Do You See It?

Can you see what I see?

Jesus didn’t want people clinging to His resurrected body. The reason should have been obvious: Cling to Him in your hearts, not in the flesh. The time to cling to Him was after He returned to His Father’s throne. He never intended to be the Messiah most people expected. He was building a kingdom of hearts, something that would transcend this world.

I’m sure we can all agree that the whole world needs our message. But can you see that most of the world is not ready to hear it? Only a few, thinly scattered individuals here and there are primed to react. Chances are, a great many of those are already on their own blessed path to truth from wherever it is they started. They are likely to feel very isolated. We can help them, but only if the Lord brings us into contact with them. Our message has a much greater impact on those who are still wondering about all the things they see, not yet setting foot on the heart-led path. Still, we have to wait for God to catch their attention and bring it to us.

The tribulation we can already see rising isn’t going to help most the people affected. It will only help shake loose a precious few who aren’t already close to the entrance of the path. Up to now, those joining our fellowship have been a rarefied few. That number could soon jump exponentially, but then, that wouldn’t take much, would it? Still, the turmoil will drive a significant number to question what they have believed all along. If we live our lives as people with solid anchors for our souls, other people will start to notice.

This is what I see: Just a few here and there will be primed to hear our message. All the compassion in the world won’t change souls; it requires first a miracle of God to touch them. He hasn’t told me, and I can’t guess what kind of numbers it will be, but that’s the wrong question in the first place. The question is where we are supposed to be, and what we are supposed to do, so that when that encounter takes place, we are allowed to see His miracle hand at work.

We cannot know the reasons for the low numbers. That’s just a part of what makes God inscrutable. Our answers won’t work because we have no idea what’s at stake in the bigger picture. What we can know is that we have the mission to walk in His miracles and be ready to love whomever is moved by seeing it.

Can you see that?

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Law of Moses — Exodus 23:10-18

A primary element in Creation is the cycle of life. The whole point of the Seven Days of Creation narrative was to mark this very thing. God wove the seven day cycle into the fabric of reality. All of our human existence, even before the Fall, consisted of cycles. After the Fall, with the insertion of mortality, it became critical to mark the cycle of the year, as well as the seven day cycle.

God even instituted a Sabbath Year observance. He makes it clear this has to do with the rhythm of how Creation works. Just as the Sabbath Day belongs to God, so does this Sabbath Year; it’s an offering in which His covenant people must trust Him to provide for them while the land can rest and recover. They would eat the wild produce instead. To carry the symbolism further, this observance is a gift to the needy, encouraging them to harvest any volunteer crops. And what they don’t use becomes a gift to the natural world. This applies to every element of cultivation.

The Lord ties this to the seven day cycle. Further, God notes a major point here is letting your household servants and animals take a break. God rested on that day, so should all Creation. This is in our best interest; it makes us consistent with reality itself. In all of these observances, no one should so much as mention the name of other gods. There is only one God, but more to the point, there was only one God Israel had to concern themselves with, and He wasn’t going to share.

Related to all of this was the cycle of feasts. Here God mentions the three big feasts:

Unleavened Bread: (7 days following Passover) 14-20 Abib (later called Nisan); late March for us
Firstfruits: (end of Unleavened Bread) 21 Abib; early April
Ingathering: (Tabernacles) 15-21 Tishri; early October

Unleavened Bread should be obvious, as it commences with Passover, the single celebration yearly that reminds Israel of their national birth and redemption. They were redeemed from slavery to become the feudal property of God as His own adopted family. It was largely symbolic to destroy all the yeast they had been keeping as sourdough during the year, so they could start with a fresh culture after this feast.

Notice the comment about not appearing before God empty-handed. This is not a reference to offerings, but to the feast they would share with God in His Presence. Nobody will leave hungry. That means if anyone is in poverty, someone will be obliged to adopt them temporarily and make sure they partake of the feast. Typically this would be one’s nearest kin. It points out how the survival of everyone under the Covenant is an obligation laid on the nation as a whole, who should be grateful for their redemption.

