More often than not an issue can be resolved with a yea or nay, and in that regard the Lord’s instruction about good communication comes is a fine place to settle our minds. There are two pressures that drive biblical interpretation and application as we seek for answers. The pressures seem to come from a backward look, which is the essential orientation of Christian theology. We look back to the cross and our looking forward is for the happy hope of the swallowing up of death. Looking back also comes in the form of viewing the first things, the things in antiquity, with a view to retrieving past glory. This includes pressures to reconstruct all the types and symbols. Reconnecting with the original is a necessary occupation since, after all, restoration is the rational for divine intervention in every age. However, since no-one has seen the destination, we cannot find an adequate declaration of its character in Scripture either. The goal of global salvation is not to restore Eden. It is the beginning of the new creation. Our response to his offer is a simple yes or no.

Long answers are questionable where a simple yes/no is indicated. Buts, ifs, and maybes often overshoot the question. As Christians we have been oriented to truth. While people pose reasonable questions about Christ’s message and teaching, his salvation needs no question. What question should we be asking the man in the lifeboat before accepting his rescue? Is Yeshua Salvation? Is Torah Instruction?

What about gold, silver, and precious things?

The factors that made the temple in Jerusalem a den of thieves (as far back as Isaiah’s days) instead of a house of prayer have poisoned the proceedings in most churches. At the point – the jubilee -where people should have been about the means to a sustainable livelihood, the priests could be found plotting to acquire property of widows and orphans. The gold and silver, even in the temple, are mere things, though put on a pedestal by the temple authorities, are not to be compared with the life/death of Christ.

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; 1Pet 1:18, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 1Pet 1:19,

The Christian’s  backward look connects with an eternal platform:

salvation by Lamb’s Blood

Faith opens the door to realities that are beyond human ability, understanding and knowledge.

Next———————— Money answers everything

One of the strangest titles of the Saviour is everlasting father. Strange, because he is Son. He can be whatever he wants, including dead on our behalf. Father is a Christian power-word. It is how we think of God. It is how we address him. The fatherhood or motherhood of God is however not in question. His names do not reflect fatherhood except as source, but parent is missing from the divine revelation until we come to Christ’s message.

God is not averse to being father to those who have none. In fact, his interest shows that he will take the place of both parents. He pictures himself as mother-(hen).

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Ps 27:10

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not! Matt 23:37

The God of the Hebrews did not present his relationship to the individuals of the Sons of Israel at Sinai. The seventy elders represented the families. The promises to Abraham included no provision of individual sonship, but the seed promise (Gen. 12:3 , Gen. 22:18 ) holds out adoption possibilities.

As father to the nation he appears in a creative role Isa. 64:8 – father, potter, maker (<- work).

But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand. Isa 64:8

As part of the adoption and family arrangements in the New Covenant we do not usually look to the Old Testament for guidance on fatherhood. We certainly want to conform to the image of God in Christ, and that ought to include the Father’s own excellencies, or at least certain ones. But then there are pictures of parental majesty that we can hardly deny.

1. Of David’s great descendant’s dependence on God: He shall cry unto me, Thou [art] my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Ps 89:26

2. Of God’s pity to those who revere him: Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him. Ps 103:13

A father of the fatherless,

and a judge of the widows, [is]

God in his holy habitation. Ps 68:5

It is significant that this verse has no verb. There is no intention by the songwriter to bring God’s activity to our attention. This verse is stating what is, not an occurrence. It is a statement of being, not doing.

Light of the world, Son of God, are names. Some modern translations have begun to impose phrases like “he cares for…” on verses like this. Even the following verse, which seems like a narrative, is split. The first half, has two verbs, both of which are participles (shub, turn or return, and yatza, go out or send out) serving as nouns. Hence more names. The one-causing-the-return and the one-causing-the-going-forth.

The second half is also split but between state of affairs and action, telling us who the other side is, and it too uses the same form as the first half. The ones-rebelling live in a dry place.

The weight of abi y^etomim and [w^e]dayyan almanot is that the typical father connotation is missing. This father is connected with the homeless, not wife-child-tribe-nation.

“and” connects fatherhood with judgment and discernment; w^edayyan. These need be considered together: father and judge. Moreover, judgment has to be “in favour” since this father aids orphans. “Father and vindicator seems best”.

