Tag: Christianity

My Future Will Be…..?

This is my official 300th post and the point at which I have decided to conclude my blog. It has been quite a journey with God. My feelings smart a bit when reading my first posts in light of where I am now, but I fight the urge to hide or edit them because life is a process after all, and I have decided to publish my evolution in an effort to be authentic as a woman seeking after God. In doing so, I invite my family and others to also be real in your life journey as well. Let’s give each other grace to make mistakes and be tested by the fire.

As I come round to the end of this catalog, I am also nearing the end of the huge chapter of my life that is rearing children. My children were my priority for 34 years of my life, the years of my vigor. I am still a mother and will be until the day I die, but as my last son flies free from the nest, I find myself not wanting to flee to other lands as a missionary, but to seek deeper relationship with my offspring and their families, to grow in love with them, because I have such deep love and affection for all of them! Oh, I want to use the gifts for midwifery and healing God has given me, but I find my heart leaning into doing life with those whom I really do love best, and who seem to also love me > my Family.

There was a very difficult season for us when our family was torn apart, where we all seemed to grow further apart. But in Your mercy and mending, You have brought us back together as only You can do, Lord. I made many mistakes as a mother, mistakes I don’t think I would have made if I had known You. But what is past is past, and all has been washed away by the blood of the Lamb. I hope that my children can also forgive me my faults against them. I have never known a love like the love I have for them. Indeed, all I ever really wanted to be was a mother, a matriarch to a large family. The medical career was incidental to that. You are restoring that original dream and for that I am more grateful than words can express.

I know my real family, as Jesus said, are those who do the will of the Father. But my personal family are warm-hearted and good people, and I know they ARE doing the will of the Father. Even though they might not all be born-again or even saved yet, I know You have chosen them and are calling them, just as I was chosen and called even when I was an avowed atheist. Thank You, God, for Your perfect vision, to see what we are unable to see. Thank you for giving me my beautiful children and all that they bring, Lord, and for calling me to You!

I want to serve You with all of ME no matter where, what, when, how, or with whom. And I hope that when the time comes for my body to lie down and my spirit to fly to heaven, my Family and friends will remember me with deep affection and love in the Lord. And You know my greatest prayer is that they all come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior!

~Selah

The Helper

While walking in the woods and listening to the bible aloud in the book of John, the word ‘helper’ jumped out at me in a way I had never fully realized before. Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure from this world, his death and crucifixion, but was teaching them the concept of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, and how this Spirit would not come until He left:

“The HELPER whom I will send to you from the Father will come. This HELPER, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, will declare the truth about me. You will declare the truth, too, because you have been with me from the beginning.” ~John 15:26-27

Helper in the Greek is ‘parakletos’ and it means, “summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid; one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate. In the next line, the Helper/The Spirit of Truth is translated from the Greek word ‘aletheia’ and it means, “what is true in any matter under consideration”. Parakletos is known to mean Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

Putting these two concepts together shows us that Jesus sends us an aid, a helper, who also helps us to understand truth in all contexts.

But Yahweh (Jesus) ALHYM (the Father) also introduces us to the concept of ‘helper’ in the beginning of scripture when They say:

“The Lord GOD said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a HELPER comparable to him’……And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet (HELPER) for him.” ~Genesis 2:18, 20

Helper and help meet is represented by the Hebrew word ‘ezer’ which means to “help, succour”. God and His Son Yahweh made man and in the very beginning of man’s walk with God, God created a helper and brought (sent) her to the man so that he would not be alone.

I have shared that I believe the Holy Spirit is the feminine wife of Alhym created by Him as he hovered over the waters in the very beginning of time, and Yahweh, the Spirit of Christ, the Son of God, was begat from this otherworldly union. I believe that the word “HELPER” being used for wife in Hebrew and for Holy Spirit in Greek is not a mere coincidence. I do believe that Jesus understood this mystery and in His usual way, taught this mystery indirectly for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Because He used the same conceptual word that had been from the beginning> Helper, to align Holy Spirit with the concept of wife.

Is that why it is not good for man to be alone? Because alone he will not have the divine assistance and truth that comes from having a wife created just for him by God?

The full implication of this is not that hard to grasp. A man is better with a wife who is his helper, aid, who gives the Spirit of Truth and succors him. Does a wife not bring this? Women are known for being bearers of truth more than men, as well as soothers and nurturers. These are Holy Spirit attributes. Godly men as husbands bring Christ-like values such as loyalty and protection, but men are not really known for being Truth bearers, if you think about it.

I am not saying that a man will not know the Holy Spirit if he is not married, and I don’t believe Jesus is implying that either. I do think that God has a divine plan and if we follow His plan, we are more blessed than if we do not follow His plan. If we understand that God made us in His image, then it also makes sense that He made family in the same conceptual model.

How can He have a Son without also having a Wife? If God has a wife (the Holy Spirit), then He will also want a man to have a wife and for them to procreate as given to us in the first pages of scripture. If a chosen man of God–a saved or born-again man–has Christ-like attributes, then why would a wife not also have Holy Spirit attributes?

Another Tidbit on Jesus being part of the Essenoi

I was listening to my ESV bible app the other day while hiking and the word “Teacher” jumped out at me from the book of John. My ears perked up because I know that the Teacher of Righteousness while not mentioned EVER in the bible, is written about extensively in the Dead Sea Scrolls as their long-awaited Messiah. And the Dead Sea Scrolls are now attributed to the Essenes. I am used to thinking of Jesus in the pages of scripture as ‘Rabbi’ or even ‘Master’ but not ‘Teacher’.

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ~John 11:28

Anyone who has read this (my) blog knows that I believe Jesus was aided throughout his lifetime and ministry by the third group of Jews in ancient times known as the ‘Essenes’. The other two groups are widely known (and written about in the bible) as the Sadducees and Pharisees. Even though Josephus and other historical writers have discussed the Essenes–the third main group of Jews–at length, the Essenes are completely omitted from the bible. I find this curious and as even more evidence that the writers of the New Testament knew the Essenoi and were likely part of their group, at least for a time. But chose not to mention them because of their link with Jesus, which He wanted to keep on the down low.

In various places in the bible Jesus disappears from his disciples. In these places which I will not go into here, I think he was taking nurture from the Essenes. I think some of his disciples must have known about this, but perhaps not all of them, because they genuinely seem perplexed about where he went when he disappeared. In one example, Jesus said to an exasperated group of disciples who were worried about his absence and probable hunger, He said to them:

“I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ~John 4:32

In another famous spot of the bible, He said to them prophetically:

“…saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” ~Matthew 21:2-3

I just don’t think this happened out of thin air, although I do believe in the divinity of Jesus.

Here Wikipedi described the Essenes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essenes

But back to the word “Teacher” as referred to by Martha, whose family were some of Jesus’ best friends. The Greek word for Teacher is didaskalos (διδάσκαλος) and is used to refer to Jesus approximately 45 times in the New Testament Gospels. 

This title, which translates as “teacher” or “master” (depending on the translation), was the most common form of address for Jesus in the Gospels. didaskalos (διδάσκαλος) was rarely used to refer to other ‘teachers’ but was occasionally used as a general reference to teacher. Mostly it was used to refer to or address Jesus, and Jesus Himself even cautioned his disciples on numerous occasions to NOT be called ‘Teacher’:

“But you must not be called ‘Teacher,’ because you have only one Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters together. And don’t call any person on earth ‘Father,’ because you have one Father, who is in heaven. And you should not be called ‘Master,’ because you have only one Master, the Christ.” ~Matthew 23:8-10

I think the extensive and exclusive use of the word ‘Teacher’ for Jesus by his closest followers and believers shows that they considered Him the Teacher of Righteousness as written about in the Jewish Essenoi clan. There can be no other good explanation for such a conflation and use of the word ‘Teacher’ in this ancient time period. This is when the Essenes were at or near their peak popularity, and they used this term to mean their Messiah, and the Jewish people at large would have likely been acquainted with its Essenic meaning. Essenes were spread all among the Hebrews and amongst the other Jews. Admittedly there are some places where the Essenic Teacher of Righteousness differs somewhat in description from Jesus’ ministry, but overall, the similarities have too much overlap to be mere coincidence.

Jesus quietly claimed the title referenced by the Essenoi, “Teacher of Righteousness”, by using the shortened version, Teacher, among his disciples. And by teaching others to not use this term outside of Himself he confirms that He is the One Messiah the Essenoi were waiting for.

~selah

Thou Shalt Not Make an Image…

God has put on my heart a burden to revisit the 2nd commandment which He gave to Moses on Mount Sinai after the exodus from Egypt. For a review, I will first post the 10 Commandments:

The second commandment here reads: You shall make no idols. This is the crux of the commandment. However, I will post fuller versions from the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy below.

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.” ~Exodus 20:4-6

And

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” ~Deuteronomy 5:8-10

“Idol” in the hebrew language is פֶּסֶל or pesel. This means simply a graven image, something that is hewn or carved from a material. Idols were formed to be worshiped in ancient times as written about in the Old Testament, such as the golden calf, the Asherah pole, or any of the multitudinous statues of baal or other gods placed in temples or the high places.

“Likeness” in the Hebrew language is תְּמוּנָה or tmûwnâh. It means something portioned (i.e. fashioned) out, as a shape, i.e. (indefinitely) phantom, or (specifically) embodiment, or (figuratively) manifestation (of favor):—image, likeness, similitude.

So there are two parts to this very important (and longest) law given to God’s people. We are not to make an idol (object) OR likeness (image) of anything we can see in the sky, on earth, or in the sea. Likeness is the look of something that resembles something else. Note that it can even be figurative, or a phantom which implies immaterial. I think of demons that we imagine or sometimes catch glimpses of in photographs or in the middle of the night, etc.

Not only are there are two parts of this commandment as a whole, but the first part of the 2nd Commandment also has 2 parts. And this same verbiage is reiterated in different places in the bible to make sure we understand that it isn’t just the object itself that God prohibits but it is also the image of the object He prohibits us creating. In this way He is covering all manner of photographic imagery we can conjure, even in to–and beyond– our modern time!

He tells us firstly, do not make any hard idols from any images you can imagine. Secondly, He then follows it with the commandment: Do not bow down and worship those images and idols you might create.

Some Christians in their vain attempt to continue in idolatry of images and photographs, cherry-pick this commandment to mean that God is saying it’s okay to make images, as long as you don’t worship said images. But that is not accurate. He clearly sets 3 distinct sentiments forth in this longest 3-part commandment: Don’t make any idols or images of anything you can see or imagine, don’t worship them, and if you do this, I will bless your bloodline forever and if you don’t, I will curse your bloodline.

I have to wonder about the most prevalent and obvious images of our time: Photographs. Photography was invented in the 1800s and was applied to paper which created a ‘graven image’ hewn on paper. 200 years later, that process now is immaterial or digital and the graven image is now in binary code or pixels or electronically stored in our phone, projected screens, or printed out into hard copies. God’s word tmûwnâh, or likeness, as we have seen covers the possibility of this and says that it is forbidden. So even in our modern times, the same bible principles apply to us as they did in more primitive times. If we had no ability to make print or digital images, we would probably also be tempted to fashion a golden calf for ourselves, like those ‘stubborn’ Hebrews did when Moses led them out of slavery. How many of us have clucked when reading that story and thought to ourselves how far advanced we are compared to them!

This is such a deep and heavy topic because media has pervaded our lives in an infinite number of ways. As the camera got better at capturing images on paper, men invented ways of transmitting those images over the air waves (television), and now those pictures can be transmitted more efficiently than ever and sent across the globe in a matter of seconds (internet). Anything we can imagine, real or not, can be made into an image with the potential of becoming an idol.

Should it be any surprise to us that children (and adults) who spend the majority of their lives on the computer are depressed. This is Satan’s main way of capturing man. It’s a futurist form of slavery, a slavery of the mind, not unlike the imaginary world depicted in the Matrix movies. I can’t think of one Christian who would say that you shouldn’t take a picture or paint a picture of something, but that is clearly what the 2nd Commandment states!

All these images, scenes, photos, movies, documentaries, pictures, artwork are simply–in their most basic form–distractions from God. Distractions from God are idols. Whether we want to acknowledge the truth of this in our lives is up to us. No one wants to give up an idol because it gives us some sort of secret delight, some sort of sinful pleasure. But God is a jealous God, and He wants all our attention focused on Him so He can bless us and our children, and their children, and so on.

As I wrap up this blog of mine, I am grateful for its purpose in my life: To give me a place to put my thoughts, feelings, and research as I yearn to know God. But I hope to journey forward into a place that I will follow all His commandments in my life, even beyond the 10. And I think there, in that place, my life will simply unfold in the present moment and pass away without a visual record, as He intended all along~ Here today, gone tomorrow.

All that matters is that He is glorified, not me, not you, not anyone or anything else. Just God.

God’s Law~The Mitzvot ~ Book 2

Disclaimer: Not perfect as I am not perfect. I realize Jesus replaces the ceremonial laws of the OT. This book was written when I first came to Christ ~ ❤

This Law is compiled from the Holy Bible Old Testament and the Gospel.  The Old Law was followed except where Jesus corrected it.  I pray that you are blessed by this Law as I have been.  ❤

Originally posted on August 4, 2013, and FINISHED!

