Cut-off Warning

Posted on January 5, 2017 by ehurst

I find quite plausible this story projecting Internet disruptions. Indeed, the linked article is merely one of the easiest to read, as the warnings are all over the tech sites I read. The problem is that consumers have a bunch of junk toys connected to the Internet, and those toys have zero security. Millions of them have already been hijacked and are under the remote control of criminals, and the owners either don’t care or truculently refuse to fix their devices. When a sample of folks who own these devices are queried, they deny that it matters; they don’t want to know. As long as it does what they want it to do, you can’t convince them to take any action on devices they no longer actually control.

But the electronic smothering (DDoS) is hardly the only type of threat. What has long been called “hacktivism” is just getting started — politically motivated activist hacking of computers and such. It’s not a mere matter of criminal profit. For example, I fully expect the globalists have already started on a major hacking campaign. The only reason we haven’t seen or heard more about it is a peculiarity of globalist arrogance; up to now globalists have consistently been utterly stupid about computers. The bungled private server of Hillary Clinton is just an example. She hired “experts” who were so technically incompetent you have to wonder how they stayed in business. But Clinton’s demands for personal convenience made it only worse. Did you know that the cracking of Podesta’s email account was made possible by his use of “password” as his password? I assure you this is typical of globalists, even more so than the general public.

So the globalist elites will have to farm this campaign out and it won’t be quick to take shape, but it will get nasty soon enough. Granted, they are already behind the curve, having already provoked a great many low-level hacktivists, but globalist money can buy a lot of criminal hacking. This kind of stuff cannot avoid hitting innocent bystanders and it will escalate until some unguessable point of exhaustion. In the process, a lot of other agendas will take advantage of the electronic chaos. The globalists won’t be the only nasties out there wreaking havoc.

To the degree you find your Internet access important to your divine calling, it’s past the time you should have taken measures to secure you access. I’ve mentioned all kinds of things about that already and I worry that it will sound alarmist.

So today I want to draw attention to something that is fundamental to our parish here: Build up your Kingdom service in other ways. That is, lay the foundation we have taught from the day one on this blog and prepare to stand without this blog. I’ve never sought to make anyone dependent on me. Moral independence and self-reliance in faith is the whole point of what we do here. If you haven’t heeded my advice about networking security already, it may be too late, but it’s never too late to reassess whether you are ready to stand alone in God’s power where you are in meat space.

I’m going to keep posting as long as it’s possible; that’s part of my calling. I’m also being patient as the pulpit blog (edit: now closed) is being rebuilt so that we have two independent gathering points. And on that third, more political blog, I’ll be posting today about how to use Xubuntu as a stronger defense than is possible with running Windows. However, the whole point here is that you take what you need and develop a free-standing faith and ministry of your own.

But we all need shepherding from time to time to time, and you can reach me outside this blog. For email, pick one:

ehurst909@gmail.com
br073n@outlook.com
ehurst@soulkiln.org
jhurst18@cox.net

If you think you’ll need my phone number, ask me using one of those email addresses. You can text me using that number, as well. And don’t forget, your humble elder loves to hear from you for his own sake, so don’t hesitate to strike up a conversation. We are stronger together, but only if you are seeking to stand strong in the Lord first.

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Stop Being Nice

Posted on January 4, 2017 by ehurst

coatSome years ago I walked into the local Sam’s Club warehouse store and was confronted by rolling racks filled with heavy winter parkas. Digging through this display, I found one that fit, a big old puffy down-filled thing and the price was right. To be honest, I seldom wear it because it’s just too warm. But on rare occasions the weather outside is too bitter cold and I can slip this thing on over just a t-shirt and go out for extended periods with comfort.

Oddly enough, I’ve owned a lot of very nice coats and jackets over the years. Some I’ve simply worn out, but plenty I’ve given away for one reason or another. I’ve always kept that down-filled parka, though, and I doubt I’ll ever give it away. I don’t loan it out, either. Even for the several years I lived in Texas where it virtually never got below freezing, I kept that thing in my closet. It still looks half-way new, still fits over my bulky frame. Today it was blistering cold and windy when I went outside the pick up trash and I wore that coat. When our cold snap is gone, I’ll push it into the back of the closet until the next time.

