The Snowman

Hello, please come by and see an animated story time for little kiddies called The Snowman, it features original voices, music and animation. They will love it and .... maybe you will too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwZVWitdYBI&feature=share&list=UUE-vObP0JkUbiQ1bB_tTjNA

Thanx

Jeremiah: The Anguished Prophet of Disaster

Assyrian siege of Lachish

 

The warnings of Judah’s last prophet fail to prevent the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of its people. With this calamity, the kingdom ends and the city is all but deserted.

Jeremiah:
The Anguished Prophet 
of Disaster 

It was Jeremiah’s unfortunate job to predict misfortune. It was then to his great distress to have to witness the outcome. Solomon’s glorious temple is destroyed and the kingdom of Judah is taken away to Babylonian captivity.

His ministry spanned the period from 627 b.c. to 580 b.c. and he was rejected and given short shrift by those he would save. He was often lonely and filled with sorrow, but his life is a testament to faith in God even in times of great distress.

Born in the village of Anathoth, the top of a broad hill about two miles outside of Jerusalem, it was a place set aside for the priestly ministry in the times of Joshua and ever since that time the priests had insisted on strict adherence to the laws of Moses. Jeremiah’s father, Hilkia, was one of those priests and his son was given deep respect for the laws of Moses. Its no guess that Jeremiah believed he belonged to a tradition that went back in time with his ancestors and was closer to them than what was currently happening to the people of Jerusalem of his day.

Jeremiah lived in a wilderness which offered no relief from a brutal sun. The land was also quite brutal, containing many ragged cliffs, huge boulders and also a 3000 foot cliff drop to the Dead Sea. Images of the desolate area would be burned in the young boys mind, and would surface in his writings. To the south, he could see the shining city of Jerusalem, a place filled with people he would love and chastise.

At home, Jeremiah was probably shielded from the crazies of Jerusalem. A small child when King Manasseh died, he was witness to the evils that had corrupted the people and had also become a way of life. For quite some time, Jerusalem had been a vassal of Assyria, and was obligated to honor their gods. But Manasseh did far more than pay token homage. He didn’t prevent the worship of Yahweh, but he did re-open local heathen shrines, installed pagan altars and even restarted the  practice of human sacrifice. Ishtar, the Assyrian god of love and war, was placed in the temple in statue form. In her name the priests and male worshipers practiced ritual sex with “holy” prostitutes who lived in the temple. This was a practice that was supposed to promote fertility in the crops, the herds and the families. Statues to the sun god, Shamash, the moon-god, Sin, and other deities representing heavenly bodies were erected within the temple courtyards. Although sorcery was forbidden, wizards and enchanters were flourishing. Those who opposed the King’s decrees were executed or driven underground. 

In 640 b.c. the King’s son and successor, Amon, was murdered. His eight year old son, Josiah, was then placed on the throne. As Josiah matured, the surrounding nations of Babylonia and other vassal states began to challenge Assyria’s waning power, and Josiah himself found strength to assert some resistance. In 628 b.c. he defied his Assyrian overlords and launched a religious reformation to clean Jerusalem of its pagan influences. The shrines were destroyed and the temple was cleaned, and too, the temple priests and prostitutes were executed. 

Jeremiah was called about the year 627 b.c. when he was 17 or 18 years old.

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying: Before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you prophet to the nations.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! I do not know how to speak for I am only a boy!”

But the Lord said to me, “ Do not say I am only a boy, for to all those I will send you, you will go. Whatever I command you, you will speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.”

God then revealed to him the impending doom of Judah. “Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.... and I will utter my judgements against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me: they have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.” The divine voice warned Jeremiah not to be dismayed by the persecution to come: “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail. I am the Lord, and I am with you."  God also ordered him NOT to take a wife, for Judah faced destruction and family lines would perish. From the outset, Jeremiah faced loneliness,  implacable enemies and his country’s bitter destiny.

It was with great heaviness of heart that Jeremiah took up his calling. Like those before him he admonished the shoppers in the marketplace and the crowds in the temple courtyards. He would join the worshipers and deliver his grim warnings dressed in a long white robe of the priest.  He was young and full of anger, and must have presented quite the spectacle.

