An Abbreviated List of Biblical Sevens

I have not included every instance of a collection of seven. I lumped multiple instances of the same collection together, such as various commands concerning Unleavened Bread or Sukkot. I also ignored historical statements that didn't seem to put any special emphasis on "7", such as "in the seventh year of the reign of so-and-so." Feel free to let me know if I missed any.

• 7 daughters of Jethro
• 7 days of Creation
• 7 clean animals on Noah’s Ark
• 7 congregations of Revelation
• 7 women of Isaiah
• 7 spirits of God
• 7 lamps of the Menorah
• 7 days of Unleavened Bread
• 7 days of Sukkot
• 7 days of Miriam’s shame
• 7 days of uncleanness for women and lepers
• 7 sprinkles from the red heifer
• 7 animals offered at various times
• 7 weeks of Shavuot
• 7th month, 1st day is Yom Teruah
• 7th year release
• 7th day Sabbath
• 7 years of oppression under Midian
• 7 years of rule by Ibzan
• 7 months with the Ark in Philistia
• 7 trumpeters with the Ark
• 7-fold light of the sun (Isa 30:26)
• 7 children of one mother (Jer 15:9) 
• 7 years burning weapons (Eze 39:9)
• 7 months burying the dead (Eze 39:12)
• 7 steps and cubits of Ezekiel’s Temple
• 7 weeks of Daniel
• 7 shepherds of Micah (Mic 5:5)
• 7 eyes of God (Zec 4:10)
• 7th day sin offerings (Eze 45:20)
• 7 husbands of the Sadducean widow.

A Middle Eastern Family Desperate for Refuge?

I'm sure this image is a real dinger at preschool, but otherwise there are only two kinds of people who think it (and the hundreds like it) says anything worth repeating:

1. Liars
2. Ignoramuses

For you ignoramuses, an ignoramus is someone who lacks knowledge. About the Bible, for instance. This was forgivable before today. You think that Joseph and Mary looking for a place at the inn is somehow equivalent to a family of refugees from Syria looking for a place in some European or American country. Now you have an opportunity to learn something. If you read on, you will no longer be ignorant. If you repost another one of these moronic memes, you will have graduated to liar. Congratulations.

The Nativity

Joseph and Mary were faithful Jews traveling from one part of a Jewish country to another part of the same Jewish country. They weren't leaving their homeland for foreign parts. They were actually returning to their ancestral homeland for a high holiday called Sukkot, which means "tents" or "temporary dwellings". (The Romans were smart people. They recognized that the best time to make all the people travel somewhere was when they were all going to be traveling somewhere anyway.)

When Joseph and Mary arrived at Bethlehem, their destination, they didn't demand special treatment. They didn't demand that the locals cater to their religious and cultural preferences. Actually, the people who lived around Bethlehem had the same preferences as Joseph and Mary, so no demands were necessary.

When Yeshua (aka Jesus) was born, Luke says that they laid him in a manger (probably a feeding trough) because there was no room at the inn (Greek kataluma, which is also translated "guestroom"). If this actually means that the local inn was booked up and the young couple had to find a place in the barn, it shouldn't be much of a surprise. Very likely every inn in the country was full because potentially hundreds of thousands of people were on the move. That's similar in a way to the current crisis, except that the mood would have been festive instead of threatening and fearful.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure that there was such a thing as an inn, at least not like what we think of. It's much more likely that they were at the home of a relative who was entertaining whole branches of the extended family, including great grandpa Shimon and great grandma Esther, and they were all vying for the only guestroom. I think this is kind of cool, actually. One of the rules of Sukkot is that you are to "dwell" in a temporary shelter (called a sukkah) for 7 days. Rabbinic tradition says it's sufficient to eat your meals in the shelter, but maybe this was God's way of setting Joseph and Mary straight. He arranged that the young Yeshua would keep the command perfectly, even when it was completely out of His control, by forcing his parents into what was probably a hastily constructed shack. (Probably not a stable like you see on postcards and certainly not a cave.) They laid him in a manger instead of in a bed because all of the beds were already filled far beyond capacity. They made do with whatever was close at hand and would keep the newborn off of the ground.

They weren't desperate, they weren't running, and they weren't foreigners. They were Jews visiting Jewish relatives in a Jewish land.

Does this mean that we shouldn't help desperate foreigners running from trouble? Of course not. It just means that the meme is based on a false premise.

The Refugees

I'm certain that many of the "Syrian refugees" are actually Syrian refugees. I'd want to get out of Dodgistan if I lived there too. Unfortunately, many of them are not Syrian and many of them are not refugees. They are Iraqis, Somalis, and a mix of other Middle Eastern peoples.

Of those who are actually coming from Syria and Iraq, many are military aged men. Those are not refugees. They are cowards who have fled the field of battle and possibly abandoned their families or they are infiltrators planning to wreak havoc behind enemy lines. We saw a very clear example of this in Paris recently.

Such terrorists--aka invaders--are probably a small minority within the mass of the refugees, but how much feces is acceptable in your ice cream? Maybe you prefer your vanilla with a little predigested Middle Eastern spice. Who am I to judge?

Even so, a few hundred or a few thousand terrorists really aren't the biggest problem because the real enemy isn't ISIS. The real enemy is Islam. All of it.

If you aren't a complete, blithering idiot, you have probably noticed that the West maintains a very high standard of living compared to other regions of the world, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the residual effects of western colonial imperialism or any other self-loathing nonsense your sociology professor might have fed you. It has everything to do with historic Western culture and Judeo-Christian religion.

Democracy (for what it's worth), emancipation of slaves, individual liberty, constitutional government, electronics, the Internet, automobiles, the printing press... these are all the fruits of Western Civilization. I don't care that some other civilization might have invented them given enough time. The fact is that they didn't. We did, and I like all of these things.

Islam, on the other hand, produces nothing but misery and death. Every Muslim country is a violent, squalid hell compared to the poorest Christian country in Europe. I would choose to live in Moldova or Romania 1000 times over Saudi Arabia or Iran. (Isn't it interesting that all of the very poorest countries in Europe have had significant Muslim influence? The further you get from Islam, the better things get.) Every tree can be known by its fruit, and Islam is among the most poisonous in the world. Everywhere Islam goes, Syria and ISIS follows by one name or another.

Allah hates all mankind and Islam is the proof.

We don't object to opening our countries to "Syrian refugees" because we're stingy or xenophobic. (We in the West are among the most generous and accepting people in the world.) No, we object to mass Muslim immigration because we're sane, because we don't want Syria in our own backyards. We don't want our economies wrecked, our industries crippled, our wives and daughters raped, and our children enslaved, and far too often, that's what comes with Islam.

I want to help the people who are suffering in Syria and Iraq--we all do--but importing them en masse into our own countries is suicide! That doesn't help anyone. It just turns our own lands into the same hell that they're trying to get away from. I admire your urge to ease the suffering of people you don't know. That is truly a godly attitude. But we must find a way to help that won't destroy the very thing that makes us able to help. Because, in the long run, the only thing that will significantly ease suffering in Muslim countries, is for Muslims to stop being Muslims.

Miraculous Healing in the Gospels

A list of Gospel passages dealing with sickness and healing...