Firstfruits is right after the end of Unleavened Bread. It has a separate purpose, but it quickly became the practice for folks coming to the Temple for Passover/Unleavened Bread to stick around until it was all finished. Then they would go home and harvest the various crops coming ripe across the balance of spring and through the summer. In the fall, they would come back for another round of holy day observances. But Trumpets and the Day of Atonement didn’t require every man to appear, only the last observance, which was the Ingathering, AKA Tabernacles. Notice that it is the Feasts which become the most sacred in terms of mandatory attendance. The emphasis is on joyfully celebrating the goodness of their God.

By the way, for the record, the definition of “males” required to attend would exclude those too old or otherwise disabled, and included only those who were past their bar-Mitzvah. The Sons of the Covenant had to honor the Covenant. They should have been quite eager to do so, as it was all counted as a high privilege.

Never make a blood offering with leaven, said the Lord. This is unique to Israel in history. No other nation or religion had this symbol. It reminded them how they fled Egyptian slavery by God’s strong hand of deliverance. The nation marched out at dawn without time to let their bread rise and bake in the morning. The other item was ensuring that the meat didn’t have time to rot overnight. What wasn’t eaten by bedtime must be burned in the fire. It symbolizes both readiness to march at God’s command and the purity of nothing rotten, same as the business with leaven.

God restates the duty of giving Him the first of all agricultural produce. It’s a permanent debt we owe to God so long as we live on this earth. We owe our very lives to Him, so the prohibition against boiling a kid in its mother’s milk makes perfect sense. As I understand it, the kid was dropped alive in that boiling milk. It was a very common pagan fertility ritual in which one would consume a little of the resulting soupy milk, and then sprinkle it on one’s agricultural resources. This is consistent with the general prohibition against consuming anything with blood in it. God is not like other deities and won’t tolerate being treated that way. All blood is either an offering to Him, or it’s evidence of deep moral depravity that cries out against us.

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Around Point 6, Draper Lake

I skipped Point 5; that’s the marina and there’s very little of the natural condition there. Instead, I took the road toward the dock of Point 6, then jumped the divider and took the old shore trail just barely visible on this satellite image. As before, the pale blue numbers indicate the actual points as registered on the official maps, and the pink represents approximately where I was when the following images were taken. This is a pretty rough area, which I knew from previous explorations a couple of years ago.

The first image is the old shore trail on my way toward Point 6. Ever since OKC decided to turn the lake area over to full conservation, the old shore trail has degraded radically in some areas. This one still sees illegal motor traffic, but it’s pretty rough as the ridge that forms Point 6 features massive sandstone bedrock very close to the surface.

Point 6 proper is quite a ways from the docking facilities accessible by the road. It was quite beautiful and frustrating at the same time. The red sandstone outcropping at the waterline was very wet and slippery. Getting a good place to stand for camera work was virtually impossible, especially for the pocket camera I was carrying. Some features just didn’t come out. There was a flat stone shelf sticking out over the water that doesn’t show very well in this second image here.

The trail between the actual point and the dock is pretty easy to follow and features large trees on the shoreline. These are mostly oaks and small cedars, a very lovely part of the ride. The trees grow in a hump between the trail and the water. There is a small drop most of the way.

At one spot, the natural rain runoff cut through the hump and created these little pockets. With the wind from the south, the waves were only moderate on this east-facing shore, but one of the pockets had a small hollow washed out at the waterline and made an odd popping sound in the waves.

There was nothing picturesque about the docks, and I rode straight through and back into the woods. The old shore trail north from there was thick with grass and underbrush. In some places it was downright swampy owing to the very high water level. The heavy layer of leaves and sticks made it possible to keep chugging through except for one spot where I had to dismount and drag the bike through a muddy pool. At some point the trail abruptly turns upland away from the swampy shore.

In a previous visit to this area, I cut around the woods a bit because the old trail was heavily overgrown. This time I dove in, walking my bike through the underbrush. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I encountered a deeply cut washout, but there was a detour across higher ground where the runoff had not cut deep, but was spread wide under some trees. It took some exploring a bit to find the trail bed, but I was rewarded with some interesting sights. This small basin of stagnant water, with a thin layer of ice on top protected from melting by the heavy shade, was formed by rain washing over a thick layer of bedrock. Again, it was very hard to capture with my pocket camera, but the big camera would have been at risk from the rough ride.

I was still on the ridge that forms Point 6, and true to its stony nature, it was common to see sandstone bedrock like this exposed by rain wash. Of course, some of it was stripped by off-road motorbikes back when the entire area was open to them, but most of this was already exposed by natural processes.

