Soil from Stone: November 2016

A Chiasm Centered on the Deception of Isaac

A: V18 – Who are you?
B: V19 – I am Esau
  C: Your firstborn
      D: I’ve done what you asked
          E: Get up and eat so you can give me your blessing
              F: V20 – God granted success
                  G: V21-22 – Parallelism, part 1
                          1. Come near
                          2. Isaac feels Jacob’s hands
                      H: V23-25 – Isaac believes the lie

G: V26-27 – Parallelism, part 2

1. Come near

2. Isaac smells Jacob’s clothes

F: V28-29 – Isaac blessed Jacob

E: V31 – Get up and eat so you can give me your blessing

D: I am your son

C: Your firstborn

B: Esau

A: V32 – Who are you?

Words Are Just Labels

Sometimes when people start getting back into Scripture, they discover things they never knew were there, they get convicted, they get excited... And sometimes they get a little carried away by things they read or hear without considering the greater context. For example, in Exodus 23:13, God said "Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips."

Years ago, when I was first getting really serious about trying to obey God, I thought this meant we needed to stop using "Tuesday" and "January" because they were named for pagan gods.

Some people take that even further and say we shouldn't use words like "lord" and "god" because the True God shouldn't be made to share his titles with false gods.

But then there's this:

For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. Isaiah 54:5

We all know this is talking about YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (The all-caps LORD always means that the original Hebrew read "YHWH".) There's absolutely no question about it. Isaiah is relaying a message from God about Himself to the people of Israel. Did you also know that the Hebrew word God used to describe himself as a "husband" is ba'al, the exact same word used as to refer to the chief Canaanite god? It can be translated as husband, master, lord, etc.
In other places, God YHWH calls himself El and Adonai, which translate almost exactly to god and lord, respectively.

All words and sounds are abused and co-opted at times for sinful purposes, but there is no such thing as a "pagan" word or sound any more than there can be a pagan hammer or a pagan screwdriver. Words are just tools used to convey information, and, just like hammers, they can be misused.

Some nouns carry more information than others, but in the end they're just labels. God, lord, ba'al... these are generic nouns that are sometimes used as proper nouns, just like Father, Doctor, or President. The chief Canaanite god was often called Ba'al, but YHWH also called himself ba'al.

If pagans worship a god of the trees and they call it Tree, are we then forbidden to use the word "tree" ever again? Of course not. Even if there was a real being masquerading as the god of the trees, that word doesn't belong to him, and it's not really his name.

When God said "Don't let the names of false gods pass your lips" in Exodus 23:13, he didn't mean, "Don't speak the phonetic equivalents of their names and don't ever use those nouns again." No. What he meant was, "Don't call on false gods. Don't swear by their names, don't honor them by talking about them in a favorable manner, don't pray to them, don't act in their names, and don't speak for them."

Words are just tools to represent information through speech and writing. Don't confuse the labels for the realities, and don't let the world dictate your speech.

The Law, Rightfully Used

Making Torah (aka the Law) the object of our lives leads inevitably to failure. We ought never to keep God’s Law for the sake of the Law itself nor for the sake of the veneer of righteousness that it provides, but for the sake of the Lawgiver who gave us His Torah out of love for us and a desire to see us succeed as children of God and citizens of His Kingdom. Torah is a blessing and a guide to those who keep it out of love for our Creator and Redeemer. It is a curse and an obstacle to those who attempt to keep it pridefully. (Romans 9:30-32)

A Toldot Playlist on Youtube:

Yeshua Is More Real than Caesar

99.9% of all history is based on documentary evidence. You cannot reasonably claim to believe in a historical Julius Caesar based on historical documents and claim to disbelieve in a historical Jesus based on a lack of historical documents. There is more documentary historical evidence for the physical existence of Yeshua than for that of Julius Caesar, Senacharib, or Plato.

Reality Wins, Every Time

Rejecting an argument because you don't like its conclusions reveals a fundamental irrationality, an inability to make sound decisions. An argument should be judged by its truth, not by your gag reflex. Because you are human, you are prejudiced, while the truth is not and cannot be. Truth is never sexist, racist, phobic, or elitist. It simply is.

We can accept the world for what it is and tack accordingly, or we can close our eyes in fantasy and let the winds and currents of reality steer us wherever they will.

Resurrection at the End from the Beginning

In Luke 20:37-38, Jesus said that the title "God of Abraham" proves the resurrection of the dead because God is the God of the living, not the dead. However, Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that the resurrection of the faithful is still to come.

How to reconcile these two statements?

In v38, Jesus said "All are alive to God," meaning, from God's perspective, all the righteous are alive today. But God's perspective isn't ours, as He sees the end from the beginning. Abraham, with all the faithful of every age, is alive today in God's eyes, whether or not he has already been resurrected today, because God isn't limited to a linear experience of time.

To HaShem, tomorrow is today.

