Thought for Today: Friday May 19:

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. Allow YHVH to be in control with each experience and you will gain courage and reinforcement for daring to make a difference again and again.

BIBLE STUDY LESSON 09

SERIES P --- YHVH’S PROPHETS

SCRIPTURE DESTROYED

THE KING BURNS JEREMIAH’S SCROLL

From Jeremiah 36

Another message came from Adonai to Jeremiah during the fourth year of King Jehoiakim’s reign over Judah. This is what Adonai said, [Write all My messages about Israel, Judah, and the other nations on a scroll. Start with My early messages during the reign of Josiah and record them all until now. It may be that the people of Judah will read these judgments which I am about to bring upon them and will turn from their evil ways so that I can forgive them.] Jeremiah called for the scribe Baruch, son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated the words of Adonai, Baruch wrote them on a scroll. When the work was done, Jeremiah told Baruch what to do with the scroll. [Since I am no longer allowed to go into the temple,] Jeremiah said, [you must go there on the next day of fasting and read the words of Adonai from this scroll to all the people of Judah who gather there. It is possible even yet for them to repent of their evil ways and plead with Adonai to forgive them, even though His anger and wrath have already been predicted against them.] Baruch obeyed Jeremiah and read the scroll in the temple on the next fast day, which was in the ninth month {December} of the fifth year of King Jehoiakim’s reign over Judah. On that day people had gathered at the temple from all over Judah. While the people listened, Baruch read from the scroll as he stood in the room at the temple used by Gemariah the son of Shaphan, a scribe. This room was near the upper court close to the New Gate, where people entered the temple. When Micaiah the son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan heard what Baruch was reading from the scroll, he went down to the king’s house where many of the nobles were gathered. These included Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, as well as others. Michaiah told the nobles what he had heard Baruch read from the scroll. The nobles sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah and grandson of Shelemiah and great-grandson of Cushi to Baruch, and they asked him to read these messages to them. [Sit down and read,] they said. Baruch read these messages from the scroll to all the nobles. The nobles were frightened when they heard these words. When Baruch had finished, they turned to one another and said, [We must report all this to the king.] But first they asked Baruch, [How did you happen to write all these things? Did Jeremiah dictate them to you?] [Yes, Jeremiah dictated them to me,] he said, [and I wrote them with ink on this scroll.] [Then you and Jeremiah had better hide,] they warned. [Don’t tell anyone where you are.] The nobles placed the scroll in the room with Elishama the scribe and reported what had happened to the king. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, so Jehudi took it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king with all the nobles in his presence. It was a cold December day as the king sat there in the winter quarters of his palace listening to the words of the scroll. Before him a fire burned in a brazier. Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns of the scroll the king cut that part of the scroll off with his penknife and threw it into the fire. He kept doing this until the entire scroll was destroyed. The king and his servants were not afraid as they did this, and they did not tear their clothing to show repentance. No one cautioned the king not to burn the scroll except Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah. But the king would not listen to them. Then the king ordered Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah. But Adonai had hidden them, and they could not be found. After the king burned this scroll, Adonai spoke again to Jeremiah. [Write all these same words on another scroll,] He Commanded. [Write in it that King Jehoiakim has burned the first scroll, demanding to know why Jeremiah wrote that the king of Babylon would come and destroy the land and all that is in it. Therefore, I am telling King Jehoiakim, king of Judah, that none of his descendants will rule as king in the lineage of King David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie in the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him and his family and his servants for their sins and bring upon them and upon the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the terrible punishments which I have promised, for they will not listen to My words.] Jeremiah gave another scroll to Baruch the scribe, and he wrote on it the words which Jeremiah dictated to him. These included all the words in the scroll which King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned, as well as many others.

COMMENTARY

SCROLLS: BOOKS ON PAPYRUS

The story of Jeremiah, Baruch and King Jehoiakim reveals how an Old Testament book was written. This was not a book like those known today, for books with pages bound together did not appear until our Moshiach’s era, and paper was not invented until the tenth century A.D. in China. Thousands of years ago, Baruch probably used a scroll of papyrus to record all that YHVH had told Jeremiah. Papyrus was being used in Egypt as a writing surface for at least a thousand years before it replaced the clay tablet in Palestine. No papyrus documents have survived the damp climate of Palestine, but vast amounts were preserved in the dry air of Egypt, where they have been found in tombs or on ancient garbage heaps. In Bible times papyrus grew in Egypt, in Italy, India and probably Syria and Palestine. Today the reed thrives in the Sudan, west of Egypt. Ancient people made sheets of papyrus cheaply from strips of the papyrus stem. Strips close to the centre of the stalk made a better-quality surface. After one row of strips was laid across another, the two layers were moistened, hammered flat and dried in the sun. The top surface was smoothed with a piece of ivory or shell and became the writing surface. Scribes wrote on single sheets of papyrus; sometimes sheets were glued or sewed together to form rolls about thirty feet long or more. Two rolls found in Egypt measured over one hundred feet long. Handles at each end were used for winding. The Greeks called papyrus scrolls {biblos,} the origin of the words {Bible} and {book.} Scribes wrote in vertical columns a few inches wide so that readers could roll up each column as they read. Writing symbols were painted with pens made of reeds that had softened fibres at one end. Like most people in ancient times, probably neither the king nor Jeremiah could read or write. Scribes were therefore important and carefully trained people. They spent long years learning their trade and received honour in return. Some helped people write letters and transact business, while others rose to a rank of importance, something like modern secretaries of state. After the Exile, scribes in Israel gained more and more power. They became both students and teachers of the Law of Moses. It was from this tradition that the scribes of the New Testament arose.

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In Matthew 19:28, Yeshua referred to "you who have followed me". Does that include Judas? Or is Paul or Mattathias retroactively counted among the Twelve?