The next ride out will be toward Point 7, and should include a look at that canyon I discovered a couple of years ago.

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Keeping My Hand to the Plow

One of my readers told me the posts of the past week on both blogs have been on fire. That’s how I felt writing them. I can’t find words to express just how big this thing is for me right now.

Today I took a walk around the old Heritage Park Mall. I stopped on the north side from whence I took this image, and I prayed. The two anchors on either end were sold. The far end was Dillards and is now Life Church; the near end was Sears, bought by the City of Midwest City (local municipal government). The City wants to use the rest of the building with the Sears property as a municipal campus. That’s a pretty good idea, because nobody else wants this beast, and the City could use the expansion of space for both offices and recreation facilities. The old Mall Walkers Club would love to get back inside.

So I stopped in my walk and stood facing the side you see in the picture here. I prayed that the City could overcome the truculence of the actual owners, a bunch of jerks in California who refuse to negotiate with the City over codes and property maintenance. The whole thing is tied up in court. They are refusing to sell out of sheer spite, I am told, to teach us nobodies in fly-over country that we don’t merit their attention.

It’s not that I love the city government; I don’t like most of the officials I’ve met so far. Still, I’m praying for the welfare of the local people because I know for a certainty this is where God planted me. Across Air Depot Boulevard to the east is a strip mall, and I also prayed today for the prosperity of all the stores there. I prayed that the empty store fronts could be filled with businesses that would prosper. At least half the businesses in that strip mall sell nothing that I could want. But this is my mission field.

And it is not inconsistent with my prayer that the wrath of God will fall on America. Wrath can come in all kinds of ways; you should expect the wrath of God to be consistent with His Word. As noted in the past, this is not an apocalypse. The US will be broken up, but that doesn’t require a complete destruction of everything in the country. It means primarily the destruction of the globalist and Zionist stranglehold over so a vast number of people. The economy will suffer, for sure, because the US has dug itself into a deep hole. But the economy is not going to simply stop; it will fracture. God intends to reset things so that the focus becomes localized. The whole point is to cripple attempts at centralizing to empower globalists and Zionists further.

I realize this will tend to cut my own throat, so to speak, since my pension is federally sourced. I’m willing to let God handle that matter while I devote myself to what He has revealed as His will for me. I have all confidence that everything I need will be provided through His promises. God supports what He calls you to do. I am called to promote decentralization on every level, in every domain of human activity, with the exception for the time being of online stuff. And I encourage you doing the same thing wherever God has called you to serve Him.

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Law of Moses — Exodus 23:1-9

Scripture never says that all are equal. It does say that justice is justice regardless of who is involved. Some things are wrong in themselves. It’s not a question of the person standing before the court, but of you standing before God. Doing justice is in your own best interest, and is your duty before your Creator. Keep in mind that this whole thing is a covenant, and this is Covenant Law for a Covenant Nation.

Almost everyone you encounter in a covenant nation like ancient Israel would be your fellow Israeli, and quite likely some cousin. How does one regard a kinsman as an enemy without them being such a horrific criminal that they are at the very least ostracized by the whole community? Don’t be petty. The Covenant made allowances for dealing with really evil people, but don’t seek private revenge for wrongs done to you. God is the One who chose your relatives, so seek peace with Him about your troubles with difficult relatives. There are things you have to guard on everyone’s behalf for you to receive any part of it. The covenant is its own reward; obeying the Law is a blessing in itself.

Abraham was to all appearances an exceedingly well educated man, equal to any PhD today, with many decades of experience using that education. While he may have lacked in Canaan Land the educational resources available to him back home in the Akkadian Empire, he didn’t lack the means to transmit his vast knowledge to his children and grandchildren. It would have been his duty to do educate his progeny. This was a mark of nobility. Yet, we know for certain that nobility would only last for a few generations before we start to see whole clans begin falling behind on it. Not everyone has the temperament and aptitude for a solid education, any more than everyone is hard worker. These human failings could easily be transmitted to succeeding generations. It’s natural the rot spreads quicker than noble character.

