Thought for Today: Sunday May 07:
YHVH knows everything about us, even our deepest thoughts and motives. We can hide them from other people and we might even hide them from ourselves, but we cannot hide anything from YHVH! This should not surprise us; after all He knows everything. The Scriptures says: [Nothing in all Creation is hidden from YHVH’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account] – Hebrews 4:13. Think back over just the last twenty-four hours at all thoughts you did not want anyone else to know. YHVH knew them – every one of them, so, be open and discussed every thought with Him.
SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 08
OPPOSITION COMES
BUILDING THE WALL
From Nehemiah 4-5
When Sanballat, a very influential Samaritan leader, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he was very angry and began to insult the Jews. He spoke to the wealthy and military leaders of Samaria, mocking the Jews and our work. [What are those poor Jews doing?] he mocked. [Will they rebuild the wall by offering a few sacrifices? Do they think they can finish it in a day? How can they salvage all those stones from a pile of charred rubble?] Tobiah the Ammonite was standing nearby, and he, too, began to mock us. [If a fox walked up on their stone wall it would probably fall down,] he laughed. Then I began to pray. [Adonai, listen to us, for we are despised,] I pleaded. [Send their mocking back upon them, and let them become captives in a land far away. Do not cover their sin or remove it. When they despise us for building Your wall, they are really despising You. The people worked hard, and at last the wall reached half its full height around the entire city. But the report of our successful building reached Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites. They realized that the openings in the walls were rapidly closing, and this made them very angry. They plotted an attack against the city, hoping to create rioting and confusion. But we prayed and set up guards to protect ourselves and the wall both day and night. Some of our leaders, however, complained about our problems. [Our workmen are getting tired,] they said. [There is so much rubble to remove. How can we do all this work ourselves?] At the same time our enemies made plans for an attack. [They will not even know that we are coming until we are there in the midst of them,] they said. [Then we will kill them, and that will end this work. Whenever the Jews who lived in the villages near these people went to their homes, they were approached by these enemies. They tried to frighten them and keep them from going back to work. [Everywhere you go, they try to pounce on you,] they complained to me. Because of these things, I placed guards with swords, spears, and bows behind the wall in the open places. Then I called our leaders together for a talk. [You must not be afraid of those people,] I told them. [Adonai, Who is Great and Powerful, will fight for your brothers, sons, daughters, and wives, and for your houses.] Our enemies soon learned that we knew about their plot and that YHVH had frustrated their plans. We were able to go back to work on the wall; but from that time on, half of the people worked on the wall and half of them stood guard with spears, shields, and bows, and wearing coats of mail. The stone masons and workmen always kept weapons close by or swords strapped to their sides. The trumpeter was always near me to sound the alarm. [Our work is spread over a great distance,] I explained to the nobles and rulers, as well as to the others. [Whenever you hear the trumpet sound, gather around us, for Adonai will fight for us.] From daybreak until dark we worked, half of the men working on the wall and the other half standing guard. I ordered everyone to move into Jerusalem so that they and their servants could share in the guard duty at night and in the work during the day. Until the work was done, none of us removed our clothes except to bathe. And we kept our weapons with us at all times. About this time, trouble developed among the Jews for some of the Judean countrymen were mistreating their fellow Jews. [We have large families and need food to eat,] some complained. [We have mortgaged our lands, our vineyards, and our houses,] said others, [so we can have money to buy food to eat.] Still others said, [We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. But that isn’t enough, so we have been forced to sell our children into slavery to our own Jewish people. How can we ever get out of all this since now we have lost possession of our fields and vineyards?] When I heard these things, I was very angry. After I thought for a while about the matter, I brought charges against the nobles and rulers. [You are squeezing interest money from your fellow Israelites,] I charged. Then I called a large council to try these men. [Most of us are working hard to buy back our Jewish people who were sold into the hands of the heathen,] I said. [But you nobles and rulers are forcing them back into slavery. Do you expect us to buy them again from