I like the chiastic symmetry of Judas replaced by Paul. They are like the two servants Yeshua also spoke of: One proclaimed faithfulness, but disobeyed in the end. The other proclaimed enmity, but obeyed in the end. This also parallels the way that lists of the 12 tribes vary, depending on which one is in apostasy and whether Levi is included.

BIBLE STUDY LESSON 08

SERIES P --- YHVH’S PROPHETS

THE LESSON OF THE RECHABITES

From Jeremiah 35

During the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah, Adonai spoke again to Jeremiah. [Go visit the community where the Rechabites live and have a talk with them,] Adonai said. [Bring them to the temple, and there in an inner room offer them a drink of wine.] I brought Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habaziniah along with his brothers and sons, representatives of the Rechabite clan, to the temple. We went into a room used by the sons of Hanan the prophet, the son of Igdaliah. This room was next to the one used by high officials and above the room used by Maaseiah the son of Shallum, doorkeeper of the temple. While we were there, I set jugs of wine and cups before the Rechabites. [Have some wine to drink,] I offered. [But we do not drink wine,] the Rechabites answered. [Our father Jonadab the son of Rechab ordered us never to drink wine, and not only us but our descendants. He also commanded us never to build houses or plant fields or own vineyards or farms, but to live in tents always. He assured us that if we obey him, we would live long and be prosperous in this land. We have obeyed our father Jonadab the son of Rechab in all that he commanded us. None of us -- including our wives, sons, or daughters -- drink wine or build houses to live in, or plant fields or vineyards. We all live in tents, obeying all that Jonadab our father commanded us. But now Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has come against this land, and we are afraid. We have agreed to move into Jerusalem because we are afraid of the armies of the Chaldeans and the Syrians. That’s why we are now living in the city.] Then Adonai spoke to Jeremiah saying, [Adonai of hosts, the YHVH of Israel, orders you to take this message to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Why aren’t you willing to learn from Me and listen to My words? The Rechabites have listened carefully to their father and have obeyed his commands completely, refusing to drink wine as he instructed them. But I have repeatedly told you what I want, and you will not listen to Me. ‘Time after time I sent you a prophet who warned you to turn from your evil ways and stop worshiping and serving other gods so that you might live peaceably in this land. But you will not listen to Me. The Rechabites listen to their earthly father, but you will not listen to Me. Because you will not listen or obey Me, I will send on Judah and Jerusalem all the evil that I have warned that I would send.’ Then Jeremiah spoke to the Rechabites. [Adonai of hosts, the YHVH of Israel, says, ‘Because you have faithfully followed the command of your father Jonadab and listened to his teaching, your father will always have a descendant who will stand faithfully before Me.’

COMMENTARY

THE RECHABITES: IN THE WAYS OF THE ANCESTORS

For generations the Rechabites remained faithful to the command of one of their forefathers not to drink wine or settle in cities. How different from the people of Judah, who would not be faithful to the Commands of Almighty YHVH! Jeremiah held up the Rechabites as an example of faithfulness. They had turned from the wine cups, the wine jugs, and the ways which struck against their conscience. He promised them a blessing. And YHVH through Jeremiah promised unfaithful men judgment. The Rechabites did not build homes, own land or farm it, or drink wine. They lived in tents in the desert, until Nebuchadnezzar’s army forced them to move to Jerusalem for their safety. No one is certain where the Rechabites came from or what their customs meant. One view says Rechab, the group’s ancestor, was a Kenite nomad who joined the wandering Israelites. Some think both the Kenites and Rechabites were metalworkers who had to keep moving from place to place as they used up the supply of ore in each place. Some say that they did not drink wine lest they reveal trade secrets when drunk. But the Rechabites’ customs evidently showed their devotion to YHVH. It is likely that the Rechabites’ founder, Jehonadah, set down these rules for the first Rechabite family in order to prevent pagan Canaanite influences from taking hold. He would have known that many Israelites, who had learned farming from the Canaanites, had also adopted Canaanite gods. Thus, the Rechabites continued in a nomadic life to represent and maintain a time when Israel was pious and obedient. Some historians say Rechabite ways are common to all nomads. Nomads live in tents and they do not farm. Since they do not grow grapes, they don’t make wine; not to drink it, then, makes a virtue of necessity. Rechabites were greatly outnumbered in Israel. But with the whole small group before him, Jeremiah promised them that their descendants would survive. Even today, travellers in the Middle East say they have found desert people who claim to be Rechabites.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matthew 1:1

The biological sons of Aaron were called sons of Moses in Numbers 3, but they were only his sons ideologically. Although Caleb was likely not physically descended from Judah, he was counted as a son of Judah because of his spiritual allegiance to Judah's God and people. #yeshua (aka #jesus), on the other hand, is the son of Abraham and David, biologically, ideologically, and spiritually.

Divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born of Israel. They shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares Adonai YHVH.
Ezekiel 47:21-23

If this is literally about the land, when Messiah #yeshua returns, the landless foreigners who have been grafted into Israel will be as the native-born with an inheritance in the land of #israel. Do gentile believers grafted into Israel get to pick their own tribe? I don't know, but it's definitely not a question to worry about today. I'll wait for Messiah to return. Ancestry isn't nothing, but it's a relatively minor factor when counting the children of Abraham. "Neither Jew nor Greek" in Yeshua. Jew and Gentile alike are made one people in Messiah #yeshua.
#bamidbar #thegreaterexodus

On this date in history, 05/18/1775: New Hampshire Provincial Congress resolves to "join in the common cause of defending our just rights and liberties." #otd #tdih #americanrevolution https://www.historycarper.com/....1982/05/01/the-conti