Is it not like God to leave the usual home joys to pursue his boundless grace with the orphan and the widowed? This is a godly thread that is red with the Passion theme. Perhaps the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to bring the one lost sheep to safety comes to mind! It is a godly facet we can embrace in line with the superb kingdom tenet: put others first.

[Be] kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love;

in honour preferring one another; Rom 12:10

I charge [thee] before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,

that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. 1Tim 5:21

The alternative is to face the stiff judgment that Moses recorded for people messing with the welfare of widows and orphans.

And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. Exod 22:24

Our orphans’-Father and widows’-Vindicator, let your kingdom come!

Happy Father’s Day

There is a way that seems right…

Solomon says it twice, leaving the impression that a person ( ⁾îsh, vya!) needs to tread mindfully when choosing a way.  Whether it is the many choices or the high stakes, we can relate to both especially since we have been told that we need to be familiar with all that God has said.  Noticing that bread does not bring back people from the dead, we are on the trail of the life-giving word, knowing full well that it does.  Not everything is what it seems. Gospel alone – blood and Holy Spirit – suffices.

Death is where we start. Right where Adam saw a right way is where we need our life-giving shot. No-one is able to undo Adam’s devastating choice by doing one or a million good things.

Now I know how easy it is to find financial, real estate, interpersonal, and leadership guidance in the sayings of Solomon, but not so easy to find the matters of life for the dead.  No matter what we find in the prophets we have to admit the prophets are not the answer.

If I were a Jew, with the knowledge that the first generation (600, 000) of my people ( bne yisrael the kingdom-to-be ) perished in a desert because they were an unbelieving bunch, I would be ashamed to open my mouth about law and righteousness.  They nor I have a chance of coming back from the dead with the provisions of the Sinai Covenant, nor with anything that does not come from the Prophet of prophets (POP).  I do not mean a prophet among or above others.  This is the prophet that eclipses all thereby creating a new definition, summed up in Son king-priest.  Moses was not sucking when he said “A prophet is coming whom you must heed in all things”.

Now, we do not want to speculate about Adam’s choice, but we do have to reckon with matters of mutual spousal and other interpersonal trust.  Neither do we want to pontificate about absolutes.  Maybe we still looking for the words to keep us alive without finding the words that bring us back from the dead?  We can either be satisfied with bread or we can acknowledge that only the Lord Yeshua has words that cause life.  The grave of condemnation is due to unbelief not misdeeds.  What seems right can only be right or wrong.  We connect with either the old or the new.  In Christ’s direction: faith and life.  Step in the other and you will find Sinai and death.

So you want to talk about eternal law and commandments in the heavens. Well let’s. Start with the fact that Jesus said so little about the law that people began to think that he was ending the law, and he was. But not as a smasher of the past. He is most certainly the new and exclusive Speaker. One would have to be still blind, still under the power of darkness, or plain dead to build on the sand of carnal ordinances and tribal customs, to not see that if salvation pricesses are like a relay, then Yeshua has the baton.

Let me first admit that using analogies such as passing the baton/torch, temple processes, or whatever metaphor we choose are usually inadequate to express the truth about Christ. So let it be equally clear that none of the people who preceded Christ in the realm of giving God’s message have passed anything to him, and he is not completing anything that they started. In this particular regard baton-passing fails. Christ has brought into human stream of life something unprecedented and incomparable.

Four terminals help me leap over the snare of hypocrisy.

1. John the Baptist. End of the law and prophets (priest and king too). Cheap talk
2. The death of Christ. Ascension and session. Priceless walk
3. The will of God was done. He gave his life and took it back
4. The end of the age. Heaven and earth pass away with all those words.

The end of the old is not the start of old.2

When our Lord said all will be fulfilled when heaven and earth pass away we know they all do. Pass away: heavens, earth, Law.

Righteousness is either faked or genuine. One is either doing a Pharisee job or enjoying Yeshua’s cake and wine.

Today is not too late to decide to to stop inventing righteousness and accept God’s.

Kings whose passing (maybe only the torch) passes like every Sunday morning are in the majority and they are obviously on the road to destruction list. Most Sunday mornings are distinguished by photo ops and glib soundbytes. Megalomaniacs, dictators, homicidal democrats, lawyers. and spineless business persons are the spread of our choices these days for rulers. That we are deceived by the glitter and the pomp of modern governments and even philanthropic organizations – most of which are rotten to the core – is evidence that the best set of laws and the best location turn out trashy leaders who are worthy of note as Very Bad Dudes who wiped with the flag and turned the joyful song into a war jingle. The flag flutters over a gruesome graveyard. It is not surprising that oppressors think that standing up for the anthem of a country that was this poorly led is something noble.