•    Matthew 4:23-24
•    Matthew 8:2-4
•    Matthew 8:5-13
•    Matthew 8:14-15
•    Matthew 8:16-17
•    Matthew 8:28-32
•    Matthew 9:1-8
•    Matthew 9:18-25
•    Matthew 9:27-31
•    Matthew 9:32-33
•    Matthew 9:35
•    Matthew 10:8
•    Matthew 11:4-6
•    Matthew 11:28-30
•    Matthew 12:9-13
•    Matthew 12:15
•    Matthew 12:22
•    Matthew 12:43-45
•    Matthew 13:57-58
•    Matthew 14:14
•    Matthew 14:34-36
•    Matthew 15:22-28
•    Matthew 15:29-31
•    Matthew 17:14-21
•    Matthew 18:18-20
•    Matthew 19:1-2
•    Matthew 20:30-34
•    Matthew 21:12-14
•    Matthew 21:19-22

•    Mark 1:23-27
•    Mark 1:29-31
•    Mark 1:32
•    Mark 1:33-34
•    Mark 1:39
•    Mark 1:40-42
•    Mark 2:1-12
•    Mark 3:1-5
•    Mark 3:7-10
•    Mark 3:11-12
•    Mark 3:14-15
•    Mark 5:1-13
•    Mark 5:22-42
•    Mark 6:2-5
•    Mark 6:7-13
•    Mark 6:54-56
•    Mark 7:25-30
•    Mark 7:32-37
•    Mark 8:22-26
•    Mark 9:14-29
•    Mark 9:37-41
•    Mark 10:46-52
•    Mark 11:19-26
•    Mark 16:17-18
•    Mark 16:20

•    Luke 1:5-25, 36-37
•    Luke 1:57-66
•    Luke 4:24-28
•    Luke 4:33-36
•    Luke 4:38-39
•    Luke 4:40-41
•    Luke 5:12-14
•    Luke 5:17-25
•    Luke 6:6-10
•    Luke 6:17-19
•    Luke 6:27-38
•    Luke 7:2-10
•    Luke 7:11-16
•    Luke 7:20-23
•    Luke 8:2-3
•    Luke 8:27-33
•    Luke 8:41-56
•    Luke 9:11
•    Luke 9:38-42
•    Luke 9:49-50
•    Luke 10:9
•    Luke 10:17-24
•    Luke 11:5-13
•    Luke 11:14
•    Luke 11:15-23
•    Luke 11:24-26
•    Luke 13:10-13
•    Luke 13:14-16
•    Luke 14:1-6
•    Luke 14:11-14
•    Luke 17:11-19
•    Luke 18:1-8
•    Luke 18:9-14
•    Luke 18:27
•    Luke 18:35-43
•    Luke 22:50-51

•    John 4:46-54
•    John 5:2-14
•    John 6:2
•    John 9:1-41
•    John 10:41
•    John 11:1-45
•    John 12:10-11
•    John 12:24-26

•    Acts 3:1-16, 4:7-21
•    Acts 5:1-11
•    Acts 5:14-16
•    Acts 9:1-18
•    Acts 9:32-35
•    Acts 9:36-42
•    Acts 12:21-23
•    Acts 13:6-12
•    Acts 14:8-11
•    Acts 16:16-18
•    Acts 19:11-12
•    Acts 19:13-17
•    Acts 20:8-12
•    Acts 23:2-3
•    Acts 28:3-6
•    Acts 28:8-10

The Sacred Name

Image used by permission of Yeshua.org.

When Paul wrote to his non-Jewish followers across the Roman Empire, he didn't call himself "Shaul." He called himself Paul. He didn't call the Messiah "Yeshua haMashiach." He called him "Iesous Christos."

It's ok to use transliterations, abbreviations, and even translations to refer to Yeshua/Jesus, especially when trying to communicate with non-Hebrew speakers. It's ok to use Hebrew names too. Just make sure you are using them in such a way as to teach the truth, not as stumbling blocks that drive people further from the truth.

Our Messiah's name isn't a collection of letters or sounds. Those things are just convenient labels. His name is the whole picture of who He is: Redeemer, Savior, Wonderful, Counselor, Anointed, Son of the Living God, the Word of God, the Law Giver, our Passover Lamb, our Atonement, High Priest, the Rock that Saves.



Some believe that the introduction of the letter J represents some kind of corruption or conspiracy to keep people from pronouncing the name of Yeshua. The letter is only 400 to 600 years old, and Hebrew has no J at all, so how can "Jesus" possibly be the Messiah's name?

There are two objections raised here.

The Letter J Is Only 400 Years Old!

The letter J wasn't invented to keep people from pronouncing the name correctly. The reality is exactly the opposite. J was created to show when the letter I was being used as a consonant, such as in the words "job" and "majesty". Before the letter J was invented, both of those words were spelled with I instead of J.

Every language that adopted the letter J into its alphabet pronounces it differently. Germans pronounce it like an English Y. Spanish speakers pronounce J like H, Y, or Kh, depending on regional dialect.

Have you ever heard someone from Mexico pronounce the English word "yes" as if it began with a J, like "Jyes"? Evidently, English speakers used to pronounce a consonant I with a J or Zh sound, exactly as many (not all!) Spanish speakers pronounce Y today.

English already had the letter Y, so why didn't they use that for consonant I? Two reasons:

• The letter Y was already doing double duty as a Th sound, as in "ye olde shop", which would have been pronounced as "THE old shop", not "YEE old shop". 
• Some consonantal Is that were pronounced like Y, evidently did get the Y letter at some point. I don't know if that was before or after the shift to J or if there was a rule about whether the letter was at the beginning or end of a syllable, followed by one or another vowel, etc.

Sometime in the mid to late Middle Ages, Latin speakers began to pronounce consonantal I (especially initial consonantal I) with a J sound. This pronunciation was picked up by French and other speakers long before King James commissioned his Bible. I'm not sure if Medieval Latin adopted this pronunciation from English speakers or not, but I suspect that English adopted it from Celtic languages and not from Latin. 

At some point, Latin scribes began adding a tail to the letter I when it was pronounced like J, and this new letter was also adopted by other European languages, even when those languages didn't have the J sound. When Iesus became Jesus, the pronunciation didn't change. Spanish speakers continued to pronounce it as Hay-soos, Germans continued to pronounce it as Yezus, and English speakers continued to pronounce it as Gee-suhs, just as they had when it was still spelled with an I.

The change to J didn't change how anything was pronounced. It reflected a pre-existing reality of regional accents. The English took the J sound from the Celts and the J letter from European scholars of Latin.

There Is No J in Hebrew

If you didn't already pick this up from my discussion of the invention of J, let me spell it out for you: All letters were invented at some point and no Latin letters exist in Hebrew. There is no Y, I, E, S, U, W, or A in Hebrew. Those are letters from the Latin alphabet and Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet.

What people should actually be saying is that there is no J sound in Hebrew, but even that depends on how you pronounce the letter J. If you speak Spanish or German, then there is definitely a J sound in Hebrew.

In fact, the Latin letter J is a descendant of the Hebrew letter yod, or I should say they are both descendants of a common ancestor. The paleo-Semitic/Hebrew yod became the Greek and Latin I and the (slightly more modern) Hebrew yod י. Then the Latin I became the I, J, and Y.

Saying that Hebrew has no J is like saying that English has no י. Of course, it doesn't, because English and Hebrew use completely different alphabets.

Philologically speaking, though, J = I = י. So, in a way, Hebrew does have a J. It's just shaped differently.

If you don't like the way Jesus is pronounced by English speakers, then pronounce it the way a German would, which is probably much closer to the Greek form used throughout the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament and the Apostolic writings of the New Testament: Ἰησοῦς.

If you feel that the Apostles were wrong to write his name using Greek characters and grammar, then spell and pronounce it in the Hebrew manner. I prefer to use the form Yeshua, myself, but I'm not about to use the Hebrew characters in my English articles because I'm trying to communicate with people. Your priorities might be different, and that's certainly your business.

(Updated November 19, 2019.)

(Updated September 9, 2020.)

39 Messianic Blogs

I made a list of 39 Messianic blogs, podcasts, & video blogs over at American Torah. If I missed your favorites, let me know so I can add them.

Scriptures Related to Passover

Scripture passages that appear to be directly or at least very closely related to Passover.

