Achan’s sin

 The fall of Ukraine’s elite “SS”. The Azov. 

But who funded this Azov version of Ukraine’s SS? A Jewish oligarch. This makes Joshua chapter seven in the Bible make sense as with God’s words “Israel has sinned”.

Here is Joshua 7

"But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things  ; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? *Israel has sinned*; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

“Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

“ ‘In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the Lord chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the Lord chooses shall come forward man by man. Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’ ”

Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes, and Judah was chosen. The clans of Judah came forward, and the Zerahites were chosen. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by families, and Zimri was chosen. Joshua had his family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen.

Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia,  two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord.

Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.”

Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor f ever since."

So there we have it, Joshua chapter 7. "Israel has sinned" Breaking the covenant. Covenant-bearing individuals all implicated by one or a few individuals who did not abolish "the devoted things" (people and things devoted by God's covenant for necessary destruction to eradicate extreme evil in the worldly population). Let it be God who judges Achan.

Original faith

 To get the benefit of the gospel of Christ, the good news, we must combine it with faith - not meaning some catechism or creed or theology or denominational statement of faith - we must combine the good news teachings of Jesus with the faith which the first apostles had who received this good news.

Missing the target and good and bad news

The target is obedience to God. The bad news is, so many miss the target. The good news brought by Jesus is the resurrection Jesus brings from God by which many will live forever. The bad news is so many are unworthy of it. The good news is that Jesus helps those who believe in Him and hold to His teachings to become worthy by grace and truth. He will raise up these true disciples so that they live forever.

A grim message

 It is a time in the year when we get poignant reminders of what our forebears did to defeat hatred and racist genocide just over seventy years ago. Yet genocidal racist hatred is now perpetrated by our leaders if we live in certain countries. Those fighters against it and the subsequent trials of the perpetrators of hatred in the twentieth century missed going far enough and a remnant was left, like the Bible reminds us happened in Joshua’s time. Now attempts to complete the sacred duty are underway but thwarted by the spreading of the hatred, and now the putting off of the evil day could bring in a reign of terror and ominous mushroom clouds later. God is concerned about it as much as in Joshua’s time. Fear God and not men. Love God and love the children of God in the body of Christ even in countries the leaders tell us to hate. Give glory to God by confessing things were delayed and not completed when they should have been.

Leaders of lawlessness

 Paying more for my heating? Wow I just got my bill. Wow. But it helps us get real about climate damage. Paying more for food. Likely to get worse and hunger is manifest in real life around us. But it is a first world problem new to us. We might have to learn to feed people we see in daily life and not just give charitably to other countries. A dose of reality. But what I cannot abide is that the authorities are attacking my soul and spiritual wellbeing again. First it was demands on how I treat my own body. Now it is demands that I treat the body of Christ in Russia with hatred. These leaders of lawlessness are becoming like the leaders of the people who forbade Jews in the time of Christ from confessing Christ, shortly before they had Christ crucified by the Romans. 

The devoted things

Can the West avoid its foretold nuclear destruction? If only the final remnants of the devoted things had been destroyed during or after the War. They were left to resprout today. If only the Soviets had stamped out the remnants of WW II we might not be facing WW III. The Nuremberg trials failed to go all the way, but maybe that is not just Israel’s fault and not only the West’s fault. 

“Are we there yet?”

 The prophecy writing of the Apostle Paul says the apocalyptic end of this age and the apocalyptic resurrection cannot come until the ‘rebellion’ occurs and the ‘man of lawlessness’ is revealed. But I get a feeling the rebellion is occurring right now. Rebellion against authority and authoritarianism and rule of law. Even leaders are turning rebellious like this. One will lead them all into rebellion against authority and into lawlessness. Is he here yet? Is he revealed yet? I have a feeling he is, or soon will be.

Incomplete obedience is disobedience

 Victory was won against Nazi forces in WW II. Largely this came by Soviet / Russian sacrificial military action in addition to the sacrifices of other allies. But the West allies have fallen from the height of moral victory. Now the West faces escalating troubles because of this moral degradation. Christian decline is central this. Christians are ceasing from the counsels of God. It has been happening for decades. Repenting from this is crucial lest escalations reach nuclear proportions. No joke. God has warned us. It is like the sin of Israel in Joshua’s time, the failure to destroy to the fullest possible extent the people and things God commanded be destroyed. A remnant of Naziism has been allowed to persist.  

The One True God

Father is the topmost only one true God we know because the only begotten Son of this Father, this Son’s name is the power of lordship over all creation. So the Father is greater than this Son over creation and is thus known and believed to be the One True God.  For the Father, God, to make His one begotten son the lord over all creation, all Nature on earth and in the universe, and make all creation function in His Son’s name (as miracles and the Holy Spirit tell us is true), this Father has to be the One True God. So by this Spirit and by this truth we will worship worthily.

Temple zeal

 “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” Jesus was zealous for the temple of God His Father. First Jesus sought to drive out pigs and goats from the earthly temple. Then Jesus was so zealous for that other temple of God, which is the actual physical body of Jesus, that it required death of that body before it could be made immortal by the will of Jesus and of God. Now this zeal is applied by Jesus and by those who are true disciples of Jesus to drive out sinners from the fellowship of the circle of the gatherings of believers, sinners like me and maybe you, but then by me and maybe you too driving sin from our human bodies, driving sinful behaviours and untruthful ideas away so our bodies become ready to be temples of God in which Jesus is not ashamed to dwell by spirit. Continuing this way with faith and with our hearts retaining Jesus’ words and fellowship, is the zeal for the temple which leads us to eternal life with Jesus. So we all fulfil the scripture. 