 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:  For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.  ~Joshua 1:8

~~~~~~~

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  ~Deuteronomy 29:29

~~~~~~~

The Choice of Life or Death

“For this commandment which I command you today, it is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?  Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.   ~Deuteronomy 30:11-14, NKJV

~~~~~~~

BLESSED

…….is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stands in the way of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

But his delight is in the Law of the LORD,

And in His Law he meditates day and night.  ~Psalm 1:1-2

~~~~~~~

“Do not for a moment suppose that I have come to abrogate the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abrogate them but to give them their completion.  Solemnly I tell you that until Heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one tittle will pass away from the Law until all has taken place.  Whoever therefore breaks one of these least commandments and teaches others to break them, will be called the least in the Kingdom of the Heavens; but whoever practices them and teaches them, he will be acknowledged as great in the Kingdom of the Heavens.  ~Matthew 5:17-19

The Ten Commandments

And God spoke all these words saying:

  1. I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out from the land of Egypt, out from the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me.
  2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and doing kindness to thousands:  to those loving Me, and to those keeping My commandments.
  3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
  4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and sanctified it.
  5. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
  6. Thou shalt not murder.
  7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  8. Thou shalt not steal.
  9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
  10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.  ~Exodus 20:1-17

The Great Commandments

  • The LORD our God is one LORD!  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  ~Deuteronomy 6:4-5
  • Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  ~Mark 12:31

YHWH

  • You shall not blaspheme God.  ~Exodus 22:28
  • Do not invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.  ~Exodus 23:13
  • I tell you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet….Neither shall you swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.  But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’  Whatever is more than these is of the evil one.  ~Matthew 5:34-37
  • You shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy.  Neither shall you defile yourselves with anything unclean.  ~Leviticus 11:44-45
  • Do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land.  ~Numbers 14:9
  • If the LORD is not with you, anything you attempt will fail.  ~Numbers 14:41-42
  • You shall not tempt the LORD your God.  ~Deuteronomy 6:16
  • You shall do that which is right and good in the LORD’s sight; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers.  ~Deuteronomy 6:18
  • Man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.  ~Deuteronomy 8:3
  • You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.  ~Deuteronomy 8:10
  • You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him.  ~Deuteronomy 13:4
  • You shall diligently keep His commandments and obey His voice.  ~Deuteronomy 13:4
  • You shall serve Him, and cling to Him.  ~Deuteronomy 13:4
  •  You shall not plant for yourselves a god or goddess statue of any kind of tree beside the LORD your God’s altar, which you shall make for yourselves. ~Deuteronomy 16:21
  • You shall not set up a stone pillar, which the LORD your God hates.  ~Deuteronomy 16:22
  • And so it may not happen that a person when cursed, blesses himself instead, saying, “I shall have peace, even though I walk in the imagination of my heart.”  ~Deuteronomy 29:19
  • Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.  ~1 Samuel 15:22
  • Learn to do good.  ~Isaiah 1:17
  • Do not seek God’s Knowledge.  ~Genesis 3, Jeremiah 31:37
  • Be merciful and do not offer sacrifices, for God delights in the knowledge of Him more than burnt offerings.  ~Hosea 6:6
  • Observe mercy and justice, and wait on God continually.  ~Hosea 12:6

The Angel and the Promises

  • Beware of My Angel and obey His voice.  ~Exodus 23:21
  • Do not provoke Him; for My name is in Him.  ~Exodus 23:21
  • You shall make no covenant with your adversaries, nor with their gods.  ~Exodus 23:32
  • Your adversaries shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me.  ~Exodus 23:33

The Sign of the Covenant

  • This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.  You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin.  It will be a token of the covenant between me and you.  ~Genesis 17:10-11
  • He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.  ~Genesis 17:12

Be Good

  • Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  ~Matthew 5:16
  • You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.  ~Matthew 5:48
  • Choose your words carefully, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.  ~Matthew 12:37

Marriage

  • God will make from the man a woman and bring her to the man.  ~Genesis 2:22
  • A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.  ~Genesis 2:24
  • And they shall become one flesh.  ~Genesis 2:24
  • Children of God, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.  ~Genesis 9:1
  • You shall not make marriages with those people who are not of the Children of God, lest they turn you away from following Me, to serve other gods.  ~Deuteronomy 7:3-4
  • Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.  ~Matthew 19:6
  • I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.  ~Matthew 19:9

Justice for All

  • You shall not follow a crowd to do evil.  ~Exodus 23:2
  • You shall not testify in court so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.  ~Exodus 23:2
  • You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.  ~Exodus 23:3
  • If you see him who hates you struggling or stranded, do not leave him, you shall surely help him.  ~Exodus 23:5
  • You shall not deny justice to poor people in their lawsuits.  ~Exodus 23:6
  • Keep yourself far from a false matter.  ~Exodus 23:7
  • You shall take no bribe.  ~Exodus 23: 8
  • You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  ~Exodus 23:9
  • You shall not lie nor deal falsely with one another.  ~Leviticus 19:11
  • You shall pay him who is hired his wages in a timely fashion.  ~Leviticus 19:13
  • You shall not show favoritisim to the great.  ~Leviticus 19:15
  • You shall not go about as a gossiper or slanderer among your people.  ~Leviticus 19:16
  • You shall not hate your brother in your heart.  ~Leviticus 19:17
  • You shall rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.  ~Leviticus 19:17
  • You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudges against the children of God.  ~Leviticus 19:18
  • Do not prostitute your daughter or son.  ~Leviticus 19:29
  • You shall rise to give honor before the gray headed and the elderly.  ~Leviticus 19:32
  • If a stranger lives with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.  ~Leviticus 19:33
  • The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.  ~Leviticus 19:34
  • You shall do no injustice in judgment, of currency or other things.  ~Leviticus 19:35
  • You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country.  ~Leviticus 24:22
  • Whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and did not hate him in time past, he shall find refuge and live.  ~Deuteronomy 19:4-5
  • If your brother’s animal goes astray, you shall not ignore it; you shall bring it back to your brother.  ~Deuteronomy 22:1
  • And if your brother is not near you, or you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall stay with you until he seeks it, when you will restore it to him.  Deuteronomy 22:2
  • And so you shall do with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found.  ~Deuteronomy 22:3
  • If the mother’s life is in danger of perishing, you may abort her young, but to save her life is righteous and holy.  ~Deuteronomy 22:6-7
  • Reprove the oppressor.  ~Isaiah 1:17
  • Defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow.  ~Isaiah 1:17
  • If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  ~Matthew 5:29
  • If you cause a child who believes in Me to falter or sin, that is a very grave sin.  ~Mark 9:42

Generosity to the Poor

  • When you reap any of your harvests, you shall not completely reap the edges of them, nor gather the left-overs; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.  ~Leviticus 19:9-10
  • If one of your brethren becomes poor, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave, but as a hired servant.  ~Leviticus 25:39-40
  • You shall not rule over him with rigor.  ~Leviticus 25:43
  • You shall not harden your heart nor turn your back on your poor brother, if there is among you a poor person among the children of God, within any of the towns in your land.  ~Deuteronomy 15:7
  • But you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.  ~Deuteronomy 15:8
  • You shall give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to.  ~Deuteronomy 15:10
  • You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your town.  ~Deuteronomy 24:14
  • Each day you shall pay him what he has earned, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it.  ~Deuteronomy 24:15
  • Give to him who asks you, and do not turn away him who desires to borrow from you.  ~Matthew 5:42
  • For those who hunger, give them food; and those who thirst, drink.  Take in a stranger, give clothes to those who are naked, visit the sick and those in prison, for as you do to the least of your brethren, you do to Me.  ~Matthew 25:35-36,40

Principles Governing Rulers

  • You shall not curse a ruler of your people.  ~Exodus 22:28
  • Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your people, and I will make them rulers over you.  ~Deuteronomy 1:13
  • Judges, hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between them.  ~Deuteronomy 1:16
  • You shall set a ruler over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as ruler over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.  ~Deuteronomy 17:15
  • But he shall not multiply riches for himself, nor cause the people to multiply riches for himself.  ~Deuteronomy 17:16
  • Neither shall he multiply wives for himself.  ~Deuteronomy 17:17
  • Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his nation or government in any capacity, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book.  ~Deuteronomy 17:18
  • And it shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of God.  ~Deuteronomy 17:19-20
  • Before making any oath or treaty, seek the counsel of the LORD.  ~Joshua 9:14-15

Justice Must Be Administered

  • If a person, or the congregation, sins unintentionally, and does not observe all the laws for God’s People, then the person or people shall bring an offering to the Priest, and the Priest shall make atonement for him or them, and it shall be forgiven them.  ~Numbers 15:22-28
  • But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the LORD, and he shall be taken before the Priest, and if found guilty, considered an adversary among his people; unless he repents and makes restitution, and then he will be forgiven.  ~Numbers 15:30-31
  • Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be tried in a court of law, and if found guilty, put to death.  ~Numbers 35:30
  • One witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty.  ~Numbers 35:30
  • You shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death, and you shall bury him that day.  ~Numbers 35:31,Deuteronomy 21:23
  • You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns, and they shall judge the people with just judgment, and manage the courts of law.  ~Deuteronomy 16:18
  • You shall follow what is altogether just.  ~Deuteronomy 16:20
  • If there is found among you, within any of your towns, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing His covenant, who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or worshiped heavenly bodies, such as the moon, sun, or stars, and it is told you, and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed, he or she shall be considered an adversary among his or her people.  ~Deuteronomy 17:2-5
  • So you shall remove the evil from among you.  ~Deuteronomy 17:7
  • If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, matters of controversy within your towns, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses, and you shall come to the Priests, and inquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.  ~Deuteronomy 17:9
  • According to the decisions of the law which the Priests shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do.   ~Deuteronomy 17:11
  • Now the person who acts presumptuously and will not heed the Priest who stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or the judge, that man shall be considered an adversary among his people.  ~Deuteronomy 17:12
  • One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.  ~Deuteronomy 19:15
  • If a false witness rises against any person to testify against him for wrongdoing, then both people in the controversy shall stand before the LORD, before the Priests who serve in those days; and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, then he shall be considered an adversary among his people.  ~Deuteronomy 19:16-19
  • Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you.  ~Deuteronomy 19:20
  • Your eye shall not pity, to pervert justice.  ~Deuteronomy 19:21

Forgiveness

  • When you pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive them, that God may also forgive you.  ~Mark 11:25
  • If you do not forgive, neither will God forgive you.  ~Mark 11:26

The Law Concerning Violence

The following acts warrant the death penalty:

  • He who lies in wait, and hits a person so that he dies; he who engages in premeditated murder.  ~Exodus 21:13-14
  • He who strikes or curses his father or mother.  ~Exodus 21:15,17
  • He who kidnaps with the intent to sell the person.  ~Exodus 21:16

Otherwise:

  • If men fight and one hurts another badly, then he shall pay for the loss of his time, and for him to be completely healed.  ~Exodus 21:18-19
  • If a man beats his servant, and the servant dies due to his hand, the master shall be punished.  ~Exodus 21:20
  • If men fight and hurt anyone else while fighting, and there is lasting harm, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.  ~Exodus 21:22-24
  • Except if a man strikes his servant and causes the loss of eye or tooth, then he shall let the servant go free on account of that wound.  ~Exodus 21:26-27

Property Laws

  • If a person steals something from another, and it cannot be restored, then he shall pay him five times what it was worth.  ~Exodus 22:1
  • If it can be restored, then he shall restore double.  ~Exodus 22:4
  • If a thief is struck or killed as he is breaking in, and you feel your life is in danger, there shall be no guilt incurred.  ~Exodus 22:2-3
  • If a person causes harm or ruin to another person’s property, he shall make restitution and restore it to the best of his ability.  ~Exodus 22:5
  • If a person borrows anything from his neighbor, and it becomes broken or injured, the borrower shall make good on it to the owner; unless the owner was present with it, and then the borrower shall not be mandated to make good on it.  ~Exodus 22:14-15

Animal Control Laws

  • If an animal belongs to someone and it kills a man or woman, then the animal shall be put to death, and the owner acquitted.  ~Exodus 21:28
  • If an animal was known by its owner to be fatal, and it has killed a man or woman, then the beast and owner shall be put to death, unless it is imposed upon him to redeem his life.  ~Exodus 21:29-30
  • If a person causes the inadvertent death of another person’s animal, he shall make good on it.  ~Exodus 21:33-34
  • And if a person’s animal kills another person’s animal, then they shall sell the live animal, and split the proceeds, or get rid of the live animal.  ~Exodus 21:35
  • However, if the animal was known to be a threat in times past, and it kills another person’s animal, then the guilty person shall fully reimburse the victim.  ~Exodus 21:36

Moral and Ceremonial Principles

  • Do not resist an evil person, but to him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer also the other.  ~Matthew 5:39
  • Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.  ~Matthew 5:41
  • Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.  When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Let your charitable deed be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.  ~Matthew 6:1-4
  • Do not give what is holy to animals; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.  ~Matthew 7:6
  • Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  ~Matthew 7:13-14
  • If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.  ~Matthew 18:15
  • You shall forgive your brother who sins against you seventy times seven times.  ~Matthew 18:21-22
  • Love your enemies.  ~Luke 6:27
  • Do good to those who hate you.  ~Luke 6:27
  • Bless those who curse you.  ~Luke 6:28
  • Pray for those who mistreat you.  ~Luke 6:28
  • And from him who takes away your cloak, or sues you for it, do not withhold your tunic also.  ~Luke 6:29
  • Give to everyone who asks of you.  ~Luke 6:30
  • Do not ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.  ~Luke 6:30
  • As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.  ~Luke 6:31
  • Give, and it will be given to you, for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.  ~Luke 6:38
  • Humble yourself among men, for he who exalts himself will be brought down, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  ~Luke 14:9
  • He who is without sin, cast the first stone.  ~John 8:7

Do Not Judge

  • Judge not, and you shall not be judged.  ~Luke 6:37
  • Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.  ~Luke 6:37
  • Do not be a hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.  ~Luke 6:4

Avoid Wicked Customs

  • You shall not practice divination or soothsaying.  ~Leviticus 19:26
  • You shall not shave around the sides of your head as in a ‘bowl cut’.  ~Leviticus 19:27
  • You shall not disfigure the edges of your beard.  ~Leviticus 19:27
  • You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead; nor tattoo any marks on you.  I am Yahweh.  ~Leviticus 19:28
  • Give no regard to mediums and spirits; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them.  ~Leviticus 19:31
  • In your lands, you shall utterly destroy all the places where your adversaries practiced idolatry, and destroy their idols.  ~Deuteronomy 12:1-3
  • There shall not be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter for other gods.  ~Deuteronomy 18:10
  • There shall not be found among you one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets signs, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.  ~Deuteronomy 18:10-11
  • You shall not do as your adversaries do–every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.  ~Deuteronomy 12:8
  • You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.  ~Deuteronomy 18:13
  • Do not learn the way of the pagans, for their ways are vanity.  ~Jeremiah 10:2-3
  • Do not believe in astrology.  ~Jeremiah 10:2
  • Do not adorn a tree in a way to command your attention.  ~Jeremiah 10:3-5

Making War

  • When I lead you into the Promised Land that I promised to your fathers, you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places, lest the inhabitants of the land become irritants to you and harass you in the land where you dwell.  ~Numbers 33:52, 55
  • You shall take possession of the land, and dwell in it; for I have given the land to you to possess.  ~Numbers 33:53
  • Do not be terrified , or afraid of those who inhabit the land the LORD is giving to you.  He is the LORD your God, who goes before you, and He will fight for you.  ~Deuteronomy 1:29-30
  • If the LORD is not with you, do go up nor fight your enemies, lest you be defeated.  ~Deuteronomy 1:42
  • All men of valor, those over 20 years of age, shall cross over before your brethren, armed, to possess the land the LORD your God has given you.  ~Deuteronomy 3:18
  • Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall stay in your cities.  ~Deuteronomy 3:19
  • Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land”; because He drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.  Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.  ~Deuteronomy 9:4-5
  • It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, and shall tell them, “Hear, Soldiers of God, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart faint!  Do not be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; for the LORD your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.  ~Deuteronomy 20:2-4
  • Then the officers shall speak to the soldiers, saying:  ‘What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it?  Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.’  ~Deuteronomy 20:5
  • ‘And what man is there who has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten its fruit?  Let him also go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat its fruit.’  ~Deuteronomy 20:6
  • ‘And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’  ~Deuteronomy 20:7
  • ‘What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart weaken as his heart.  ~Deuteronomy 20:8
  • It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the soldiers, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the soldiers.  ~Deuteronomy 20:9
  • When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.  ~Deuteronomy 20:10
  • It shall be, if it makes you an answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be that all the people who are found therein shall serve you.  ~Deuteronomy 20:11
  • If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it.  ~Deuteronomy 20:12
  • And when the LORD your God delivers it into your hands, you shall give thanks to the LORD your God.  ~Psalm 118:29
  • But all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself.  ~Deuteronomy 20:14
  • When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, if you may eat of them.  Do not cut them down to use in the siege, for the tree of the field is man’s food.  ~Deuteronomy 20:19
  • When the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every evil or sinful thing.  ~Deuteronomy 23:9
  • In the latter days, when the LORD’S house is established on the top of the mountains, when all nations flow to it, ask to learn His ways, and walk in His paths–when the Law and the Word of God go forth from Zion–then it shall be that nation shall not lift sword against nation, nor learn war anymore, but shall reap and sow the land in peace.  ~Isaiah 2:2-4