you?] The nobles and rulers remained silent, for there was no excuse for what they had done. But I kept on urging them about the matter. [What you have been doing is wrong!] I said. [Shouldn’t you reverence YHVH in all that you do so that the enemy nations around us will not destroy us? Most of us are lending money and grain without charging any interest. So why don’t you do the same? Return the fields and vineyards, the olive orchards and houses, and the interest you have been charging your people.] [We will give all these things back and will not require any more from the people,] they promised. [We will do exactly what you say.] I called for the priests and demanded an oath that they would do as they had promised. Then I shook the folds from the lap of my garment, saying, [Thus may YHVH shake out every man from his home and his possessions if he does not fulfil his promises. May he be shaken out and left empty.] [Amen!] the council added. Then all the people gave praise to Adonai. And the nobles and rulers did as they had promised. During the entire twelve years that I was governor of Judah, which began in the twentieth year and lasted until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, neither my helpers nor I accepted food or money from our own people. Former governors had required a large amount of bread and wine, as well as forty shekels of silver for their daily allowance. They even let their servants oppress our own people. But I gave all my time to build the wall and required my officers to do the same, refusing to make money by buying and selling land. In addition, I brought a hundred and fifty Jewish officials to my own table to eat, as well as those who visited us from other lands. Our daily provisions included an ox, six fat sheep, some fowl, and a large supply of wine every ten days. Despite the cost of all this food, I refused to tax my people for it, for they were already burdened too much with great costs. Remember me, O YHVH, for all the good I have done for my people.
COMMENTARY
CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
Long before Joshua’s conquest of Palestine, ancestors of the Canaanites had settled in the land. Their first homes were dwellings on the sides of cliffs. They built barricades of boulders that, along with natural walls of rock and earth, served to protect them both from invasion and from dangerous animals. As the Israelites settled the land, they built new, separate towns, and enlarged and strengthened existing ones. Care was taken to build these towns on sites shielded by hills and ridges. The area directly surrounding the town was then fortified by additional means. At some distance from the city a fairly low wall was built, preceded by a ditch. Closer to the town was the high, thick wall that served as major protection for the inhabitants. Directly inside the city gates was a broad open space. During invasion, soldiers could gather there to prevent enemies from breaking down the gate or to trap them in battle if they succeeded. In peacetime, the scene was very different. The broad space was filled with farmers and fishermen who had come to the market to sell their goods; with foreign merchants hawking shiny metal wares; with people meeting, gossiping, exchanging news. As the cities grew in size, the streets within them grew in disorderly number. They were not city blocks as that is understood today. Crooked and narrow, they wound through part or all of the town in no particular pattern. Usually unpaved, little more than long alleys, they grew extremely muddy during the rainy season and chokingly dusty in the dry season. Houses fronted directly onto the streets; there was nothing that could be called a sidewalk. Laws were finally passed to make living in such close quarters more bearable. People who lived in houses directly beside other houses were not permitted to open their side windows if they looked out on their neighbours’ courtyards. Merchants could not set up a shop with its main entrance in the courtyard of private homes. Tanners and dyers, who used substances possibly harmful to public health, were required to work outside the city limits. Open sewers, open wells and cesspools were prohibited. So were ladders and stairs in poor condition. And dangerous dogs were to be kept restrained. Crowding in the city certainly had its disadvantages, but even people who lived in the country and had their own land preferred to live together in un-walled small villages. They understood there was safety in numbers and security in the company of others like themselves. Some of these country villages began when herdsmen collected in small groups near their cattle grounds. Others grew up close to a roadway or a source of water. None was very far from a walled city or town; both the size of the city and the wall offered them the greatest possible protection short of actually living within the city itself.
"Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen."
De 27
I very much love Benjamin Franklin's proverbs, so I thought I'd share one of those times I disagree with the sage.