Economic woes

 This Ukraine war is a nice cover to blame for economic woes, deflecting from the more likely cause of governments around the world having spent all they have trying to fight the pandemic. In the end it was defeated by a natural remedy from God, a variant that outpaced the plague while granting so many a natural immunity without severe symptoms. Mankind loves to try human effort to avoid praying to God and trusting Him. Sorcery (pharma) and lies are order of the day and this will not stop till Jesus comes. Woe. Woe. Woe.

With the clouds

 He comes with the clouds of heaven, presiding over God’s judgments upon this earth. We see Jesus. 

Firstborn among many brethren

“Who not of blood  nor of the will of flesh nor of will of man but of God were born” John 1:13

If what you are in your existence and persuasions and behaviour is produced actually by the Father Himself, you are one of these brethren. Jesus was first to be produced by God in existence and persuasion and behaviour, perfectly, and subsequently by resurrection too.  Full of grace and truth like none before.

There were of course believers before the time of the disciples and apostles of Jesus, people such as Enoch, Noah, Moses, David, and the prophets and saints, but like at the wedding in Capernaum, when water turned to wine, it was the best wine which was kept until this time. Jesus’ disciples displayed the fruits of grace and truth in a better way than ever before, and Jesus was firstborn of these children of God. 

The way to live forever

 For centuries the hope of the “way” to live forever was a set of writings. Nobody could live up to it. Now God has provided a person who actually raises the dead. This person is the way provided by God. Jesus Christ. Suddenly it becomes a whole lot more viable to live forever. 

Fun theory of light

 What is up with Science? Human limited thinking. Take the classical wave-particle theories of light. Why only look at diffraction in two ways? Scientists cannot see more than two competing characterisations of light when it comes to observed diffraction: particle and wave. Other characterisations are possible with better, broader thinking, such as attributing consciousness and will to light. The model of diffraction then becomes analogous to conscious sentience faced with a binary choice. Analogy: In a survey, being asked whether you trust your leaders, yes or no. Forced to answer, some would realise the truth is not binary, yet they must answer truthfully in a binary fashion. Some would say yes, others no. So back to light, some light might go one way in a diffraction situation and some the other way, but this could be by conscious use of will. Science ignores this. Again by either blindness or perhaps by conscious will. That is the problem with science and scientific thinking. It only considers solutions convenient to the agendas of the scientists. Humans try to cancel God and revealed truth by ignoring certain solutions to scientific problems and accepting others.

Not about hatred

 The pandemic taught us all that globalisation weakens us and makes us vulnerable to such plagues because joined up nations linked by airports governed by economy of market forces provides a bridge for plagues to spread fast and wide. So now we need more national self-sufficiency, where trade can be conducted but does not get to override national interests. This is a setback for globalisation but essential for survival. Let us not make it all about hatred of foreign nations, though, lest war replace pandemic. 

The better way

 As UK local elections approach at start of May 2022, we need leaders who know better than hatred, who know the honour of the name of the One True God. Western powers are resorting of late to mere hatred to motivate their people and guide their march towards confrontation. They seem to be oblivious to the better way, a way of honouring God’s name and the name of His Son. God’s honour will be restored by sovereign acts by God Himself as He raises up those who will clear down the weeds to make a path for God’s glory to be made known. 

Habakkuk

Habakkuk’s Complaint

How long, O LORD, must I call for help?

But you do not listen!

“Violence is everywhere!” I cry,

but you do not come to save. 

Must I forever see these evil deeds?

Why must I watch all this misery?

Wherever I look,

I see destruction and violence.

I am surrounded by people

who love to argue and fight.

The law has become paralyzed,

and there is no justice in the courts.

The wicked far outnumber the righteous,

so that justice has become perverted.

The LORD replied,

“Look around at the nations;

look and be amazed!

For I am doing something in your own day,

something you wouldn’t believe

even if someone told you about it.

I am raising up the Babylonians,

a cruel and violent people.

They will march across the world

and conquer other lands.

They are notorious for their cruelty

and do whatever they like.

Their horses are swifter than cheetahs

and fiercer than wolves at dusk.

Their charioteers charge from far away.

Like eagles, they swoop down to devour their prey.

Prophecy of Habakkuk

UK local elections May 2022

 UK local elections soon. I hope we will not appoint WW III warmongers or strengthen warmongering parties. God help us keep them out and bring in those He knows.

Presences

 They are called “presences”. When they are there, they are there, seen or unseen. In the immediate vicinity of the Father, there are seven, four of whom are closest to the Father and His throne. Then there is the risen Lord too. 

A way out

 So the West is choosing its future path, with its supporting of groups which use torture and arbitrary killings and detentions, (the kind of groups fought against in WW II). The West should remember that God often provides a counter force, raised up to provide God’s answering of the prayers of those hurt by the tortures and killings and detentions. Extremist violence and complicit support of it angers God and incurs wrath. WW III looms. The sinfulness is manifest by the eagle of war overhead, the generals discussing war, the troubles growing, eventually the mushroom clouds rising. Too much violence and too much support of violence and God puts countermeasures in place which might seem to be even worse than what they counter. Jesus taught a way out. “Put away your sword, for those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.”