Micah 5

We cannot guess what Micah knew in our modern terms of knowing about his own prophetic message. He wove a tapestry of truth in a language and culture which blended literal and symbolic together because the burden was on the reader to be open to the Spirit of God. We must be careful not to read too much of one, nor too little of the other, into his message.
This chapter opens during the siege of Jerusalem by Assyria. Micah warns the king will be struck by a symbol of another’s authority, a symbolic act of dominance over the kingdom. While Assyria did not do so herself, it was Babylon a short time later who did. The point is, things aren’t looking good for those now living in Jerusalem so deeply embroiled in idolatry. Bringing the troops inside the gates signifies an expectation the walls will breach any moment.
In the midst of this fearful moment, Micah turns to mention a clan so insignificant, everyone was surprised when Samuel anointed one of the men as successor to King Saul. He was already ancient history at the time Micah wrote, but David was a symbol of the coming Messiah. Thus, Jewish scholars knew Micah alone among the prophets named His birthplace. He would be even more ancient than David in the truth He bore. This promise stands in contrast to the current siege. Eventually the people would be taken into exile, and live under pagan rulers for a time. But there would be a day of return, when the nation would be reunited under this Messiah.
It would have been the promise for Israel to claim, but she would not have it. God’s promises cannot be frustrated, though. When He rises to claim His divine throne, the Messiah will lead a New Israel. His name would be known throughout the world, and nothing could harm His domain, because His reign was in the hearts of people. So it won’t matter who thinks to invade His kingdom; they won’t be able to touch it. Instead, those who seek to crush His truth will be crushed by it. As many leaders as it takes, so many will Our Lord raise up to shepherd with Him in the ferocity and effectiveness of David, but in terms of the Spirit. To the very home of the first human empire, they would be able to dominate on Christ’s behalf with His truth.
This new Kingdom, “survivors of Jacob,” would be found among every people of the world. It would seem they fall from the sky like the dew which no man can prevent. They will be like a lion among the flocks of sheep, seizing whomever they see without any hope of stopping them. The powers of men cannot avail against the onslaught of the gospel message.
When the Day of the Lord comes, sin is destroyed. Micah symbolizes it as the cavalry forces Judah had gathered to match her neighbors, in violation of the Covenant. In ancient times, horses were always dedicated to pagan gods, and the Lord commanded Israel should always only have infantry, but with such they would always defeat any foe when they relied on Him. All those mighty fortresses symbolized a commitment to the ground, not to the truth which should have been in the lives of the people themselves. They could have remained in tents eternally and God would have prospered and defended them. For sure, the idols and pagan practices would be destroyed.
The last line in the chapter is a reminder God judges all nations of humanity, and all the people in those nations.

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Failure at Failing

I’m a failure at failing.
God is not interested in your successes. He’s not much worried about your failures, either. There is no success or failure in the Kingdom of Heaven. There is only faithfulness.
I’ve been hitting it hard on the workouts. Not in the sense of pushing until it’s no fun. When I take long rides or hikes, I have time to stop and pet dogs or examine a flowering bush, and other things like that. If I can’t enjoy it, there’s no point. But I have been trying to add a second workout most evenings.
This morning I woke up feeling rather limp. I finished breakfast before 6:00, and was just trying to stay motivated. Twice I stopped and lay on the bed for a few minutes. Not that I was sleepy, but just feeling tired. Still, I knew I was going to hit my upper body workout, one way or the other. So on the ride out to the playground, I gave myself permission to fail. I reminded myself it needed to be more fun than work, and it was okay if I didn’t do so many repetitions of everything. Just go and do something.
The ride itself was mildly invigorating. So I stood relaxed a moment to catch my breath, then plunged in without any concern for performance. And I made gains on almost every exercise. Yeah, it was nice, but it wasn’t important. God said so, and that it was why He gave me some gains to celebrate. I didn’t need rest; I needed inspiration, a reminder it’s okay to fail because it’s more about faithfulness than anything else.
When I was stationed in Europe with Army, I had a friend who bicycled competitively. Not elite, but up there on the bottom edge of the elite, and way beyond anyone else I knew. He would ride 200km for a Sunday outing. But he never had fun with it, because he always obsessed about keeping up with the leaders of his competition class. When I described a Saturday ride in the country and how pleasant it was, he noted with sadness he couldn’t simply go out and ride for fun like that. I said, “That’s okay; I can’t compete.”
When I remember there is no goal, only faithfulness and obedience, it’s easier to refill the cup of joy.