Perhaps that symbolizes something much more important: In each of our lives, there is something, some part of us, that God says we cannot give away. It belongs to Him alone. It’s a critical part of who we are in His Kingdom. Letting that thing slip away is betrayal; it’s too much to ask. I know because I had to learn the hard way.

Like most people who grew up in a Western society I was saddled with the mythology of being “nice.” Our culture has this crazy image of selfless giving that goes astray from the biblical image. Sure, it’s okay to realize that at some point holiness will claim your life. But God is the One who decides that and He will tell you, not someone else, where to draw the line. But that false image strives to crowd out the truth, holding up the false “self-denial” that blasphemes God by stealing His authority and pretending some human authority can speak for Him. That might work with parents and their children, but even that is supposed to fade away over time.

Thus, the bogus social expectation of being “nice” becomes an anti-Christian tyranny.

God, and God alone, decides what you must keep for Him. No earthly authority can usurp His authority. God is the One who calls you into His service. He is the one who equips you to do and give certain things for His glory. There’s nothing wrong with placing the needs of others in the same basket as your own, but it’s a damned lie that your needs have to come out of that basket. Yet, that is the image raised by Western society, because it’s founded on the elitist nonsense that your entire being can be owned by some mere human. It’s blasphemy. You can delay your self-gratification; you can share, but starving yourself for others is not noble. You cannot come back to serve again if you die; no one but God can demand that. And He doesn’t appoint other humans to tell you when.

In particular, it is utterly wrong for anyone to insist that human need is the measure of your giving. In the first place, most humans have no good clue what another human needs. This is another part of that business of usurping the Creator’s authority. It’s not a question of human need; that’s a bottomless pit. It’s a question of what He has placed in your hands. Further, it is between you and God to decide what you are supposed to give and under what conditions. No other human has a claim on you in that sense.

Part of the confusion our society has over this is the blatant rejection of God’s standard for social structure in the first place. Your blood or covenant kin can make some pretty strong demands, but Westerners are mostly clueless how that works. We have no good frame of reference about that. Instead, our society demands that you bow the knee to the state (“society”) as your god, and its minions as angels. This is the ultimate lie, the worst blasphemy. So we end up having to make some pretty shocking rejections of our society’s expectations and let them pound sand.

Whatever it is our society means by being “nice,” it’s not the same as good morals. So all that huffy accusation about being selfish, or prejudiced, or greedy, or whatever — it’s just noise. Don’t give them the time of day, because it’s the shrieking of Hell. Call them clueless and refuse to deal with them until they come on God’s terms. He will protect you and carry you through the fire without even the smell of smoke on you; it’s no different from the story in Daniel 3. Don’t bow the knee to their false gods. Don’t let someone else wheedle you into vicariously fulfilling their mission dreams; God didn’t call you to their ministry.

God didn’t call us to be nice, but to be merciful and bring Him glory.

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Cycling: Yesterday’s Hills

Posted on January 3, 2017 by ehurst

aubreymcclendonmemorialLast night the cold front moved into our area; this morning it was high winds from the north, mist and drizzle and it felt cold. No ride today, but yesterday I had a beautiful workout in the northern hills. It was a good idea, because the Aubrey McClendon memorial was suffering serious neglect. I cleaned it up and rearranged some fallen stuff. I pushed all the fake flowers into the ground and moved the little night-lights in closer, and hung stuff that had fallen. No, I never knew him, but I have this thing about graves and memorials, especially where no one has a clue why he died.

chitwoodgraveyardI passed the memorial on the outbound leg, riding straight up Midwest Boulevard to Memorial Road. From there I rode east to Douglas and stayed straight on the road, which took me north, curving under the east end of Arcadia Lake. At Post Road I headed back south. My aim was to enjoy a hard workout in the brutal hills up in this part of the county. About the time the hills ran out southbound on Post Road, I spotted this little private graveyard called Chitwood Cemetery. It’s well kept despite no recent graves.