Appointed Boundaries

  • When you come into the Promised Land, this shall be your land, and you shall have boundaries on every side:  south, west, north, and east.  ~Numbers 34:12

Lending and Borrowing

  • You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.  ~Deuteronomy 15:6
  • You shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.  ~Deuteronomy 15:6
  • You shall not charge interest to your brother-interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.  ~Deuteronomy 23:19
  • To a foreigner you may charge interest.  ~Deuteronomy 23:20

Currency

  • You may exchange your tithe for currency so that you may go to the place your LORD abides.  ~Deuteronomy 14:24-25

Lending to the Poor

  • If your brother has become poor, and he cannot support himself among you; then you shall help him. He shall live with you like a temporary resident.  ~Leviticus 25:35
  • Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.  ~Leviticus 25:36

The Law Concerning Servants

  • If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.  ~Exodus 21:2
  • If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.  ~Exodus 21:3
  • If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.  ~Exodus 21:4
  • But if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.  Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.   ~Exodus 21:5-6, Deuteronomy 15:17
  • If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do.  ~Exodus 21:7
  • If she does not please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.  ~Exodus 21:8
  • If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.  ~Exodus 21:9
  • If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.  If he does not do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.  ~Exodus 21:10-11
  • And when you send your servant away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; you shall supply him liberally from your stores.  From what the LORD has blessed you with, you shall give to him.  ~Deuteronomy 15:13-14

The Law Concerning Slavery

  • As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.  ~Leviticus 25:44
  • Moreover of the children of the foreigners who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.  ~Leviticus 25:45
  • You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever.  ~Leviticus 25:46
  • You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you.  ~Deuteronomy 23:15
  • He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your towns, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him.  ~Deuteronomy 23:16

Redeeming Property Dedicated to God

  • Priests may redeem their houses and possessions at any time.  ~Leviticus 25:32
  • The field of a Priest may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.  ~Leviticus 25:34
  • When a man sanctifies his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.  ~Leviticus 27:14
  • If a man sanctifies to the LORD some part of his possessions, then the priest shall set a value upon it.  ~Leviticus 27:16
  • If he who sanctifies his house or a possession ever wishes to redeem it, and this is approved by the priest, then he must add one-fifth to the valuation of it, and it shall belong to him.  ~Leviticus 27:19
  • Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the LORD of all that he has, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the LORD.  ~Leviticus 27:28
  • If a man wants to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to them.  ~Leviticus 27:31

Redemption of Property

  • The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with Me.  ~Leviticus 25:23
  • In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for it.  ~Leviticus 25:24
  • If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold.  ~Leviticus 25:25 
  • If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his property.  ~Leivitcus 25:26-27
  • But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee, and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.  ~Leviticus 25:28
  • If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.  ~Leviticus 25:29
  • If it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.  ~Leviticus 25:30
  • But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country:  they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.  ~Leviticus 25:31

Atonement Money

  • All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the LORD, 1/5 ounce of precious metal or gems, a ransom for him or herself to the LORD, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  ~Exodus 30:12; Matthew 20:28
  • You shall take the atonement of the children of God, and shall appoint it for the service of the sanctuary.  ~Exodus 30:16

Offerings for the Sanctuary

  • Speak to the children of God, that they bring Me an offering.  ~Exodus 25:2
  • From everyone whose heart makes him willing, you shall take my offering.  ~Exodus 25:2

The Sanctuary

  • And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.  ~Exodus 25:8
  • It shall not look nor function like any other dwelling or place; it shall be unique in material, and intentionally superior to any other dwelling, yet simple.  ~Exodus 25:8-9
  • It shall be a small sanctuary, with an inside area of 540 square feet.   ~Exodus 26:16,18,22-23
  • It shall lie in an attitude of north, south, east, and west.  ~Exodus 26:18,20
  • There shall be a courtyard all around the sanctuary.  ~Exodus 27:9
  • The sanctuary, and its furnishings, shall be made of unique and artistic elements by loving hands.  ~Exodus 31:3-4
  • The west wall being the most holy, shall have the altar, and there shall be a circle aloft set into that wall to symbolize God’s Realm, made of yellow glass, to catch the sun’s last rays of light.  There shall be in the north wall a plethora of pomegranates aloft to symbolize God’s ancient Law.  And there shall be a cross aloft set in the south wall to symbolize Jesus Christ the Messiah’s sacrifice for us.  The door shall be in the east wall.  ~Exodus 38:13-14; 40:21-28
  • You shall keep the Sabbath, and reverence my sanctuary.  ~Leviticus 26:2

Articles of the Sanctuary

  • The altar will be placed near the west wall.  Exodus 26:22,33
  • The Book of the Law shall be placed upon it.  ~Deuteronomy 31:26
  • The lampstand, the altar of incense, and the table for showbread shall all be arranged in front of the altar.  ~Exodus 40:22-27
  • The table shall be placed on the north side of the altar, with the bread set in order upon it before the LORD.  ~Exodus 40:22
  • The lampstand shall be across from the table, on the south side of the altar, before the LORD.  ~Exodus 40:24
  • The altar of incense shall be central, in front of the altar, with sweet incense burned for the LORD .  ~Exodus 40:26-27
  • The laver shall be located to the left side as one enters the sanctuary, for cleansing.  ~Exodus 40:30

The Law of the Altar

  • If you make me an altar of stone to worship Me, you shall not build it of cut stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.  ~Exodus 20:25
  • You shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed.  ~Exodus 20:26

The Altar

  • You shall make an altar of hardwood, five cubits long and two and a half cubits wide, and its height shall be three cubits.  ~Exodus 27:1
  • Seven days you shall anoint the altar to sanctify it.  ~Exodus 29:37
  • Whatever touches the altar shall be most holy.  ~Exodus 29:37

The Altar of Incense

  • You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of wood, covered in a sheet of gold.  ~Exodus 30:1
  • The altar shall be a cubit square in size, and two cubits high.  ~Exodus 30:2
  • The priest shall burn on it sweet incense every morning, when he tends the lamps.  ~Exodus 30:7
  • When the priest lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD.  ~Exodus 30:8
  • You shall not offer anything else on the altar of incense.  ~Exodus 30:9

The Table for the Showbread

  • You shall also make a table of wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.  ~Exodus 25:23
  • And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.  ~Exodus 25:24
  • You shall set the showbread on the table before Me always.  ~Exodus 25:30

The Bread of the Tabernacle

  • You shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes of it.  ~Leviticus 24:5
  • You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the table before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 24:6
  • And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that the frankincense may be a holy offering made by fire to the LORD.  ~Leviticus 24:7
  • Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of God by an everlasting covenant.  ~Leviticus 24:8
  • And it shall be for the Priest, and he shall eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him.  ~Leviticus 24:9

The Gold Lampstand

  • You shall make a lampstand from the most beautiful material available, as one piece.  ~Exodus 25:31
  • You shall make seven lamps for it on one stand, arranged in varying heights, but so that they give light in front of it.  ~Exodus 25:32,37
  • You shall make the lamps such that they form a circle, when viewed from above.  ~Exodus 25:32,34,37
  • You shall command the children that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually.  ~Exodus 27:20
  • It shall be placed inside the sanctuary, before the altar to the LORD and the Book of the Law.  ~Exodus 27:21
  • The priests shall tend it from evening until morning before the LORD.  ~Exodus 27:21
  • It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of God.  ~Exodus 27:21

The Bronze Laver

  • You shall make a laver of bronze, with its base of wood, for washing.  ~Exodus 30:18
  • You shall put water in it, and bless it in My name as holy water, for all shall wash their hands from it when they go into the sanctuary.  ~Exodus 30:18-20

The Holy Anointing Oil

  • Take for yourself quality spices–five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane (acorus calamus, sweet flag), five hundred shekels of cassia, and a hin of olive oil.  ~Exodus 30:23-24
  • You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.  ~Exodus 30:25
  • With it you shall anoint the sanctuary, and the altar; the table, the lampstand, and the altar of incense; and the laver.  ~Exodus 30:26-28
  • You shall sanctify these things, that they be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy.  ~Exodus 30:29
  • And you shall anoint the Priests, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me as Priests.  ~Exodus 30:30
  • And you shall speak to the children of God, saying:  ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.  It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition.  It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.  ~Exodus 30:31-32

The Incense

  • Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each.  ~Exodus 30:34
  • And you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy.  ~Exodus 30:35
  • You shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it upon its table, before the Book of the Law in the sanctuary where I will meet with you.  It shall be most holy to you.  ~Exodus 30:36
  • The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for the LORD.  ~Exodus 30:37

Garments for the Priesthood

  • And you shall make holy garments of white, embellished with gold, and blue and purple and scarlet yarn, artistically woven, for the Priests, for glory and for beauty.  ~Exodus 28:2,6
  • And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarn, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all the way around.  ~Exodus 28:33
  • And it shall be upon the Priest when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD and when he comes out.  ~Exodus 28:35
  • You shall wear a cross [without an image of Jesus] around your neck for all to see.  ~Exodus 28:36; Luke 9:23

Priests Consecrated

  • Take the Priests from among the children of God, and cleanse them.  You shall do this to them, to cleanse them:  sprinkle the water of cleansing on them, let them shave their whole bodies with a razor, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.  ~Numbers 8:7
  • Take unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour), and bring them in a basket.  ~Exodus 29:2-3
  • The Priests you shall bring to the door of the sanctuary, and you shall wash them with water.  ~Exodus 29:4
  • You shall take the garments and put the tunic, and other priestly garments, on him.  ~Exodus 29:5
  • You shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head and anoint him.  ~Exodus 29:7
  • The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual state.  ~Exodus 29:9
  • Then you shall take the unleavened wafer and wine and bless them, and offer them as a wave offering before the LORD.  ~Exodus 29:23-24
  • Then they shall eat the unleavened wafer and wine as the body and blood of Christ, to consecrate and to sanctify them.  ~Exodus 29:32-33
  • If any of the consecration offerings remain until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire, because they are holy.  ~Exodus 29:34
  • Seven days you shall consecrate them.  ~Exodus 29:35

Conduct Prescribed for Priests

  • You must regard the LORD your God as holy, and you must glorify Him before all the people.  ~Leviticus 10:3
  • Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, when you go into the sanctuary.  ~Leviticus 10:9
  • That you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean.  ~Leviticus 10:10
  • That you may teach the children of God all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them.  ~Leviticus 10:11
  • Take the offerings that remain of the offerings made to the LORD, and it shall be yours, for they are your due, to enjoy in a holy place.  ~Leviticus 10:12-14
  • He shall not defile himself, being a chief master among his people.  ~Leviticus 21:4
  • He shall not make any bald place on his head, nor shall he shave the edges of his beard nor make any cuttings in his flesh.  ~Leviticus 21:5
  • He shall not take a partner who is a harlot or a defiled person.  ~Leviticus 21:7
  • You shall set him apart, for he offers the bread and blood of your God.  He shall be holy to you.  ~Leviticus 21:8
  • He shall not profane the sanctuary of his God.  ~Leviticus 21:12
  • He shall take a partner who is holy.  ~Leviticus 21:13
  • He shall not profane his position among his people.  ~Leviticus 21:15
  • No one of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect or addiction, may approach to offer the bread and blood of his God.  ~Leviticus 21:17
  • He shall not go near the holy things of the LORD with uncleanness upon him.  ~Leviticus 22:3
  • No outsider shall eat the holy offering, the holy offerings of the children of God shall not be profaned.  ~Leviticus 22:10,15
  • You shall separate the Priests from among the children of God, and the Priests shall be mine.  ~Numbers 8:14
  • I have given all the holy gifts of the children of God as a portion to you, as an ordinance forever; all the best, and the firstfruits which they offer to the LORD, I have given them to you.  ~Numbers 18:8,12
  • Every consecrated thing in My land shall be yours.  ~Numbers 18:14
  • You shall have no inheritance, nor shall you have any portion among the children of God; I am your portion and your inheritance.  ~Numbers 18:20
  • And if a Priest comes from any of your towns, where he resides among the children of God, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the LORD chooses, then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God as all his brethren Priests do, who stand there before the LORD.  ~Deuteronomy 18:6-7
  • And they shall have equal portions.  ~Deuteronomy 18:8

The Priestly Blessing

  • This is the way the priests shall bless the children of God:

“The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The LORD look upon you with favor,

And give you peace.”  ~Numbers 6:23-26

The Sanctity of Blood

  • The children of God, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, if you kill an animal for food, you should pour out its blood and cover it with dust; you shall not eat the blood of any flesh.  ~Leviticus 17:13-14
  • No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who lives among you eat blood.  For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.  ~Leviticus 17:11-12

Cities for the Levites

  • Command the children of God to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance.  You shall give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites.  They shall have the cities to dwell in. Their pasture lands shall be for their livestock, and for their possessions, and for all their animals.  ~Numbers 35:2-3
  • The pasture lands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits around it.  You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall be the pasture lands of their cities.  ~Numbers 35:4-5
  • The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the man slayer to flee to. Besides them you shall give forty-two cities.  All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands.  ~Numbers 35:6-7
  • Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of God, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few. Everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give some of his cities to the Levites.  ~Numbers 35:8

Cities of Refuge

  • You shall appoint for yourselves cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the man slayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.  ~Numbers 35:10-11
  • The cities shall be for your refuge from the avenger, that the man slayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.  ~Numbers 35:12
  • The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.  For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.  ~Numbers 35:13, 15

The Law of the Nazirite

  • A man or woman may take a vow to separate himself to the LORD, called a Nazarite.  ~Numbers 6:2
  • He shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; all the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.  ~Numbers 6:3-4
  • All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head, he shall let the hair on his head grow.  ~Numbers 6:5
  • All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the LORD.  ~Numbers 6:8
  • If he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing, the seventh day.  ~Numbers 6:9
  • Then on the eighth day he shall bring an offering to the priest, and the priest shall make atonement for him, in Jesus’ name, and he shall sanctify his head that same day.  ~Numbers 6:10-11
  • When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the sanctuary, to the Priest, and he shall present many offerings, including cakes of fine flour, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and a drink offering.  ~Numbers 6:13-17
  • Then the Nazarite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the sanctuary.  ~Numbers 6:18
  • And the Priest shall take the offerings and offer the eucharist to the LORD in Jesus’ name on his behalf.  ~Numbers 6:19-20

The Daily Worship

  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist in the morning and at twilight, to serve the LORD, on the people’s behalf.  ~Exodus 29:39

Sabbath Worship

  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist two more times, in addition to the daily offerings.  ~Numbers 28:9-10

Monthly Worship

  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist at the beginning of each month throughout the months of the year, in addition to the daily offerings.  ~Numbers 28:11,14

