Last Friday I had a busy day. Traveled to Beaver, UT, which is about 120 miles from home and transferred 4 embryos into Angus cows and then another 60 miles to Centerville to put 56 Braunvieh embryos into Jersey and Jersey cross cows. What are Braunvieh cows? Glad you asked--Braunvieh means "brown cow." It is a breed originating from Switzerland that was originally a triple-purpose breed--milk, beef, and draft animals. I knew nothing of the breed. Always love working with farmers, definitely the salt of the earth, so I enjoyed my day albeit my left arm needed therapy afterward.🙂
I had an interesting experience when I filled up with gas in Beaver after putting in the Angus embryos. It was about 8 in the morning and I had already put in a half day's work so I was hungry. I bought a pint of milk (pasteurized but excellent) and two granola bars. Carefully keeping my distance I set the goods up on the counter so the clerk could total up my bill. When the amount flashed on the screen she gasped. The total read $6.66. She huffed that nowadays no one is Biblically literate so they don't know what that number means and who Satan is. Her foreboding look kind of scared me so I grabbed my food before she threw it in the trash. I thanked her and made my exit. The milk and granola bars were delicious. In many ways many of us seem to be afraid. Revelation definitely talks about a mark of the Beast and his number being 666. However, it connects the mark to the worship of the Beast and ties it to the hand and the forehead--what you do and what you think. It is clearly harking back to the tefillin which are bound on the arm and the forehead. They contain scriptures one of which is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength." I am just reminding all of us today that you are not going to accidentally take the mark of the Beast. It involves worship and is clearly intentional. Remind yourself today how much better you live than your parents and grandparents. There is a lot of bad stuff in this world but it doesn't define us--God does. Take time to enjoy your day.
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Many things that are helpful as we are growing up become limitations as we mature. Specifically I am speaking of the ability we have to label things and place them in categories. It is very helpful for a child to discover that Dad is a man, Mom is a woman, my dog is an animal, my cat is an animal but not a dog, etc. Knowing where particular things fit help us make sense of the world.
Unfortunately, many of us don't progress past the state of putting things in categories and then realizing more fine-tuning is necessary. In 2 Chronicles 35 King Josiah, easily one of the best kings in the Southern Kingdom's history, dies when he refuses to hear God's voice coming through Israel's historical enemy, Pharaoh Neco, the ruler of Egypt. His experience, his DNA, told him that Egypt was the enemy and must be resisted. In this case, God was telling him through Pharaoh Neco to just let Pharaoh through the kingdom's territory and nothing amiss would occur. He couldn't hear and so he was killed. An absolute essential for a grown-up is to be able to detect nuance and shades of meaning or function. We laugh at memes on Facebook but they often are bastions of stupidity. Jews don't all act alike, neither do blacks, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, you name it. I don't always act the same in similar situations. Communism is generally thought to be a dictatorial type of socialism. There are many types of socialism that are not communist. Equating all socialists as communists or communists in embryo makes us look stupid and ill-informed. The richest thing I am now beholding is people using Putin as a force against socialism and communism. I like Putin a lot better when he is far from me and I am not doing something he doesn't like. His enemies seems to have abbreviated life-spans. I don't measure Putin by his politics--I don't care for his behavior. We need to learn to know people for who they really are. Not their group, their political party nor their religion. All of these contribute to the identity of the person but none determine who he or she actually is. It is lazy thinking to place people in boxes we detest so we don't have to think about them or learn to know them. The political rhetoric in this country right now is a great example of what to avoid. Because a person is a never-Trumper or an always-Trumper doesn't tell you much about that person except what Presidential candidate they will likely vote for. I am amazed how many people I truly like if I just make the effort to get to know them and jettison my labels and boxes. I have a list of names I would love to eliminate but I don't need everyone mad at me at once. (The "names" I would like to eliminate are not people--they are the names and labels we use to marginalize and demonize those we disagree with.) When the "right" and the "left" continually scream that the other side is ruining the country I sadly agree. Because after the "right" has eliminated the "left" and the "left" has eliminated the "right" we have all achieved a pyrrhic victory. The final blessing in the Aaronic benediction from Numbers 6 proclaims "the Lord lift up his face toward you and grant you shalom (peace.) May you enjoy a blessed Shabbat. I went for a run this morning early. Sky pitch black with the stars in such great abundance it was difficult to make out the individual stars. In 40 minutes there is a lot of time for thinking and so I indulged.
