and revolutionary zeal fell.  Breathe a sigh of relief and a note of thanks that a full record of the sedition is easy to put together. From the inciter to the radicalized trumpettes and back again,  it is all on the wall, like the writing on the wall.

Mene. Mene. Tekel. Upharsin.  Popping time.

You believe God has a hand in who gets to lead the nations but you won’t accept that he exposes shallow heroes?

He cannot lose except by fraud who won the college by means outlawed.

Do not overreach. The interpretation of the  ‘Mene’–God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.

‘Tekel’–you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. Daniel 5:27

‘Peres’–your kingdom has been divided and given over to […] Daniel 5:28

You may call it coincidental that the American people get a perfectly divided Senate demolishing the reign of spineless and often heartless GOP, but there, in Daniel, is precedent. May the great evangelical swamp remain locked up south of the 49th parallel.