Peace Offerings and Firstfruits

  • It is more holy to offer out of your poverty than out of your abundance.  ~Luke 21:1-4
  • The children of God shall bring offerings twice per day to the door of the tabernacle.  ~Leviticus 1:2
  • You shall bring frankincense to the Priest to burn for a sweet aroma for the LORD.  ~Leviticus 2:1-2
  • With all your grain offerings you shall offer salt.  ~Leviticus 2:13
  • For a thanksgiving, he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of finely blended flour mixed with oil.  He shall offer leavened bread also.  It may be eaten for two days.  ~Leviticus 7:12-18
  • He who offers, shall by his own hands bring his offerings before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 7:30
  • If you offer a peace offering to the LORD, you shall offer it of your own free will.  ~Leviticus 19:5
  • It must be perfect and of pure heart to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it.  ~Leviticus 22:21
  • You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering to the LORD throughout your generations.  ~Numbers 15:20-21
  • To the Priest who offers the daily offerings, the sin offerings, the trespass offerings, and the consecration offerings, I give the most holy offerings of food.  He shall eat of his portion in a holy place, and this shall be an ordinance forever.  ~Numbers 18:8-10
  • I have given all the heave [contribution] offerings of the hand of the children of God, the wave offerings, all the best and firstfruits offered to the LORD shall go to the Priest as an ordinance forever.  Whoever is clean in his family may eat it.  ~Numbers 18:11-13
  • The children of God shall give their firstfruits to the priests.  Every devoted thing shall be the priests’.  ~Numbers 18:12,14
  • Take heed that you do not offer your offerings in any place you see, but in the place the LORD chooses, in your towns.  ~Deuteronomy 12:13-14
  • And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the good things from your hand and your land, put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name dwell.  ~Deuteronomy 26:1-2
  • You shall say to the Priest, before the LORD your God, “My father was an Aramean ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.  The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.  Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers. The LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.  The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders; and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, the LORD, have given me.” You shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.  And you, the Priest, and the foreigner who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you, and to your house.  ~Deuteronomy 26:5-11
  • If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.  ~Matthew 5:23-24

Confession

  • All sins must be confessed to the Priest.  ~Leviticus 16:21
  • Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  ~Matthew 4:17

The Sin Offering

  • If an anointed Priest sins, this is the gravest of all sins, and it must be atoned for by offering the eucharist to the LORD in Jesus’ name.  ~Leviticus 4:3-6
  • If the whole congregation sins, even unintentionally, it is a most grave sin; and when the sin which they have sinned becomes known, then the elders must confess their sin before the LORD  ~Leviticus 4:13-15
  • The anointed Priest shall offer the eucharist to the LORD, and so the Priest shall make atonement for them in Jesus’ name, and it shall be forgiven them.  ~Leviticus 4:16-20
  • When a ruler has sinned, even unintentionally, it is a grave sin; and if his sin which he has sinned comes to his knowledge, he shall confess his sin before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 4:22-24
  • The priest shall offer the eucharist to the LORD, and so the priest shall make atonement for him in Jesus’ name concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.  ~Leviticus 4:25-26
  • If anyone of the common people sins, even unintentionally, it is a sin; and if his sin which he has sinned comes to his knowledge, then he must confess his sin before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 4:27-29
  • The Priest shall offer the eucharist to the LORD, and so the Priest shall make atonement for his sin in Jesus’ name that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.  ~Leviticus 4:30-35
  • You shall not put frankincense nor oil on any sin offering.  ~Leviticus 5:11
  • A perpetual fire shall burn on the altar; it shall never go out.  ~Leviticus 6:13
  • Seek God’s help on returning to the LORD and His ways.  ~Hosea 12:6

Tithes

  • Of all God gives you, give one-tenth of all back to Him.  ~Genesis 14:20; 28:22
  • All the tithe of the land is the LORD’s and holy to Him.  ~Leviticus 27:30
  • The children of God shall tithe as a heave offering to the LORD.  ~Numbers 18:24
  • You may not eat your tithe within your own land, but you must eat it before the LORD your God in the place He chooses to make His name abide.  ~Deuteronomy 12:17-18
  • Take heed that you do not forsake the Priest in your tithe.  ~Deuteronomy 12:19
  • If the place God chooses is too far from you, you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.  ~Deuteronomy 12:21
  • The children of God shall honestly tithe all the increase of your gain year by year; and you shall enjoy the tithe in the place God chooses to make His name abide, in order that you may fear the LORD.  ~Deuteronomy 14:22-23
  • If the journey is too long, you are not able to carry the tithe, or if that place is too far, then you shall take money in your hand and go to the place the LORD your God chooses; and there you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires:  for meat, for drink, for anything to eat; you shall eat there before the LORD your God.  ~Deuteronomy 14:24-26
  • And you shall rejoice in your gain, you and your family.  ~Deuteronomy 14:26
  • At the end of the third year, you shall bring out the tithe of your gain of that year, which is the year of tithing, and you shall allow the Priest, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your town to eat and be filled.  ~Deuteronomy 26:12
  • You shall say before the LORD your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Priest, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.  I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead.  I have listened to the LORD my God’s voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.  Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.'”  ~Deuteronomy 26:13-15

Restitution

  • If a person sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the LORD, then he shall bring an offering, and he shall make restitution, and shall add one-fifth to it and give it to the Priest.  ~Leviticus 5:15-16
  • If a person sins unintentionally, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD, he shall bring an offering to the Priest for the LORD.  ~Leviticus 5:17-18
  • If a person sins intentionally and commits a trespass against the LORD, he shall acknowledge it, and add one-fifth more to it, and give it to whomever he has wronged.  He shall also bring an offering to the Priest for the LORD.  ~Leviticus 6:2-6

Land Laws

  • You shall not pollute or defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the children of God.  ~Numbers 35:33
  • The blood of man defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for it except to spill the blood of the one who shed it.  ~Numbers 35:33
  • You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark of property, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance.  Deuteronomy 19:14
  • You shall bury all dead animals and people as soon as possible, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you.  ~Deuteronomy 21:23
  • You shall have a place outside your domicile or camp to dispose or bury refuse or anything unclean, for the LORD your God walks in the midst of you; therefore He shall see no unclean thing among you.  ~Deuteronomy 23:12-14

Food Laws

  • You shall use for food all of the herbs and trees on the face of the earth.  ~Genesis 1:29
  • Every thing that lives shall be food for you.  ~Genesis 9:3
  • You shall not eat flesh with its life.  ~Genesis 9:4
  • You shall eat neither fat nor blood.  ~Leviticus 3:17
  • Do not eat the camel, the rock hyrax, the hare, and the swine.  ~Leviticus 11:4-7
  • Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales-that shall be an abomination to you.  ~Leviticus 11:12
  • Among the birds, these shall not be eaten:  the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, the falcon, the raven, the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the seagull, the hawk, the little owl, the fisher owl, the screech owl, the white owl, the jackdaw, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.  ~Leviticus 11:13-19
  • You may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours:  those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to hop on the earth  ~Leviticus 11:21
  • These you may eat:  the locust, the cricket, and the grasshopper.  ~Leviticus 11:22
  • Every living thing that is not cloven-footed, and does not bring up the cud, they are unclean to you.  ~Leviticus 11:26
  • Those with four legs and paws are unclean to you.  ~Leviticus 11:27
  • Anyone who touches their dead body is unclean until the evening.  ~Leviticus 11:27
  • And he who lifts up their dead body shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening.  ~Leviticus 11:28
  • Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination.  It shall not be eaten.  ~Leviticus 11:41
  • You shall not eat anything with the blood.  ~Leviticus 19:26
  • You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to the alien, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner.  ~Deuteronomy 14:21
  • You shall not boil a young goat, a calf, or a lamb in its mother’s milk.  ~Deuteronomy 14:21
  • It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what come out of him that defiles him.  ~Mark 7:15,20

Laws Concerning the Body

  • When any man has a discharge from his body, he is considered unclean, and he shall cleanse himself for seven days, wash his clothes, and bathe in running water, then he shall be clean.  ~Leviticus 15:2-13
  • A woman shall be set apart seven days during her customary blood flow, or as long as it lasts; for the life is in the blood, and God has set her apart for His own during this time.  ~Leviticus 15:19-25
  • All those with sickness shall be considered unclean and sequester themselves away from their brethren, lest they make everyone sick as well.  ~Leviticus 13:4
  • Do not use any form of body-altering birth control, so that God’s will might be done regarding creating life.  ~Matthew 6:10

Laws of Sexual Morality

  • You shall not join your flesh with another until marriage.  ~Genesis 2:24
  • Do not have children outside marriage, or with multiple spouses, lest they divide your house.  ~Exodus 20:14; Judges 8:30; 9:5
  • You shall not do according to the land of Egypt, where you dwelt; nor shall you do according to the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, for they practice abominations and have defiled the land. ~Leviticus 18:3, 27
  • None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him to uncover his nakedness. ~Leviticus 18:6
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your father nor mother. ~Leviticus 18:7
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife.  ~Leviticus 18:8
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your sister nor your half-sister.  ~Leviticus 18:9, 11
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter nor your daughter’s daughter. ~Leviticus 18:10
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister nor your mother’s sister. ~Leviticus 18:12-13
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, nor his wife.  ~Leviticus 18:14
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. ~Leviticus 18:15
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife. ~Leviticus 18:16
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, nor shall you uncover the nakedness of her son’s daughter or daughter’s daughter. ~Leviticus 18:17
  • You shall neither uncover the nakedness of two sisters while one is still alive. ~Leviticus 18:18
  • You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary flow.  ~Leviticus 18:19
  • You shall not allow any of your descendants to be human sacrifices for other gods or man.  ~Leviticus 18:21
  • A male shall not lie with a male.  ~Leviticus 18:22
  • You shall not mate with any beast.  ~Leviticus 18:23
  • A man shall not lie in his father’s bed.  ~Deuteronomy 22:30
  • Do not play the harlot with images or things fashioned by your hand.  ~Ezekiel 16:17

Healing and the use of Natural Substances

  • You shall not adulterate God’s natural gifts, lest you profane them.  ~Exodus 20:25
  • Use only natural, unaltered substances of the earth or water for medicine.  ~Leviticus 11:44-45
  • If you choose to drink fermented wine, or use other natural substances from the earth, use them in moderation, as a gift from God.  ~Deuteronomy 11:14, Isaiah 5:11, Matthew 26:27-28
  • Heal through Me in Jesus’ name, not through the knowledge gained by men using adulterated substances, lest my will not be done.  ~Matthew 6:10

Miscellaneous Laws

  • You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind.  ~Leviticus 19:19
  • You shall not sow your field with mixed seed.  ~Leviticus 19:19
  • For three years, you shall not eat the fruit of your trees.  ~Leviticus 19:23
  • In the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, a praise to the LORD.  ~Leviticus 19:24
  • And in the fifth year you may eat its fruit.  ~Leviticus 19:25
  • A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.  ~Deuteronomy 22:5
  • When hunting for food, you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself.  ~Deuteronomy 22:7
  • When you build a new house, then you shall follow the proper building codes, that you may not bring bloodguiltiness on your house if anyone is hurt by it.  ~Deuteronomy 22:8
  • You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed.  ~Deuteronomy 22:9
  • You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.  ~Deuteronomy 22:10
  • You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together.  ~Deuteronomy 22:11
  • There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of God, or a perverted one of the sons of God.  ~Deuteronomy 23:17
  • When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container.  ~Deuteronomy 23:24
  • When you come into your neighbor’s property, you may enjoy it, but you shall not reap it.  ~Deuteronomy 23:25
  • When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken.  ~Deuteronomy 24:5
  • Do not take from a person his ability to provide for himself as to survive.  ~Deuteronomy 24:6
  • Take heed in an outbreak of sickness, that you diligently quarantine as necessary those who are afflicted lest the whole town become afflicted, and that you keep your town clean.  ~Deuteronomy 24:8
  • When you give your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge; you shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you.  ~Deuteronomy 24:10-11
  • And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight; you shall return his pledge to him again when the sun goes down.  ~Deuteronomy 24:12-13
  • You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.  ~Deuteronomy 25:4
  • A woman shall not interfere in a fight among men.  ~Deuteronomy 25:11-12
  • You shall have a perfect and just weight and measure; you shall always be fair and generous.  ~Deuteronomy 25:15
  • Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  ~Matthew 7:15
  • Always be on your guard for unclean spirits, more in number and more wicked than before, taking refuge in you.  ~Matthew 12:43-45
  • If one feels so called, he may make himself a eunuch.  ~Matthew 19:12

Pride

  • Do not be proud, but give glory to your LORD God and humble yourselves.  ~Jeremiah 13:15-16, 18

The Ritual After Childbirth

  • If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be set apart with her child seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be set apart.  In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.  She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days.  She shall not touch any holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.  ~Leviticus 12:2-4
  • If a woman has borne a female child, then she shall be set apart with her child two weeks, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.  ~Leviticus 12:5
  • When the days of her purification are fulfilled, she shall bring to the priest an offering to the door of the sanctuary, and he shall offer it before the LORD, and make atonement for her.  And she shall be clean from the childbirth.  ~Leviticus 12:6-7
  • All firstborn males shall be redeemed at one month of age from the Priest for the equivalent of 2 ounces [5 shekels] of silver.  ~Numbers 13:15; 18:15-16

The Law of Sabbaths

  • For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.  ~Exodus 23:10-11
  • The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you.  ~Leviticus 25:6
  • At the end of every seven years, you shall cancel debts. This is the way it shall be done:  every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not require payment from his neighbor and his brother; because the LORD’S release has been proclaimed.  ~Deuteronomy 15:1-2
  • Of a foreigner you may require it; but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release, except when there may be no poor among you.  ~Deuteronomy 15:3-4
  • At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, when all God’s children have come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this Law before all in their hearing.  ~Deuteronomy 31:10-11
  • Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your towns, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe and do all the words of this law; and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD, as long as you live in the land where you go over to possess.  ~Deuteronomy 31:12-13

Provisions for the Seventh Year

  • Your sixth year will be blessed, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.  ~Leviticus 25:21

The Year of Jubilee

  • You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.  Leviticus 25:8
  • Then you shall sound the trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.  Leviticus 25:9
  • You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.  ~Leviticus 25:10
  • That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you.  You shall do little work, and much celebrating.  In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.  ~Leviticus 25:11
  • For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you.  You shall eat its produce from the field.  ~Leviticus 25:12
  • In the Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his property.  ~Leviticus 25:13
  • According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.  Leviticus 25:15
  • According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price, for he is selling the number of the crops to you.  ~Leviticus 25:16

Three Annual Feasts

  • You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread [more holy] (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days), at the time appointed in the month of Abib (March/April).  ~Exodus 23:15
  • You shall keep the Feast of Harvest [holy], the firstfruits of your labors.  ~Exodus 23:16
  • You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering [most holy], which is at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors.  ~Exodus 23:16
  • Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles.  They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.  ~Deuteronomy 16:16
  • Every man shall give as he is able, according to the LORD your God’s blessing which he has given you.  ~Deuteronomy 16:17