Hear the word of the Lord, he would say. “As a thief is shamed when caught, so shall the House of Israel be shamed! Those who worship wood and stone and call it their father who gave them birth! Be they Kings, Princes or stone cutters! All will be shamed!”

Before long he would become quite the well known thorn in the side of the people despite their ridicule. “They bend their tongue like a bow.... falsehood has grown strong in the land!”

Josiah’s attempt to revive Judaism gained impetus around 622 b.c. with the discovery of an old law book now called Deuteronomy, outlining the theology of the Mosaic covenant. In line with the precepts, all sacrificial ceremony was now to be performed inside the temple. The clergy were invited to participate in this ritual, but most of them would refuse.

The reforms met with little support, the people suspected political motivation of the King and also feared Assyrian retaliation. At best, the people kept everything that had been doing and only added the King’s wishes into the mix.

Meanwhile Assyria was failing on all fronts. The Babylonians destroyed the capital of Nineveh in 612 b.c. and marked the virtual end of Assyrian power. Josiah, committed to renewal, carried his reformation into the old kingdom of Israel. Now free of Assyrian influence, he extended his reach as far north as Galilee and then west to the Mediterranean sea.

Looking to create a buffer between aggressive Babylonia and his own empire, Pharaoh Neco of Egypt decided to aid Assyria. Knowing that an Egyptian-Assyrian alliance would interfere with an independent Israel, Josiah led an army to  intercept and delay the Egyptians. He met them in battle about 50 miles northwest of Jerusalem, in the place known as Megiddo. He was mortally wounded there and died in transit to the capital. His forces were then badly routed by the Egyptians. Judah then fell temporarily under Egyptian domination. His son Jehoahaz the II was then crowned King. Within three months, Neco carried the new King off to Egypt, placing his brother Jehoiakim on the throne. The new ruler, having no  respect for Josiah’s reforms, threw open the doors wide to paganism once again.

more next time                        

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Chronological Bible

The Daily Bible
Chronological Edition

Well, Happy New Year everyone! I'm looking forward to a brand new year full of blessing and I wish the same for all of you as well. Let's start it off with an exercise in daily Bible reading, spending time in God's word and keeping him in front of us. This is the Daily Bible put in chronological order, or the order in which things happened (as best as can be expected). I started this last year and was very blessed by the way this issue was done.

The compiler, F. LaGard Smith, has put together a Bible you may have never seen put together quite like this before and I found it to be a great way to go through the word. I highly recommend it. However, it starts now, with the beginning of the year so you had best get cracking on getting your issue. I don't have much more to say on this other than that it is one of the best Bibles I have ever read. Get one for yourself!

Happy New Year, Hubie

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 5

The Life and 

Times of King

David

part 5

When king David finally learned about his son’s insurrection, it was almost too late. His court had become divided over his leadership and the people had formed a social movement in favor of Absalom. Now aged and an unlikely competitor for the younger man, David was forced to flee his capital, across the Jordan to Mahanaim. Several hundred of his loyal followers went with him as he made his way east. These consisted of his servants, his runners, his soldiers and his household. However, his priests Abiathar and Zadok remained behind to report on Absalom’s actions.

Absalom's Pillar, which he built to himself, still exists.

Once outside the capital, David could then see the mood of the people. An old man assaulted him with rocks and curses. But to many of the people it looked as if David had given up the throne to Absalom. Many of them wept as he passed by, but in Jerusalem, Absalom took the capital without a struggle.

The chief adviser to Absalom recommended an immediate attack on Mahanaim, before David could gather his armies. He had about 12,000 men under his command, more than enough to claim victory if he did indeed act swiftly. But a second adviser told Absalom to mobilize all of Israel against his father. This man, Hushai, had pledged allegiance to Absalom but in reality he was a double agent for David. His suggestion was a play for time as David gathered his forces.

Absalom

“You know that your father and his men are mighty men, and your father is expert in war.” Hushai told Absalom. There was enough truth in that statement to deter the young king long enough, and when he did finally attack, David was ready for him.