Moses shares with Israel the revelation of God some 600 years after Abraham. The Covenant made some effort to make up for this natural disparity by warning people not to surrender to wild superstition. Given the stern warning not to let your community slip away from shalom, and the assertion that these people were a chosen nation, it’s easy to imagine whole villages of kinfolks who would become overly guarded in their simplistic reading of the Law. So this section begins with a warning to be very careful about such things.

They were to guard against rumors and idle gossip. The Hebrew language could be quite expressive and dramatic, so it would be too easy for Israelis to blow something small out of proportion. They are warned here not to look for an excuse to ruin the life of someone they didn’t like. Don’t follow the stampeding herd. If just one or two sensible people in every village took the time to double-check stories going around, it should be enough to prevent injustice. So Moses encourages everyone to seek being a fount of justice. In particular, Moses warns them to show no partiality to someone who is an underdog for any reason. This implies not showing preference for the big shots, either.

If a domestic animal goes astray, capture and return it to the owner. If it belongs to someone you regard as an enemy, don’t seek backdoor justice by letting it go, or driving it farther away. Settle your squabbles some other way, but treat those animals as God’s property merely on loan to the owner. If an animal is in distress, it won’t matter if the owner hates you, help him and his animal. Be the better person by living justly.

In verse 6, Moses uses a word specifically referring to someone who is dependent on others to survive, which is different from the term (“underdog”) used in the verses above. Don’t prey on someone who has no champion to defend him, because God will be his champion. You’ll see this over and over again throughout Scripture. Seek divine justice in all things. Don’t let someone die because of political pressure and social convenience. The whole idea of social stability is not from enforced conformity, but it comes from seeking peace with God. Refuse bribes on principle. Be suspicious of folks trying to influence you against your heart.

And the same goes for protecting outsiders to the Covenant. Moses reminds the people that they were once aliens and suffered pretty bad abuse simply because they weren’t part of the native population in Egypt. It was unjust then; don’t pretend it is suddenly okay now that you are the insiders. Show mercy to those who mean you no harm.

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Notional Civil War

Biblical Law says that, as a matter of general principle, we do not resist the government under which God places us. That’s the broader meaning of “do not curse the king.” That was how the New Testament churches handled Rome. They had a specific message from God commanding they not resist, though some were encouraged to flee when possible.

Biblical Law also says there are times when a prophetic word from God can lead to a different response. The Lord called up rebels from time to time to oppose and afflict unrighteous government. Recall that God sent a prophet to Jeroboam telling him that God would give him the northern tribes because Rehoboam was rejecting divine counsel. Rehoboam was the legal heir to Solomon’s throne, but God directed the people to rise up in rebellion against a very foolish king. Not to curse him or attack him, but He told the people to refuse to cooperate.

In other words, the real issue is not a matter of the government is always right, but that we are obliged to seek God’s leadership. The default is to play along as best we can. We need a very specific word from God to know when and how to resist.

For myself, I am utterly convinced that we should resist certain elements in our US political leadership. I plan to do so. I’ve already identified those elements as the globalists in the near term, and the Zionists in the longer term. I have no heart for fighting the purely imperialist elements in our government; they will be crushed by their own folly. However, I feel certain we should pray about how we might cooperate with the hand of God against the globalists and Zionists.

It has nothing to do with tyranny and oppression, though such things are clearly evil. But they are also standard equipment with governments in our world today, so they aren’t the real issue. The real issue is something deeper. The globalists and Zionists are trying to force the hand of God. They have made themselves odious beyond any hope of mercy.

However, I do not counsel any particular form of action beyond simply refusing to cooperate. Not in childish truculence, but we should make solid plans how to do what’s in our own local best interest. We should seek to convince folks to ditch the idea of a United States in favor of smaller and more localized government.

I’m still convinced that in terms of the Internet and most major technology questions, we should go with the flow toward centralization and standardization. That’s simply the nature of networking these days, but it’s a separate issue from meat-space politics. I believe it is a word from God that we should promote the break-up of the US, as this is precisely what God intends to do.

I won’t offer any concrete lines of geographical division; that’s the whole point. I seriously doubt it’s really all that important. What matters is that there be a boundary line drawn somewhere. The whole point is to encourage folks to stand up for themselves and what matters most to them. They can figure out for themselves where to draw the lines.