"Fear not Death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal." - Benjamin Franklin from Poor Richard's Almanack
Not so: we cannot reduce the time spent in eternity by one second by spending ten million more years on earth. Hence, I would rather spend ten million more years on earth, enduring the evil, patiently waiting for heaven, for it is only on earth that we lay up treasure in heaven. God himself lived as a mortal man on earth to lay up the treasures in heaven to give us. Indeed, it is our very desire for the good life in heaven that is why we should desire a good life in earth: the more we desire the one, the more we desire the other. If God so grants the blessing to me, I would live till he returns, and never miss a year doing good in this evil world by simply waiting in death for the resurrection.
It is only in heaven that we can enjoy the true treasure,
But only on earth can we lay up true treasure in heaven.
I'm sure Franklin understood that time spent on earth does not reduce time in heaven: his proverb is part in jest, and my wording as well. I disagree specifically with the inplication that "the sooner we die the better", which is akin to saying it were better to never be born. This life has a great purpose: that purpose is heaven. The purpose of this temporal life is eternity, thus this temporal life is of eternal value.
I once read in a book by Chaim Potok something along these lines: comparing a lifetime to eternity, it is only the blink of an eye: but I realised that the significance of it was not in the duration of the blink, but in the eye that blinks.
Obviously, I agree with Benjamin on "fear not death". :) Though perhaps for a different reason.
It is Yahweh that gives the blessing of life, and it is only him we should fear, and tremble lest we displease him.
2023/05/06 #sabbathposts
Went out to move our milk cow and saw this beautiful sunset. Such an exquisite ending to a sunny and warm shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom.
Shalom
I'm looking for resources to go along with a study on the book of Habakkuk. If anyone has a link or source for help in me studying this, I'd appreciate it !!
Thank you ?
We all want to see right prevail. Or do we? Maybe what we really want is to see right prevail as we define it.
https://thebarkingfox.com/2023..../05/06/justice-on-th
We all want to see right prevail. Or do we? Maybe what we really want is to see right prevail as we define it.
https://thebarkingfox.com/2023..../05/06/justice-on-th
"I was upright also with him, and have kept me from my wickedness.
Therefore Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness, and according to the pureness of mine hands in his sight."
Ps 18
SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 07
A TASK FOR ALL
THE WAY THE WALLS WERE BUILT
From Nehemiah 3
The following lists the various people who built sections of the wall of Jerusalem. Starting at the Sheep Gate, the list moves around the wall counter-clockwise, section by section. 1 -- Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests - they rebuilt the Sheep Gate and its doors and consecrated it. They built also the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel. 2 -- Men from Jericho - next section. 3 -- A group led by Zaccur son of Imri - next section. 4 -- Sons of Hassenaah - the Fish Gate, with its beams and doors, also the bolts and bars for the doors. 5 -- Meremoth son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz - next section. 6 -- Meshullam son of Berechiah and grandson of Meshezabel - next section. 7 -- Zadok son of Baana - next section. 8 -- Men from Tekoa - next section. [But their leaders thought they were too good to help with the work, so they didn’t.] 9 -- Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah - the Old Gate with its beams and its doors with locks and bars. 10 -- Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, along with men from Gibeon and Mizpah - as far as the official seat of the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River. 11 -- Uzziel son of Harhaiah - although he was a goldsmith by trade, he helped rebuild the next section. 12 -- Hananiah, a perfumer - next section as far as the Broad Wall. 13 -- Rephaiah son of Hur, ruler of half of Jerusalem - next section. 14 -- Jedaiah son of Harumaph - next section in the area of his house. 15 -- Hattush son of Hashabneiah - next section. 16 - Malchijah son of Harm and Hasshub son of Pahathmoab - next section and also the Furnace Tower. 17 -- Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler over the other half of Jerusalem - next section. 18 -- People from Zanoah under the leadership of Hanum - the Valley Gate, with its doors, bolts, and bars; also, a thousand cubits [about fifteen hundred feet or four hundred and sixty meters] of the next section as far as the Dung Gate. 19 -- Malchijah son of Rechab, ruler of the Beth-haccherem district - the Dung Gate, with its doors, bolts, and bars. 20 -- Shallum son of Colhozeh, ruler of the Mizpah district-the Fountain Gate with its roof, doors, locks, and bars. He also rebuilt the wall from the Pool of Siloam to the King’s Garden and the steps that descend from the City of David. 