• Gen 4:3-16
• Abel brought firstfruits of his flock, while Cain brought firstfruits of his crops.
• Passover? Maybe.
• Gen 18:1-8
• Three angels appear at Abraham’s tent.
• He washed their feet and brought them unleavened bread.
• Prepared a calf and stood while they sat and ate.
• Gen 19:1-3
• Two angels arrive in Sodom where Lot was sitting in the gate.
• He invited them to his home.
• He made a feast with unleavened bread.
• Gen 22:8-19
• V2 – Son as an offering, but a burnt offering, which Passover only partly fits.
• V3 – Took an ass.
• V4 – Three days journey from the place of God’s calling to the altar. (Four days total.)
• V5 – Disciples left behind while the Son goes on with the Father.
• V6 – The Father lays the wood on the Son.
• V7 – Son prays to the Father just before his execution.
• V8 – God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering for His own benefit/purposes.
• V9 – Son is bound and placed on the wood with no word of objection.
• V13 – The Son saved from death.
• V17 – The gates of Hell will not prevail against him.
• V18 – All the nations of the earth blessed through the seed of Abraham.
• V19 – Abraham returns to the disciples and they all return to the Well of Seven Oaths (People of the Completed Covenant) together.
• Exodus 12 - First Passover
• V2-5 – 10 Aviv – Selecting the lamb
• Every man participate in the taking of one lamb per household.
• If the household is too small, then share with your neighbor
• Calculate how many people you need per lamb
• Without blemish
• Male, 1 year old
• Sheep or goats
• V6 – 14 Aviv – Whole congregation assembles and kill their lambs “between the evenings”
• Adam Clarke says “between the evenings” means between noon and sunset. He quotes Maimonides to say that killing the lamb before noon is forbidden.
• John Gill also says this means between noon and sunset. However, he says the Targum of Jonathan says it means between sunset on 13 Aviv and sunset on 14 Aviv.
• Put the blood on the two door posts and lintel
• Eat it that night roasted with fire and eaten with matzo and bitter herbs.
• Must not be raw or boiled, but roasted.
• Eaten with innards. All must be eaten or burned up before morning.
• Eat it with loins girded, staff in hand, and in haste.
• Kill the firstborn of man and beast
• Execute judgment on the gods of Egypt
• Blood identifies Israel
• Day is a memorial to be kept forever
• V15 – 20 – Feast of unleavened bread
• 7 days eat unleavened bread
• 1st day is a convocation and a day of rest.
• No work except what each person needs to eat.
• Sunset Aviv 14 through sunset Aviv 20th.
• 7 days eat unleavened bread. Same for grafted in or native born.
• V21 – Moses instructions re first Passover
• Select lambs according to families and kill it
• Hyssop dipped in blood in the basin
• Strike the lintel and the two side posts.
• Stay inside until morning.
• Ordinance forever.
• Keep it when you come into the land.
• When your children ask why, say
• Sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover
• He passed over the houses of Israel
• Smote the Egyptians
• Delivered our houses
• V39 – Unleavened bread because they didn’t have time for anything else.
• V43 – 50 – Who may eat the Passover
• No foreigners, uncircumcised sojourners or hired servants
• Servants bought with money and circumcised
• Eaten in one house, not divided up.
• No broken bones
• All the congregation of Israel will keep it
• Circumcised sojourners
• One law for native and sojourner
• Exodus 13
• Consecrate the firstborn
• Remember that God brought us out of Egypt and Slavery with a strong hand.
• Passover is a full sensory experience: Taste, See, Touch, Speak, Hear
• Keep it every year
• Teach it to your children
• Four questions
• Understand why you keep it
• Exo 23:14-15 – In the context of abstaining from idolatry
• One of 3 feasts of ascent
• Feast of unleavened bread.
• 7 days
• Unleavened bread
• Month of Aviv
• None appear before me empty
• Exo 29 - ?
• Exo 34:18-20, 25-26 – In the context of abstaining from idolatry.
• Feast of unleavened bread for 7 days
• Month of Aviv
• Firstborn males of all animals belongs to God.
• Redeem the firstborn sons
• None appear before me empty
• Lev 23:1-14
• V5 – Aviv 14 – The Lord’s Passover between the evenings
• V6-7 – Aviv 15 – Feast of unleavened bread for 7 days
• Holy convocation on first day
• No servile work
• V8 – Remainder of the feast
• Fire offerings daily
• 7th day is a holy convocation w/ no servile work
• V9-14 – Firstfruits
• Bring Firstfruits of grain harvest to the priest
• Priest waves the offering on the day after the Sabbath
• Eat no grain of the harvest until Firstfruits
• Num 9:1-14 – First Passover after Exodus
• V2 – Don’t wait until in the Promised Land, but keep it right now.
• V3 – Between evenings, with all statutes and rules
• V6-13 – Unclean or travelling person cannot keep the Passover
• Keep it in the 2nd month on the 14th.
• With unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
• Same rules otherwise.
• Sojourners to keep the Passover by same rules. One law for sojourner and native.
• Num 28:16-31 – Offerings for Passover
• V16-15 – Aviv 14 is the Passover. Feast on the 15th. For 7 days eat unleavened bread.
• V18-23 – First day is a convocation. Do no ordinary work.
• Burnt offering of 2 bulls, 1 ram, 7 yearling lambs without blemish.
• Grain offering mixed with oil for each animal.
• 1 male goat for a sin offering as an atonement.
• In addition to the regular daily offerings.
• V24 – Make the same offerings daily during unleavened bread.
• V25 – Seventh day is a convocation with no ordinary work.
• Numbers 33:3-5 –
• Aviv 15 – left Egypt.
• Deuteronomy 16:1-8,16-17 – How and where to keep Passover
• V1 – Keep the new moon of Aviv and keep Passover in the month of Aviv
• V2 – Offer Passover in the place where YHWH chooses to put His name.
• V3-4 – No chametz with it.
• 7 days of matso, the bread of affliction
• Remember that you came out of Egypt.
• No leaven for 7 days in all your territory
• Don’t leave the Passover until morning.
• V5-7 – Only in the place YHWH chooses
• May not offer the Passover in any of your towns.
• Only at the place YHWH chooses to make His name dwell.
• Offer it at sunset.
• Cook it and eat it in the place YHWH chooses.
• In the morning, go back to your homes.
• V8 – 6 days eat matso. The 7th is a holy convocation with no work.
• Joshua 5:2-12 – First Passover in the Land
• V2-9 – Circumcised all those born in the wilderness
• V10 – Kept Passover on the 14th of Aviv
• V11 – The day after Passover they ate the stored grain of the Canaanites. Unleavened bread and parched grain.
• V12 – Manna ceased the next day, but they ate the harvest of the Canaanites that year.
• Judges 6:11-26 – Gideon offers a goat and matso to an angel
• Not Passover because Gideon was threshing wheat which would not be ripe for another two months.
• 2 Samuel 12:1-15 – Who stole the Lamb from those to whom He belongs?
• 2 Kings 23 – Josiah’s revival
• Preceded by destruction of pagan altars.
• Keep Passover as it is written in the Book of the Covenant
• No Passover like this had been kept since before King Saul
• Passover kept to YHWH in Jerusalem in Josiah’s 18th year.
• It was kept, but not universally and not according to God’s commands.
• 2 Chronicles 8 – Passover of Solomon
• Daily burnt offerings during Unleavened Bread
• He seemed to perform the bare minimum, where Josiah made a true celebration
• 2Chr 30-31 – Hezekiah’s Passover
• Invited all the tribes to keep Passover in the 2nd month.
• Insufficient priests were consecrated for the 1st month.
• Had not been keeping Passover regularly.
• Mocked by most in Ephraim and Menasseh.
• A few in Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
• Most of Judah obeyed.
• Many people still were not clean, but the Levites sacrificed their lambs anyway and Hezekiah prayed that God would forgive them because their sin wasn’t deliberate.
• God recognized it and honored his prayer: inward circumcision.
• Kept the feast for an extra 7 days.
• 1000 bulls, 7000 sheep from King Hezekiah and 1000 bulls, 10000 sheep from the princes given to the people as peace offerings.
• Nothing like it in Jerusalem since King David’s time.
• Followed by destruction of pagan altars.
• Restoration of divisions of priests and levites and service of the Temple.
• General revival
• 2Chr 35 – Josiah’s Passover
• Passover in Jerusalem.
• Passover killed on Aviv 14.
• Appointed and encouraged priests at the Temple.
• Restore the Ark to the Temple.
• Kill the Passover first, then prepare to kill the Passovers for all the people
• King gave the people 30k lambs and goats plus 3k bulls.
• King’s officials gave additional 2.6k lambs plus 300 bulls.
• Princes gave another 5k lambs plus 500 bulls.
• Distributed animals to clan groups.
• Roasted Passover lambs and boiled the other offerings.
• Singing by Sons of Asaph
• No Passover like it since Samuel.
• Psalm 34 – Oblique references to Passover
• V4 – YHWH delivered me from all my fears.
• V8 – Taste and see that YHWH is good!
• V14 – Repent from evil.
• V19 – YHWH delivers the righteous from his afflictions.
• V20 – None of his bones are broken.
• V21 – Affliction slays the wicked.
• V22 – YHWH redeems His servants.
• Ezra 6 – First Passover after returning from exile
• V16-17 – Dedication & cleansing
• V18 – Priests arranged in divisions according to Book of Moses.
• V19 – Passover kept on 14 Aviv.
• V21 – Exiled Israelites kept Passover along with any locals who repented from idolatry and worshipped YHWH.
• V22 – Kept Unleavened Bread for 7 days.
• Ezekiel 45 – Passover in the Millenium
• V18-19 – Purify the sanctuary on Aviv 1
• Put some of the blood on the doorposts of the Temple, four corners of the altar, posts of the inner gate.
• V20 – Repeat this on the 7th day of the month to atone for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance.
• V21-22 – Passover
• 14 Aviv
• Feast of Passover
• 7 days of unleavened bread
• Prince provide for himself & the people a young bull for a sin offering
• V23-24 – Unleavened bread
• Prince will provide 7 young bulls and 7 rams on each of the 7 days for a burnt offering. 1 goat daily for a sin offering.
• Grain and oil with each bull and ram.
• Isaiah 16:1-5 – A reference to the Messiah as a lamb?
• Isaiah 53 – The suffering Messiah
• V4 – Afflicted by God, like the wicked. Yet, not wicked, for he was afflicted for our transgressions and not his own.
• V5 – By his stripes we are healed
• V6 – We are the guilty sheep, but God placed our sins on him.
• V7 – A lamb led to the slaughter.
• Zechariah 9:9-12
• V9 – The king riding on a donkey colt.
• V10 – Ephraim & Jerusalem rescued from the chariots and horses of their enemies.
• V11-12 – Prisoners redeemed by covenant blood.
• Matthew 16:5-12 – The leaven of the Pharisees.
• Matthew 20-28 – Yeshua's Last Passover
• Aviv 10
• 20:17-28 – Prophesies that he must be brought low in order to be lifted up.
• 21:1-11 – Triumphal entry
• 21:12-13 – Cleansed the Temple (Aviv 11 in Mark 11)
• 21:14-16 – Healed the sick and confronted by the priests.
• 21:18-19 – Withered the fig tree. It was out of season.
• Aviv 11
• 21:20-25:46 – Examined at the Temple by priests, Pharisees, people, and disciples.
• Aviv 12?
• 26:2 – After two days the Passover is coming.
• Aviv 13
• 26:17 – “first day of matzah” but it wasn’t.
• Go prepare the Passover
• Aviv 14
• Yeshua reclined with the disciples
• 26:23 – The one who dips his bread in the dish with me will betray me.
• 26:26 – Matzah: this is my body. “As they were eating.” Probably not at the end of the seder as today, but the middle piece regardless.
• Christians added the Afikomen as a sign of the second coming.
• 26:27-29 – This is my blood of the covenant for forgiveness of sins.
• I won’t drink again of this fruit of the vine until in my Father’s kingdom.
• Key on “this”. Either he meant all wine or he meant this particular cup.
• 26:47… Betrayed by Judas
• 27:46 – 9th hour, he died.
• 27:57 – Joseph buried the body
• Aviv 15
• 27:62 – Priests requested a guard on the tomb.
• Aviv 16 or 17
• At sunrise on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb and found Yeshua already risen.
• Mark 8:14-21 – The leaven of the Pharisees.
• Mark 11:1-16:19 – The Feast of Unleavened Bread and Yeshua's Last Passover
• Luke 2:41 – Joseph & Mary went to Jerusalem for Passover every year.
• Luke 12:1-3 – The leaven of the Pharisees.
• Luke 22 – The Feast of Unleavened Bread.
• Luke 24:27
• John 1:29, 36 – John calls Yeshua “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.
• The people are frequently referred to as sheep, but only Yeshua is referred to as a lamb, and only in the context of Passover.
• John 2:13-3:21 – Yeshua at Passover
• V13 – Yeshua went to Jerusalem for Passover
• V14-17 – Drove the money-changers out.
• V18-22 – Parable of the Temple rebuilt in 3 days.
• V23-25 – Performed miracles
• 3:1-21 - Nicodemus
• John 5 – Yeshua at Passover?
• V1 – A feast of the Jews at which Yeshua went to Jerusalem. Doesn’t specify Passover, but most commentators say it was.
• V2-16 – Healing at the pool of Bethesda on Shabbat.
• V17-47 – Confrontation with Pharisees re healing on Shabbat.
• John 6:1-71 – Yeshua in Galilee before Passover
• V9 – Barley loaves
• V26-69 – Yeshua as the bread of life, manna sent from heaven to give life eternal.
• John 11:55-21:25
• 11:55 – Jews traveled to Jerusalem
• 12:1 – Six days before Passover
• 18 – Jesus' trial and non-Torah customs of Passover.
• 19:4 – The day of Preparation of the Passover.
• Acts 12:1-23 – Peter arrested during Unleavened Bread. Easy for him to do since Peter would have been in Jerusalem.
• In prison
• Rescued by an angel
• “Get up quickly”
• Chains fell of his hands
• “Dress and put on your sandals”
• Follows the angel
• Iron city gate opens on its own
• Angel leaves him when he’s free
• “Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
• Herod ordered the sentries killed
• People praised Herod as a god.
• Immediately, an angel killed him.
• Acts 20:6-16 – Paul was in Greece during Unleavened Bread, but wanted to get back to Jerusalem for Shavuot.
• 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 – Leaven compared to sin
• A little leaven leavens the whole lump
• Cleanse out the old leaven and be a new, unleavened lump
• Christ, the Passover has been sacrificed
• Celebrate the feast with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth
• Evil people are like a leavened lump mixed into the unleavened.
• Galatians 5:2-12 – The leaven of the Pharisees.
• Hebrews 11:24-29 – The first Passover.
• 1 Peter 1:18-19
• Redeemed with blood.
• An unblemished and spotless lamb.
• Revelation – The Lamb in Heaven, a blending of imagery from all of the Feasts.
• 5:6 – Between the throne and the four angels.
• Appearing to have been slain
• 7 horns, 7 eyes, which are the 7 spirits of God
• 5:8 – Opens the scroll
• 5:12-13 – Lamb who was slain to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, & blessing
• 7 spirits of God?
• 6:1 – Opens the 1st seal
• 6:16 – Wrath of the Lamb
• 7:9-10 – Lamb enthroned and adored
• 7:14-17 – Lamb as savior
• Saints washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb
• Shepherd
• 8:1 – Lamb opens 7th seal
• 12:11 – Satan defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the testimony of the saints.
• 13:8 – Lamb has a book of life listing his people
• 13:11 – An imitation of the Lamb, an antichrist with two horns who speaks like a dragon.
• 14:4 – 144k follow the Lamb, redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb
• 14:10 – Followers of the beast are tormented before the Lamb
• 15:3 – Saints sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.
• 17:14 – 10 kings make war on the Lamb and are defeated.
• 19:7-9 – Marriage of the Lamb has come.
• 21:22-23 – City of the Lamb
• 21:27 – Lamb’s book of life
• 22:1-3 – Throne of God and of the Lamb in the city.
• V2 – Tree of life in its midst with 12 kinds of fruit.