I intend to promote this smaller, more local brand of nationalism in my writing. And very specifically, I will point out that this is the only way forward, because we certainly aren’t going to slaughter the globalists. That would work, but there’s simply no will to go that route. I would say prophetically that the window has closed on that; it certainly would have been possible as recently as two years ago, but not now. The economy has crumbled too much since then, and there is nothing left to save in that sense. All that’s left now is simply survival, and that calls for a different way of handling things.

So there’s nothing sneaky or underhanded here. I’m announcing openly that I’m on the path of notional civil war, aimed at breaking up the US. While there’s no doubt going to be some bloodshed, it will not be a major factor in a growing political will to withdraw support and cooperation from the federal government. We simply cannot afford it any more.

I will point out that the greatest threat to this information warfare is the so-called “Deep State.” In case you don’t know the real meaning of that term, it refers to the hidden bureaucracy of government that adheres to its own political agenda and policies. The Deep State is frankly hostile to the will of the people. It is not a precise agency so much as a presence within the bureaucracy. However, we know that the CIA, much of the FBI, and a huge swath of the military are all globalist. And there is a very large overlapping Zionist component. They have a lot of allies in Congress, and moles in the Administration. For the most part, they hold the reins of government action and funding.

Could Trump have driven them out in his first year in office, the US as a whole might still have some useful life left. He didn’t and it doesn’t. The one best way to disable the globalists now is to break the link between the centralized government they control and the various populations they seek to control. The Zionists are different kind of threat and will require a different kind of resistance. We need first to break the federal stranglehold.

The government apparatus identifies with the ruling class’s interests, proclivities, and tastes, and almost unanimously with the Democratic Party. As it uses government power to press those interests, proclivities, and tastes upon the ruled, it acts as a partisan state. This party state’s political objective is to delegitimize not so much the politicians who champion the ruled from time to time, but the ruled themselves. Ever since Woodrow Wilson nearly a century and a half ago at Princeton, colleges have taught that ordinary Americans are rightly ruled by experts because they are incapable of governing themselves. Millions of graduates have identified themselves as the personifiers of expertise and believe themselves entitled to rule. Their practical definition of discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, etc., is neither more nor less than anyone’s reluctance to bow to them. It’s personal. (source)

Let them call us whatever they like; we serve Christ, not their god, Satan.

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Draper Points 3 & 4

We begin where we left off with yesterday’s post. On the map, this first one is image 08. We are looking across a small cove with yet another feature of the high lake level. The grass and shrubs don’t normally grow down in the water itself, but the water crept up over them after the warm weather that gave birth to the grass. We started this last spring with the water just a few inches lower.

I was quite mesmerized by this tight little cove, almost a natural boat slip in the shore. It was caused by water run-off cutting away the rocks on either side back when the lake level was much lower. Because of the odd mixture of erosion from both directions, this little spot made some funny slapping sounds as the wind whipped small waves against the shore. There was no way I could avoid capturing my own shadow.

I distinctly remember this bank was a lot wider a couple of years ago. The high water erosion took a big bite out of this spot because of the lack of protection at the baseline until it finally started hitting bedrock. There is now exposed a thin shelf that drops off quickly. For quite some distance there stands this very thin high bank topped with grass. The road on the left side had been cut through years ago, and is now a low spot that holds water much of the year.

This is another example of rocks exposed first by washout during lower water levels. Now it’s a very lovely spot in the high water. The black stones are not an anomaly; the same sandstone that is mostly red has streaks of this black coloring in lots of places. I don’t know the geological details, but the black stuff, once exposed, tends to be harder than the red. I’ve seen places where the red turns almost purple, but those tend to oxidize back to red with time.

Looking across this cove, we see a very large hump that formed a small point that never got a number. You would be hard put to climb up from a boat if the water level was lower, because most of the point is almost a cliff all the way around. However, with the exceptionally high water level, it’s not apparent from this angle. There wasn’t much to photograph while I was out exploring that hump, but the central core is exposed bedrock up to the top, with a very thin covering of grassy soil and a few trees clinging in deep pockets.

Here is an example of exposed bedrock cut by heavy equipment decades ago to make this shoreline trail. Some folks older than I lament the change in the past decade to a much higher level of conservation. There is evidence of motor vehicles still using this particular trail between Points 3 and 4, but not very much. It would have to be a high clearance 4×4 able to cut through a spot in the woods near the gate that has been closed for quite some time.

