real estate

Israel is a proverb

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The people of the Middle East never saw past the movie that evangelicals and Catholics have been packing and pushing for the last millennia.  If you want to know what good government, human nobility, and divine authority look like you will do yourself a favor by examining the Bible.  A book written long before the American Revolution, long before the Arab Emirates became a broker, and long before the United Nations rose to foster cooperation and justice.  As it turns out the nations with the most detailed set of laws are the most lawless.  The nation that gave us the wisest ruler in all of human history is the most brutish and foolish of all nations.  The people with the most amazing story of ancestry and high hopes are the people who most often trample on the ancestry and high hopes of others.  Israel’s proverb status is best understood as the reduction from substance to words, sometimes, mere words, and mere words is often the case for both Israel and its staunchest allies.  They are really just all talk, malicious programs, and trigger happy warriors, and big swords.

Missing the magical metre

3. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” 4. And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. (Revelation of John 6:3-4, NASB)

Reading the Bible leaves no doubt that all the nations have failed to climb the little hills of justice and peace.  Governments and leaders are not going to be evaluated as loyal to religious doctrine.  Only three things will make their day of reckoning tolerable: peace, righteousness and relieving oppression.

3. Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills, in righteousness. 4. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. (Psalms 72:3-4, from NASB)

Moses and the United Nations are waiting

While young Jewish men are taking over their neighbours’ lands, and the neighbours are hoping for a piece of the Arab pie, laws are flaunted, borders violated, hopes dashed and the history of annihilation comes around like clockwork.   Laws do not mean a thing outside of a person’s head, and they mean even less outside a person’s heart.  None of the evangelical think tanks and Catholic congregations for doctrine have a wholesome outcome for the world.  They all foster illegalities in the name of crisis and self defence.   Israel has always been an ungodly and unrighteous nation.  The fact that annihilation can be an Israeli policy is utterly abominable, but who can tell us who is really watching the fox in the coop?  “Nation of law” is a convenient cover, but laws are to be guides to doing better, not the same as the good old days.

Unbelief is written all over the various classes of government.  Whatever benefit people think they derive from heroic and authoritarian regimes is momentary.  All rulers, with rare exceptions, have one preoccupation.

Peter answers a taxman’s question about paying taxes. 

25. He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26. When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. (Matthew 17:25-26, NASB)

42. Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43. “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44. and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45, NASB)

The kingdom of Judah, long gone, is a story like no other.  The pipedream of Mosaic legacy pervading the planet is not even a dry joke.  Even the prophets are broken vessels, but David’s great son has not even one bone broken.  The Israeli projector does not work when the pieces of Moses’ prediction are in full evidence.

Who is a hated, hateful, terror and terrorist

‘I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. (Jeremiah 24:9, NASB)

Cowardly Slave Industries

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When we read the Ten Commandments in original context we find that they are followed immediately by what we should recognize as the first statute or judgment in the Torah an entry about slaves and ownership or to put it mildly how to treat a servant.  This is not a coincidence or disjointed alert.  Exodus 21:2 is the slice that complements Exodus 20;2, the preamble to the Ten Words; a deliberate attempt by the Lord’s servant Moses to raise Israel’s morality at least to golden rule level.  

If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

(Exodus 21:2, NASB)

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

(Exodus 20:2, NASB)

The privilege of having servants was as destructive for ancient Israel as it is for European kingdoms, the United States of America and the British Empire.  It is difficult to recover from centuries of pursuing dominion over our fellows.

Imagine connecting your head to your torso without your neck

The corrupting of love into a loyalty trip has caused untold misery and confusion with the onslaught of misogyny and racial discrimination.  Even at the  level of golden rule love we have been misled.  Messianic love surpasses “do to others as you’d like done to you”.  People and nations that like to think of themselves as Christian had better start looking for a makeover.  The ten commandments without statutes and judgments are a monster of Frankenstein proportions.  There is no practical good to “You shall not steal” without the judgments of reconciliation and repayment.

The surprising test for governments

Treating workers with the deference due is the benchmark.  After all,  if a man needs servants, he is indebted to them.  His status is tied to their wellbeing and labour.  Having to give them leave every 24 hours, for one day per week, for one year every 7 years and for one year in every 50 years was more than most employers could stand. 

“You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.” (Leviticus 25:10, NASB)

Leviticus 25:10

Land abuse and perversion

There are few public policies that defy God’s intentions for every human than the real estate confusion. Governments and influential entities affirm the right of each individual to life but not the space to live. The search for space to live outside of earth’s boundaries a denial of mankind’s basic need. Remember the founding of Australia! The export of unsavoury types is still a plank in misanthropic circles. Think again about how every good thing gets corrupted when there are avowed rebels around.

The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. (Leviticus 25:23, NASB)

Leviticus 25:23

Resisting the call to treat employees with respect ends badly for the employer, and whether the employer is a nation, a corporation, family or individual. Ends quite badly. Time to pay and send away cannot be ignored.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them:

Jeremiah 34:8, NASB

Making a covenant means cutting a deal,  karat berit.  The infinitive steers us towards the material deal and not the features of the action.

Freedom for workers is supposed to be cyclical and most people actually cherish having the same employer for life.  Capitalism is the love of money authorized and celebrated and subjected to daily speculation (stock trading  etc).

This agreement could have saved Judah from exile and destruction of the temple and city.  Its failure demonstrated that people who are capitalist will chose God’s anger over doing the right thing.