When Truth Becomes a Crime

In today's political discourse "racist" just means "expresses (or openly associates with people who express) opinions that meet any of the following criteria":

Not approved by enlightened progressives.
Respectful of various ethnicities of European origin or commonly referred to as "white".
Acknowledges the possibility that inherited genes of non-whites might have the slightest undesirable effect on anything that cannot be clearly seen, such as hair color, skin tone, etc.. (The inheritance of undesirable emotional, intellectual, etc., traits by whites can be freely acknowledged without being considered racist.)
Acknowledges the bad behavior of any non-white individual or group.
Questions the integrity, capabilities, or genius of any non-white individual or group.
Fails to weight credit for any achievement in favor of non-whites.
Gives whites, especially white men, credit for achievements.

When a person is backed into a corner so that he can no longer even move without breaking some rules, when he's guilty merely because he exists, eventually he stops caring about the rules.

Qualities Common to Great Men

Everyone has the capacity to be successful. Nobody is a born loser. I think the difference between a success and a loser is more a matter of making appropriate choices concerning where and how to apply one's abilities rather than the nature of the abilities themselves. If you're short and uncoordinated, for example, you'll find more success away from the basketball court than on it. If you're exceptionally tall and athletic, but not especially bright, professional basketball might be a better choice than medicine or electrical engineering. By compensating for shortfalls, developing skills, working hard, and walking the right path, everyone can become better than average at something, even better than most, since most of their peers will choose not to expend the same effort.

On the other hand, not everyone has the capacity to be great.

Qualities common to great men in no particular order:

► Self discipline
► Self confidence
► Consistent vision
► Constancy of purpose
► Faith in God
► Community minded
► Intelligence
► Idealism
► Irrational optimism
► Generosity
► Interest in people
► Strong ambition
► Sense of destiny

Not every great man has all of these qualities--I would be surprised to find anyone who did--but the more of them a person has, the more they will be predisposed to greatness.

If you don't see yourself in the list above, don't despair. Greatness is, by definition, very rare. Most successful people will never be great. Even so, every one of these qualities can be developed to some degree, some more than others. Everyone can be better than they are.

Parallels between Isaac and Yeshua

Some parallels between Isaac & Yeshua:

Isaac & Yeshua were both conceived under miraculous and apparently questionable circumstances.
Abraham loved Isaac. The Father was "well pleased" with Yeshua.
3 days journey to the binding of Isaac & 3 days in the grave for Yeshua.
2 men accompanied Isaac & Abraham, while 2 men were crucified beside Yeshua.
Both men were accompanied to the locale of Jerusalem by a donkey.
Yeshua and Isaac both went willingly & carried the wood that would be used in their sacrifices.
Isaac was symbolically "resurrected" at God's intervention. Yeshua was actually resurrected.
A ram replaced Isaac on the altar, while a Lamb replaced all of mankind.
Just like Yeshua, Isaac disappeared from the Biblical scene until the Servant had prepared his bride.

Election Day 2016

I'm not thrilled with the candidacy of Donald Trump. If I remember correctly, he got a D on my conservative score card. Better than Romney, Christie, or Bush, but still not good. On the other hand, I understand his emotional--and even intellectual--appeal to patriotic voters. Despite some serious problems with his character and politics, at least he has made some noises about protecting America from our most serious threats. If he wins the election today, I'll be nervous about America's future. There are a lot of potential problems.

On the gripping hand, I have no reservations whatsoever about condemning Hillary Clinton and everyone around her. She is evil, wicked, foul, disgusting...Whatever pejorative you care to toss her way, it will stick.

Gary Johnson... Please. What a joke.

If Trump wins, I'll be nervous. If Clinton wins, I'll be ashamed and sickened by what has become of America.

The Briefest Introduction to Chiasms

The Bible is full of chiasms (kai'-a-zumz), literary structures used to provide a framework to a story--what a novelist might call a story arc--or to convey additional meaning to what is contained by the bare text. The singular is technically chiasmus and the plural is chiasmi, since the word is derived from Greek and Latin. Since I speak English, I prefer chiasm/chiasms. In a chiasm, a series of phrases or concepts in the first half of the narrative are mirrored in the second half, usually--but not always--with one, unmirrored statement at the center.

Chiasms were used extensively by writers in many ancient cultures, and sometimes they are still used today, especially in poetry and song. Along with parallelisms, thematic allusions, Hebrew word play, and a number of other literary devices, chiasms can give fascinating insight on the meaning that the original Biblical writers intended to convey. They can be as short as a single verse or span multiple books. Most commonly they span a few verses or a chapter.

A typical chiasm might look something like this:

A - God speaks to prophet
B - Prophet speaks to people
C - People respond to man
D - God acts
C - People respond to God
B - People speak to prophet
A - Prophet speaks to God

Sometimes they are very easy to see, but often they are obscured by translation from Hebrew or by artificial chapter and verse divisions. Being able to read the Hebrew (which I cannot), definitely makes them easier to find. Tony Robinson has a lot of great teaching on chiasms and thematic connections in Scripture. You can check them out here: Restoration of Torah Ministries.

And I have a growing list of them here: Index of Biblical Chiasmi and Parallelisms.

Soil from Stone