Choosing to Sit in a Theological Prison of Your Own Making

"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." Isaiah 42:6-7 ESV

Throughout Isaiah 42 God speaks as if to an individual person. The word "you" in verses 6-7 is singular and verses 1-4 define the object as God's chosen servant. While this prophecy is ostensibly about the nation of Israel, it also seems to be addressed to the Messiah, and, in fact, the aging prophet Simeon alluded to this passage when he met the infant Yeshua for the first time:

"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;  for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." Luke 2:29-32 ESV

However, prophecy frequently has dual meanings, even dual subjects. Since the roles of Israel and the Messiah are parallel in some ways, it isn't surprising that many prophecies use the same words to address both subjects. While Simeon (and many teachers throughout history) applied Isaiah 42 to Yeshua, Yeshua himself applied it to his twelve disciples, perhaps as a proxy for the twelve tribes of Israel:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  Matthew 5:14-16 ESV

Bible commentators like John Gill, a 19th century English theologian, (and myself too) often forget this principle of dual application and latch onto a single possible interpretation of a prophetic passage, sometimes even excluding the plain and most obvious meaning. Concerning Isaiah 42:6, Gill wrote,

'"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness..." Not the Prophet Isaiah, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra (two medieval rabbis) interpret it; nor the people of Israel, as Kimchi; but the Messiah, whom Jehovah called to the office of Mediator, in a righteous way and manner, consistent with his own perfections.'