The tragedy of Kobe Bryant has been on my mind and those who were wary of eulogizing his memory because of some very unsavory events in his past. I can't comment upon these events other than to say his behavior was awful and he betrayed those dear to him. However, he appeared to work very hard to patch things up with his family and move on with his life. With his passing numerous stories have sprung up showing his tendency to help others especially in cases where no one knew what he was doing. One of the things we struggle with is letting go of the past--either ours or others. Sometimes you just have to let it go. Also just heard this week about someone hurt over 20 years ago that is not ready to move on. They are still not ready to give the other person a chance. I can't really judge other people I have a hard enough time taking care of myself. In our Triennial Torah cycle we are reading the story of Joseph. An amazing story of betrayal, treachery and yet ultimately redemption. The proud and arrogant Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers led by his older brother Judah. Joseph goes through incredible pain and unfair treatment before finally becoming the viceroy of Egypt. In this capacity he receives his brothers who are looking for the grain that only Egypt has. Joseph tricks them into bringing his brother Benjamin to Egypt on their next trip and then plants his silver cup in Benjamin's grain sack to test his brothers and see if they will abandon Benjamin the way they abandoned him so long ago. Joseph has made a break with his past. He has two sons and he has named them specifically to cut off his history. He named the first Manasseh which means "forgetting" because he has forgotten his father's household. He names the next one, Ephraim, meaning fruitful because he has been made fruitful in the land of his affliction. In other words he is done with home. Seeing his brothers is a wake up call and excruciating. God is forcing him to face his past and his home. When he sets Benjamin up and threatens to imprison him, Judah makes a valiant plea for Benjamin's freedom saying he can't watch his father die in grief after losing another son. He pleads with Joseph to imprison him instead and let Benjamin go. This breaks Joseph and he reveals himself to his brothers. What we often miss in the story is the breaking of Judah. After Joseph's being sold into slavery, Judah departs from his brothers and marries a Canaanitess name Shua. She bears him three sons. Heartbreakingly the two oldest sons die and then Shua dies. Finally Judah has a moral failure when he fails to offer the widow of his sons, Tamar, to his son Shela to maintain the family name and then ends up getting Tamar pregnant himself. When Judah comes to Egypt he is a different man. He knows the anguish of a Father who loses his son, a man who loses his wife and the deep sense of shame and loss that accompanies moral failure. His speech to Joseph is genuine and Joseph knows it In the end, they both had to let go of the past and move on. In a beautiful twist, Joseph, the man who wanted to forget his family and the land of his inheritance, instructs his family to bury his bones in the land of Canaan.At least sometimes, it pays to let go of the past and just move on. Up early today. A couple of calves have chosen today to make their entrance into our slightly snowy terrain. Nevertheless a beautiful winter day.
For those celebrating today my best wishes go out to you and I echo the angels in Luke, "Peace on earth and good will to men." For those of us in the HR, Messianic world sadly today is a day of controversy and often anger. I am still seeing posts calling Christmas trees idolatry. Some enterprising wag has recorded a song to the tune of "O Tannenbaum" and titled it "Idol-a-tree, Idol-a-tree." So uplifting. For those of you enjoying this day and celebrating with family the rest of this may seem bizarre and superfluous. Perhaps it may help some who are struggling with this issue. First, celebrating Christmas today is not a hold-over from celebrations in ancient Rome for Saturnalia and Mithras. The date December 25 was believed to be the birthday of the Messiah about 100 years before December 25 (Not even the date for Saturnalia which is a few days earlier) became a prominent day in Sol Invictus worship. Many scholars are even questioning now if Sol Invictus was ever that dominant in Roman religious life. Even if there is a date connection this proves nothing. Laura Bush was born on November 4 a few years before I was. When I celebrate my birthday I am not secretly celebrating Laura's birthday it just happens to coincide with mine. Remember the old canard--correlation does not equal causation. Second, there is no such thing as "accidental paganism." A person doesn't unknowingly worship a foreign god, because worship is intentional. In the book of Joel chapter 2 we are told that whoever calls on the name of the Lord (YHWH) will be saved. This reasoning would lead us to believe that all German speakers are saved because they say the term "Ja" all day long every day. (Yah is a Biblical shortened term for YHWH.) They even say it with the "Y" sound so they are definitely in.