windmillhillRolling down the slope into the North Canadian Valley again, I stopped near an open field because the voice of God’s Presence struck like thunder in the ears of my heart. It was one of those powerful moments without words but full of meaning, making me weep and stand in awe, seeing things hidden from mere eyes. When the roaring in my soul calmed down, I turned and took this shot facing back upslope whence I’d come.

shallowriverI zigzagged my way back to Midwest Boulevard and headed into the gentle breeze back toward the bridge. There were off-roaders in the area, and more arrive before I got away from the place. They are really pushing out new trails all around this area, including a new one that drops down onto the massive sandbar dropped by the river as it rounds against the new stonework done last year. Aside from the refreshed flows upstream on the river, some of the local tributaries are running off the occasional drizzle and light rain in our area. So the river was up a little, but between the silt dropped and the flattening effect of the work done in order for the heavy equipment to plant all those massive rocks, it runs wide and shallow on the west side of the bridge. You could see the tracks from four-wheelers in the exposed sandbar. And not just those ATVs, but full-sized Jeeps are now starting to run some of the trails here. So far as I know, it’s all legitimate under the recreational development plans for the river banks out here.

It was about a 28-mile ride. As I type this the forecast says we are in for falling temperatures, staying below freezing Thursday and Friday. But a week from today it should be back up to 60°F (16C). I’ll just have to accept a forced hiatus from riding, because we’ll have high winds and snow for a few days.

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Befuddling AI

Posted on January 2, 2017 by ehurst

creekAnything that humans design by their intellect and talents cannot possibly rise above that level. It will never be more than what is theoretically possible for humans. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be quicker and more precise, certainly more consistent, but it will never be wiser. It will only seem smarter because it will not be human, vested with a fallen nature and all the vagaries of internal conflict. Even if we teach AI to emulate that, it can’t be that.

It’s the same thing over and over again: Humans are fallen and refuse to come to terms with that. The human mind cannot buy into that, so it insists that human problems all have a human solution and if we just keep trying hard enough, long enough, we’ll come up with it. Yet, whatever humans individually and collectively dream up as the ideal remains nothing more than a better version of what they already are. Only an outside influence can break that circular reasoning. Indeed, only the Creator who made us can save us from that trap.

Once you are in communion with the Spirit of God, and thus in communion with Creation itself, you will be far beyond what an AI can analyze. AI, as the product of mere fallen imagination, cannot hope to quantify the drive of genuine faith in God. It can surely grasp most organized religion. Indeed, the full gamut of theology today is well within the reach of AI. Theology is merely another effort to control and regulate on a human level; theology is a human product. Theology typically reflects human concerns and mistakes them for God’s. Faith is not a human product; faith is submission and communion with God, a Person far beyond the reach of AI, because He’s beyond the reach of fallen human capabilities.

But the fallen human mind insists that it made God in its own image, so what would you expect?

To the degree our stuff here at Kiln of the Soul has come to anyone’s attention, it has been analyzed from that same human frame of reference. As the AI industry grows, we will come under its apparently unlimited range of analysis. It will attempt to figure out how to handle us as a niche market, because the sole purpose is profit-seeking. It’s a form of control that reduces their obligations while capturing from us the one thing they want: Serve the customer and make that money. The results may impress a few, but it will never quite grasp a human motivated by something so totally outside this universe. God does not yield Himself to that sort of thing.

For example, it will ever remain utterly incomprehensible how obeying the moral Law of God is its own reward. While it answers every human need, faith eclipses those considerations. We measure the progress of faith in terms of no longer paying that much attention to our human needs, except to confirm how wonderfully faith answers them. In the process, we shed a lot of false human desire that masquerades as need. Again: The Law of God is its own reward, and the Law of God cannot be quantified.