Other Feasts

  • The feast on the Sabbath is a holy convocation.  ~Leviticus 23:3
  • The feast of trumpets [occuring 9 days before the Day of Atonement]  is a holy convocation.  ~Leviticus 23:24
  • The new moon at the beginning of each month is a holy convocation.  ~Numbers 28:11

The Day of Atonement

  • It shall be a statute to you forever:  in the seventh month, Tishrei, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no kind of work, the native-born, or the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.  ~Leviticus 16:29
  • For on the tenth day the Priest shall make atonement for you in Jesus’ name, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 16:30
  • And the Priest who is anointed and consecrated to minister as Priest shall make atonement in Jesus’ name, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments.  ~Leviticus 16:32
  • Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil.  ~Leviticus 16:12
  • And he shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, that my butt of incense may cover the altar with the Book of the Law before the LORD.  ~Leviticus 16:13
  • Then he shall offer the eucharist to the LORD in Jesus’ name, and make atonement for himself and for his house.  ~Leviticus 16:11
  • Then he shall offer the eucharist to the LORD in Jesus’ name, before the altar with the Book of the Law before the LORD, to make atonement for the people.  ~Leviticus 16:15
  • So he shall make atonement in Jesus’ name for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of God, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the sanctuary.  ~Leviticus 16:16
  • There shall be no man in the sanctuary when he goes in to make atonement in Jesus’ name in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement in Jesus’ name for himself, for his household, and for all the congregation of God.  ~Leviticus 16:17
  • Then he shall offer the eucharist to the LORD in Jesus’ name before the altar, cleanse it, and sanctify it from the uncleanness of the children of God.  ~Leviticus 16:18-19
  • Then the Priest shall confess in Jesus’ name, all the iniquities of the children of God, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, and release them away.  ~Leviticus 16:21
  • This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement in Jesus’ name for the children of God, for all their sins, once a year.  ~Leviticus  16:34
  • On the ninth day of the month at evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath, until the following evening.  ~Leviticus 23:32

The Feast of Tabernacles

  • The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.  ~Leviticus 23:34
  • On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.  You shall do no customary work on it.  ~Leviticus 23:35
  • You shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD seven days.  ~Numbers 29:12
  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist daily for eight days, with the first day being most important, and so on; in addition to the regular daily eucharist.  ~Numbers 29:13-39
  • The eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer the eucharist to the LORD, in addition to the regular daily offering. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.  ~Leviticus 23:36
  • You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.  ~Leviticus 23:40
  • You shall dwell in temporary shelters seven days, that your generations may know that I made the children of God to dwell in temporary shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of their captivity.  I am the LORD your God.  ~Leviticus 23:42-43
  • It shall be a statute forever in your generations.  ~Leviticus 23:41

The Passover

  • On the fourteenth day of the month of Abib, at twilight, you shall keep the Passover, according to all its rites and ceremonies you shall keep it.  ~Numbers 9:2-3
  • They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  ~Numbers 9:11
  • And if a stranger sojourns among you, he must do so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony.  ~Numbers 9:14
  • On the first day you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall do no customary work.  ~Numbers 28:18
  • You shall celebrate the eucharist once each morning for seven days, in addition to the regular daily celebration.  ~Numbers 28:19-24
  • And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall do no customary work.  ~Numbers 28:25
  • And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days.  ~Numbers 29:17
  • You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your towns which the LORD your God gives you; but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.  ~Deuteronomy 16:5-6
  • There you shall sacrifice the Passover by offering the eucharist at twilight, in the place which the LORD your God abides at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt; and in the morning you shall turn and go home.  ~Deuteronomy 16:6-7

The Second Passover

  • If any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD’S Passover.  ~Numbers 9:10
  • On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it.  They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  They shall leave none of it until morning.  ~Numbers 9:12
  • But the person who ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the ofering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear this sin.  ~Numbers 9:13

The Feast of Weeks

  • The first of the firstfruits of your land or income you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God.  ~Exodus 23:19
  • On the day of the firstfruits, you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall do no customary work.  ~Numbers 28:26
  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist once, in addition to the regular daily celebration.  ~Numbers 28:27,31

The Feast of Trumpets

  • And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall do no customary work.  For it is a day of blowing the trumpets.  ~Numbers 29:1
  • The Priest shall celebrate the eucharist once, in addition to the regular new moon celebration, and regular daily celebration.  ~Numbers 29:2,6
  • It shall be less important than the Passover and the Feast of Weeks celebrations.  ~Numbers 29:2

Two Silver Trumpets

  • Make two trumpets of silver.  You shall use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.  ~Numbers 10:2
  • When they blow both of them, all the assembly shall gather before you at the door of the sanctuary.  ~Numbers 10:3
  • But if they blow only one, then the leaders shall gather to you.  ~Numbers 10:4
  • The Priests shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations.  ~Numbers 10:8
  • When you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets.  Then you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.  ~Numbers 10:9
  • Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God.  ~Numbers 10:10

My Butt and the Fire

  • At the command of the LORD the children of God will journey, and at the command of the LORD they will camp; as long as the Spirit of the LORD stays above the place He resides, remain encamped.  ~Numbers 9:18
  • If the Spirit of the LORD stays many days or few days, the children of God remain until it is taken up, then they journey.  ~Numbers 9:22
  • Keep the command of the LORD to camp or journey, depending upon the Spirit of God.  ~Numbers 9:23
  • And you will depart from the mountain of the LORD on a journey of three days; and the Word of God will go before you, to search out a resting place for you.  ~Numbers 10:33
  • When you set out, say:

“Rise up, O LORD!

Let Your enemies be scattered,

And let those who hate You

flee before You.”  ~Numbers 10:35

  • And when you rest, say:

“Return, O LORD, to Your people.”  ~Numbers 10:36

The Six Remembrances

  • The Sabbath: “Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.”  ~Exodus 24:8
  • The Revelation at Sinai: “Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children; the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people to Me, and I will make them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.”  ~Deuteronomy 4:9–10
  • Rebellion in the Desert: “Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness.  From the day that you left the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.  ~Deuteronomy 9:7
  • Exodus from Egypt: “. . . So that you shall remember the day when you went out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.”  ~Deuteronomy 16:3
  • Miriam’s Negative Speech and Punishment: “Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way, when you went out of Egypt; how she spoke against Moses and coveted his place with God.  So the anger of the LORD was aroused against her and He struck her with leprosy and ordered her shut out of camp seven days.  And when she was brought in again, the people journeyed.”  ~Deuteronomy 24:9, Numbers 12:1-15
  • Amalek’s Attack on Israel: “Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt; how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.  Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.  You shall not forget.  ~Deuteronomy 25:17–19

Remember God 

  • Speak to the children of God, and tell them that they should make themselves tassels in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the tassel of each border a cord of blue: and it shall be to you for a tassel that you may look on it, and remember all the LORD’S commandments, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the harlot.  ~Numbers 15:38-39
  • Pick up your cross and Bible and carry them wherever you go, for all to see, so that we might always and everywhere proclaim our adoration and worship of the One Great LORD and His favorite Son, Jesus Christ.  ~Matthew 16:24

The Law Inscribed on Stones

  • And it shall be, on the day when you cross over into the Promised Land which the LORD is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves great stones, and there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of these stones.  You shall not use any iron tool on them.  ~Deuteronomy 27:2, 5
  • You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you.  ~Deuteronomy 27:3
  • You shall make your offerings there, celebrate the eucharist, and rejoice before the LORD your God.  ~Deuteronomy 27:6-7
  • And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.  ~Deuteronomy 27:8

The Law

  • You shall learn God’s commandments and statutes and teach them throughout the day.  ~Deuteronomy 6:7
  • When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which the LORD our God has commanded you mean?” Then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the LORD showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.  The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe and do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.”  ~Deuteronomy 6:20-25
  • At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel has come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.  ~Deuteronomy 31:10-11
  • Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.  ~Deuteronomy 31:12
  • And that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over to possess.  ~Deuteronomy 31:13
  • Write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of God, then it shall be that when many evils and troubles come against them and they turn aside and worship other things and other gods, that this song will be a witness against them, for it will not be forgotten among their descendants, for I know their heart today even before I have brought them to the Promised Land.  ~Deuteronomy 31:19-21
  • Pay your taxes, and keep man’s laws, but also keep God’s Law.  ~Matthew 22:21

~The Song of Moses~

Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak;

Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

My doctrine will drop as the rain,

My speech will condense as the dew,

As the misty rain on the tender herb,

And as showers on the grass.

For I will proclaim the name of the LORD:

Ascribe greatness to our God.

He is the Rock, His work is perfect;

For all His ways are just.

A God of faithfulness Who does no wrong,

Just and right is He.

They have dealt corruptly with Him;

They are not His children, because of their defect:

A perverse and crooked generation.

Is this the way you repay the LORD,

Foolish and unwise people?

Is not He your Father who has bought you?

Has he not made you and established you?

Remember the days of old,

Consider the years of many generations.

Ask your father, and he will show you;

Your elders, and they will tell you:

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,

When He separated the sons of men,

He set the bounds of the peoples

According to the number of the sons of God.

For the LORD’S portion is His people;

Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

He found him in a desert land

In the waste and howling wilderness;

He surrounded him, He cared for him,

He kept him as the apple of his eye,

As an eagle that stirs up her nest,

That flutters over her young,

He spread abroad His wings,

He took them,

He bore them on His feathers,

The LORD alone led him,

There was no foreign god with him.

He made him ride on the heights of the earth,

He ate the produce of the fields;

He caused him to draw honey out of the rock,

Oil out of the flinty rock;

Butter from the herd,

And milk from the flock,

With fat of lambs;

Rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,

With the finest of the wheat;

From the blood of the grape, you drank wine.

But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;

You have grown fat, you have grown thick,

You are covered with fat;

Then he abandoned God who made him,

And rejected the Rock of his salvation.

They moved him to jealousy with strange gods;

With detestable acts they

Provoked Him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons, not God,

To gods that they did not know,

To new gods that came up recently,

Which your fathers did not fear.

Of the Rock who became your Father,

You are unmindful,

You have forgotten God who created you.

The LORD saw and abhorred,

He spurned them,

Because of the provocation of

His sons and His daughters.

He said, “I will hide my face from them,

I will see what their end will be,

For they are a perverse generation,

Children in whom is no faithfulness.

They have moved me to

Jealousy with that which is not God;

They have provoked me to anger

With their vanities.

I will move them to

Jealousy with those who are

Not a people;

I will provoke them to anger

With a foolish nation.

For a fire is kindled in my anger,

That burns to the lowest hell;

It shall devour the earth with its increase,

And set the foundations of the mountains on fire.

I will heap evils on them.

I will spend my arrows on them.

They shall be wasted with hunger,

And devoured with pestilence

And bitter destruction;

I will send the teeth of animals on them,

With the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.

Outside the sword will bereave,

And in the rooms, terror;

On both young man and virgin,

The nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

I would have said that I would scatter them afar,

And I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,

lest their adversaries should judge wrongly,

lest they should say, ‘Our hand is exalted,

The LORD has not done all this.’”

For they are a nation void of counsel.

There is no understanding in them.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,

That they would consider their latter end!

How could one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Unless their Rock had sold them,

and the LORD had surrendered them?

For their rock is not as our Rock,

Even our enemies themselves concede.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom

And of the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes are poison grapes,

Their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of serpents,

The cruel venom of cobras.

Is this not laid up in store with me,

Sealed up among my treasures?

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,

At the time when their foot slips;

For the day of their calamity is at hand,

And their doom rushes at them.

For the LORD will judge his people

And have compassion on his servants,

When he sees that their power is gone,

That there is no one remaining, captive or free.

He will say, ‘Where are their gods,

The rock in which they took refuge?

Which ate the fat of their sacrifices,

And drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you,

Let them be your protection.

See now that I myself am He,

And there is no god besides Me;

I kill and I make alive;

I wound and I heal;

There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare,

“As I live forever,

If I sharpen My glittering sword,

And My hand grasps it in judgment;

I will take vengeance on My adversaries,

And will repay those who hate Me.

I will make My arrows drunk with blood,

My sword shall devour flesh,

With the blood of the slain and the captives,

From the heads of the leaders of the enemy.” ‘

Rejoice, you nations, with His people,

For He will avenge the blood of his servants,

He will take vengeance on His adversaries,

And will make atonement for His land and for His people.  ~Deuteronomy 32:1-43

The New Covenant

  • Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have everlasting life.  ~John 6:54
  • He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.  ~John 6:56
  • This is the living bread which came down from heaven.  He who eats this bread, will live forever.  ~John 6:58

Keep the Law

  • Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  ~Matthew 5:17,19
  • He who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven.  ~Matthew 7:21
  • Whatever the Jews who sit in Moses’ seat tell you, observe and do, but do not do according to their actions, for they do not do what they say.  ~Matthew 23:2-3

How to Pray

  • Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  ~Matthew 7:7
  • And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.  ~Matthew 6:5-6
  • When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  ~Matthew 6:7-8
  • In this manner, therefore, pray:

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 this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.  ~Matthew 6:9-13

Family

  • Your family is whoever does the will of God.  ~Matthew 3:35
  • You must love me more than you love your father or mother and son and daughter, or else you are not worthy of me.  ~Matthew 10:37

Fasting

  • During the Feast of Firstfruits, you shall eat neither bread nor grain until you have brought an offering to your God.  ~Leviticus 23:14
  • When you turn to me with all your heart, do so with fasting.  ~Joel 2:12
  • When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.  ~Matthew 6:16
  • When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.  ~Matthew 6:17-18

Riches

  • Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  ~Matthew 6:19-21
  • No one can serve two masters….You cannot serve God and riches.  ~Matthew 6:24

Worry

  • Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on, for your heavenly Father knows you need all these things.  ~Matthew 6:25,32
  • Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  ~Matthew 6:33-34

For the Weary

  • Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  ~Matthew 11:28
  • Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ~Matthew 11:29

 To Be an Apostle or Missionary

  • Weep for the lost children of God and pray, “Spare Your people, O LORD, that You do not give Your heritage away, that they should be viewed with disdain by other nations.”  ~Joel 2:17
  • Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.  ~Matthew 4:19
  • Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  ~Matthew 10:6
  • And as you go, preach, heal, cleanse, and perform miracles.  ~Matthew 10:7-8
  • Provide no currency in your moneybelts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.  ~Matthew 10:9-10
  • Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.  ~Matthew 10:11
  • And when you go into a household, greet it.  ~Matthew 10:12
  • If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it.  But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.  ~Matthew 10:13
  • And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.  ~Matthew 10:14
  • Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.  ~Matthew 10:16
  • Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues and churches.  ~Matthew 10:17
  • You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles, but when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak.  For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.  ~Matthew 10:18-20
  • When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.  ~Matthew 10:23
  • A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.  ~Matthew 10:24-25
  • Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.  ~Matthew 10:27
  • And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body.  ~Matthew 10:28
  • He who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.  ~Matthew 10:32
  • You must take your cross and follow after me to be worthy of me.  ~Matthew 10:38
  • He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.  ~Matthew 10:39
  • He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me.  ~Matthew 10:40
  • He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.  And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.  ~Matthew 10:41
  • Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.  ~Matthew 28:19-20
  • Do not forbid those who do not follow God to do miracles in His name.  ~Mark 9:39
  • Beware hypocrites who pretend to be holy but go around in long robes, socializing in the town, and keep the best seats and places of honor for themselves; who take from widows and make a pretense of long prayers.  ~Mark 12:38-40
  • Remember and speak about the woman at Bethany who generously anointed Jesus for burial with her costly oil of spikenard.  ~Mark 14:3-9
  • Repentance and remission of sins in Jesus’ name should be preached to all nations.  ~Luke 24:47
  • Tarry until you are embued with God’s power.  ~Luke 24:49

The Great Tribulation

  • And in those days when you fall, if you say, “Why does the LORD our God do all these horrible things to us?” know that the LORD would answer, “Just as you have forsaken Me and served and idolized false entities and things created by your own hand, so you shall serve aliens in your land, and in a land not yours.”  ~Jeremiah 5:19
  • When you see the abomination of desolation, then let My children flee to the mountains.  Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house.  Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes.  ~Matthew 24:15-18
  • Do not believe the false prophets and the false christs that will arise in those days, and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive even the elect.  ~Matthew 24:23-24
  • Watch diligently for the coming of the Son of Man, lest He find you sleeping when he suddenly arrives.  ~Mark 13:35-37

Blessings and Curses made on Mount Sinai

Blessings:

  • You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up an engraved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.
  • If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
  • Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
  • I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
  • You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.  Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
  • I will have respect for you and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish My covenant with you.
  • You shall eat old stores long kept, and you shall move out the old stores because of the new.
  • I will set My tent among you, and My soul will not abhor you.
  • I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be My people.  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.