The battle was a rout, as the conscripted rookies of Absalom went up against the battle tested veterans of David’s troops. Thousands died in the battle and even though David had requested Absalom be spared, Joab took Absalom out as he hung from a tree by his own hair.

When notified, David went into mourning over his son. He had a great love for his children no matter what they had done to him, and he sequestered himself away in his bedroom. Joab knew that David risked losing his supporter by isolating himself and he confronted the King. “You shame those who love you today,” he told the king. “You make it clear that commanders and servants mean nothing to you as you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. If you don’t go out and speak to your men, then by morning there will be no one left!”

Joab was probably right and when David felt shame by his general’s accusation, he did indeed go out to the people. But before he could return to his capital a new cry of insurrection erupted.  A man named Sheba, a Benjaminite, made one last effort to split the kingdom that was now under one rule. Joab, loyal to a fault, followed Sheba  to the town of Abel, and the people of the town , in an effort to save their own hides, cut off Sheba’s head an threw it over the wall to Joab. Both insurrections and Sheba were now dead.

Adonija, David’s eldest surviving son, was now heir apparent. But at this time there was no precedent for succession to the throne. He was deeply concerned about the influence of Bathsheba, mother to his half brother Solomon. She had the powerful palace clique behind her and David was old and on his last legs. Adonijah had both Joab and the high priest Abiathar on his team, and he decided the time was ripe to strike. He took it upon himself to declare his King ship of Israel, and performed all the required activities for doing so. His supporters gathered for a festive banquet to celebrate.

When Bathsheba heard of this from the prophet Nathan, she went directly to the bedridden King. She told him of his son’s treacherous actions and reminded him of his promise to make Solomon king.

David immediately ordered the appointment of Solomon as King of Israel and gathered all of Solomon’s supporters for his own inauguration. When Adonijah’s followers heard the news, they quickly abandoned him. Adonijah sought sanctuary in the temple and was spared by Solomon. 

Bathsheba presents Solomon to his father the King

By this time, David, former shepherd, had reigned in Jerusalem 33 years. The about the year 960 B.C., he died in a good old age, full of years, riches and honor. He had broadened the borders of Israel, and made her richer with the spoils of  war. He left a golden age for his son Solomon who would succeed him in a time of unprecedented peace. To the world he left the city of Jerusalem, and of course, his beloved psalms.

Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David part 4



The procession of a King's Death

The Life and Times of

King David

part 4

Saul had created the first standing army in Israel’s history. David then took it and expanded it. The cream of the armed forces were known as the “thirty”. These were the men who had fought by David’s side in his outlaw days. They formed his honorary army council and served as sort of the “congress” of the army. Under Joab they commanded the two separate branches of David’s regular military army. One branch was recruited from the Sea people, Cretans and Aegeans, among others. The second branch was formed entirely from the assimilated Philistines.

Bodyguards for the King and the palace were formed from the men of Gath, or Gittites. These were men who also ran with David during the exile.

The army had some 2,000 well trained regulars,  and there were also territorial contingents who could be called upon as were needed. These men came from the Israelite tribes and came in groups of 10, 50, 100 and 1,000 each and were lead by their own commanders.

The tools of defense were swords, javelins and spears. Armor was a helmet, a breast plate, leg guards and a leather covered wooden shield. Territorial accompaniments had to buy their own equipment. One of which, the two edged sword, was a tool of the wealthy. The rest used Ox goads, rough lances, wooden bows and arrows. Also included: bludgeons, axes and the sling.

With such a force at hand, and the elimination of the Philistine threat, David moved east toward the Jordan river. He launched wars of expansion  which took advantage of the crumbling Babylonian empire. The Hittites were no longer a power in the Near East, and the Hurrians had been destroyed by the Hittites and Assyrians. The Assyrians themselves at this time were not in a position for further military aggression. Internal strife in the Egyptian administration had weakened them  to the point that David would have to be ignored no matter whose toes he stepped on. David’s intel had notified him of all of these advantages  for a free hand in the area and he took swift action to capitalize on the situation.