They are going to call us “crazy.” It’s socially trendy to claim a playful level of nutiness, but AI will surely label us as intractably wacko. Be ready for that. If you don’t find your own intellect complaining about your faith decisions, then you aren’t trying hard enough. The definition of “sane” excludes a heart-led life. But because it’s trendy these days, we may well suffer little from that aspect as whatever passes for government will shift with social trends.

We are in a sort of revolutionary stage in the cycle of civilizations. What we most had to fear coming from previous tyranny is already fading away. The remnants will be bad enough, but they will fade. The concept of “normal” itself is still in flux because of the chaos that comes from the failure of the old ways. We have some time before anyone will seize the authority to declare us a threat here in the West. There is still the work of crushing some of the old; the authorities will be busy for awhile.

Meanwhile, the rising use of AI is the leading edge of the new civilization. And once again, civilization will coalesce into some new way of excluding the power of faith in Christ. The old ways were an odd mix of including just enough reality to function, but still excluding critical elements of God’s moral character. The new reality will be a different mixture of truth and falsehood. Let us consciously watch and be ready to put our message into forms that speak to the new failures.

And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with having a sense of amusement at how we befuddle AI.

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Not Really

Posted on January 1, 2017 by ehurst

If we were paying more attention to God’s revelation, we would know better than to choose some random spot on a calendar created by mathematicians for our “New Years’ Day.” If we imagine that winter is the time, then it should be the Winter Solstice. Of course, that was Constantine’s bright idea, seizing the birthday of Christ and superimposing it on the big day of the year for his true religion as a sun worshiper. But enough grumping…

frontdoorI decided to post a tiny sign on our doorway to see what happens. In case you can’t see it: “Kiln of the Soul Ministries.” Anyone who considers themselves a member of this virtual parish should feel free to do the same, or use the name to adorn anything else that suits you. There is no meat space HQ; it’s all here online.

me2017I’m getting old. This was taken today and I wanted an fairly honest representation. I couldn’t do the hair and beard thing. I tried but the whiskers we so kinky that it literally hurt. And while I do like the way I look with some hair on top, I’m not willing to invest all the time and effort to do it right. Back to the default.webcam2017 Here’s a webcam version to show it’s not a joke.

veloyceMy beloved is a kitchen magician. She turns toxic sludge into manna; that is, she cooks in a public school. When she took over the job, the district’s Child Nutrition office noticed that sales shot up and have remained robust. She loves the job and loves the kids, and those kids know it. Our own kitchen is a miracle place, too.

You should lay claim to your own miracles; God works in the most ordinary things to show His glory. I’m praying for more work in migrating computers to Linux, and praying for a strong meat-space community of faith. I’m praying I can provide an island of moral sanity in the coming storms. Welcome to the Year of Madness, and that’s for real.

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Psalm 119: Samek 113-120

Posted on December 31, 2016 by ehurst

Here we have a dominion worthy of service. Even today we recognize the pride that comes with belonging to the winning side, so it offers no difficulty to understand the psalmist’s frank boasting in His Master. The entire octet is cast in terms of feudal military service.

He starts with a common adjective meaning “divided,” but in this context refers to someone lacking a clarity of commitment, a fraudulent enlistment. It indicates someone whose heart lacks a decisive loyalty, making the mind too confused to act with moral consistency. Such people are the psalmist’s enemy, but the Law is his battle buddy. He then refers to the Lord’s authority as a tactical advantage, offering both, concealment from being spotted too soon, and a shield of protection in battle. It keeps him going when it seems everything is going against him.

A great many ancient armies were conscripted from prisons and social outcasts. Our psalmist wants no part of that; he would rather march alone than accept support from that sort of greedy predator. God’s army marches the high road. So he asks that the Lord keep him strong within the just power of His Word, for anything less is death. It’s better to wait until God divides the spoil and honors His loyal servants at the very end than to slip away early with a lion’s share that might see him hiding from his Master.