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Life: Quality over Quantity

I suppose if you really are concerned about surviving and living through the coming troubles, you should take the time to read what the Health Ranger has to say about it. Yes, it’s long and involved, but he covers all the bases.
While I do take most of his advice, I’m aiming at a totally different target. I don’t care a whit whether I survive because my body and it’s life here is just a tool. It’s to be used, and used up, then thrown aside as fertilizer when my time is up. My conviction is I have virtually no control over that, so the focus is on what my body can be used for so long as it keeps working.
The issue is faithfulness to the Lord who owns me. Had He said forget it and just waddle around and worry about other things, I would have done that. Instead, He has a different plan, and I’m doing my best to listen. Don’t follow my precise example; if you don’t sense the hand of God leading you this way, go another way. What matters is seeking to know what He wants from you. No two answers will be precisely the same.

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No Target

If you bothered to read all the plans and scenarios produced by government agencies, regarding their concerns with resistance and revolts, you’ll see the same broad mistakes which characterize everything our troops do wrong in other countries.
I’m no big fan of Bill Lind, but his basic concept of Fourth Generation Warfare is accurate. He simply carries it too far with too many details and not enough flexibility, which is ironically the very basis of the thing he seeks to describe. He falls into the same trap as many other geniuses of trying too hard to build a narrow franchise when his brilliance could easily range far wider and serve human learning better. However, his strongest point is the US government and military planners have no clue on how to fight the modern resistance forces against which it is now engaged.
So what you read in those government scenarios of future problems for the ruling class here in the US will always focus on the kind of activities least likely to succeed in the first place. It’s similar to bullies always picking on smaller kids, because it’s no fun going after real enemies. They have no plans for dealing with a real resistance because their imagination stops at the border of reality, never crossing over into it. Yes, we are sure to see some silly groups try things such as the scenarios suggest, but those are doomed before they start. Look for them when the time comes; we’ve already seen similar things and likely didn’t recognize them for what they were. A genuine resistance knows better than to try holding turf and asserting an alternative government control.
We as Christians need to get a grip. If we continue holding to any vestige of political vision for the Kingdom of Heaven, we will never understand Christ’s teaching. He pointedly avoided politics, and simply talked about the truth of things to emphasize His claim this world cannot contain the Truth, cannot participate beyond a very small scale, and then only poorly. That is, you can properly organize a church body following God’s principles of just government in this fallen world, but don’t ever expect to see it on any larger scale for the rest of Time. That scale ends at something around 75 people before it requires a division under more elders. That number is not offered in Scripture any where, but it’s not hard to figure out an average based on observed human behavior as a whole. Purity of vision does not apply to what man can accomplish on the earth, but of what souls can do to begin the process of migration to the Realm Above.
That migration begins with a loyalty and commitment (aka “faith”) to living as Above, which is guaranteed to offer precious little worldly success, since such success is pointedly rejected.
In the coming oppression and tribulation, the churches which remain intact are those who cannot be hit by what the government does. Whatever worldly possessions might be under such a church’s control are held in a very light grasp. We are always prepared to let this whole world go, so a chunk of real estate and buildings are simply a tool we should expect to lose before we start buying and building. What matters is the shared love and heart of the people. The strongest fellowships I’ve ever seen were in the military, of all places, because the people gathering for worship were the people who worked together and brushed against each other all day long. That churches seldom comprise such community today is why they work so poorly when compared to the New Testament ideals.
For myself, even the whole collection of my writings aren’t all the critical to moving forward as things get uglier. The whole point in writing them was to organize and internalize the thinking so I could move forward to the next weakness in my understanding. At some point I will forget what I wrote which may be stirring to readers, but I won’t forget the meaning of it burned into my soul. I’ll be using it and trying to conquer the next demon. I don’t have any broad goal or plan here, because the boundaries are invisible to me. I’m working until the Lord is ready to take me Home, and what a relief it will be. I’d like to share some of what I’m learning, but there is really nothing I can do for you beyond that.
I’m not a leader, just a commentator. In the process I’m sure to build strong bonds which belong in another world, bonds which offer no great substance here. What matters is not the stuff I use, and I don’t assert control over significant resources such as interests any human government. All I really have is what’s inside of me. Beyond the entertainment angle, I have no real interest in what such governments do or demand. They can have it all, because none of it really matters. What is necessary for my mission, so long as it endures, has always been provided by a much higher power, a power the world as a whole is powerless to resist.
I am hardly a target of the regime. How about you?

