10C (part 2) - First Commandment: God and Liberty

Liberty Bell/wikipedia.com

I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt,
out of the land of slavery.

Exodus 20:2 (NIV)

So begins the First Statement of the First of the Ten Commandments.

And nothing illustrates this First Statement of the Ten Commandments better than this scene from the classic movie,  The Ten Commandments (1956) :

(reference: https://youtu.be/j3CANELyPo0 )

This First Statement lays the foundation of Ethical Monotheism

(1) God exists: "I am the Lord your God..."

And without faith
it is impossible to please God, 
because anyone who comes to him 
must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those
who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6  (NIV)

 (2) God delivered slaves from bondage into freedom: "brought you out...of the land of slavery."

So if the Son sets you free,
you will be free indeed.

John 8:36 (NIV)

This video examine this First Statement in light of ethical monotheism:

(reference: https://youtu.be/7TRQfei7JoI )

This first statement, the Creator liberating people from slavery, is echoed in the Founding documents of the United States of America, such:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 

that all men are created equal, 

that they are endowed by their Creator 

with certain unalienable Rights, 

that among these are 

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

As well as our sacred monuments such as the inscription of the Liberty Bell:

"Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land 

Unto All the Inhabitants thereof."

Leviticus 25:10 (KJV)

Most of all, the Ten Commandments provide a foundation of how free people are to treat each other.

And this will be examined further in this series.

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Previous post in series:

10C (part 1) - The Ten Commandments  (2019)

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Photo: Liberty Bell/wikipedia.com

Biblia Files (part 8) - What's Yom Kippur?

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur/wikipedia.com

What's Yom Kippur?

It's the Day of Atonement. Its origins found in Leviticus 16 as well as other places in the Old Testament. And it's still observed. This year, the most holy day falls on September 19, 2018.  After the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.

[ reference: Jewish Holidays 2018-2019 ]

For a good summary of its history and modern observances, here it is in 60 seconds...

(reference: https://youtu.be/cP0MeqOgF3Y )

Yesterday was a shadow...

The law is only a shadow
of the good things that are coming—

not the realities themselves. 

For this reason it can never, 

by the same sacrifices
repeated endlessly year after year, 

make perfect those
who draw near to worship. 

Hebrews 10:1 (NIV)

Today, full atonement through faith...

God presented Christ
as a sacrifice of atonement, 

through the shedding of His blood—
to be received by faith.

He did this to demonstrate
His righteousness, 

because in His forbearance 

He had left the sins committed
beforehand unpunished— 

 He did it to demonstrate
His righteousness at the present time, 

so as to be just and the One
who justifies those
who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:25-26  (NIV)

Blessings for the New Year of 5779!

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More posts in the series:

Biblia Files (part 1) - Thru the Bible (2013)

Biblia Files (part 2) - What is the Bible Basically About? (2013)

Biblia Files (part 3) - Gideon - weakness, warts and all (2013) 
   
Biblia Files (part 4) - Holy Hyperlinks (2014)

Biblia Files (part 5) - Waiting .... (2014)
  

Biblia Files (part 6) - Crowns and Frowns (2015)
  
Biblia Files (part 7) - Follow Me (2017)

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Photo: Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur/wikipedia.com

Music (part 3) - Passover

Pessach/Wikipedia

Passover in 2016 will be celebrated April 22 - April 30. And it is a most significant event in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Reference: Everything you need to know about Passover 2016

Old Testament

The ancient feast has its roots in the Law of Moses. It celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from the bondage of Egyptian slavery as Moses, in the power of the Lord, led them to freedom into the Promised Land.

For a good summary:  In a Nutshell: The Passover Story

New Testament

Later, Jesus made a new covenant, the New Testament, at this feast, which became known as the Last Supper. Christians to this day celebrate it as communion.

For more information: The Last Supper - Bible Story Summary

The Story in Song

Passover Medley, below, tells the story in pictures and music, sung by a group that merges both the Old and Testaments, the Liberated Wailing Wall.

(reference: https://youtu.be/jSAypXH8cr4 )

Most of this Passover Medley is sung in Hebrew (with a few verses in English from Charles Wesley's hymn, Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus). But the lyrics and its translation of the Hebrew into English can be found here: Passover Medley by Liberated Wailing Wall

Old meets New

Jesus coined the word, New Testament (Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, I Corinthian 11:25), and St. Paul, referencing the Jewish writings, coined the word, Old Testament (II Corinthians 3:14).

And St. Paul wrote these words, bringing the Old and the New together:

Get rid of the old yeast, 

so that you may be
a new unleavened batch—
as you really are. 

For Christ, our Passover lamb, 

has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)

And this message lives on through the centuries in religious rituals as well as music.

Blessings and new beginnings, my friends!

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Previous posts in the series:
  

Music (part 1) - Winter (2016) 

Music (part 2) - All You Need is Love (2016) 

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Photo: Pessach/Wikipedia

Lots - Lady, Luck, Lessons

Lots:

God's dice always have a lucky roll.
Sophocles

This March 20, 2011 not only hails the first day of Spring, but also closes with an ancient Hebrew holiday which celebrates the Providence - the casting of lots.

The holiday is the Feast of Lots - Purim.

By Jewish reckoning, it begins this year at sunset on March 19th and ends at sunset March 20th. In some places of the world, the holiday starts the last night of Winter and ends the first day with Spring.

... weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm 30:5
(King James Version)

The entire story is found in the Book of Esther. Also it is told wonderfully here - The Feast of Purim. Both are a good read with a beautiful heroine, heroes, evil villains, court intrigue, and a thriller with a plot twist. Most remarkable - it's true.

Instead of merely retelling it - and there are so many good links, such as the one above, that do that - I have drawn out a few points as to this marvellous story of God's Providence.

Here are three rolls of the loaded dice:

1st roll: The Lady

In the Old Testament, who was the greatest deliverer?

* Moses when he delivered the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt?
* Joshua who fought the Battle of Jericho?
* Gideon and his small band that delivered his people from the Midianites during the time of the Judges?
* David who defeated the Philistines?

If you go strictly by the numbers, it was a woman - Esther.

After 70 years of captivity, the prophets had decreed that Jewish people return to the land. Perhaps as many as 60,000 did so. Their story is told in Ezra and Nehemiah and two of the "minor" prophets - Haggai and Zechariah.

Yet, most disobeyed and stayed in the Persian Empire. The Book of Esther tells what happened to this majority, who did not go back to Israel. Again, it's the same old sad story of anti-semitism.

Moses and Joshua had delivered an estimated million in the Exodus from Egypt. But Esther, perhaps, delivered her tens of millions, for it has been estimated that several million Jews lived in the Persian Empire during this time.

This was no small feat. By modern standards, it would be as if Esther had stopped Adolf Hitler and prevented the Holocaust. And it was not mistake that during the Holocaust the Jews had called Adolf Hitler a modern day Haman after the villain in the Book of Esther.

For comparison and contrast, reference: Haman and Hitler

2rd roll:  "Luck"

* Was it "luck" that the king of Persia put away his wife and through a beauty contest picked Esther as his new queen?
* Was it "luck" Esther when exercised nepotism, so her next of kin Mordecai rose to a prominent position within the kingdom and had the queen's ear?
* Was it "luck" when Haman hatched his "final solution" to exterminate the Jews that Mordecai said to Esther:

... and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14
(King James Version)

The story is filled with many such lucky coincidences - such that Haman's plot was exposed and Mordecai and his Jewish countrymen found favor with the king and issued the support to stop it.

Sophocles was right. God does load the dice.

3rd roll:  Lessons

The Book of Esther is unique in many ways. It's one of the two books in Protestant Bible named after a woman. It is the only book which has no direct mention of God or prayer.

In spite of that, the hand of God is clearly seen, He is alluded to as deliverance coming, prayer is implied with fasting. In a pagan court, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was still there in the shadows watching over his own - even those who were deliberately out of His expressed will. (Reference: George Campbell Morgan)

The story today still speaks to me. It gives me hope for this godless world that seems to have gone mad, and the name of God only used as a curse word.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalm 121:7&8
(King James Version)


Question: Have you had any "lucky" coincidences, which have brought you deliverance?


Picture from Wikipedia Commons: Historical dice

Beverly Hillbillies and Amos - country folk in the big city

Remember the Ballad of Jed Clampett by Flatt & Scruggs?

"Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer barely kept his family fed
Then one day he was shooting for some food,
And up through the ground come a bubbling crude...."

For the complete lyrics: click here

The first two verses opened and the last one closed the show of the 9 year long running sitcom, The Beveryly Hillbillies (1962-1971)

Beverly Hillbillies Opening Theme - More amazing video clips are a click away

This really dates me, but I watched the Beverly Hillbillies on TV before they went into perpetual reruns on TV land. The humor of the show was displacement - the fish out of water - rural, simple, naive hillbillies in the big city culture and sophistication of Beverly Hills. How absurd! Or was it?

What I found so appealing about the Clampett family in the original series was that they were genuinely decent, honest, kind, polite, godly people. As a plot for many episodes, the dishonest, the greedy, the godless, the self-aggrandizing had marked this simple hillbilly family as an easy target to use and to fleece. Yet, simple goodness prevailed over the many sophisticated flavors of evil.

"Simple" as in good is always easy to grasp. What does a straight line look like? There is one answer.


It doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it? Straight can only be one way.


"Sophistication" in the worldly sense is harder to grasp. What does a crooked line look like?


There are infinite ways for the line to be crooked. Likewise, evil can be twisted in an infinite many ways. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that evil seems more appealing and intriguing? Its mystery?

I see a timeless parable in the original "Beveryly Hillbillies." In some episodes, the simple goodness and wisdom of the Clampetts seemed as a witness to the complicated, twisted sophistication and worldly wisdom of the big city.

Likewise, there is another much overlooked story of an ancient "hillbilly," who lived in the 8th century before Christ and came to the sophisticated town of Bethel. His name was Amos, a shepherd from the desert of Tekoa, who took care of sycamore-fig trees.

Read all about this simple country preacher, who came to the "Beverly Hills" of his day: The Country Preacher Who Came to Town

For our sophisticated age of the internet in the 21st century, Amos proclaims this timeless message from the One who called him:

12 For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes
and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.13 Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times,
for the times are evil.14 Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
Amos 5:12-14
(NIV)

Whether the fictional Jed Clampett or the Old Testament prophet Amos - both these country boys took on the sophisticated big city.

Photos:

from everystockphoto.com:
Beverly Hills

from wikipedia:
Straight line
Crooked line