God’s provision for His servants is always the best within a given context, even if it seems austere by human standards. It’s better to be free from distracting cares of excess baggage and comfort. He intends to keep his focus on what God says really matters to Him. When the camp of God moves out, He leads off by treading down those who slept late from hangover. They could have known it was coming. The psalmist employs a clever pun, using a Hebrew word for arming oneself with weapons of deceit that aren’t much of a threat.

Our Lord scrapes off the wicked like the dross that floats atop molten silver or gold, implying that He tosses them aside as unworthy of attention. What’s left is a purified treasure — His true servants. He purges His army to keep an illustrious record of moral victory that is endearing to those who seek His favor. The psalmist ends with an image of one who sees no place to hide from the intense scrutiny of his Lord, the One who sees clearly every motive of his heart.

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Photography: Bricktown and River Trails

Posted on December 31, 2016 by ehurst

01downtown-aThe first few images were just some effort to practice lining up shooting angles in urban terrain.02downtown-b It was something to distract me as I rode through Bricktown toward the river trails. The first is from an elevated parking garage up on Deep Deuce. The second is a similar shot from a different location. This building (below left) from recycled shipping containers houses a restaurant and has room left for leasing to other tenants. I’m surprised by how much stuff they haven’t moved out of the way of “progress.”03okseabldg For example, there is this elevated rail line (image right).04oldelevrr It’s partially dismantled; it was a linking line from the heavy industries east of Bricktown, most of them now gone, and it curved upward to meet the north-south rail line currently used for passenger rail between OKC and Fort Worth — the Heartland Flyer. You can still climb on that old rail line from behind the OKSEA building but you would surely get a citation for it.

05middledamI was still shaken by what I wrote in my previous post. Taking the north bank trail first, starting from the Chesapeake Boathouse landing, I soon reached the tree choir and stopped to chat with them for a few minutes.06shadedtrail Some of the pines were exuding a delightful odor in the warmish winds. Farther down I noticed a little water spilling over the middle dam on the Oklahoma River. We haven’t had a lot of rain in the past month, but I believe it rained pretty good somewhere upstream, so it’s enough fill the recreational pools on the river and still push some downstream.

07marstonmatsAfter making the turn-around at Portland Avenue, I stopped for a snack out behind the Dell campus and spotted these old Marston mats. Way back in previous decades this was a well-used boat ramp, but it’s been seriously undercut and washed out several feet deep in places. They are still linked and I could walk on them with hardly any flexing in the plates, which shows how sturdy they can be.08interchange

Farther downriver, having taken the gravel road between the River Trail and Eagle Lake Trail, I stopped a moment at the place where I got hurt last April.09crookedoakbridge This summer the heavy weeds took over the spot; the soft sand and grass in which I landed have been totally eclipsed. This spot is in the shadow of that busy interchange between I-35 and I-40 shown above right.10crookedoakdelta Up and around the corner the trail brought me to the Crooked Oak bridge. Once again I stopped and prayed awhile.

This bridge stands over the delta of Crooked Oak Creek, the subject of one of my surveys on this blog. All of these images were taken with my wife’s little Coolpix pocket camera. I’m trying to ride as much as I can stand before the next blistering cold wave hits in the middle of next week.

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Off the Cuff 01

Posted on December 31, 2016 by ehurst

Let me stumble and fall on my own, please; this is how I learn.

There’s a prophetic fire burning in my heart and I have to expose something. But first it requires a little context. The prophetic gift can take all shapes and flavors, so try not to confine your thinking to the current Western Christian mythology about it. When I noted that my common human empathy was a faculty that arose from living heart-led, I was trying to give hope to others. I am not a natural empath; you don’t have to be an empath to exercise the spiritual gift. However, I do have a peculiar kind of prophetic empathy in that I feel it on a deep personal level when something offends Creation, particularly when this transgression of God’s moral character is sure to hurt people. I am frankly a little slow to jump into action when I see someone getting hurt, but my soul is set on fire when I discern a moral transgression in the fabric of reality. So while I’d be a rotten nurse, I am comfortable sharing prophetic stuff.