Curses:

  • But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances, so that you will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you:  I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away.
  • You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
  • I will set My face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.
  • If you, in spite of these things, will not listen to Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
  • I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass.  Your strength will be spent in vain; for your land will not yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
  • If you walk contrary to Me, and will not listen to Me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
  • I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number. Your roads will become desolate.
  • If by these things you will not be reformed to Me, but will walk contrary to Me, then I will also walk contrary to you, and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
  • I will bring a sword upon you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. You will be gathered together within your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you.
  • You will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
  • When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and not be satisfied.
  • If you in spite of this will not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.
  • You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
  • I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and My soul will abhor you.
  • I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.
  • I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it.
  • I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
  • Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ lands. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.  As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it did not have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it.
  • As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.
  • They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.
  • You will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will eat you up.
  • Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.

Contrition:

  • If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and also that they have walked contrary to Me, and that I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity; then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
  • The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept their guilt; because they rejected My ordinances, and their soul abhorred My statutes.
  • Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
  • But I will, for their sake, remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’”

These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which the LORD made between Himself and the children of God on Mount Sinai by Moses.  ~Leviticus 26:1-46

Blessings and Curses in the Land of Moab

All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to the LORD your God’s voice.

Blessings:

  • You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.
  • You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.
  • Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.
  • You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.
  • The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.
  • The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
  • The LORD will establish you for a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in His ways.
  • All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the LORD’s name, and they will be afraid of you.
  • The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
  • The LORD will open to you His good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.
  • You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.
  • The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; you will be above only, and you will not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, to observe and do them.
  • And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses:

  • But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to observe and do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come on you, and overtake you.
  • You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
  • Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
  • The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.
  • You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
  • The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken Me.
  • The LORD will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.
  • The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
  • Your sky that is over your head will be brass, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
  • The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed.
  • The LORD will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.
  • Your dead body will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.
  • The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
  • The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
  • You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways; you will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you.
  • You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; you will build a house, and you will not dwell in it; you will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.
  • Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it; your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.
  • Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there will be no power in your hand.
  • A nation which you do not know will eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work, and you will only be oppressed and crushed always, so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad.
  • The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with severe boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
  • The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over yourselves, to a nation you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone.
  • You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you.
  • You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in, for the locust will consume it.
  • You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine nor harvest; because worms will eat them.
  • You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives will drop off.
  • You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.
  • Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.
  • The foreigner who is among you will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower.
  • He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
  • All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to the LORD your God’s voice, to keep His commandments and His statutes which he commanded you.
  • They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your offspring forever.
  • Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things, therefore you will serve your enemies whom the LORD sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until He has destroyed you.
  • The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, a nation of fierce facial expressions, that does not respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young.
  • And they will eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; they also will not leave you grain or new wine or oil, the increase of your livestock or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
  • They will besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they will besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.
  • You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
  • The man who is tender among you and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining; so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your towns.
  • The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter, toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your towns.
  • If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, then the LORD will make your plagues fearful, and the plagues of your offspring–even great plagues, and of long duration–and severe sicknesses, and of long duration.
  • He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they will cling to you.
  • Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.
  • You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you did not listen to the LORD your God’s voice.
  • It will happen that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you will be plucked from off of the land which you go in to possess.
  • The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.
  • Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing eyes, and pining of soul.
  • Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.
  • In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart, and for the sights which your eyes will see.
  • The LORD will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, but nobody will buy you.

These are the words of the covenant the LORD commanded to Moses to give to the children of God in the land of Moab.  ~Deuteronomy 28:2-68 The Promise of the MessiahThe Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’“And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.  But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’  And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.  ~Deuteronomy 18:15-22

The Virgin Mary had Known a Man

Warning~ Controversial opinion !

Image result for jesus born to mary in a manger

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin (parthenos) who had been betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s (parthenos) name was Mary. 

Parthenos in Strong’s Concordance is entry number 3933, quoted also in Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible Volume IV in this section, defined as ‘a maiden’, an unmarried daughter.

In the old testament the term ‘virgin’ in the Hebrew means the same thing:  a maiden or unmarried daughter.  We think of the term virgin regarding females as having an intact hymen, but that was not necessarily always the true meaning, though it did include this specific meaning as well.  Consider the prophecy of the Messiah being born to a ‘virgin’ here:

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel,” (Isaiah 7:14).

Isaiah 7:14 says that a virgin will bear a son. The problem is dealing with the Hebrew word for virgin, which is almah. According to the Strong’s Concordance it means, “virgin, young woman 1a) of marriageable age 1b) maid or newly married.” Therefore, the word, almah, does not always mean virgin. The word “occurs elsewhere in the Old Testament only in Genesis 24:43(maiden), Exodus 2:8 (girl), Psalm 68:25 (maidens), Proverbs 30:19(maiden), Song of Songs 1:3 (maidens), 6:8 (virgins).”1Additionally, there is a Hebrew word for virgin: bethulah. IfIsaiah 7:14 was meant to mean virgin instead of young maiden, then why wasn’t the word used here?  ~www.carm.org/isaiah-7-14-virgin

It did not become imperative in the Christian realm to emphasize incorrectly that Mary’s pregnancy was hymenal (as I will designate to differentiate it from virginal, which we see has different meanings) until the 2nd to 3rd centuries.  This was likely in retaliation by the early (Catholic?) church to the pagan heretical philosopher Celsus, who simply reported what the Jews knew to be true at the time, which was that Mary had an ‘affair’ with a Roman soldier named Pantera (Panther, a commonly acquired Roman name) who was likely stationed in her home town (see below).

Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera (c. 22 BC – AD 40) was a Roman soldier whose tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany, in 1859.

A historical connection from this soldier to Jesus of Nazareth has been hypothesized by James Tabor, based on the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus, who said that some Jews claimed Jesus was the result of an affair between his mother Mary and a soldier. He said she was “convicted of adultery and had a child by a certain soldier named Panthera”.[1] Tiberius Pantera could have been serving in the region at the time of Jesus’s conception.

The name Abdes means “servant of God” and suggests that Pantera had aSemitic or even Jewish background.

The story that Jesus was the son of a man named Pantera is referred to in the Talmud, in which Jesus is widely understood to be the figure referred to as “Ben Stada”]  ~Wikipedia

Furthermore, the whole concept of virginal birth did not really get generated until the 2nd to 3rd century AD, and Paul only refers to Jesus’ humanity, not his birth, in his epistles and teachings.

The virgin birth was universally accepted in the Christian church by the 2nd century and, except for some minor sects, was not seriously challenged until the 18th century.  It is enshrined in the creeds that most Christians consider normative, such as the Nicene Creed (“incarnate of the Virgin Mary”) and the Apostles’ Creed (“born of the Virgin Mary”), and is a basic article of belief in theCatholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches. Muslims also accept the virgin birth of Jesus  ~Wikipedia

Why was it so important to detract us with subtle word play in the Greek translation into thinking something so physically unlikely happened, as that an innocent girl with an intact hymen was impregnated by God?  Likely because the early organized Christian church  wanted at all costs to prevent the naysayers, the philosophers and the Jews, from squelching the newly emerging Good News.  It undoubtedly worked because Christianity has flourished worldwide 2000 years after Jesus came.

But it did come at a cost to those believers who are adherents of the truth, and find the truth to be much more beautiful and full of grace than all the impossible, fabricated mythical tales purported by the fledgling church to stay viable.  It may have worked in an era when people knew little of science and how bodies and fertility really worked, but as modern knowledge and times have erupted into the truth about conception, the twisted tale of a Messianic hymenal birth cannot stand up to the scrutiny of the minds God Himself gave us to use, to seek His truth.