😀 Watch some swimmers and divers--they enter the water in a very similar pattern to a Jewish Mikveh. I suppose they are now "closet Hebrews?" The priesthood that God sets up in Israel in the Torah is very reminiscent of the Egyptian priesthood with its sacrifices and the use of a chest called a palanquin. Because pagans do some things similar to those practices enjoined upon Israel by God we have no fear that the Levitical worship was pagan or in any way touched by paganism. Intent is powerfully involved in worship. It is not everything but it is the main thing. Of course, the uppermost issue is obedience to God's commands. The children of Israel complained and God sent serpents into their camp. To be saved from dying from the venomous bites God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Those Israelites who looked up at the bronze serpent were saved. Later Hezekiah had to destroy the serpent because the Israelites were burning incense to it. It was built on God's order, the people were to look at it to be saved, but it was not to be worshiped. Yeshua (Jesus) even tells us that he will be lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness. What we do with something may be more important than what we are doing. (Not always true--some actions are wicked regardless) After Naaman was healed he was distressed that he would be called to accompany the Syrian King everyday in the worship of pagan idols. Elisha assures him it will be ok. God will know that he realizes who the true God is. Certainly, Israel was to tear down the altars of the Canaanites and enjoined not to worship God in the way of the heathen. Some of this is not easy to work out. What in our lives today become the "high places" that so grieved the Lord? There are actions that are always proscribed in scripture but they may not always be called idolatry or paganism. Sometimes it is just plain unregenerate human nature showing itself. Finally each person should follow the dictates of their own conscience in the celebration of Christmas. There is plenty wrong with what goes on at Christmas just as there are a lot of wonderful things--generosity, singing praises, taking care of the needy, and family events. Frankly, I can't stand the silliness--elves, Santa, reindeer, etc. It's like going to McDonalds before you go home to have Thanksgiving dinner. You will have no room for the important things. In any case, I suggest we be careful in condemning our brothers and sisters in areas where we don't know intent nor are we totally aware of God's views of the behavior. As we celebrate (or not) Christmas let us grant each other charity and good will. This time of year brings out a couple of things I would like to address quickly. First Christmas. For some their favorite time of year and for others a misguided, descent into ancient paganism. The pagan origins of Christmas are touted almost everywhere you look. You can find it in Encyclopedias and current magazines and from all kinds of writers. Many agree that we know that Yeshua (Jesus) was not born on December 25th or this time of year.
I have done some research. No, you can't say he wasn't born this time of year. We just don't know. Early Christians didn't even like celebrating birthdays and while they speculated on the date of His birth they didn't celebrate it. The earliest date proffered was in the Spring around the time of Passover. Some link it to the Fall at the time of the Fall Feasts in the Bible. Because of the belief in a thing called Integral age many believed he was born and died on the same date which is also believed for Moses and King David. We know his death was at Passover so that must be the date he was born. Then it was posited that his conception was in the Spring so his birth would have been in late December. The earliest mention I have seen of this was by Julius Africanus who believed his conception was around Passover and wrote this in the early 200's. There is no record of celebrating the birth until the time of Constantine. This just means early Christians speculated on the date of his birth but really didn't put a lot of import into setting aside a date to celebrate. I believe it is total nonsense to think this date was picked to correlate with the celebration of Sol Invictus, the sun god. Certainly Aurelian mentions December 25 as a date to celebrate Sol but it was not the main date for its celebrations and early Christians had picked the date far earlier. Also, later in the 5th and 6th century we find the church coopting pagan celebrations to help accelerate the assimilation of different cultures into Christianity. However, in the first 3 or 4 centuries of the church Christians would not have touched anything even faintly resembling paganism. When many Christians left the faith to save their lives under the persecution of Diocletian one group would not allow them to repent and return. These people were called Donatists after their leader Donatus. The Donatists celebrated Christmas on December 25. If the celebration were tied to Mithras or Sol Invictus there is no way the Donatists would have endorsed it. All these words to say "celebrate Christmas the way you like." If you don't celebrate at all, fine. Don't be certain of everything you have heard and remember for most things they can be used for good or for ill. I can't stand all the elves and Santa as I think it detracts from celebrating the Messiah's nativity. Remember you don't have to do what you think is wrong but condemning others is not apt to help either. Have a wonderful day. |
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