That doesn’t mean it demands your attention; it simply demands that I write about it. Whether you pay attention, as always, is between you and the Lord. It’s not a matter of conceptual absolutes; that’s something I deeply resent coming from Western rationalism. It’s quite possible something I write here will turn out mistaken in the sense that I may not do such a good job of explaining it. I’ll always come back and correct that if I can. Sometimes I’m just a little slow catching on to subtle implications; I’ll try to correct my writing on that point, as well. But sometimes God simply doesn’t fully reveal what He plans, and sometimes He simply changes His mind. In other words, I’m not trying to jerk anybody around. I can only share what’s on my heart as best my mind can tell you.

Over this current holiday season I’ve felt a little lonely and down. Because of my prophetic temperament, I often trash social convention and rituals in favor of blunt honesty. Some people don’t like that, so I accept a certain amount of isolation for that. I’m still as loving and kind as I know how to be, and I’m quite willing to keep my mouth shut and not advertise any alleged moral virtues. I’m willing to let folks make up their own mind to like me or not. Thus, I blew it off at first when I sensed that shadow following me around. Still, I prayed about it because God has been quite generous lately in answering my queries on things like that: Was this a normal facet of my existence, or did it have a more specific meaning?

This morning it took shape. It regards something I’ve been watching on the political scene, only because it affects my ministry here. Specifically, it affects the practical matter of what I have to watch out for versus things that aren’t likely to be a problem. Paranoia about every imaginary threat is pointless and dissipates the energy better spent on real concerns. I’ve already warned that Trump’s allies include a powerful Zionist element and that could result in a little harassment here. That’s pretty lightweight in terms of real harm, but I’m gearing up to defend my position with Scripture and history against the specific weak spots I see in their attacks. This strengthens the belief of those who know the truth but may not be called to dig into the details as I am. But now there’s something else.

This is the hard part and why it’s “off the cuff.” I’m not in a position to see the specifics, but I’m deeply offended at something my heart discerns as a threat to a great many people. This past week has brought a shift behind the scenes with Trump and his friends. I don’t know what it is, but it has already rippled across the moral sphere. There’s a very ugly and painful deception going on, something that was only recently introduced into the game. This is much more than just a politician and his campaign promises; that would hardly warrant mention. This is something truly nasty, maybe unprecedented. It almost certainly relates to imperialist dreams, but it won’t become apparent for a while. A corrupt bargain has been made.

I suppose the hardest part is that, on the surface, this thing will be very popular at first. It won’t be racist as the hysterical noise suggests, but it will be fascist in nature. At this point, that’s all I can tell you. Even then, I may have to eat some of my words here. I’m okay with that, but the point is that you pray for your own sense of peace and preparation. This thing hits me hard in my prophetic gift. Call it a “disturbance in the Force” or “my spidey sense is tingling” but this thing is too potent for me to ignore. I’ve numbered the title of this post because I also sense there’s more like this coming.

God grant you peace.

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Heart Comprehension

Posted on December 30, 2016 by ehurst

For some of us, the voice of the heart is loud enough to easily distinguish. That doesn’t mean it’s easier to give the heart priority; we are still fallen creatures so long as we bear this flesh. However, for most of us it seems the voice of the heart is more subtle, almost never loud. For all of us, it can vary with the context.

We don’t have time to read everything. We first have to discern what meets our needs. Obviously that would be the mission calling we all have, but it bears repeating that recreation is part of the calling that feeds our souls. The idea that altruism is entirely outward in focus is a myth; genuine moral action places everyone else in the same basket as our selves. What’s genuinely good for you is good for whatever you do with others.

It’s okay to understand the academic distinction in Western minds between self and environment, but we can’t leave it there. Otherwise we end up with the very real problem of thinking internally with no heart, so that it’s clearly self-centered. The whole point in individuation is first fully grasping the nature of the Fall, and how it separates us from Creation. Only then can we repent and start the merging process on the proper moral level. You have to climb out the pit before you can appreciate how Creation stood waiting for us all to join in the glory of God. Only in His glory can we take our designed place.