I propose we read the account in Luke with a new mind, and eyes opened to the truth of what REALLY happened to Mary through God.  And I suggest that the true tale is one of grace unmatched by none except what happened upon the cross…

~~~

[Jay Green Interlinear Bible translation]

And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth…

The text is referring to the sixth month of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth’s, sixth month of pregnancy.  I believe this is to give us context of the time involved in Mary’s own gestation.  Of course, Elizabeth was barren and had conceived after Gabriel has also appeared to Elizabeth’s holy husband, Zacharias, telling him Elizabeth would finally bear a son.  So the angel Gabriel was the bearer of birth news in Judah, then in Galilee, quite a distance apart.

What do we know about Gabriel?  This:

According to Jewish mythology, in the Garden of Eden there is a tree of life or the “tree of souls”[9] that blossoms and produces new souls, which fall into theGuf, the Treasury of Souls. Gabriel reaches into the treasury and takes out the first soul that comes into his hand. Then Lailah, the Angel of Conception, watches over the embryo until it is born.  Gabriel is fifth of the five angels who keep watch: “Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim.” (1 Enoch 20:7)  When Enoch asked who the four figures were that he had seen: “And he said to me: ‘This first is Michael, the merciful and long-suffering: and the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, is Raphael: and the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel: and the fourth, who is set over the repentance unto hope of those who inherit eternal life, is named Phanuel.’ And these are the four angels of the Lord of Spirits and the four voices I heard in those days.” (Enoch 40:9)  ~Wikipedia

So Gabriel, according to the non-canonical Book of Enoch (which I believe can still be useful for research), was set over Paradise, where Jesus breathed life into being and was The Word (Book of John).

Note how the angel Phanuel is mentioned as one of the four most important angels.  The name Phanuel occurs in the narrative currently under study in Luke 2:36 when Anna, daughter of another Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, gives thanks to the Lord for the baby Jesus.

Also, at that time, Nazareth, being part of Galilee, was under Roman control due to events of history:

Herod the Great was the pro-Roman king of the small Jewish state in the last decades before the common era. He started his career as a general, but the Roman statesman Mark Antony recognized him as the Jewish national leader. During a war against the Parthians, Herod was removed from the scene, but the Roman Senate made him king and gave him soldiers to seize the the throne. As ‘friend and ally of the Romans’ he was not a truly independent king; however, Rome allowed him a domestic policy of his own. Although Herod tried to respect the pious feeling of his subjects, many of them were not content with his rule, which ended in terror. He was succeeded by his sons.  ~http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodians/herod_the_great01.html

Herod antipater (the father) and Herod the sons would rule before, during, and after Jesus’ reign.  Roman soldiers would have abounded in the land, which sets our stage for Mary, herself from the Davidic line, and betrothed to a Jew named Joseph, finding herself in the arms of a Roman soldier who had likely been a slave, but may have had Jewish roots himself.  It would have been inappropriate and scandalous of the utmost proportions for any legitimate liaison to occur between them because of their different backgrounds and genealogy.  Plus, Mary was already betrothed to a good Jewish man named Joseph, which must be upheld.

…to a virgin who had been betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

Her name was Mary.

The name Mary’s earliest appearance in writing may be in the biblical Book of Exodus, in which the elder sister of Moses is called Miriam.  The origin of theHebrew: מִרְיָם, Modern Miryam, Tiberian Miryām is not clear. It may mean “wished-for child”, “bitter”, “rebellious” or “strong waters”. Alternatively, bearing in mind that many Levite names are Egyptian, it might be derived from an Egyptian word myr“beloved” or mr “love”.  ~Wikipedia

I believe the name Mary is significant in that she represents the wife of God Himself.  Mary stands simply for ‘woman’ which in her essence is anything but simple.  Mary is the mother of the Begotten Son of God, the Messiah God in man form.  MYM in Hebrew means waters, but is also the root word for Heaven, HSHMYM, which separates the upper and lower waters.  So Mary is from the waters surrounding Heaven, all encompassing of life outside Heaven itself.  She is not God, but she is notable as His quiet companion.  And in our narrative of the Messiah’s birth, God, in grace, reaches out to her through the powerful Angel Gabriel in her womanly state of humiliation (see ahead) and under the curse of Eve to be ruled over by men and bring forth children through labor and suffering.

And entering, the angel said to her, Hail, one having received grace!  The Lord is with you.  You are blessed among women!  And seeing this, she was disturbed at his word (logos), and considered what kind of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favor from God.  And behold!  You conceive in your womb and bear a Son; and you will call His name Jesus.  This One will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

Why would Mary need to receive grace if she was immaculately conceived (Catholic doctrine) and was a hymenal virgin of a good family betrothed to a good man?  No, Mary had sinned in the eyes of her Judaism and knew it.  She also had just realized she was indeed pregnant from a Roman soldier around the time the angel appeared, which is likely the catalyst for him appearing; God knew the anguish of her soul:  what was she going to do when everyone found out?

This is also why she was ‘disturbed at his word’, because she was anticipating the worst fate imaginable for unchaste, impregnated women betrothed to another, the charge of adultery or something akin to it.

But let us pause on the WORD Logos for a moment.  It is the word for Christ Himself, and means Divine Expression.  The angel’s word was Jesus, as Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  ~John 1:1

The angel’s Word was literally telling Mary she was with the child Jesus already; the Word was in her!

She considered, which in the Greek means ‘to think’, what kind of greeting this was.  She was trying to work it all out, but the Angel Gabriel had not told her anything but that she was blessed among women, so why would she have need ‘to think’ about it at all?  She had to think about it because she was confused why an angel messenger was telling a harlot she was blessed among women!

There is actually no word or phrase for ‘you will’ before ‘conceive’ in the original Greek.  It is simply the word for conceive.  In fact, ‘you will’ is entirely omitted in the original text.  Which makes it mean that she is conceived, or has conceived already.

The word used for ‘womb’ here is telling also.  It is the only time womb in the New Testament is referred to as ‘gaster’ instead of ‘koilia’.  Gaster means maternal matrix just like koilia does, but instead of meaning ‘abdomen’ like koilia does, it refers to ‘stomach’ and means ‘gourmand’.  We know gastro in Greek refers to the digestive tract or gas, etcetera.  I believe it is used here because Mary was newly pregnant and barely showing, almost as if she was just gaining a little bit of weight, or had eaten a large meal, or was bloated.  I believe Mary was therefor around three month pregnant, with her first child.

But Mary said to the angel, How will this be since a man I also know (or have knowledge of)?

There is no word for ‘not’ here, as all translations say she said that she had ‘not known a man’.  That simply is not the prose written down.  The Greek word is clearly ‘ou’ not ‘oux’ or ‘ouch’, which is the negative ‘no’ in Greek.  Ou means clearly ‘also’ in Greek.  This is the subtle play on words the translators down the centuries changed to make the meaning into what they wanted it to mean, not what it really meant.

Mary was saying, “How can I possibly be blessed and have the Messiah child when I have known a man (out of wedlock}?”

And answering, the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you–and for this reason that holy One being born of you will be called Son of God.

Overshadow in the Greek here is ‘episkiazo’, [to envelop in a haze of brilliancy, to invest with preternatural influence].  Preternatural refers to extraordinary but still natural phenomena. In religious and occult usage, used similarly tosupernatural, meaning “outside of nature”, but usually to a lower level thansupernatural – it can be used synonymously (identical to supernatural), as a hyponym (a kind of supernatural), or a coordinate term (similar to supernatural, but a distinct category). For example, in Catholic theology, preternatural refers to properties of creatures like angels, whilesupernatural refers to properties of God alone. ~https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/preternatural

This is a preternatural, not a supernatural event, because God took her natural conception by a Roman soldier and made it an extraordinary event by making her child into a supernatural being, God Himself.  Not unlike how (to a lesser degree of course), an angel is a natural/supernatural being in one.  Only God is fully supernatural.  Everything that touches the world is preternatural.

And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth!  She also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month to her who was called barren; for nothing shall be impossible with God.

I am struck here by the analogy with Elizabeth’s situation, foretold by the same angel, Gabriel.  Gabriel is declaring to Mary that on the continuum of life God is Sovereign Lord and Master.  He can take a barren woman and cause her to conceive, just as He can take a young, fully fertile (too fertile?) woman who has an ‘accidental’ pregnancy and cause her child to be fully holy nonetheless.  These are the two ends of the spectrum for fertility.  Women who get pregnant too easily and it causes them problems, and women who cannot conceive at all.  If this miracle were only dealing with placing a baby inside, it would not be showing the full spectrum of God’s involvement in life to the same extent.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?  That implies that Nazareth was not known for its virtuous people, yet as in numerous other accounts in the Old Testament, God chose the very LEAST of his people in the eyes of the LAW-an adulterous young Hebrew woman betrothed to another man (you can’t get much worse than this as a female)-and made her his Messiah-bearer, and the carrier of eternal salvation for the world that was, is, and is to come!

This is undoubtedly another reason why the Jews of the times rejected Jesus, as it is written in their historical record regarding Mary and Pantera, and in the Talmud.  They could not conceive at all of the Messiah being conceived out of wedlock to a sexually immoral girl.  Which is my proposal as the very reason the Greek text was slightly altered in translation, not original form,  to support a virginal (hymenally speaking) birth.

And Mary said, Behold, the slave of the Lord!  May it be according to your word.  And the angel departed from her.

And rising up in these days, Mary went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah.

Slave here is ‘doule’, a female slave or handmaid.  I believe she left hurriedly in order to make herself unavailable to Pantera, and because she was led out by the Holy Spirit which was already taking up residence in her body, possibly from being used or abused any more.  Judah is a long distance southwest of Galilee, so it was a long journey whereby she knew she could not be followed.

(After Mary arrives in Judah and was greeted by Elizabeth)

…And Mariam said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit exulted in God My Savior.  For He looked upon the humiliation of His bondslave.  For, behold, from now on all generations will count me blessed.  For the Mighty One did great things to me, and holy is His name.  And His mercy is to generations and generations to those fearing Him.  He performed mightily with His arm; He scattered proud ones in the thought of their heart.  He put down powerful ones from thrones, and exalted lowly ones.  He filled the hungry with good things, and He sent the rich away empty.  he helped His servant Israel in order to remember mercy, even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.

And Mariam remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.

Humiliation is from the Greek word ‘tapeinosis’, in Srong’s number 5014, meaning “depression, humiliation, low estate, vile”.  Again, why would Mary have naturally been in a humiliated state if she was not already pregnant?  Our modern Bibles translate this word as ‘lowly state’, which is not quite so descriptive.

This is called The Song of Mary and it is a song of praise and thanks rejoicing in God’s mercy.  I believe it is because Mary was forgiven much, therefore she loved God much and her joy overflowed within-and without-her!  She may have been confronted (according to the historical record) by Pharisees and elders regarding her affair, and she was afraid of persecution and judgment by them.  But God reached down and turned her illegitimate child into the Messiah Himself, saving her and all of us in the process.  How like God to choose the lost as saviors for the rest of us (in the form of prophets and sons of God).

She stayed three months and left just before Elizabeth delivered.  It might have been considered improper and uncleanly for the mother of the Messiah to be around the blood and body fluids of birth, since Elizabeth had John right after Mary left.  Mary, by my calculations, would have been about six months pregnant by this time (since she was just showing when she left for Judah, and likely three months pregnant then).  She knew her pregnancy would be obvious to all when she returned home, but God bolstered her confidence during the three months she spent with Elizabeth and Zacharias.  Also, perhaps she had been in contact with Joseph and he reassured her he still wanted her.

In the meantime, Joseph became aware that Mary was pregnant and he began planning how to ‘put her away secretly’ because ‘he was just and was not willing to make of her a public spectacle’ (Matthew 1), when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that in her is fathered by the Holy Spirit.”

And it happened in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for all the habitable world to be registered.  This registration first occurred under the governing of Syria by Cyrenius.  And all went to be registered, each to his own city.  And Joseph also went from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because of his being of the house and family of David, to be registered with Mary, she having been betrothed to him as wife, she being pregnant.

When God gave the land to the twelve tribes of Israel, it was very important to Him that the lands remained within those tribes, even if the inhabitants chose to leave, they had many laws in place to keep the land from falling into the hands of other tribes, in order to keep things equitable and balanced.  And every 50 years, if the land had ended up in the possession of another, it had to be given back graciously in the Year of Jubilee!

Because Joseph was from the House of David, that meant his family hearkened from the tribe of Judah, in the area of Jerusalem, the heart of Israel.  So when the census first began in his area of Galilee, he took Mary and traveled to Judea to be registered with his wife, whom he still had not ‘known’ physically.

This trek is about 100 miles, so it likely took a couple of weeks to get settled in Bethlehem if they traveled at an average to slow pace, her being by now around 9 months pregnant.  It is conceivable that when she returned home from being with Elizabeth (who incidentally lived in this same general area, in Judea) Mary was 6.5 months pregnant.  She and Joseph had to work out their relationship in this time period, and reconcile these miraculous events that the angels had told them about.  Two months to do this seems a feasible amount of time to get their affairs in order (no pun intended).  When the decree went out by God through Caesar so that the prophet Isaiah’s words would be fulfilled, and they packed for the journey and finally set off, Mary would have been nearing her due date.  In those days women never knew an exact date when they would birth like we do now, so Joseph and Mary would have prepared for the birth to happen en route. Bethlehem is a word from Hebrew meaning House of Bread, which is fitting since Jesus is the bread of life, the manna from Heaven.

And it happened as they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bear.  And she bore her son, the Firstborn.  And she wrapped Him, and laid Him in the manger-because there was no place for them in the inn.

Interestingly, God’s favored sons throughout history thus far were usually the second-born.  When, as the eldest, Cain murdered Abel, his brother, there was a curse on the firstborn.  But Jesus, being the firstborn Son, redeemed this fate of the firstborn forevermore, just as he redeemed all who would follow Him and believe in Him.

Mary wrapped her baby (who had yet to be named legally).  This tells us they were indeed travelling alone, because if she had a maid in tow, the maid would have wrapped the newly born baby for her, and acted as her midwife.  This shows how poor and ‘destitute’ they were, at least by worldly standards of the time.

The word for ‘place’ in Greek is ‘topos’, meaning spot or room.  We do not know why there was no place for them in the inn.  It may have been because there was no literal space or because they were not allowed within.  After all, the innkeeper would have taken one look at her and decided he did not want a woman birthing in his inn!  Especially a poor and destitute one, who had no helper in tow.

It is important to realize the social implications of what Mary and Joseph were likely enduring throughout this time.  They were a young, pregnant couple who were probably poor, travelling on foot while about to birth.  They left their hometown where rumors abounded about the illegitimacy of their pending baby, and Mary’s moral character, or lack thereof.

They would not have been surprised to have been shunned at the inn.  Indeed, if the innkeeper had been a fellow devout Israelite, living true to God’s law, he would have had compassion on this woman about to birth (love your neighbor as yourself is clearly stated in the Old Testament) and found them a place to stay inside the inn!  In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells of a Jew who was left beaten and abandoned and a Samaritan was the only one who had compassion on him, and paid for him to lodge in an inn to heal and have respite.  Perhaps that is why Jesus told that story; to illuminate how a lowly, poor beggar whom no one but a Samaritan had compassion upon, yet was given lodging in the inn while the Only Begotten Son of Man’s mother who was about to deliver our Messiah was denied access.

The manger would have been the only place around that had a roof, while it is likely the sides were open, and Joseph and Mary themselves may have actually slept outside the manger.  It just says she had him, wrapped him, and laid him in the manger.  It was simply a primitive shelter where sheep and goats ate.  Again, this is the lowliest place for a child to be born; to a mother who was escaping from rumors about her sexual morality.  This family was unwanted by their own, and even shunned.

[wise men bearing gifts, angels praising God in the Heavens, everyone rejoicing that the Savior was born]

…And Mary kept all these words, meditating in her heart…And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, His name was called Jesus, the name called covertly (by) the angel before the struggle with Himself in the womb.

Just as we have to keep the Word in our lives daily, Mary kept telling herself (meditating on it) that her Son was Holy and from God, as the wise men declared, and all who knew of these matters confirmed.  This was a celebratory week!  The Greek wording of the next part is very important and mistranslated in published works:

“…kaleo [2564-called] hupo [5259-covertly] tou [the] aggelos [32-angel] pro [453-before] tou [the] sunagonizamai [4865-struggle with] autos [846-Himself] en [1722-in] te [the] koilia [2836-womb]”  ~Luke 2:21

When God caused his shadow to cast a miracle upon Mary’s fetus, turning him into God’s Son, there was a struggle between man and God.  This is an original and thought-provoking concept the truth of which has been hidden from us because of translators and man thinking they could write the Savior Story better in their own way, with their own preconceived notions of what is miraculous and what is not.  It is the very same thinking that many of the Jews had in the day Christ was conceived and born, that sent the Messiah to save us in the first place:  that Godliness can only occur in a realm of perfection, in a body living under a lawful life.  That God wants no part of us if we are not perfect; that we are not worthy of His love if we are not perfect.

The Patriarch Jacob struggled with himself one night (with an angel), and the angel ended up blessing him and renaming him Israel-one who struggles with God.  God won this struggle inside Mary’s womb, and the illegitimate child conceived from a union with a young Jewish girl and a Roman soldier was turned into our Messiah, the Only Begotten Son of God.

Praise God for opening our eyes to your beautiful and perfect truth!  You take the ‘lowliest’ among us and perfect us with You, and exalt us.

Jesus spoke much about the true meaning of family.  For Him, family was not about blood relations, but those who do the will of the Father.  He was Himself an orphan in a sense.  He knew rejection from his biological father.  He must have known the truth of his genealogy and chose to live the life the God Father would live if He were a man; indeed He could have done nothing else, being the Logos Himself, no sin could live in Him.  Yet He still had choice, as we see in his poignant final moments of ‘freedom’ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But it is spine-tingling to think of Jesus’ teachings of doctrine about love and peace among all men, even enemies, in the context of his own biological father being a renowned warrior and Roman soldier.  Especially one worthy of being made into a Roman citizen and immortalized in a statue of stone which we can see thousands of years later, even as it exists, crumbling and headless.

Jesus the Christ upheld His Heavenly Father’s doctrine of love above all else, and was God’s love personified.

Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera

He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.  ~Jesus

Some of my Readings

One of my favorite little secret reads:

The Action Bible! Edited by Doug Mauss and illustrated by Sergio Cariello, 2010:

My boy has read this about 7 times.

~~~

The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck, 1995

God gave me this gift yesterday in the ‘Mexico’ section of the local library.  I plucked it off the shelf eagerly and read straight through the book aloud last night, stopping at 1:30 am, having ingested about two fifth’s worth.  Obviously, I was delighted with his writing and philosophizing enough to plant my body motionless for three to four hours.  His sarcastic wittiness while waxing anthropomorphic on certain items that command his interest-or frustration-is only surpassed by his cyclical philosophizing on any subject that makes its way around, which it inevitably does.

Overall, Steinbeck’s genius is illustrated most aptly by his endless use of words that struggle with each other to break through, preferably before the period comes.  Like the oscillation of the tides which he sees as underlying every truth, his words come in on burgeoning  waves faster and faster, climbing over and under each other to fight for position, finally breaking upon the beach in a foment of bubbles that burst forth and disappear leaving  some brief mark upon the territory; and before you’ve barely had time to catch your breath, the next predictably rolls in ..

I prefer calmer waters, but I appreciate his intelligence, even if it would have been better spent glorifying God and loving all his neighbors, instead of mere words and man-made ideologies.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri, 1945

This book was so wonderfully refreshing because it was not only set in the Swiss Alps but it has a delightful sprinkling of God and Bible stories interlaced into its plot.  Heidi’s old cranky and reclusive grandfather becomes her caretaker when her parents pass away at a young age and she lives with him on the “Alm”.  When he refuses to move to town in Winter and send Heidi to school, citizens raise concern about his ability to take proper care of her and her aunt steps fortuitously in and finds her a home in Frankfurt where she can live and provide companionship for a young invalid named Klara.

After many antics whereby Heidi learns the hard way to fit in to refined city life, it becomes obvious that Heidi is homesick to the point of wasting away, and an old doctor friend of her benefactor advises she be sent back to her mountain home at once.  When she returns home her grandfather is so pleased to see her that he allows her to teach him about God through the Bible story of the prodigal son, which she has learned to read while she has been away.  His heart softens and they begin to attend church services and make arrangements to spend the next Winter in town where Heidi might attend school.

Further lovely tales unfold when her Frankfurt family take turns visiting her, and her shepherd friend, Peter, become jealous.  Generosity abounds, and finally her dear friend Klara learns how to walk in the nourishing mountain air and sunshine!

A good, wholesome read through and through.  A book to inspire us, and glorify God.

2013 ~ NO PICTURE

This book was given to me by a friend.  I first came to know and love God, and His law; then Jesus as the Messiah, but I was struggling with the Apostle Paul and his seeming contradiction to Torah (the law).  This book helped me to see Pauls’ intended teachings in a new and accurate light, and cured my unbelief in Paul’s divine inspiration and I now can embrace his words and teachings wholeheartedly.  Because of this book, I believe in the canonicity of all 66 books of the Bible and that all the words in the Bible are God-breathed.  Without Paul’s epistles and books we would be much further away from the true meaning and hope of the Gospel.