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Most Not Ready

So there’s a lot of folks gearing up the rhetoric about martial law.
Maybe it’s close. The folks who actually know aren’t talking, and everyone talking is unlikely to actually know. But it could be.
First of all, I’m pretty sure the government itself isn’t ready. When you think about all the frenzied buying they’ve been doing to gear up for trouble, it’s not enough. Even if they have twice what I’ve seen reported, it’s not enough. I believe they completely underestimate what crazies can do with simple hand tools and stuff you can pick up off the ground. Despite my statements most Americans will cow down and do what they’re told, I believe the Feds are underestimating the resistance.
Second, I doubt the self-styled resistance is as ready as they believe. They’ve been buying up all sorts of things and making some folks very rich. Meanwhile, everything they’ve done has been recorded and traced, for the most part. While the government may not be able to confiscate that stuff, they are aware of it and can counter the effects of some of it. Hey, Oklahoma wildfires can consume a lot of prepper stuff. But truly, most of them simply don’t understand genuine independence in the sense required, simply because they don’t even have the most basic emotional independence. Most of them aren’t prepared for the amazing duplicity they’ll encounter. They aren’t ready to do what it takes. But they’ll probably learn if they survive the first little bit of trouble.
The Christians are most definitely not ready. Most of them will not be able to process what their eyes will see. They don’t realize they will be drafted to support martial law, or lose all their tax exempt facilities and property. That will keep most of them under control, because they can’t imagine operating without it. They already support the most awful oppression and slaughter of their fellow Christians in the Middle East, and refuse to hear when you tell them. Most of them will stoutly defend the government, for all the wrong reasons, convinced God has registered to vote in the elections coming up.
And maybe I’m just a crazy fool, but I figure a tiny handful are ready to do what the Bible actually teaches. That starts with deciding you really don’t care that much about stuff, about life here on this fallen plane, which is all one big lie. Then you go on to offer your life and all you control as a sacrifice for the sake of living Christ’s love. And you realize politics don’t mean much, but they can be entertaining if you observe with detachment.
Yes, tribulation is surely here, even now, and getting worse by the day. It’s our natural element, and we should welcome this opportunity to test our resolve to walk in the footsteps of the One who carried His Cross.
Addenda: In response to an off-line question I should note something wise eyes can detect. You have to understand the US government is a terrorist organization on a large scale. That is, they use terrorist tactics to steer people. So, for example, they’ve been baiting the “real heroes” for quite some time. These are the people they’ll arrest or kill first.
You may recall an infamous aircraft hijacking some decades ago. The terrorists’ first act was beating up on some old granny. That’s because anyone with a will and some skill to rescue abused grannies would jump up right away. It’s never very many, usually young and not so wise. In this case, it was a US military man. He was savagely beaten even worse than the granny, tortured a good bit, then murdered as an object lesson to any other heroes among the passengers.
So the first people who bravely resist martial law imposition or any similar measures will die horribly and very publicly (because previous efforts didn’t have the desired effect), and those captured alive will be tortured for information about other “patriots”. Anyone who has been posting vitriol, threats and discussing resistance tactics online will be watched, at the least. People who have invested in guns and ammo, and any prepper stuff, will also be watched. Any sign of independence is already being punished in very loud and public displays of crushing oppression. I’m surprised it’s currently the FDA leading so much of it, going after folks who dare to promote food contrary to FDA guidelines — raw dairy, home grown vegetables, free range animals, organic and natural remedies, etc. Of course, anyone daring to suggest police activities might not be right in all cases are harassed at the very least, with some arrested, tasered (tortured), and/or killed.
They want you dependent and cowering in fear. Keep your eyes on that.