So I am driven by His glory to read a lot of stuff. If you go by what some folks say (like Scott Adams of “Dilbert” fame), you need to make your mind objective and learn all about the science of persuasion so you can stand to read all sides of an issue with your biases in suspension. That’s a half-truth. It still leads to smug superiority, which doesn’t help anyone. I’m pretty sure Adams, if he had time or inclination, would deny the existence of the heart-mind, or at least deny that it mattered. We don’t have time and resources to do that with everything.

Instead, we must let our hearts lead. So sometimes I dig into something and realize quickly that it’s morally repulsive, even when my brain is entertained by it. It’s not so different from avoiding certain videos on YouTube, if you need an obvious example. Too much of it is soul-wasting immoral appeals to your lower nature. In the case of reading stuff, it’s not a question of intellectual bias, but of moral bias — some of it is just sheer nonsense. It’s meant to deceive, even if the author is a true believer. It’s not about the author, but about the failure of moral discernment. And I typically figure that out before I get very far with it.

At other times, it’s more than mere entertainment value that has me reading on in something that I don’t like. It’s not enough to know it’s bullshit; I have to understand how that bullshit is going to be spread out to stink up the world. It’s a question of knowing enough to break the hard, dry shell on the outside of the lies and help others to smell it. Manure has it’s place, but not on your dinner plate.

At other times, it really doesn’t matter whether I agree; I don’t need to read the whole thing to know where it’s going. A great secret in reading widely is knowing what not to read any further once your heart tells you to stop. Your brain cannot be trusted to work that out on its own. It has nothing to do with your opinion of the author; it’s whether God intends to bless you through it. It’s a question of His priorities in your calling to His glory.

Sometimes I’ll stop, and then find myself drawn back to it later. Sometimes I’ll need to reread the whole thing. Sometimes I’ll search for something specific I know is buried in a longer piece. That kind of approach violates intellectual rules, but I don’t live by those rules. I live by heart rules. It’s not as if I always get it just right; I do waste time on things my brain really loves. Whether it’s “wrong” is not always that easy to answer. God doesn’t work like that — not in my life. It’s subtle and even my failures are instructive. He teaches us how to help others who wander by letting us wander and fall into trouble. We have to learn to love His truth for its own sake.

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Comments on Matthew 18

Posted on December 29, 2016 by ehurst

I got distracted for a while, particularly with computer issues. I’m back in the saddle now and today I began working again on my revision of my Gospels commentary. Here’s a section from Matthew 18.

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There had already arisen sensitivity over their relative status as leaders in Jesus’ ministry, and He had already been teaching them that it was near the time when things should come to a head. Since they didn’t know quite how to handle the idea that the crown lay through the Cross, we find them considering instead the details of how the Messianic Kingdom would play out, specifically regarding who among them was designated for which position in the Messianic Court. They were still suffering from worldly ambitions, envy, and confusion about Messianic expectations.

hildren were given scant attention in the Ancient Near East, except within the privacy of the family. Even though highly valued and prized as a proof of God’s favor, their social status was quite a bit lower than we in the West would find comfortable. While Hebrew tradition was a little better in such things than just about every other culture at that time, we note that men didn’t give them a lot of time until they were old enough to commence education and training, sometime around age nine. Indeed, we learn from the laws of the time the death from abuse of one younger than nine provoked no curiosity from officials, because their loss was simply a loss to the family. Only after their Bar Mitzvah ceremony, meaning literally "a son of the Law," did they have any status in the community, so that they could ask questions in the synagogue, for example. We know from several Gospel passages that Jesus broke this mold. While He didn’t go the extremes found in Western society where youth and childhood are idolized, it was surely different from Hebrew traditions. When the Disciples asked Him about their assignments, He called a nearby child, who was surely younger than nine. The boy took his place in the center of the group.