I do not agree with his analysis of some things, like how he has adopted the secular way of writing time in BCE and CE terms.  Nor of how he refuses to use the terms ‘New’ and ‘Old’ testament.  Nor how he only calls Jesus Christ’s name Yeshua HaMessianic in the Hebrew.  And some interpretation of the scriptures he has taken poetic license with, but overall it is a nice anthology of Paul.

One thing that really stuck with me from this book is this:

Christ’s Redemption is accomplished through His:

  1. Death
  2. Resurrection
  3. Ascension
  4. Session
  5. Intercession

This little gem is on the reading list for new students at Liberty Seminary.  It is quite small and an easy read, chock full of Bible references and other beneficial quotes like this one:

It is through living, indeed through dying and being damned that one becomes a theologian, not through understanding, reading, or speculation.  ~Martin Luther

It discusses life within the context of theology, which is simply the discussion of God.  If God is in your life, you are likely a theologian.  I think this book will be an invaluable and handy resource for adding some verve to my papers.

picturesque palestne

I purchased this for my own studies and it has been fairly interesting in that it shows wood and steel engravings of an 1870’s Palestine, along with prose and descriptions from an English Colonel named Sir Charles Wilson.  Compared to our modern photography, it is severely lacking and one cannot make out much from the black and white pictures.  But the words and chronicles from that era are unique and therefore sacred in their own right.

From our 2015 perspective, this book gives us a view of a Holy Land that no longer exists, and which, without it, we could otherwise never see.  It is also a good historical reference for the events that have shaped and affected the Holy Land over time.  This is probably my favorite quote from the entire book, from the Introduction:

Next to Greece, Palestine stands supreme.  The extraordinary rift of the Jordan valley, deeper than any similar fissure on the surface of the earth, the innumerable questions, historical or scientific, which that valley suggests in the overthrow of the five cities in the passage of the Jordan, would of itself render Palestine peculiar amongst the countries of the globe.  The caves with which its limestone rocks are perforated are features which cannot be destroyed or altered by time, and represent a series of adventures and hiding-places from the time of Abraham and David down to the heroic insurgents of the age of Josephus.  The wells and springs, which are so remarkable an element in all Eastern lands, and which ally themselves alike with the early history of the Patriarchs and with the recorded discourses of Him who by the well of Sychar [Jacob’s well] proclaimed the great truth of the spirituality and universality of His religion, still remain as living witnesses to the history of which they are the expression, and justify with singular force the striking words of a well-known traveller, “There is no event so permanent as that which is writ in water.”  The fragments of buildings which overspread the whole country, and which date from almost every age, recall the prehistoric times of those old aboriginal tribes whose names appear only to be blotted out by the successive tides of invasion which have swept over the country…a land of ruins..and the mountains have given form and substance to the peculiar diction of Prophet and Psalmist, and have also lent themselves to that long succession of celebrated views with which no other history can compare.  ~Sir Charles Wilson, engineer to the Palestine Exploration Society

1964 NO PICTURE

This book shares black and white photos as we journey through the Bible narrative.  Since the Hebrews did not do artwork or make reliefs (except in their temple which is now non-existent), Werner Keller draws on the adjacent cultures of the Egyptians and Babylonians for examples.  There are also many photos of the Holy Land.  There are some interesting tidbits that you might not find in recent sources, such as a photograph of a man atop a clay cliff where it is proposed proof that great flood happened.  Also, it is good to see the Holy Land more authentically than now with the population changes and growth that have occurred since 1963 (when it was first published).

Overall, a very thorough pictorial of not only the Holy Land but the peoples and the cultures having lived in and around it.

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Excerpt from Job-My Translation from the Hebrew

ALYHWA (usually translated ‘Elihu’) is VERY close to ALYHM, God’s name in the OT for the Almighty Maker of the Universe.  I don’t think this is a coincidence.  I think it’s a reference to Jesus, God’s Son.

Chapter 32

And these three men rested from chastening Job for he was righteous in his own eyes.  And the passion of ALYHWA Son of the Almighty Blessing, the Buzite of the family of Ram, mounted against Job.  His passion mounted against him for the righteousness of his breath was for himself instead of ALHYM.  And his passion mounted against his three friends from which no answer had appeared, yet they condemned Job.

And ALYHWA had waited for Job in the matter because they were older than him in days.  ALYWHA saw that there was no answer from the mouth of the three men, and his passion mounted.  ALYHWA Son of the Almighty Blessing, the Buzite spoke and said, “Young am I  of days and you are elders above all, so I crawled to see what was before I declared knowledge to you.  I said, ‘You command days and abundant years, you know wisdom.  Surely the Spirit is in man and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.  Are not great those who are wise and elders who understand justice?’  Justly I say to you, ‘Listen to me.  I truly will show knowledge.  Lo, I waited for you all to speak and I weighed your words while you discussed the matter.  You built your testimony and behold, not one of you refuted or heeded the words of Job.  Lest you say, ‘We have obtained wisdom,’ not man but the Almighty will cast him off.'”

“And it has not been ordered against me from enduring your words which I do not perceive.  They are crushed and do not respond as words have left them.  And shall I wait for them because they do not speak and because they stand but do not respond?  Surely I will answer and partake.  Surely I will declare knowledge!  For I have confined words in the spirit of my body.  Behold, my breast is like wine in new wine skins:  it bursts!  I will speak and my spirit will go out, I will open my lips and I will answer.  I will not show favor to man, and I will not flatter any man.  For I do not know how to flatter, but after a little I will be at rest with my Maker.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life

I believe the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a representation of Jesus Christ and the Tree of Life is a representation of the Holy Spirit, or God’s wife. This is because Jesus is the gnosis, or ‘knowledge’, the embodiment of God’s perfect knowledge. And the the Spirit is what gives life: In Him was Life (the Holy Spirit). That is why they are both located in the middle of the Garden of Eden, Son and Mother nestled in the heart of God, Almight ALHYM. Remember that ALHYM is a plural sovereign name, which inherently denotes the Trinity, along with all of God’s other Sides perhaps.

In the Beginning, God’s spirit hovered over the waters and made YHWH and YHWY created all of creation, including Day and Night and Light and Dark which in the Hebrew language not only means literal lightness and darkness, but figurative light and dark, or…..good and evil. The beloved disciple, John, also tells us that Jesus was the Word and that the Word was in the Beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God. This means the Word embodied the Spirit of YHWH, therefore, Jesus and YHWH are one and the same. John also delivers to us a parting understanding of Jesus in the last book of the bible, his Revelation: He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Yeshua/Jesus is to be understood as existing at both ends of ANY spectrum and encompassing ALL in-between. This is the same concept as illustrated by the concept of ‘good and evil’.

When Eve and Adam disobeyed God and allowed desire to gain a foothold in their lives–which was the first act of idolatry in the story of man–they put in place the necessity of a messiah in order that God would not lose His entire beloved creation of man, those He had created to love and be loved by Him. That is why He told Adam that to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would cause death. Adam and Eve activated the sacrificial process of death by holy blood in this seemingly simple act of eating a piece of fruit. For some reason, God waited 62 generations from Adam to bring the messiah Jesus Christ to earth in the form of Yeshua through the vessel of Mary. His time is not our time.

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” ~Genesis 3:22-25

“To keep the way of the tree of life” in this passage of scripture means that because of God’s swift action of banishing now-sinful man from the Garden of Eden, the Holy Spirit was not also defiled by Man. God is protecting His wife you see. This is what I believe Jesus understands when he says, to our consternation:

Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. ~Matthew 12:31-32

YHWH took death upon Himself in the form of Yeshua, Jesus as Christ, as commanded by ALHYM because the created beings of man thought they could supersede God and His law. But as Jesus came to save and be the bridge between man and God, He also warns us–as God warned Adam–that violating the sacred Holy Spirit will bring irreversible spiritual death, as violating the sacred Gnosis and Word in the Beginning brought physical death.

Holding the concept of God’s Holy Spirit sacred and being reverent to it is all that is necessary. God does not allow her to be visible, indeed most theologians misunderstand the Holy Spirt as not feminine, but masculine, which is just crazy to me. But God allows this to protect her. Only those who search hard–but not too hard–will understand this. To search too hard might mean you begin worshiping her as the Catholic faith does, or as ancient people did by erecting Asherah poles next to alters; as modern new-agers attempt to do with Gaia and goddess worship.

So just as Adam named Eve as the “mother of all life”, so was the Holy Spirit the Mother of all life, and still is through God’s protection because God intervened in the Garden before man could also destroy Life, represented by the Holy Spirit. Active Satan worshipers blaspheme the Spirit when they seek access to God’s realm through the denial of Jesus and practice evil deeds such as blood-letting, blood lust, murder, sexual immorality, and the most vile practices demons can conjure. This is mirrored in the Garden when Satan bypassed Adam and tempted Eve, because he was ultimately after the Tree of Life, God’s wife; and he understood that Eve was the weaker vessel.

As a final parting thought, consider that the Garden of Eden was a literal heaven on earth where men and women do not have sexual relations. As it is written, Adam only ‘knew’ Eve once they were banished from the Garden. This was to bring about the lineage that would bear the Savior. Imagine a heaven so good that sex isn’t even a part of it. Wow!

Losing Your Mind

When Nebuchadnezzar erected a huge golden statue to himself for his people to bow down and worship, God befuddled his mind so much that this mighty king was consigned to wander about like an ox and eat grass for seven years: he lost his mind. The longer King Saul ruled, the more corrupt he became. His thinking was debased, and he was envious of the future King David day and night. He became paranoid and murderous, and turned from the ways of God: he lost his mind. Ironically, the only thing that gave him comfort was the music from David’s lyre.

When the great Apostle Paul was imprisoned, he wrote letters to his spiritual son Timothy on how to be a proper pastor of a new church. Paul admonishes him that in the times to come, people would leave the faith, clinging to teachings of demons, having become seared in their conscious minds. They would lose all ability to see truth and reason: i.e. they will lose their mind.

While ‘brain’ is not specifically mentioned in scripture, what ancient authors of the bible meant for brain is ‘mind’. In Hebrew mind is ‘leb’ meaning the heart, or inner person, which only God can see but out of which flows action and intent. In Greek mind is ‘nous’ which means mind or intellect, and which is the fount of our heart and intentions. In the examples above, we see a picture of important, lofty men losing their minds, or ‘going crazy’, as we say. Today we tend to think of this as a ‘mental health’ issue. As I have outlined in previous posts, modern man assigns mental illness to the domain of physical illness. But from ancient times until about the 1970’s, mental illness was always understood as spiritual illness, or sin.

As I have outlined in previous posts, modern man assigns mental illness to the domain of physical illness, or disease of the brain. But from ancient times until about the 1970’s, mental illness was always understood as spiritual illness, or sin.

But what if wrong thinking in the mind (mental illness) really does lead someone to ‘lose’ their mind? What if this happens not only in the abstract, but in the concrete? What if God actually causes physical changes to occur in the brain due to sinful thinking? That is my new theory and understanding. I hypothesize that despite millenia of false teaching by philosophers, we cannot separate the body from the mind. God intended them to work together. The body is rarely mentioned in scriptures except as flesh to be persecuted daily:

This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. ~Galatians 5:16-17

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. ~Romans 12:2

To try and clarify this idea, we need to just understand a human being as one unit in its entirety. We are so used to separating out the outer man from the inner man (physical from mental), but we are one being, not two in one. And this one human being is corruptible in one way only, by sin. Being corrupted by sin causes sickness in us. This sickness occurs outwardly and inwardly, in ways that are visible to the naked eye and ways that are invisible to the naked eye but sometimes visible with sorcery (x-rays, scans, imaging).

The devil has done his work through philosophy and empty deceit (as Paul warned us about) and duped man into thinking that man’s mind and body function independently of each other, and most importantly, independently of God, or the spiritual realm. He has tricked nearly everyone into thinking that what ails man is not spiritual sickness, or sin, but physical and mental illness. And because we don’t understand the true root of our problem, we accept the devil’s offer of his false god, a physician (or its duplicate), to heal us.

If we don’t understand that our human self is sick for one reason only, sin, we cannot seek the correct cure, which is only from God (or His duplicate)–JESUS CHRIST.

One man has one disease: Sin.

One man has One Cure: Jesus.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. ~1 Timothy 4:1-3

Besides being an obvious denunciation of the Catholic doctrine of unmarried and celibate priests, the above passage gives us the intriguing concept that in our times, even the elect will not give heed to the Holy Spirit, but to false spirits/demons and believe in their lies. Their conscience will become seared. In the Greek, conscience is συνείδησις, suneidésis, Strong’s entry 4893. It basically means moral consciousness, having to do with the mind. As we have learned, the mind is the inner self, the intellect, the heart, our moral compass. It’s what makes us human and different from the animals. It’s our brain, plus a lot more.

Seared is Strong’s entry 2743: καυτηριάζω, or kautériazó: To cauterize. Which we can understand in our language: a burning or branding that kills the flesh and is irreversible. Paul is teaching Timothy that anyone–even those who should know better as instructed by the Holy Spirit–is vulnerable to false teachings which come by demons and which will cauterize our consciousness. This implies an irreversible state or condition.

The brains of patients with dementia and Alzheimers disease have been studied, and researchers have found varying degrees of corruption from microvascular changes to black necrotic regions which cause outright holes in the brain. Obviously where there is lack of blood flow, tissue dies because the bible tells us the life is in the blood. When tissue dies, it withers away. This sounds like the concept of cauterization. If we use our mind to focus on idols and false spirits, and not what we should be focused on, God and the Holy Spirit, our conscious minds will become seared; it will cauterize our brain. Alzheimer’s and dementia are not organic diseases caused by what we eat, they are death of our flesh caused by sinful thoughts stemming from a sinful heart.

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” ~Jesus

God is clearly telling us through His great Apostle Paul who speaks for Christ that if we do not use our life to serve the Spirit, but instead use our bodies and minds to serve satan and his demons, and believe in their false doctrines, He will allow us to fall into sickness, which is really unrepentant sin. Because we are one being, not two, this sickness will pervade our body, inside and out. On the contrary, the act of worshiping God and thinking night and day on His law and His ways, protects our minds from sin and keeps us healthy.

There are many ways to lose your mind and it manifests in many ways. At first you might appear to be depressed. Then paranoid. Avoidant. Envious. Angry. Murderous. Manic. Selfish to an extreme. If you live long enough, these all lead to one place: Loss of memory and executive function. Dementia. Or the dreaded worst dementia: Alzheimer’s disease.

Now Jesus made it clear that not all disease was due to sin. He said sometimes disease happens so that God’s glory made be made evident through it. But most sickness is due to sin, and sin leads to death. Men who use their minds not as they should, to think about lustful things, murderous things, all the things listed in the bible as sin will not escape with an intact mind. They will go crazy. And it won’t be due to what they eat or due to genetics, it will be due to their sinful heart. There is no place man can hide from God, not even in his mind.

~Selah