Finally arriving at Point 4, this is the numbered point itself, quite some ways from a more accessible dock, just visible in the background. There was once a couple of picnic tables out here. This point suffered a lot from high water erosion, but left an overhang just visible in this shot. This is another point where a bluff runs around almost the whole point. I’m standing on an exposed rocky spot that just barely allows one to clamber down close to the water.

That’s the end of my collection this round. Most of these spots on and between the points had been mowed decades ago, and small trees were kept out. Much of the foliage visible now in its winter dress was not allowed to grow so wild until the big shift to conservation that closed the roads and saw the off-road bikes kicked out of the main lake area.

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Draper Points 2 & 3

Here’s the map of today’s ride. The pale blue numbers indicate the officially numbered points; you can find poles in the ground with the numbers to match them. Don’t ask me to explain how certain features became numbered points and others didn’t. The pinkish numbers indicate where the pictures were taken in numerical order following the map itself. You have to click the picture and enlarge it to see the markings (CTRL+click to see it in a new browser tab). Also, keep in mind that the lake fill has been extremely high for about the past year, so the pictures will reflect unusually high water levels. This was a very long ride and it took about four hours to get back home.

This is what the tip of Point 2 looks like. Two years ago a great deal more rock was exposed. This was quiet today because the wind is from the north, and the land points south. Recent rains have made the ground just a little soft, and I waited two days before riding out this way. But this isn’t the half of it.

In the image below, you can see how I had to drag my bike through the brush on the high ground to the right because there was no safe footing past this flooded area. The water is above the road level. It was a chore, because that underbrush is very thick. These roads are typically open when it’s not too bad, but as long as it’s like this, the access gates will remain shut for a long time.

This is what the east side of the same point looks like. The bike stands where I came out of the brush. There was nothing resembling a trail at all; I just took the path of least resistance. Then I took my time wandering around each stopping point. On this eastern side of the point, the water was making just a little bit of noise, driven by the moderate breeze we had today.

By contrast, this is Point 3. It’s just a swampy grassy spot; all the rock formations are underwater. I ran across several more of those flooded spots, but nothing so bad as that first one on the way to Point 2. However, you must understand that the very long route between Point 3 and Point 4 was just beautiful. I dawdled lots of places, just enjoying the sound of water slapping against the rocks on all of those miniature points that have never been numbered.

This was just a rounded bump jutting out into the water. If you look off the left edge of the picture, there is a small tree standing way out in the water. If I remember correctly, when the lake was a lot lower, there was a series of exposed rocky outcroppings that you can hop until you got out to the tree. There was a fellow in a flat-bottomed fishing boat that was carefully watching the bottom as he drifted around on his troll motor in the vicinity of that tree.

Another rocky spot; this one shows how substantial bedrock reduces shore erosion. Farther down the shore, the high bank was washed away until that same rocky underlayer was exposed, reducing the erosion dramatically. That small tree almost falling in has been hanging like that quite some time, and there is no sign of soil collapse in this area.

Farther along the shore trail, I can’t say whether this rock was placed or if it was there all along. Way back when the shore trail was open to motor vehicles, the Parks and Recreation crew had moved a lot of very large rocks around and dropped them in odd places like this one. Still, it made a nice shot, showing how the erosion has been slow at this spot. The trees and grass do help hinder the washout, but there were some rocks just under the water farther out, so the waves don’t rise nearly so high right here.

I’ll post some more images tomorrow of this long ride.

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Law of Moses — Exodus 22:16-31

A major concept in Biblical Law is defilement. There are certain things that make individuals defiled, but there are other things that make the whole community defiled. The secret sin of Achan in hiding plunder in his tent defiled the whole nation and removed their divine covering (Joshua 7). Without that covering mercy from God, the full weight of our fallen nature falls upon us. In a covenant community, it afflicts everyone. There are things the community of faith must not tolerate, lest it destroy their peace with God (shalom).

Casual sex is forbidden. In this case, if a man seduces any woman who isn’t already engaged to another man, her consent does not make it okay. He must pay the bridal dowry and give her the status as his wife. If the father of the girl refuses to give her up, the man still must pay the bride price. Granted, this complicates things for that girl’s future, but you have to realize that seduction is a threat to the moral fabric of the community. This man is a sexual predator.