David’s forces rolled in he area. He defeated one after another, the peoples who were living there: the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites, and then he took out the last of the Amelikites. The latter, for those who do not know, are considered the remaining vestige of the Nephilhelm, those mixed of human and demon descent.

He stretched his kingdom south from Edom, rich in copper mines, to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. This gave Israel a potential port. Eventually, Solomon would trade from there with Arabia and Africa. When David conquered the Arameans of eastern Syria, he gained control of all trade routes to the Euphrates river.

David took part in may of those campaigns, but usually it was the brilliant commander Joab who lead the troops while David stayed at the capital. On one such an occasion, when he should have been out leading the troops in battle, David allowed his idleness to get the best of him and create gateway for other problems. Above the city, on his palace roof, he looked down and saw Bathsheba bathing.

Bathsheba enticingly bathed in the open, but for most women
of her day, this was done indoors. Unscented oil was used like cold
cream to remove dirt, then scented oil would follow.

She was the wife of a Hittite soldier named Uriah. At the time he was with Joab battling the Ammonites. David, feeling that he was King after all, sent for Bathsheba and they tripped the light fantastic. She did, however, become pregnant by the king.

David immediately called Uriah home to his wife, no doubt believing that the lines between his child and Uriah’s child needed to be blurred as soon as possible for the up and coming date.  Uriah, however, refused to return home. Instead he slept with his buddies at the door of the King’s house. A soldier in battle, kept himself sacramentally clean, and this meant no slap and tickle during war time. David then had to resort to legal murder in order to cover up the impending results of his dalliance. This meant legal murder.  David had Joab send Uriah up front in the upcoming battle and then pull back behind him in order that he may be killed in action.

A clay figurine of the period

Uriah was of course killed, and Bathsheba went into mourning. When the time was over, David married her, and soon after she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with David’s soap opera movements, and he sent Nathan the prophet, to David.

The story was now well known throughout the country and Nathan addressed the King and said, “ Thus says the God of Israel, I anointed you King over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your master’s house... and also that of Israel and Judah... and if this were too little I would add to you much more. Why have you done evil in the Lord’s sight?”

David accepted his guilt and confessed to his sin against God. He probably expected Nathan to pronounce a death sentence, but Nathan assured him that he was not to die. However, the child to be born would indeed die, and Nathan left him with that.

The child lay ill for six days and David did all he could to entreat the Lord to change his mind about the fate of the boy. But on the seventh day, the child did die. David, revealing the thoughts of those at the time as to what happens when we die, stated that it was he who would go to the child but the child would never return to him.  Thus David had to live with the results of caving in to his own lust, as a fine officer and his own son, met their ends at his own hands. Bathsehba, however, would be the one to bear his future son, the future King Solomon.

Israel had become rich and secure under David, but as time passed he had become less and less of a favored celebrity. Fat with prosperity, and military superiority, the Israelites resented the taxes they had to pay, and the conscription of troops.  David’s third born son, Absalom, took full advantage of the disgruntled populace.

David’s daughter, Tamar, had been raped by Amnon, David’s oldest son, and Absalom had him killed for it two years later. This was, however, a political move more than an act of vengeance, as Absalom had now been placed in the position  of heir apparent. Tamar, never recovered.

Absalom then ran from what he knew would be David’s anger toward him. With the help of Joab, he managed a reconciliation with David a few years later. Unsatisfied, he then began to plot a rebellion among the people, hoping to gain David’s kingdom.

Absalom started politicking in the public squares and speaking out against his father’s negligence as a judge and telling the people what they wanted to hear from their leadership. He showed off before them with pomp and circumstance  and turned many toward him as they became sold on his campaign.

For four years he campaigned against David while showing himself to be both proud and humble to the populace. Then suddenly he left for Hebron, with 200 of his followers. He told his people, “As soon as you hear the trumpet say: Absalom is King at Hebron!”

The time for open rebellion had come.

.. and ever since David’s dalliance with Bathsheba, strife had never left his home.

more on this next time.