Gill recognized the reference to Messiah, but dismissed the possibility that the same prophecy could apply to Messiah, Elijah, and the whole nation all at the same time. He was a very intelligent and thoughtful man, but I think this is a typical error of people used to more binary, Greco-Roman patterns of thought.

Think of prophecy as a gem with multi-dimensional images embedded below the surface. The very same stone could present a very different picture depending on how you turn it and on what light you place it under. Even while I offer possible interpretations of some of the elements of this prophecy, keep in mind that these are only possible interpretations and possibly only one of multiple completely valid interpretations.

Isaiah 42:7 talks about three different kinds of people who need to be freed by the light.

1. The blind - As in Isaiah 29:18, these are people who are ignorant of the truth through unfortunate circumstances. They were born to a pagan nation or unbelieving parents who never taught them, etc.
2. Those chained in prison - These are people who have been restrained from finding the truth by unjust rulers, such as the people of North Korea.
3. People who sit in prison - These are people who have rejected the truth in favor of lies, who wilfully remain in darkness. They are atheists and people who attend church and hear the word--at least in part--but refuse to believe it or to put it into practice.

The tragic mistake that many make shows clearly in John Gill's comments to this verse:

'"and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house": of sin, Satan, and the law; being under which, they were in a state of darkness and ignorance as to things divine and spiritual. The allusion is to prisons, which are commonly dark places. Vitringa [a 17-18th century Dutch theologian], by the "prisoners", understands the Jews shut up under the law; and by those in "darkness" the Gentiles, destitute of all divine knowledge.'

In other words, rather than being a light to the world, Vitringa, Gill, and many Christians believed that the Jews are imprisoned in darkness by God's Law, the very Law about which God said "YHWH was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his Law and make it glorious," just 14 verses later in the same chapter of Isaiah.

Keeping the Law doesn't keep a person in prison. Quite to the contrary, God's Law is a source of light and understanding.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. Psalms 19:7 ESV

How can the Law keep its adherents in a prison of darkness even while keeping it revives the soul and makes the simple to be wise?

Gill wasn't entirely incorrect. The Law can be a prison to those who use it wrongly, but it can be a liberator if it is used as it was intended. Many of the Sadducees, Pharisees, and others were (and still are) trapped in a rigid system of obedience to a set of rules that are based on the Torah, but are actually contrary to it. Like so many Christians today, they believed that if you obeyed God's Law perfectly, then you would earn a certain place in God's affections. To keep from breaking one rule or another, they added more rules on top of Torah like fences around a cliff's edge. If you can't get close to the edge, you can't fall over!

Such rules are fine if they really help you to stay on the straight and narrow and as long as you remember that they themselves are not God's Law. Unfortunately, by overemphasizing one rule, the Sadducees forgot or misinterpreted a host of others, and by adding more and more fences, the Pharisees ended up fencing off large portions of the Law itself. In their zeal to prevent people from breaking the Law, they prevented people from keeping it!

Because of his antinomian preconceptions, John Gill took one possible interpretation of Isaiah's prison of darkness and dismissed all others, thereby missing a very important message that was repeated throughout Scripture from Genesis to Revelation:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-19 ESV  

Yeshua anticipated and refuted John Gill's rejection of Torah 1700 years before he penned it. Unfortunately for Dr. Gill, he turned away from the light that was offered, choosing instead to remain sitting in his prison, writing about how unfortunate those Jews are because of the prison that God so lovingly imposed upon them.

Liberals Lie about Economics

How many ways can a person lie in a single image? To infinity and beyond!

Like most other images floating around social media, this one is full of bovine excrement.

I'm not a huge fan of trickle-down economics. (I'm a Biblical capitalist, meaning I think the government should leave the economy alone to do its own thing except for a debt-erasure every seven years and a real-estate reset every fifty years.) But this image completely misrepresents what trickle-down economics is actually about, demonizes intelligent, hardworking people, and excuses sloth and financial foolishness.

This is trickle-down economics in a nutshell:

• A large-scale employer gets government contracts, tax breaks, or some other favored treatment.
• The employer then has more resources to develop new products, employ more people, and offer higher pay and benefits to existing employees.
• The employer buys more raw material, labor, and services from other employers in order to produce more of its products.
• Those other employers then have more resources to develop new products, employ more people, and offer higher pay and benefits to existing employees.
• The employees of all of these companies have more income available to spend on the products that pay their salaries and invest in the companies that make them.
• Everybody gets richer.

It's generally sound in principle except that it overlooks (or over-simplifies) the market distortions caused by government favoring one producer or industry over another. However, that's not the criticism of the lying liberal who created this image.

The "artist" makes a number of false claims:

1. The people who own and run large corporations get stuff from government programs and use it all up for their own benefit. This is absurd, of course. Those rich folks can't make anything without putting a bunch of not-rich folks to work, and they can't put anyone to work without paying them. They don't just take money from the government and then party all day without passing on any benefit to anyone else. They take that money (or keep more of their own money) and then they use it to buy services, time, and goods from other people like you and me.
2. The rich don't produce anything for anyone except for themselves. Nobody makes anything that nobody else wants. You like your phone and your TV? Thank a billionaire. You like going to work for that Fortune 500 company and getting paid for it? Again, thank a billionaire. Without rich entrepreneurs, industrial visionaries, and venture capitalists, we'd all be scraping out a subsistence living in a local-only economy. No Internet. No highways. No airplanes. No computers. No cars.
3. Poor people are only poor because the rich prevent them from getting anything for themselves. 80% of all poor people are poor because they don't have the drive to get rich. I'm one of them. I like reading and posting crap on the Internet that hardly anyone will ever see. And it is totally my own fault that I'm not filthy rich. I don't care what country you live in, how smart you are, or who your mamma is. If you're poor, chances are very, very good that it's your own fault.
4. If poor people ever get anything from the rich, it's purely by accident. Some people just like accumulating wealth and will do anything to get more of it. However, almost anyone with substantial wealth will tell you that if you want to make money, you have to spend money. Donald Trump has made billions on real estate, but he never could have done it without paying even more billions to painters, plumbers, electricians, carpet layers, and ditch diggers. And he never could have done it without making that real estate available for other people to use at prices that they are willing to pay. If you pay rent (you, not the government, ya freeloader), then you should be paying a rent that is within your budget. If you aren't paying a rent within your budget, then you're making a stupid financial choice that is going to keep you in the poor house. If you are, then you should thank the property owner for making their property available for you to live in. While you're at it, thank them for employing all of those other workers so they can pay their own rent.

Maybe you've heard this one: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor." That includes Hillary Clinton (What? You didn't know she was one of those rich people who were keeping all you po' folks down?) and Donald Trump who provide you with a place to live and a paycheck to pay your rent and buy groceries.

If you don't like the way that works, change your priorities. Quit making excuses for your myopic life choices. Buy your own rental properties or start your own company. Nobody's stopping you except for liberals like yourself who try to make life as difficult as possible for motivated, self-driven people.

Wolves, Sheep, Shepherds & modern technology

The ability of every person to read & study Scripture for himself is a great thing, but every silver lining has a cloud. Technology has enabled everyone to portray themselves as authoritative theologians. Even that isn't a problem except that wolves, sheep, and shepherd alike can all use the same tools and they all look an awfully lot alike.

I've been interacting with someone over the last few days--evidently a descendant of Aaron, a cohen--who says that nobody but a Levite is authorized to own a copy of the Torah or to interpret God's Law in any way. His tactics are dirty and manipulative: subtle misuses of the English language, bold assertions with a veneer of legitimacy, mocking dismissal of dissenters, and fallacious logic that could easily fool someone who isn't paying close attention.

It's fantastic that we can all read and study for ourselves, just make sure you actually do that and never take any "teacher" at his bare word, especially a teacher who says that you could never understand Scripture without him.

"For this commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us to the region beyond the sea, and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it? But the Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)"

The big, fat, hairy mammoth in the sanctuary...

Whether Pentecostal, Catholic, Messianic, or whatever, are y'all as frustrated as I am with the lack of real spiritual power among the supposed followers of Yeshua? Where are the miracles that are supposed to accompany believers?

Turn the Heat Up a Notch

Some company names and Twitter accounts based on the list at Daily Signal. Don't spam them or harass them, but don't let them forget about the blood on their hands either. Keep inquiring whether or not they support Planned Parenthood's inhuman, murderous agenda until they go on record one way or another.