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Fires Not So Wild

The recent spate of wildfires appear to include more arson than was first believed.
Today the news outlets in our area are saying the state fire marshal, after inspecting the burned areas across the state, believes some of them were arson. The big fire south of here near Slaughterville was actually three fires all started at once. The fire near Cushing seems arson, but they stomped that down before it did much damage. We already knew the one in Luther was considered arson, and that one took out roughly 60 structures.
The one nearest us here in the trailer park last year was probably arson, as was the one before it which took out so many homes just within a few miles. Perhaps the firebugs didn’t intend to burn as much as went up in flames, but they did intend mischief and harm.
What makes it difficult is how very many of them over the years here in Oklahoma are unsolved. When they start all over the place on the same day, it’s more than merely suspicious. Copycats? Maybe. I have to wonder, simply because it’s not the first time a coordinated effort was made to burn down a lot of stuff over a wide area for malicious reasons. Among other things, it’s a quick and cheap way to bankrupt a whole state at once. Our economy is very strong compared to the rest of the country, and I’m sure lots of people know that and aren’t happy about it.
At the same time, the sort of folks who would engage in such schemes aren’t so interested in actual damage as fear. You’ll hear plenty of folks talking about bucking up and rebuilding, or how they are just happy everyone got out alive, but that can’t hide the broad fearfulness promoted by the mainstream media. Not only does this sell air time and papers, but it serves to keep people dependent. I’m pretty sure this is what matters most of all, regardless whether any of it was arson.

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Empty Noise Less Useful Than Wind

If it were merely the wind, it would at least serve a healthful purpose, but the world is full of noise which is less than useless.
When I pass through the public sphere, listening to people yakking on cellphones, the vast majority of it is recounting yet another conversation with someone else. And the next call recounts that one, and I could swear lying about most of it. Do these people even really know each other? They slurp up great measures of each other’s lives, yet they hardly know themselves.
It seems we have no end of shortages of this and that, and the whole world cries out for more of one thing or another. I’ve often said the primary problem is emptiness of soul. The real problem is not lack of productivity of hands, but an unproductive soul.
What does it really take to live? Not nearly so much as most whine for, but the real emptiness is not of the hands. People want stuff as an alternative form of entertainment. Entertainment which builds is almost impossible to find these days; all of it seems merely to divert, if not destroy. God gave entertainment as a means to refill the creativity. We consume it in place of creativity.
When you consider something so horrific as the vast and unbearable debt load on national economies, you can be sure some major portion of that was the result of seeking various forms of entertainment. Very little of it was spent on actual life support. When your soul is full and ready to pour out, you hardly care very much about all that stuff people spend money and mortgages on.
I was once a member of the could-not-possibly-shut-up crowd as a child. At some point, after constant emotional bruising, I realized few people actually cared a whit about me (if only perhaps they simply didn’t know how). It wasn’t about me at all. It’s not they were filled souls, but they were just as self-absorbed as I. Until I was able to pour my useless self out, nothing good could fill the space. No, it was hardly a single event in time and space, but a long process.
Part of the process was making those long lonely walks and running long distances. Being alone with myself became pretty comfortable. Now it is downright essential. Even during my thirties, I noted it was a blessing to be able to close out the world every once in awhile and be alone. In reality, I was never really alone, but alone with God.
It’s not a discipline to pray two or three hours at a time; it’s a necessity of aching desire. There is so very much wrong with me it takes God hours to fix the smallest things so I can present a new sliver of His truth to the world. I’m not exactly fond of isolation, but it beats the quality of fellowship I find in a world where Satan has very nearly succeeded in destroying the concept of contemplation. I don’t begrudge the noisy brats people bring across my path, but the reason for, and flavor of, their noise. They are so dependent on TV, movies and games as drugs, they can’t imagine. That is, their imagination is constrained by what has been fed them through a semi-hypnotic medium and all that rich creativity is already withered. I don’t dislike children at all, but I prefer being alone than with a dozen different copies of what’s on TV for kids, personified in the kids who watch it endlessly.
You know, I won’t miss this “civilization” at all when it dies.