This rather unimportant figure became an object lesson. Jesus referred to a need to be changed, to experience a complete shift in understanding how the world works. Rather than the child needing to be trained to the ways of life, it is the world which needed the understanding of a child to enter life in the Kingdom. Not everything thing that happens to children in the socialization process is what God intended. Some of what children lose should have been kept, and Jesus implies His society made huge mistakes in what they take away, with adults making a virtue of the wrong things. It’s a subtle parable about going back to the ancient ways when the Hebrew culture was new and vigorous, before it was filled with clutter from other nations and cultures. But the remedy is individual conversion, since you cannot roll back the tide of human cultural drift without making things even worse. The effort would be perverted by long-standing vested interests that couldn’t exist in a newly formed society.

Once people as individuals are "converted" to become like children in their unspoiled openness, they are fit for citizenship in a new society, the Kingdom of Heaven. This presents a bewildering paradox to the Twelve, who by now had begun to think of themselves as a class apart within the aging Judean kingdom. It’s not their leadership they needed to work on, but their very inclusion in the Kingdom. Children lack ambition, and are all too happy just to be included, to be taken seriously in any degree. They are quite indiscriminate in following the leadership of any adult who seems to care about them; that’s their nature. Becoming childlike is the sort of thing which fits men for leadership in the Kingdom.

Once having adopted this childlike faith and trust, any leader in the Kingdom takes up the responsibility of welcoming other children. It is a solemn duty, and taking it lightly by casually misleading them is no joke. Taking advantage of their dependency by leading them astray for any reason is a sin so great that they deserve one of the most hideous forms of Eastern punishment known: tossed in the sea weighted down by a millstone large enough it requires a donkey to push it. It’s bad enough the world is loaded with people who lead others astray, but those who abuse spiritual seekers deserve the greater punishment from God. It would be worth any price to avoid seducing the vulnerable. It’s not hard to imagine Jesus that draws a picture of the repulsive creatures who debauch children while pretending to love them. If you can’t keep your hands to yourself, or even your eyes, remove them. It’s better to live life with maimed flesh than to stand before God having seduced any spiritual child to sin.

Further, the dismissive attitude many leaders of that day showed to their subordinates was completely unacceptable in the Kingdom. We all stand before God as children before their Father; relative differences in roles are not really significant. Becoming impatient and dismissing someone who doesn’t rise to your personal demands is approaching blasphemy. You are not God. Furthermore, God keeps the angelic representatives of His children close at hand. Jesus uses the image here of a tiny elite group within the court of an Eastern potentate. Most people with business at the court never actually see the ruler, but deal with his servants. The word of his servants are taken as the words of the lord himself. A choice few are permitted to actually see him face to face on a regular basis. In God’s courts, each soul is precious! A better translation of verse 12 has the shepherd leaving his flock in a safe place in the wilderness, while he goes off and seeks the one which got lost. It’s not a matter of the others having no value, but that all are invaluable individually. Their individual needs may warrant varying levels of attention. This is frankly a revolutionary concept in that context. While some shepherds would give names to their sheep, it was extremely rare he would do so for a large flock, yet Jehovah calls each of us by name.

Thus, when dealing with a straying brother, leaders must assume his soul is so precious that they would be loath to cast him aside. Give him every chance to repent. In the ancient Hebrew society, your neighbor’s moral wandering was a direct threat to everyone around him. Rule by your own kind promotes this kind of familial concern. In Jesus’ day, rabbis had long since gotten used to Israel being under a foreign ruler in part because no one bothered to concern himself with his neighbor’s sins (Leviticus 19:17); the hassles of foreign rule became the bigger threat. Jesus emphasizes the biblical communitarian instinct built into the Kingdom. Go to the brother privately, where it’s most likely he’ll climb down from presumptuous sin. If that fails, bring a few witnesses to establish whether he is indeed hardened in this sin (Deuteronomy 19:15). If all else fails, let the whole congregation know why they must ostracize this brother. The obvious assumption is the fault in view is dangerous to the community of faith, something which would cause a child to stumble in thinking it must be normal. Such irresponsible behavior is symbolically associated with heathens (goyyim or Gentiles) and those Jews (collecting taxes for Rome) who served them.

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