You’ll hear hundreds of disputes about what the Hebrew term translated as “sorceress” refers to here. It does matter that the Greek translation is the root of our term “pharmacy” — it has to do with herbs and chemicals. There are all sorts of proper use for herbal remedies in Scripture, so that’s not the point here. It’s that murky combination of idolatry and seeking powers not granted by God. The simplest meaning of this word is someone who abuses herbs and chemicals, and in those ancient times, it was typically believed that getting high was a means of contacting spirits. In our terms today, it’s related to breaching your internal moral boundaries and messing with demons; it’s a form of psychic burglary. You are touching a part of yourself only God can reveal when He’s ready. Someone in that ancient covenant community who sought out spirits by any means was in reality conjuring demons, regardless of what they may have thought they were doing.

Bestiality was frequently associated with idolatry, as well. It doesn’t matter what the rituals are; messing around with pagan deities is de facto provoking demons and bringing their perverting and defiling influence into the covenant community.

Looking for an excuse to oppress someone was a defiling predation. If they weren’t covenant family, you didn’t have to offer them privileges, but neither could you harass them. As long as they are peaceful within the covenant community, treat them as visitors. The same goes with widows and orphans who didn’t have a patron to protect them. These folks are your covenant family; don’t make their lives any harder than it already is. God will hear their cry and punish your whole community, so it’s on the community to reach out and protect them.

You cannot charge interest on survival loans. Elsewhere God says you shall lend to your poverty stricken kinfolk, so get used to taking small losses like that. God will prosper you and more than make up for it; this is implied. Even during the summer season, nights can be pretty cool in Palestine, so you can’t take someone’s cloak as loan collateral and keep it overnight. The implication is that you let them sleep in it and then return it the next day back into collateral holding.

You shall never allow people in your covenant community to treat Jehovah as if He didn’t matter, and don’t even try calling down curses on those whom God puts in authority over you. Is it any wonder so many nations today are under God’s wrath? These things provoke nature itself to reject you.

The First Fruits belong to God; He is your sovereign and this is the tax He collects. He makes life possible, so everything comes from His hand. It won’t kill you to surrender that first usable tenth to Him. In the case of animals, let them nurse seven days, and on the eighth offer them up. If nothing else, this makes it easier to milk the mother.

Don’t snack on carrion, even if it was one of your prized herd animals. Move the carcass to a place where carrion eaters will take care of it. Leave it for the wild dogs to clean up. This is part of what makes dogs defiling and repulsive to the community, so don’t join them.

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Revisiting Draper’s Points

This being our colder season, it is now safe to wander out into the woods and grassy areas without being eaten alive by ticks, chiggers and biting flies out at Draper Lake. This year, instead of chasing down the shoreline, I’m simply trying to visit the points and coves that are still accessible. The water is very high this winter, so I can’t even think about walking and riding along most of the shore.

I’m starting on the west end of the dam. While the first point has no number, I’m calling it Point 0 (“zero”). It receives precious little traffic because the most convenient entrance is protected from wheels to prevent erosion. I wasn’t aware of this until after I had ridden down the draw, because it was the only way to dodge the trees cutting across most of the point’s mid-section. The grass is high and very thick, so I stashed the bike and walked along the southern shore. This first shot is the only rocks I encountered out there. There is really nothing inspiring out on the end of the point itself.

The next feature to the north is Point 1. It does get a lot of traffic; it’s the easiest one to see and to drive out onto. It’s a very wide point. I walked out to the sharpest end, which is far off to the southern side. The face of most of the point is a short bluff about just a yard (meter) high. There are some spots where Parks & Recreation dropped rubble and boulders to reduce erosion, but it would take hundreds of tons to accomplish much.

Here is a pair of trees clinging to the lip of the bank. This pair appear to have grown up together, and the cedar is actually keeping the oak from falling in. The cedar has roots that spread wide, whereas the oak is mostly reaching down. With the wave erosion, the underside is what’s washing away. There were a couple of spots where chunks of the bank dropped into the water during the last year or so.

As time and weather permits, I’ll continue this fresh look at the points under high-water conditions. The next three (2,3 and 4) have to be done all at once, since they are clustered together far out from the shore. They are the entire opposing shoreline in the background of the second and third image here. I’ll post a map the next time.

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