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Ideals and Norms in Micah

The study in Micah 4 touches on a couple of connected issues.

First is ideals. We should have ideals, in the sense of something unreachable on this plane. Society needs something out of reach to which people aspire. People who give up because it is out of reach are wrong people; they need fixing or marginalizing so they don’t hurt the rest of us. We need a vision of what could be, in theory. The problem is we keep ginning up our own theories. Not only to do we ignore the image granted by the Creator of all things, but we see humanity fighting it tooth and nail. This is the part which makes it out of reach, makes it an aspiration.

We know humanity, granted a near perfect setting with all the proper intellectual background and cultural experience necessary to understand God’s Laws, will still turn away from it. Some nations do so more readily than others, and God’s prophets indicated Israel was probably the worst. They had the truth, exclusively granted by God Himself into their hands, and kept trying to bury it so they could ignore it. Even with all the best humanity could know and understand, forcing them to see it won’t change a thing. Truth by itself is simply not enough. It requires something mankind cannot obtain without divine help.

So we learn the prophets like Micah raised a standard literally beyond human reach in order to make it clear it has to come from God, not from us. Sure, we could approach it, and probably gain quite a bit, but we’ll never actually get there on this fallen plane. We have to obtain it on a different level. So the prophets promised this thing would surely come, but they knew better in their own hearts than to expect a literal fulfillment.

Still, the issue is not fixing problems, but building a proper norm. This is the second thing Micah raises. Man’s instinct is to wait until something comes up, then react. This is simply backwards, a perversion of what God revealed. We have to be proactive in grasping His Laws with our minds and hearts, then proactive in building a normal society as He defines it. Again, we know we will never actually arrive there on this earth, but we also know we can aim for it and keep trying. God promises to fill in the rest inasmuch as He demonstrated with Israel when they were faithful. All those grand miracles were part of His promises to any person or group who embraces His ways.

In a microcosm, we might mention something so simple as stomach flora. Only recently has Western medicine begun realizing the necessity of giving patients on antibiotics treatment at the same time a probiotics treatment. That is, instead of thinking in terms of killing germs, we should have been creating an atmosphere in our stomachs which would have resisted the invasion in the first place. A whole raft of modern health issues would disappear in three months if everyone stopped destroying their stomachs and made choices which promoted the health of stomach flora.

If you were to survey the flora content of most Western stomachs, you would have what’s typical, but we now realize that would hardly qualify as normal. That’s because normal reflects what ought to be, not what is. Our intellectual instincts don’t go that way in the West. We are all keyed to examine what is and consider that normal. We aren’t willing to accept input from a higher source; we hate it so much we invent weird terms like “holistic medicine” instead of calling it simply good medical practice. Because we cannot detect and measure a direct link between, say, stomach health and depression, we refuse to consider it possible. In contrast to this, Eastern medicine means you contract with a doctor to keep you healthy, and the need for intervention is his fault, and comes at his expense because he failed. I guarantee you those Eastern doctors knew about stomach flora a long time ago, if not directly via science, then indirectly via centuries of observation with an open mind eschewed and dismissed by Western medicine.

The same kind of Eastern approach is necessary for social health, too. If we don’t take the ancient wisdom of what makes for a stable and peaceful society, we cannot have one. If we reach for it with our broken understanding and our weak hands, that alone brings us over to God’s side, aligning us with how Creation actually works. Western intellectual assumptions are hostile to truth, so we can’t possibly figure it out because we start from the ground of dismissing the ancient truths.