Use one or more of these hashtags: #PPGate #DefundPP #PPSellsBabyParts #DismemberPP.

And Planned Parenthood's Twitter handle is @PPAct.

Company	Twitter
Adobe	@Adobe
American Cancer Society	@AmericanCancer
American Express	@AmericanExpress
AT&T	@ATT
Avon	@AvonInsider
Bank of America	@BofA_Help
Bath & Body Works	@bathbodyworks
Ben & Jerry’s	@benandjerrys
Clorox	@Clorox
Converse	@Converse
Dockers	@Dockers
Energizer	@Energizer
Expedia	@Expedia
ExxonMobil	@ExxonMobil
Fannie Mae	@FannieMae
Groupon	@Groupon
Intuit	@Intuit
Johnson & Johnson	@JNJCares
La Senza	@LaSenza
Levi Strauss	@LeviStraussCo
Liberty Mutual	@AskLiberty
Macy’s	@Macys
March of Dimes	@MarchOfDimes
Microsoft	@Microsoft
Morgan Stanley	@MorganStanley
Nike	@Nike
Oracle	@Oracle
PepsiCo	@Pepsi
Pfizer	@Pfizer
Progressive	@Progressive
Starbucks	@Starbucks
Susan G. Komen	@SusanGKomen
Tostitos	@Tostitos
Unilever	@Unilever
United Way	@UnitedWay
Verizon	@Verizon
Wells Fargo	@WellsFargo

Update 9/6/2015: Starbucks tweets that they have no official connection with Planned Parenthood beyond a "small number of employee match grants."

Election 2016 - Jay's Conservative Litmus Test

I very strongly believe that people backing their party's nominee regardless of the nominee's actual qualifications for the job or political views has been a complete disaster for the United States. Democrats cry for liberal policies, Republicans cry for conservative policies, and both parties only get bigger, more tyrannical government.

I'm not a member of any political party and don't intend to become one. I refuse to play that game. I vote in the primaries, but I don't play team politics. I doubt there's anything the Democrats could do to get my vote this decade, and the GOP will only get it if they nominate worthwhile candidates. Bush (all of them), McCain, Romney, Dole... These are the candidates of a party that values power, control, and money, not traditional American values like liberty and faith.

I don't demand perfection. I don't demand ideological purity. But I do have standards. I refuse to vote for any candidate for state-level or higher office who is not wholeheartedly defend the lives of unborn children, who will not protect the freedoms enshrined in the First, Second, and Fourth Amendments, who will not stand against the pervert mob and the invading masses, nor stand in favor of faith in God.

I don't care what party he (or she for the pathologically pedantic) belongs to. If he can't pass these tests, he can't have my vote.

Candidate	Pro-Life	Pro-1A	Pro-2A	Pro-4A	Gay Marriage	Immigration	Religion	Total Score
Jeb Bush	C	C	B	F	D	F	C	10/D+
Ted Cruz	A	A	A	B	A	B	A	28/A
Chris Christie	F	D	D	F	D	F	C	5/F
Rand Paul	A	A	B	A	C	D	D	19/B-
John Kasich	B	C	B	C	B	F	B	16/C
Donald Trump	C	D	B	F	B	F	C	11/D
Rick Santorum	A	D	A	D	A	C	B	19/B-
Lindsey Graham	A	C	A	F	B	F	A	17/C+
Carly Fiorina	C	D	A	F	D	C	C	12/C-
Scott Walker	A	B	A	F	C	A	A	21/B
Rick Perry	A	B	A	F	A	B	A	22/B
Marco Rubio	B	B	B	F	A	D	C	16/C
Bobby Jindal	A	B	B	F	A	A	C	20/B
Ben Carson	C	C	B	B	C	D	B	16/C
Mike Huckabee
George Pataki		C

There's no science behind these scores. They don't represent months of research, just a brief scan of public statements and historical behavior. I might change some of these grades as I learn more, and I'll fill in the rest over time.

More importantly, they don't represent all possible factors that should determine whether or not a candidate is a good choice. Foreign affairs, state's rights, familial history, gut-feelings...these are all important, yet they aren't on this chart. Why? Because I'll consider those things only after I've eliminated the no-brainers. If a candidate gets below C on any of these issues, there's no point in looking further.

Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments.

A Parallelism within a Chiasm in Deuteronomy 12

• V1-4 – Follow God’s ways not pagan ways.
• V5-7 – Take your sacrifices & offerings to the place God will designate
• V8-14 – Don’t offer sacrifices just anywhere, but only in my place
• V15a – Slaughter & eat meat anywhere
• V15b – Clean & unclean alike just like gazelle & deer
• V16 – Don’t eat blood
• V17-19 – Don’t eat offerings just anywhere, but only in my place
• V20-21 – Slaughter & eat meat anywhere
• V22 – Just like gazelle & deer, clean & unclean alike
• V23-25 – Don’t eat blood
• V26-27 – Take offerings to the place God will designate
• V28-32 – Follow God’s ways, not pagan ways.

A few thoughts:

Rashi and the Sages

v8 - You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes...

Rashi said that this verse should be translated "...rather everyone should do whatever is right in his own eyes..." which seems to be precisely the opposite of what is intended. The Jewish sages, including Rashi, frequently have amazing insight into Torah. They have been studying it for more than 3000 years, after all. Unfortunately, 3000 years provides a lot of opportunity for corruption as well. I think this is an example of the latter rather than the former.

The sages also say that the laws in v8-25 are specifically addressing animals that were vowed to be offered at the Tabernacle, but had to be redeemed because of some flaw that developed or was discovered later. This law was given so that the one making the vow would not feel like the animal must still be treated as sacred somehow, hence the explicit allowance for the unclean to eat it.

The unclean and the clean may eat of it as of the gazelle and as of the deer.

That seems reasonable enough, but if it's correct, then it was probably only the initial reason the law was recorded in the way that it was. The rule still applies to all non-sacrificial animals regardless.

Where I think they get off track again is in the reference to the gazelle and the deer. Here they reference a tradition in which the right front leg, cheeks, and stomach of a slaughtered cow, sheep, or goat must be given to a Cohen, while the same is not true of a gazelle or deer. This formerly dedicated animal may be kept in whole without giving a portion to a Cohen.

There's nothing wrong with giving a portion of your slaughtered animals to the local Cohen--it might even be a good thing--but it is only a tradition, not a Torah command, and I do not believe that Moses had even the vaguest notion of this practice when he gave this commandment. I think he meant something much more obvious.

Since gazelle and deer were not domesticated animals, it would have been next to impossible to take them to the Tabernacle to be slaughtered. Nobody would have captured these animals before killing them. They would have killed them in the field using some kind of blade or projectile. Moses was merely saying that in this respect a cow is no different than a deer. Just because it can be used as a sacrifice doesn't mean that it must be used so.

The Meaning of the Chiasm and Parallelism

I haven't been studying Biblical literary structures long enough to be confident in these conclusions. I even hesitate to call them conclusions; they're merely speculations.

The religion of YHWH is not random or haphazard. Although God doesn't micromanage every aspect of daily life, His religion is orderly and uniform. Certain forbidden practices will tend to encourage the development of pagan religious systems:

• We must not collect the blood of a slaughtered animal for any purpose other than pouring it out onto the ground. Blood contains life. I won't pretend to know everything that that means, but there is definitely something about blood that inspires mystical thoughts and feelings. Ingesting blood can easily evolve into a religious ritual. Many old movie featuring hunting Indians or a young man's first kill witness to our cultural understanding of this truth. (Laboratory use of blood is fine so long as it is never ingested and it is disposed of when no longer needed.) 
• Differentiating between kosher animals that are eligible for sacrifice and kosher animals that are not eligible for sacrifice in the routine practice of slaughtering for food could also easily evolve into a religious ritual. The butcher or the purchaser must ask himself why they are observing this difference. Perhaps the spirit of the bull must be treated differently than the spirit of the gazelle, so he begins saying a little prayer to the bull with the initial cut of the knife. His son builds a small shrine beside the killing floor. His grandson builds a platform on the killing floor to catch the blood. His great grandson dabs the blood on the four horns of the family altar and drinks a cup of the sanctified stuff. 
• A difference must be made between sanctified animals and the non-sanctified. However, it is not the animal that makes the offering sacred but the altar. Sacrifices may only be killed and eaten in God's designated place and mundane slaughter may only be done and eaten away from God's designated place. Never mix the two lest the difference in the places be forgotten and the people slide again into paganism.