Like king like people! A history lesson is in order.

King Saul👎 Begging for death.

1 Samuel 31:4. Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it.

King David✔
King Solomon the wise👎, in his old age, lost it.

1 Kings 11:4. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

King Rehoboam.👎 A child of a forbidden marriage.

1 Kings 14:31. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.

King Abijam.👎 Bad dude.

1 Kings 15:3-4. And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless for David’s sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:

Asa✔
Jehoshaphat✔👎
Jehoram👎
Ahaziah👎
Joash/Jehoash✔👎

Amaziah👎✔
Azariah/Uzziah👎✔

Jotham👎✔
Ahaz👎

Hezekiah✔

2 Kings 18:3-7.And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.

Manasseh👎. Bad dude. 2 Kings 21:2-6
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Kings 21:16
A very bad dude!

Amon👎
Josiah ✔
Jehoahaz👎
Jehoiakim👎

Would you stand up for the anthem of a country that was this poorly led? The Zionists named their country after a kingdom that did not have a single good king. The United States of who and under what god? Do we stand for Israel’s Constitution? Bad Dudes, royal or otherwise, do not find any redemption in the Bible; they will find it in Christ.

What is your claim to fame? Fame is in our lifespan but it eludes us when we try to make our profile based on our performance. Let’s use Abraham as the template for a person who got up and left and became famous. Where exactly does our fame come from? I hope we are willing to admit whether or not we have left everything to follow the Lord?
The things you commit and omit?
Those shall-nots are not promises.
They are a witness against your rebellion and uncircumcision.

It is a good thing that we have the record of 2 souls out of .6 million believing. The rest thought that Moses and Yahweh were full of it.

How probable is it that one’s food and drink… (Hebrews 9:10) are kingdom business Romans 14:17? How much evidence do we need that our tables are covered with regurgitated and excreted matter Isaiah 28:8

True church?
Chosen race?
Head not tail? Higher than all?

Worse than farm animals?
Unabashed wanton prostitute?

The cross is the final verdict against unbelief; God reveals his righteousness apart from the law.

Family matters?
Why demoralize our children and delude ourselves with a obedient life then claim that salvation is that same obedience?

Elbert E Joseph, PhD
Salt that refuses to be trampled
www.yeshuaspeaks.WordPress.com

There are people who say the law did not “enter”, it was always there. παρεισηλθεν has to mean “enter” plus carry the dimension of “alongside”. I’d rather not hear the explanation because this is straightforward: it’s an amen or a naymen. A lengthy explanation is bound to be from a bad place. In addition to law “entering alongside” we also learn that sin was not always defined by law. “Before the law” means before the law and that was a time when sin was rampant and destructive but not recorded against the individuals.

For prior to the Law sin was already in the world; only it is not entered in the account against us when no Law exists. Romans 5:13

What indeed would be the point of a law that proscribed behaviours and situations that could not be imagined. A law for whom? Angels? Yes, if they are the beneficiaries of a divine law, but they have no property, wives, children, and there was no competing entity militating to take God’s place.

Grace Takes the Reins

The purpose for this is to establish divine accountability. The magnification of sin, the guilt of humanity and the futility of trying to pay for our sin.

so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21

The outcome has nothing to do with the benefits or the effect of the law. God’s righteousness is not based on any law. Every person who is familiar with Bible history – the facts, I mean – knows that Law is a 13-dollar bill for people who hate the idea that God loves and forgives.

Romans 3:21ff

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Neither reforming Germans nor fundamentalist and commandment-keeping Christians can change the glorious gospel.

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift…

This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

All the debate and commentaries are barking up the wrong tree. Gospel does not mention sin except to pardon, but the sorry legalists still push the law in the face of God’s loved ones, as if they are now making one guilty, as if they are the convicting Holy Spirit. Gospel says nothing about law except that it is fulfilled, it is a good riddance ex (former spouse), and it has no authority. The gospel says nothing about prophets or Moses because John the Baptist ends their practical uses for the kingdom of God. Gospel says “God is looking for you, has an inheritance with your name”. If you like bondage, confusion, and futility, hitch your wagon to this mule: law and grace.