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Micah 4

Truth resides in Heaven, which truth bears implications for our world below. What would the world be like if men obeyed that truth? Micah reveals a vision of Heaven manifested on earth. The imagery symbolizes what could be, a future which cannot be literal. Though we know mankind will never go this way, the imagery serves to describe something of how it is to walk with the Messiah while still here. We taste the power of God to set things right, and know it will someday be realized in some fashion. We belong to the truth, and it belongs to us, because we belong to Heaven.
Imagine a world where Zion was what it could have been, a place of genuine truth inhabited by people who understood the full implications of the Laws of God, who understood it was all symbolic of higher reality. It would feel as if Zion were the landmark of all humanity, drawing them like a magnet of desire for truth. The spiritual nation of Israel would be a living, breathing revelation of God’s ideals, by their very existence teaching His Word.
The real Presence of God among such people would make painfully obvious what is just to all mankind. Nations would recognize what was required for good living, and embrace it. There would no longer be any need to produce and keep weapons for defending against invasion. Instead, they could retool those weapons, devoting precious resources to peace and prosperity. Everyone will be secure as undisputed owner of the property he holds. Imagine how low taxation would be! This is what could have been had Israel caught the fire, the vision of what God wanted to offer them.
But we can be like this in our hearts already. We can walk in this lifestyle even now. We know the world will never honor Our God, but we can follow Him regardless. In Christ, He has drawn us from all nations, we who were broken and battered by sin and wrath. In our repentance we found Him and He has made us into a new nation, a New Israel living in the New Zion of the heart. The Lord Himself would rule from there as our Shepherd King, the Messiah.
It was a sad contrast to this Micah saw in his day. It was as if there were no king, so lawless was Judah. Their sins roared like an angry mob out of control, and God’s wrath brought pain worse than a woman in childbirth. Here, while everyone worries about Assyria, it will be Babylon who carries them off into exile. Surely He would eventually redeem them from there.
Because of Israel’s sin, the world beat a path to her doors, not to learn but to cry out in lust to rape the city. Still, their end is unspeakable destruction, while God will surely raise up this New Israel to plunder the nations. When she rises up to claim the souls for Messiah, no power on earth can resist. They do not realize how ripe they are for threshing. The precious souls of the redeemed will be presented as rich offerings to the Lord.
How sad it is when people read these words and demand a literal fulfillment, utterly missing the greatest opportunity in human history.

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The Earth Beneath Your Feet

Where can you go when the ground itself won’t hold still?
I know a young child, not yet school age but able to talk, after a fashion. That fashion frequently includes whining. The child is learning it from Mommy, who is also a big whiner. This nasty experience flowers most brightly in the presence of Mommy, and nearly disappears after just a few moments away from Mommy. All the more so does it disappear in the presence of sensible adults. You still see the frantic insecurity, but that can be handled by providing a sense of security, as reasonable adults do. It’s a lot of work, though.
For this child, the world is frightening, and the earth is not stable under her feet. That’s her perception. This child remains hideously vulnerable to all sorts of manipulation, a veritable walking victim with flashing lights to signal the fact, all screaming, “Please abuse me!” People will develop a fondness for cold prickles when they can’t get a regular supply of warm fuzzies. Warm fuzzies are critical to human development, particularly during childhood. Rare is the human capable from birth of asserting themselves.
Thus, the task of civilization is teaching that assertiveness, even while restraining the fully justified thrashing on everyone around you who refuses to be civil. When your expectations are realistic, hopping across the undulating and shaking earth isn’t quite the problem it is for most people. You realize the only real possible anchor and stability is inside you.
Our Western culture does have a space in it for those born assertive, but thrives on precious few having that inheritance. We don’t value adulthood at all, so we have no use for a valid manhood, and can’t possibly hold onto a valid femininity. We have serious but bogus problems for a foundation, and upon this we build a million invalid corrections. We are still in the fantasy world and now that it’s all coming apart, we can’t cope.
And we won’t ever cope because, as a whole, we have accepted our invalid government’s insistence it has to be this way. Virtually every major social issue goes back to that damnable dependence, which simply does not have to be. In case you didn’t notice, everything done by the powerful and wealthy has been aimed at fostering this dependence in us. We are utterly powerless to resist the raping hand of anyone with a belly full of victimization. These who’ve had enough have no idea what would solve their sorrow, but they are taking what action seems open to them. They can’t fix a broken world, but seek to fix what seems within reach. For most who seek the fix things, it’s only temporary because the fix is only externally oriented.
The biggest mistake is assuming the ground is supposed to be stable.

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