Now I'm going to really step out into Messianic controversy land. Because you know how I've shied away from that kind of stuff before. Wink, wink.

The contents of the parallelism make sense in the context of the chiasm as noted in the points above. However, why is there a parallelism at all? Why say essentially the same thing twice? The repetition means it's important of course, but wouldn't it be enough to simply say "This is really important?"

On the surface (peshat), the first iteration concerns where a sacrifice must be killed and the second concerns where it may be eaten. However, it goes on to repeat much of the same rules, including the curious reference to gazelle and deer.

The Law makes no distinction between the native born and the believer who has been grafted in except in one respect: service at the Holy Place. Only the physical descendants of Levi may serve at the Tabernacle and only the physical descendants of Aaron may serve at the altars. Through Yeshua, we have been brought into the Kingdom of God, grafted into the tree of Israel, but, like Yeshua, we will never be qualified to serve as a Cohen or to care for any of the holy articles of the Tabernacle. (Yeshua is a High Priest in the Tabernacle in Heaven, not the one on earth. See Hebrews 8:1-5.)

Likewise, this command says that as far as the Law is concerned, there is no difference between the gazelle and deer (wild & untaught) on the one hand and the bull and the goat (domesticated & trained) on the other, except in one respect: service at the Holy Temple. And it says it twice.

Is this parallelism attempting to draw the reader's attention to the parallel between animals and Israelites? Is it saying, "Whether in offering or in eating sacrifices, the positive commands and the negative commands, you will make no distinction in the Law between the native born and the grafted in except for those who are dedicated to service at the Holy Place?"

The parallelism is at the center of a chiasm which is framed by instructions that all citizens of the Kingdom will worship God in the same way and at the same place. We are one body, one nation, united in Messiah Yeshua.

A Breath of Fresh Air - A review of Family Prayers from Proverbs

Eric Sims posted a review at Amazon today:

This book is a breath of fresh air. Jay has been able to take ancient practices and use them to breathe life back into several areas of existence that are in such need of revitalization today.... I recommend this book to any person or family who is looking to understand and experience a better connection to the Source of all existence, their creator.... - Eric Sims

Read the rest at Amazon. I'd post it all, but I don't want to trigger any of Amazon's comment-deletion bots.

In related news, Family Prayers from Proverbs is now available in Kindle format for less than half the price of the paper version. This is the probably the best option for smaller families. For larger families, I recommend you buy two paper copies and then email me to get a booklet-formatted file you can use to print as many copies as you need. See here for details.

Why the Didache Could Not Be Included in the Canon

The first rule for any writing to be included in the Biblical canon is this: It must not contradict what came before.

The second rule is this: It must be true.

The Didache is a late first-century Christian writing that purports to be a summary of the teachings of the first apostles to the churches that they planted across the Roman Empire.

Years ago when I first read it I wondered why it wasn't included in the canon. From a cursory reading of history, it appears that it almost was. In fact, a number of ancient Christian groups did include it in their own version of the Bible. I can't tell you exactly why the Church Fathers decided that it didn't measured up, but I can tell you a few reasons that their decision was correct.

The Didache starts out beautifully: Love God, love your neighbor, keep the commandments, avoid sin, don't mess with sorcerers or astrologers, be meek and long-suffering, etc. The first seven chapters are all fantastic advice and align perfectly with all of the Scripture that came before it.

However, it gets a little off track when it discusses fasting and prayer in chapter 8.

But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. Rather, fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Do not pray like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever..

Pray this three times each day.

-From the Roberts-Donaldson translation of The Didache.

Who are these hypocrites and why should we avoid fasting on the days they fast and why do we need to fast on Wednesday and Friday instead? Since when should we care what the hypocrites do so long as we aren't hypocritical with them?

The "hypocrites" in this mini diatribe are probably Jewish believers who refused to abandon the traditions that they had been taught. The problem, of course, wasn't hypocrisy. It was fear and hatred. Anti-Jewish sentiment was rampant in the Empire at the time. Titus had just destroyed Jerusalem, killing as many as a million Jews, and scattering the remainder.

Many of these new gentile Christians were afraid to be mistaken for Jews. To make absolutely certain that wouldn't happen, they often made a point of being more antisemitic than their non-Christian neighbors, of deliberately changing the traditions they were taught by the Apostles so that outsiders could easily tell the difference between Jew and Greek.

They exchanged the commandments of God for the traditions of men and divided what God had joined together.

Some of those new traditions were invented solely for the purpose of separating Jew from gentile, while others were simply borrowed from the familiar pagan religions they had supposedly left behind. They stopped keeping the feasts as they had been commanded by God and taught by Yeshua. They changed the dates of God's appointed times, changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first and moving the dates of other feasts to coincide with existing Roman celebrations.

I'm not saying they were all cowards. Some of these men were courageous martyrs for the faith, willing to die rather than to renounce Jesus, however mistaken they might have been about some of his teachings. The foundation of their faith in Him was still solid as no one has ever been saved by doctrinal purity or proper adherence to ritual. But that doesn't mean they were without fear altogether. Courage isn't the absence of fear; courage is action in spite of fear.

Fear can have a profound effect on one's priorities. If you have to go the bank and you find out that there's a holdup in progress, you might also discover that a trip to the post office was really more important anyway. Faced with the prospect of persecution, we all instinctively look for ways to deflect it, whether by shuffling priorities, offering up "bigger" villains, or by convincing ourselves that some compromises are more acceptable if they make it harder to pick us out from a crowd. Those early Christians were no different and Satan took full advantage of their human weaknesses.

Passover moved to a new date and many Passover traditions morphed into completely separate new holidays and rituals like the Eucharist. The traditional period of study and fasting between Purim and Passover merged with pagan traditions to become Lent. Shavuot became Pentecost. And so on.

This wasn't an overnight event and it wasn't without contention. There was significant disagreement between various congregations during this process, but the unrelenting consolidation of power in the hands of a few who actively discouraged the masses from studying the Scriptures for themselves caused the actual traditions given by the Apostles to be subsumed beneath a syncretism of the new "Jewish" religion with the older, more comfortable paganism.

It is possible--perhaps even probable--that the passages concerning "the hypocrites" and the Eucharist (aka Feast of Gratitude, which is a little closer to its origin in Passover than the English term "communion") were added or modified by a later editor and were not part of the original. Numerous references to keeping the commandments of Torah show that The Didache was penned before the corruption had set in too deeply. It's too radically pro-Moses, which is one of the reasons I love it despite its flaws. If that is the case, it's impossible to tell for certain which segments are pure and which aren't.

I encourage all believers--Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Messianic, et al--to read the Scriptures for themselves, beginning with Genesis. It's a huge mistake to start new believers with John or Romans. Would you start a house by making the doors and windows first or by laying the foundation? Everything that comes later builds upon what came first. The Apostolic Scriptures are all based on the Torah and filled with plain and oblique references to Torah and the Prophets. Without a good understanding of those older Scriptures, the newer ones can only be read out of context and can be very easily misunderstood.

Study the Scriptures and you will be much better prepared for sifting through writings like The Didache and the various letters of the early church fathers. Without studying the Scriptures, you'll be perfectly prepared to be deceived.

Let Them Know They're in a Fight

I hate threatening someone else's job. I don't care for boycotts. Honestly, the whole #OpTorDrop thing makes me a little sick to my stomach. I'd rather just let people know what I think by supporting things I like and not supporting things I don't. In return, I'd like to be free to support a worthy cause with my own resources, to point out obvious truths in a public forum, or to wear a gaudy Hawaiian shirt without fear of being fired and blacklisted.

Unfortunately, the world today just doesn't work that way.

The other side declared war on us decades ago and we didn't believe them. Who usually wins a fight? The first one to know he's in a fight, which is why we keep losing.

So swallow your bile and start hitting back. Let them know that they're finally in a fight.

I'm not buying another Tor book until Irene Gallo and Patrick Nielsen-Hayden have quit or been fired. I'll buy two on that day. It seems like a small thing, but every war consists of numerous small battles. Start small, start big...just start.

In the meantime, I'm looking for the next fight.

HT: Vox Day "A necessary endorsement"

Korah's Rebellion: Playing with Fire

Numbers 16:38 - The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before the LORD, therefore they are hallowed: and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.