21 -- Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler over half of the Beth-zur district - the next section as far as the royal cemetery where the tomb of David and the artificial pool and the House of the Heroes are located. 22 -- Levites under Rehum son of Bani - next section. 23 -- Hashabiah, ruler of half of the district of Keilah - the next section. 24 -- Bavvai son of Henadad, ruler of the other half of the district of Keilah, along with men from the district - next section. 25 -- Ezer son of Yeshua, ruler of Mizpah - next section, across from the armoury where the wall angles. 26 -- Baruch son of Zabbai - next section, from the point where the wall angles to the doorway of Eliashib the high priest. 27 -- Meremoth son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz - next section from Eliashib’s doorway to the end of his home. 28 -- Priests from the plains outside the city - next section. 29 -- Benjamin and Hasshub - section in front of their house. 30 -- Azariah son of Maaseiah and grandson of Aaniah - next section in front of his house. 31 -- Binnui son of Henadad - next section from the house of Azariah to the point where the wall angles again and to the corner. 32 -- Palal son of Uzai - from the angle of the wall to the tower which projects from the king’s house by the court of the prison. 33 -- Pedaiah son of Parosh - next section. 34 -- Temple attendants who lived in Ophel - next section, as far as a point opposite the Water Gate and the tower that projects out. 35 -- The Tekoites - next section, from the high tower that projects out to Ophel. 36 -- The priests - section above the Horse Gate, each priest rebuilding in front of his own house. 37 -- Zadok son of Immer - section of wall next to his house. 38 -- Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, gatekeeper for the East Gate - next section. 39 -- Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph - next section. 40 -- Meshullam son of Berechiah - section in front of his house. 41 -- Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths - section as far as the house of the temple attendants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate, and on to the upper room of the corner. 42 -- The goldsmiths and the merchants - section between the upper room of the corner and the Sheep Gate.
COMMENTARY
THE WALLS AND GATES OF JERUSALEM
Long before the birth of Jesus and continuing into the early sixteenth century AD., every city of any importance built stone walls around its outer limits to protect itself from attack. They were thick and high, usually with towers and walkways where sentries could keep guard. The walls still standing in the Old City of Jerusalem range from four to fourteen inches thick, and from thirty to fifty feet high. Time after time throughout history, this city’s walls have been built, destroyed and rebuilt, though not always in the same place. Jerusalem’s first walls were erected around 1800 B.C. When King David captured the city eight hundred years later, he made Jerusalem his capital and rebuilt the walls, extending the city northward. Hezekiah’s repairs, three hundred years after that, lasted until 586 B.C., when the Babylonians razed the city. Almost a century passed before Nehemiah surveyed the destruction of the walls in the secret of the night. The walls he then rebuilt lie many feet under those that stand today. Architects since Nehemiah include the Roman rulers Herod, Agrippa and Hadrian, the medieval Christian Crusaders from Europe and the Turkish king Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century. In ancient times, the walls were interrupted with bronze-plated gates. At sundown, the gates were closed and bolted with iron bars, not to be opened until sunrise. Any travelers who arrived after dark were carefully questioned by the sentries on duty throughout the night. Guards kept watch in towers over each gateway. Many of the gates mentioned by name in the Old Testament have been destroyed, along with their adjoining walls. A few were rebuilt in a place nearby the old and given the same name or, in some cases, an entirely new one. In Bible times, sunrise transformed the broad space directly inside each gate into a throng of activity. Merchants set up booths to sell their wares. People met and talked while children played nearby. In the long-ago past, prophets delivered speeches there; in the recent past, heralds proclaimed important news. Before modern times, friendless strangers and country people with no better lodging, wrapped their cloaks around them at the close of the day and slept for the night at the foot of the gate.
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