If Korah, Datan, and Abiram were sinners, why should their censers be made holy by their offerings?

God is a God of order and laws. He ordered the universe so that if you jump from the surface of the Earth, you will fall back to it. If you speak evil things of yourself, evil things will tend to happen to you. If you lie, cheat, and steal, negative consequences will accrue. And if you dedicate something over which you have legitimate authority to God, that thing becomes holy to God. Although God will listen to his faithful and shower special blessings on those who love him, the laws of the universe apply equally to all men regardless of their standing in the kingdom.

OK, so why should those things wrought by wickedness be used as part of the furniture of the Tabernacle?

This is not a matter of the ends justifying the means. The means were evil, and the actors paid a heavy price. God has a plan, however, and that plan still operates within the universe that he created to be governed by his laws. The censers that Korah and company used in their coup attempt could no longer be used for any mundane purpose because they were still dedicated to God. It would also be inappropriate to use them as censers and thereby bestow some small amount of honor on Korah. Instead they were fired and beaten into something their creators did not intend.

Such is the case with all evil designs. They never end as intended. Satan forever attempts to twist God’s creation into something foreign, and so God does the same with Satan’s:

Romans 8:28 - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

 

 

Korah played with fires that he didn't understand & it cost him dearly.

Send Thou Men...

Numbers 13:2

Send thou men… God commanded Moses to send only men into Canaan as spies. The absurdity of radical feminists who say that women can do anything men can do hardly needs refutation. God's purpose in sending men and not women is obvious. Notice also that he once again referred to the divinely ordained patriarchal structure of Israel: "Of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man".

God wanted chief men, who were probably beyond their physical prime. The mission was not to be a surprise attack, but rather a fact finding expedition, requiring wisdom and intelligence as much as strength and stealth. Perhaps more importantly, they were sent to lay claim to the land, and only men of authority could act in the name of the tribes. Notice that no man of Levi was included in the twelve. This is because Levi had no inheritance in the land, and so no Levitical leader was required to seal their claim.

Mad Max and the Anti-Feminist Truth

The preview for Mad Max: Fury Road made it look like a grrl-power movie and some people were touting it as a great feminist flick, so I wasn't very excited about it. After a few friends assured me that it had been misrepresented, I relented and bought a ticket for this past weekend. I'm glad I did.

Fury Road is full of absurdities and impossibilities, but plausibility has never been a major element of the Mad Max franchise. In such an unlikely world, feminism wouldn't be so out of place. I mean, why not? Spiked and armored columns roaring about the desert wouldn't exactly be a realistic feature of a fuel and water starved post apocalyptic world, so it's no more implausible to posit a female warrior woman ruling the nightmare metropolis of Barter Town or taking on the mutant armies of Immortan Joe. Everything is bigger and badder than it could ever be in the real world and that's one of the things we love about these movies. More guns, more insanity, big explosions, and bigger bad guys. But when it comes to feminism, this movie is much more consistent with the facts of life in the real world than it is in other areas.

In fact, Fury Road is one of the most anti-feminist movies I've seen in a long time.

Here are a few anti-feminist principles that it gets right:

• Without a gun or comparable weapon, almost no woman has a reasonable chance in a fight against a below average man. Without Max to fight for them, Furiosa and Joe's harem girls would have been killed or captured very early in the story.
• Objective, widely accepted and enforced moral standards are essential for civilization.
• The physical infrastructure of civilized society (buildings, roads, farms, machinery, weapons, etc.) is almost exclusively created and maintained by men.
• Women are at the mercy of men. They always have been and always will be. If a woman is not under the protection of one man (father, husband, policeman, soldier, etc.), she will be easy prey for some other man. If there is a woman living in peace, she is either isolated from the rest of humanity or else there is a man somewhere threatening violence against anyone who might wish her harm.

You don't have to like it. You can rage against it all you want. It remains the truth:

Feminists are living out a fantasy that is only made possible by a solid--if understated--patriarchy.

Unintended Consequences in Iraq

I keep seeing this meme on Twitter and Facebook:

Imposing Democracy on Iraq led to the country's current sad state.

The unfortunate truth is that the "nation building" adventures of both Bush's, especially GW2, led to the current sad state of affairs in Iraq. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a mean, bad bully. But everyone except Iran was better off with Hussein in power. Iraq's Christians were better off, Israel was better off, and the United States was better off. Bush and Obama are both complete failures as Presidents. Bush was better in some short-term metrics, but they both stole liberties, abused power, and killed a whole lot of people that should not have been killed.

Actions have consequences, so, unless you are going to conquer and colonize, stay the <bleep> out of other people's countries. Let them make and solve their own problems¹; and for the love of the United States Constitution, don't bring them back here!

¹ Exception: If you personally want to go evangelize, undermine, or commercialize Iraq or anyplace else, help yourself. Ask me for a donation if you want. But not one dime of tax money and not one soldier, marine, airman, or sailor accompanies you or rescues you.

Interesting use of the word "inclusive"

I understand not wanting to list anti-Torah, etc, websites in a Messianic directory. I even understand not wanting to list websites that promote a theology with which the proprietors disagree. I don't understand excluding 70% or more of the worldwide Messianic movement while claiming a "desire to be as inclusive as possible."

Everyone's welcome! Except you people. And you. And those dirty people over there. Oh, and all of you people in this group here, not you either.

We the Adulteress

Numbers 5:11-31 to some is one of the most mystifying passages in all of the law. God does not normally prescribe physical trials such as the one described for establishing guilt. While some pagan cultures have depended almost exclusively on such trials--medieval duels and witch trials are familiar examples--they are almost completely foreign to the scriptures. A detailed examination, however, will show that this passage is far more than a trial by fire. It may be one of the most profoundly symbolic passages in the Torah. The Sotah may seem barbaric to our modern sensibilities, but it is actually a message of hope. The Accuser stands against us, but our High Priest washes away our crimes with his own blood.

First, it establishes a Biblical precedence for the common law doctrine of the accused being innocent until proven guilty. Verses 12 - 15 show that if there is no evidence of a crime, but only suspicion, then no one but God alone can mete out punishment. The husband in this case could not rightfully divorce his wife simply because he suspected her of adultery. If there was no evidence and no eye witness, then the fact of her guilt could only be tried by God himself. It may be significant that the husband--the woman's accuser--and not the woman provided the jealousy offering. The jealousy offering is a form of guilt offering. It could be that he is the one in sin by unjustly suspecting his wife. He is also her head, and no head could be completely free of an infection present in some part of the body.

The most important symbolism is in the clay jar and the actions of the priest. The clay jar is the Messiah's physical body, fragile and hollow. (Paul used this same analogy for the body in 2 Corinthians 4.) The water is his spirit, and the dust is his blood. The woman was set directly before God, and any head coverings were removed to symbolize the removal of her husband's protection and authority. The jealousy offering was set in her hands to say that, if she was guilty, then the sin was hers alone, but the jar remained in the hands of the priest, because Yeshua as our High Priest, willingly gave his life for ours.

The priest had the woman speak an oath of innocence and an accompanying curse for guilt, and then, like God recording our deeds in the annals of Heaven, he wrote it into a book. He then took some of the water from the jar, stained red by the dust saturated by the blood of countless sacrifices, and washed the ink from the book into the jar, just as the blood of Yeshua washed away all record of our sin and took upon himself the curse that was rightfully ours.

If the accused woman was innocent, then the bitter water containing the "sin" of the tabernacle dust and the curse from the book would do her no harm and exonerated her of all wrong-doing. She was free from the accusation and could return to her husband cleared of guilt. But if she was, in fact, guilty and had sworn to her innocence, then, just as eating and drinking unworthily at Passover brings us under a curse, she would become cursed by the water and by her oath. She would become diseased and barren, as one who knows of Yeshua's sacrifice but rejects it as unnecessary, claiming innocence on his own account.

In light of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, we can see one more great truth in this trial. If she had followed the commands laid out in the preceding passage, she and the man with whom she committed adultery would have confessed their sin and offered to make some kind of reparations. If she allows the trial to get this far and she is guilty, then she clearly has no intention of owning up to her sin and repenting of it. If she had confessed there would have been some chance of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Likewise, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. If we wait too long, we will lose our opportunity to repent, and He will be faithful and just to condemn us.